CHAP. XLVI.
PIERRE DE LUXEMBOURG, COUNT DE ST POL, BESIEGES THE TOWN OF ST VALERY.—THE DEATH OF THE COUNT DE ST POL.
In the month of July of this year, Pierre de Luxembourg, count de Saint Pol, accompanied by lord Willoughby, an Englishman, and twelve hundred combatants of the two nations, laid siege to the town of Saint Valery; in which were, on the part of king Charles, sir Louis de Vaucourt, Philip de la Tour and sir Regnault de Versailles, with a garrison of three hundred men.
They pointed artillery against the walls and gates; and after the siege had lasted for three weeks, the before-named knights entered into treaty with Robert de Saveuses, who had been commissioned by the count de St Pol for the purpose, and agreed that they would surrender the place at a fixed day, should they not be relieved before then, on receiving a sum of money, and liberty to depart in safety with their prisoners and baggage. As no one appeared to their succour, they marched away, under passports, to Beauvais.
Shortly after, sir Louis de Vaucourt and sir Regnault de Versailles were met by one called Le Petit Roland, on the road to Senlis, who, though of the same party, from a private quarrel, attacked them with the men he was leading to Chantilly; and in the end he defeated and robbed them, making sir Regnault his prisoner.
The count de St Pol, having re-garrisoned St Valery, gave the command of it to sir Robert de Saveuses. On marching thence, he fixed his quarters at a large village called Blangy, in the county of Eu, with the intent to besiege the castle of Monchas, held by sir Regnault de Fontaines for king Charles. Sir Regnault, not wishing to wait the event of a siege, capitulated with the commissioners of the count to surrender the place on the 15th day of next October, provided that neither king Charles nor any of his partisans should be in sufficient force to offer him combat on that day before the castle of Monchas, or on the plains of Santhois near to Villiers-le-Carbonel, one league distant from Haplaincourt. This treaty was confirmed, the 26th day of August, by the count, and hostages given on each side for its due performance.
On the last day of this month of August, while the count was encamped near to Blangy, and giving his orders for besieging the castle of Rambures, he was taken suddenly ill, and died almost instantly.
His men and all the English captains were grieved at heart for his loss, and retired to the garrisons whence they had come. His household had the body transported to St Pol, where it was interred in front of the great altar of the abbey-church of Cercamps, of which his ancestors had been the founders. His eldest son, Louis de Luxembourg, then about fifteen years of age, took possession of all his estates and lordships, and thenceforth was styled the Count de St Pol.