A MEETING IS HELD BETWEEN CALAIS AND GRAVELINES BETWEEN THE CARDINAL OF ENGLAND AND THE DUCHESS OF BURGUNDY, TO DELIBERATE ON THE MEANS OF ESTABLISHING A LASTING PEACE BETWEEN FRANCE AND ENGLAND.
ABOUT the month of January in this year, the cardinal of England and the duchess of Burgundy met at a place agreed on between them, half way from Calais to Gravelines, to consider on the means of establishing a firm peace between England and France. Tents had been pitched for their meeting; and each party was grandly accompanied by nobles, as well ecclesiastical as secular.
The ambassadors from the king of France were a master of the household named sir Regnault Girard, knight and lord of Bazoches, and master Robert Mallien, councellor and master of accounts, to give their advice and aid toward the conclusion of a general peace, and also to treat of the ransom and deliverance of Charles duke of Orleans from his imprisonment in England.
Many proposals were offered on different days, but no conclusion was made, except to adjourn, to inform the respective kings of France and England of these proposals, and hold another meeting when they should have been fully discussed.
The time and place for another meeting was to be communicated to the duchess of Burgundy, that she might make it known to each party; and it was agreed that, at that time, the duke of Orleans should be conducted either to Calais or to Cherbourg, as the two parties should fix. When these matters had been settled, they all separated, and returned to the places they had come from.
In this year, the duke of Burgundy assembled about sixteen hundred combatants, whom he marched toward Calais, to cover and defend against the English a very great number of pioneers, carpenters and labourers, who had been sent thither to break down and destroy a sea-dyke, in order to drown the town of Calais and the surrounding country. The duke had been made to believe that this was possible to be done, and the town destroyed; but when the pioneers had worked a short space of time, they found that it was a work not easily accomplished, the enterprise was therefore abandoned; but they broke down the bridge of Nieulay, and some small dykes, which did very little harm to the English.