THE DUKE OF BRITTANY ARRIVES AT PARIS. THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY LEAVES LAGNY SUR MARNE.—THE CAPTURE OF SIR MARTELET DU MESNIL AND FERRY DE MAILLY.
THE duke of Brittany at this time came to Paris to treat with the king, that the duke of Burgundy with his army might march into Brittany, but he was unsuccessful. Before he departed from Paris, he was violently enraged against sir Taneguy du Châtel, provost of Paris, and abused him much, because he had imprisoned in the Châtelet the minister of the Mathurins, a doctor of theology, for having, in his presence, harangued the populace in favour of the duke of Burgundy. In a few days, however, he gave him his free liberty.
When the duke of Burgundy had remained at Lagny sur Marne six weeks without having been able to prevail on the king and his council to permit him to enter Paris any otherwise than in his simple state, he marched away to Dampmartin, thence toward Rheims, and through the Laonnois, Tierrache and Cambresis, to the town of Douay, and thence to Lille. He was, all the time, accompanied by a strong body of men at arms, who much oppressed the poor people on their march.
On his departure from Lagny, some of the king's soldiers advanced to Pont à Vaire, and slew and made prisoners many of his men, at which he was highly displeased. From his long residence at Lagny, the Parisians, and others attached to the king, called him, in common conversation, Jean de Lagny. After some short stay at Lille, he went to visit his nephews in Brabant, namely, John and Philip, sons to the late duke Anthony of Brabant, taking with him Philippe Maisne, by whom he governed that country. He appointed officers to those places in the counties of Ligny and St Pol, that had been formerly held by count Waleran de St Pol, maternal grandfather to these children.
When he was returned to Flanders, he ordered the lord de Fosseux, governor of Picardy, to cause his captains and their men at arms to retire from his territories of Artois and the adjoining lands; and, as many of these captains harrassed the king's subjects, Remonnet de la Guerre, the provost of Compiegne and the lord de Bocquiaux, the king's governor of the Valois, secretly assembled, on the night of the 24th of January, a number of men at arms, and surprised the quarters of sir Martelet du Mesnil and Ferry de Mailly, in the country of Santerre[45], where they had posted full six hundred men among the villages, who made havoc on all the country round about. Excepting such as escaped by flight, they were all slain or made prisoners: among the last were the two captains, sir Martelet du Mesnil and Ferry de Mailly, who were carried to Compiegne.
On the day of the Purification of the Virgin Mary, the said sir Martelet and four other gentlemen, after having been tortured by the king's officers, were hung on the gibbet of Compiegne; but Ferry de Mailly, through the intercession of friends, obtained his free deliverance.