THE PARISIANS TAKE UP ARMS AGAINST THE ARMAGNACS.—A CIVIL WAR BREAKS OUT IN SEVERAL PARTS OF FRANCE.
AT this time the king of France, who had for a considerable time enjoyed good health, relapsed into his former disorder; on which account, and by reason of the discontents that prevailed throughout the kingdom, (the seat of government had been transferred to Melon,) the butchers of Paris, who have greater power and privileges than any other trade, suspecting that the government of the realm, through the intrigues of the queen and the provost of merchants, named Charles Cudane, would be given to the dukes of Berry and Brittany, in preference to the duke of Acquitaine, the king’s eldest son, waited upon the latter, and exhorted him, notwithstanding his youth, to assume the government for the good of the king and kingdom, promising him their most loyal aid until death. The duke of Acquitaine inclined to their request, and granted them their wishes.
This done, they ordered it to be proclaimed by sound of trumpet in all the squares of Paris, that the provost of merchants, and others in Paris, who were numerous, and whom they suspected of being favourable to the dukes of Berry, Bourbon, and Brittany, and to their parties, must quit the town before a fixed day, under pain of suffering death. In consequence of this proclamation, twelve persons, men and women, without including the domestics of the above lords, left Paris; and shortly after, the duke of Brittany, hearing of these commotions, took leave of the queen at Melun and retired into his duchy.
The butchers, and those who lived near the market-places, with the greater part of the Parisians, were strong partisans of the duke of Burgundy, and very desirous that only he, or those that were of his party, should govern the kingdom; and, to say the truth, it was now become dangerous for the nobility, of whatever party they might be, to dwell in Paris, for the common people had great sway in its government.
In the mean time, the duke of Orleans and his allies were strengthening themselves, by every means in their power, with men at arms. The duke of Bourbon and the count d’Alençon came in these days with a numerous body before the town of Roye in the Vermandois, which belongs to the king of France, and entered it about mid-day, more through fraud than by force of arms, for the townsmen did not suspect any warfare. When they had dined, they sent for the principal inhabitants, and ordered them, whether it were pleasing to them or otherwise, to receive a garrison from them. They then rode to Nesle, in the Vermandois, belonging to the count de Dammartin, wherein they also placed a garrison.
Thence they dispatched sir Clugnet de Brabant, who had joined them, sir Manessier Guieret, and other captains well attended, to the town of Ham in the Vermandois, belonging to the duke of Orleans: they returned by Chauni sur Oise, where they also left a garrison, and in many other places, as well belonging to themselves as to others attached to their party.
The duke of Bourbon, on his arrival from this expedition at his town of Clermont, strengthened it, and all his other towns in that country, with fortifications. When the garrisons had been properly posted, the war suddenly broke out between the two parties of Armagnacs and Burgundians.
The duke of Burgundy had not been idle in fortifying his towns with garrisons, and in collecting men at arms to resist his adversaries: he himself was in Flanders making preparations to march an army to offer them battle. The army of the Armagnacs had already made incursions into Artois, and had done much mischief to friend and foe, by carrying off prisoners and great plunder to the garrisons whence they had come. The Burgundians were not slow in making reprisals, and frequently invaded the county of Clermont and other parts.
When by chance the two parties met, the one shouted ‘Orleans!’ and the other ‘Burgundy!’ and thus from this accursed war, carried on in different parts, the country suffered great tribulation.
The duke of Burgundy, however, had the king on his side, and those also who governed him: he resided in his hôtel of St Pol in Paris, and the greater part of its inhabitants were likewise attached to the duke of Burgundy.
At that time, the governors of Paris were Waleran count de St Pol and John of Luxembourg70, his nephew, who was very young, Enguerrand de Bournouville, and other captains. They frequently made sallies, well accompanied by men at arms, on the Armagnacs, who at times even advanced to the gates of Paris. They were particularly careful in guarding the person of the king, to prevent him from being seduced by the Orleans-party, and carried out of the town.