The Boke of Noblesse Addressed to King Edward the Fourth on His Invasion of France in 1475

Part 16

Chapter 163,972 wordsPublic domain

[39] Monstrelet in his Chronicle attempts to present a list of the principal English lords and knights (the latter more than fifty in number), but every name is so disfigured that they are almost past recognition: as the names he gives to the nobility will show. He calls them, the dukes of Sufflocq and Noirflocq, the earls of Crodale (Arundel?), Nortonbellan, Scersebry, (Shrewsbury, and not as Buchon his editor suggests Salisbury, which title did not then exist,) Willephis (Wiltshire?), and Riviere; the lords Stanlay, Grisrufis, Gray, Erdelay, Ondelay, Verton, Montu, Beguey, Strangle, Havart, and Caubehem. The last name (Cobham) and that of lord Fitzwaren are among the indentures printed by Rymer in his vol. xi. pp. 844-848, already noticed in the note in p. xx.

[40] These particulars are derived from the diary kept by the _maistres d'hostel_ of the Burgundian court, which gives the following minute and curious account of the duke's movements, including the positions, not elsewhere to be found, of the English army during the months of July and August.

"Le 6. Juillet la duchesse de Bourgoyne, qui avoit ete presque toujours a Gand, arriva a Calais vers le roy d'Angleterre son frere, qui la deffraya.

"Le 14. ce duc arriva a Calais vers le roy d'Angleterre, qui le deffraya, la duchesse etant pour lors a Sainct Omer, avec les ducs de Clarence et de Glocestre ses freres. Le 18. il alla au chasteau de Guines avec ce roy, qui le fit deffraiyer. Il en partit le 19, et alla a Sainct Omer, ou il trouva la duchesse. Il en partit le 22., et alla a Fauquemberghe, pres l'ost du roy d'Angleterre. Il y sejourna le 23., et en partit le 24. apres dejeuner, et alla disner, soupper, et coucher en la cite d'Arras; et ce jour il mangea du poisson, a cause de la veille de Sainct Jacques. Le 27. il partit d'Arras apres disner, et alla coucher a Dourlens. Il en partit le 29. apres disner, et alla voir l'ost du roy d'Angleterre, et coucher en le cense de Hamencourt: la duchesse partit ce jour de Sainct Omer, pour retourner a Gand, ou mademoiselle de Bourgoyne etoit restee.

"Le mardy premier Aout, ce duc disna en la cense de Hamencourt, coucha au village d'Aichen, pres l'ost du roy d'Angleterre. Il en partit le 2. apres disner, et coucha a Ancre. Il en partit le 3. apres disner, et coucha a Curleu sur Somme, pres ledit ost. Il y disna le 6. passa par l'ost du roy d'Angleterre, et coucha a Peronne. Il y resta jusques au 12. qu'il en partit apres disner, passa par l'ost du roy d'Angleterre, et alla coucher a Cambray. Il y disna le 13. et coucha a Valenciennes, d'ou il partit le 18. apres disner, souppa a Cambray, et alla coucher a Peronne. Il y disna le 20. alla encore voir le roy d'Angleterre au mesme camp, et alla coucher a Cambray. Le 21. il disna a Valenciennes, coucha a Mons. Le 22. il disna a Nivelle, et coucha a Namur, ou les ambassadeurs de Naples, Arragon, Venise, et autres se rendirent. Le 29. Aout, entreveue du roy avec le roy d'Angleterre, au lieu de Pequigny; ces princes convinrent d'une treve entre eux, et que le Dauphin epouseroit la fille de ce roy d'Angleterre." (Memoires de P. de Cominines, edited by Lenglet du Fresnoy, 1747, vol. ii. p. 216.)

[41] Another version of this omen of the dove will be found in the extracts from Commines hereafter.

[42] The fact of earl Rivers having repaired to the duke of Burgundy _once_, at the end of April, is confirmed by the chronicle formed from the journals of the duke's _maistres d'hoste_: "Le 29. de ce mois (Avril) le sire de Riviers, ambassadeur du roy d'Angleterre, arriva vers ce duc, et en fut regale." (Appendix to the edition of Commines, by the Abbe Lenglet du Fresnoy, 4to. 1747, ii. 216.) But in the previous January we read, "The King's ambassadors, sir Thomas Mountgomery and the Master of the Rolls (doctor Morton), be coming homeward from Nuys." (Paston Letters, vol. ii. p. 175.)

[43] _i.e._ their horses protected by armour.

[44] Hall, following this part of Commines's narrative, on mentioning this English herald, adds, "whome Argenton (meaning Commines,) untrewly calleth Garter borne in Normandy, for the rome of Gartier was never geven to no estraunger." The office of Garter was at this time occupied by John Smert, who was appointed in 28 Hen. VI. and died in 18 Edw. IV. He was the son-in-law of Bruges his predecessor in the office: and there are large materials for his biography in Anstis's Collections on the heralds, at the College of Arms, but containing no evidence either to prove Commines's assertion, or Hall's denial, of his being a native of Normandy.

[45] The constable of France, Jacques de Luxembourg, comte de St. Pol. After temporising between Burgundy and France at this crisis, he paid the penalty for his vacillation, the duke surrendering him to Louis, by whom he was decapitated before the end of the year (Dec. 19, 1475).

[46] Jacqueline duchess of Bedford, the mother of the queen of England, was one of the constable's sisters. The constable was also connected by marriage with king Louis, who called him "brother" from their having married two sisters. The relationship of all the principal actors in the transactions described in the text is shown in the following table:--

[47] Afterwards the first duke of Norfolk and earl of Derby of their respective families.

[48] The narrative is continued on the authority of Commines.

[49] See the extracts from the register of the Burgundian _maistres d'hostel_ already given in p. xxiii. The English camp is described as near Fauquemberghe on the 22d of July, and near Aichen on the 1st of August. Its position near Peronne is believed to have been at St. Christ, on the river Somme, and it appears to have remained there for a considerable time.

[50] The duke was at Peronne from the 6th to 12th of August. See the note on his movements before, p. xxiv.

[51] The last was afterwards the husband of the king's daughter the lady Anne of York, and ancestor of the earls and dukes of Rutland.

[52] The prudent and conciliatory conduct of Louis XI. towards the English at this crisis seems to have had a precedent in that of his ancestor Charles V. "Le sage roy de France Charles quint du nom, quant on lui disait que grant honte estoit de recouvrer des forteresses par pecune, que les Anglois a tort tenoient, comme il eust assez puissance pour les ravoir par force, Il me semble (disoit-il,) que ce que on peut avoir par deniers ne doit point estre achete par sang d'homme." (From the end of the twelfth chapter of the second book of the Faits d'armes de Guerre et de Chevalerie par Christine de Pisan.)

[53] St. Christ.

[54] It is printed in Rymer's Collection, vol. xii. p. 14.

[55] Lord Hastings was previously a pensioner of the duke of Burgundy. Lenglet du Fresnoy has published a letter of the duke granting to William lord Hastings a yearly pension of 1000 crowns of Flanders, dated at the castle of Peronne, 4 May 1471; a receipt of lord Hastings for that sum on the 12th July 1474; and another receipt for 1200 livres of Flanders, dated 12th April 1475. (Memoires de P. de Commines, 1745, iii. 616, 619.) Commines, in his Sixth Book, chapter ii. relates how he had himself been the agent who had secured lord Hastings to the Burgundian interest, and how he subsequently negociated with him on the part of king Louis. Hastings accepted the French pension, being double the amount of the Burgundian, but on this occasion, according to Commines, would give no written acknowledgment. In an interview with the French emissary, Pierre Cleret, of which Commines in his Book VI. chapter ii. gives the particulars at some length, he said the money might be put in his sleeve. Cleret left it, without acquittance; and his conduct was approved by his master.

[56] In the article of plate "his bountie apperyd by a gyfte that he gave unto lorde Hastynges then lord chamberlayne, as xxiiij. dosen of bollys, wherof halfe were gylt and halfe white, which weyed xvij. nobles every cuppe or more." Fabyan's Chronicle.

[57] This passionate interview must have taken place on the 19th or 20th of August: see the note on the Duke's movements in p. xxiv.

[58] We are continuing to follow the account of Commines. But the truce, which was not yet concluded, was made for seven years only; and the dukes of Burgundy and Britany were not mentioned in the articles. The duke of Burgundy, shortly after, himself made a truce with France for nine years. It was dated on the 13th of September, only fifteen days after that of the English.

[59] Molinet says, "de quatrevingts a cent chariots de vin."

[60] The real Childermas day was on the 28th of December; but sir John Fenn, the editor of the Paston Letters, has suggested that the 28th of every month was regarded as a Childermas day; for the 28th of June, 1461, being Childermas, and consequently a day of unlucky omen, was avoided for the coronation of Edward the Fourth. From other authorities it appears that the day of the week on which Childermas occurred was regarded as unfortunate throughout the year.

[61] Molinet mentions three other names, those of the admiral, the seigneur de Craon, and the mayor of Amiens.

[62] According to our London historian, Fabyan, Louis's attire was by no means becoming:

"Of the nyse and wanton disguysed apparayll (he says) that the kynge Lowys ware upon hym at the tyme of this metynge I myght make a longe rehersayl: but for it shulde sownde more to dishonour of suche a noble man, that was apparaylled more lyke a mynstrell than a prynce royall, therfor I passe it over."

[63] Commines saw king Edward at the Burgundian court in 1470. On that occasion he gives him this brief character: "King Edward was not a man of any great management or foresight, but of an invincible courage, and the most beautiful prince my eyes ever beheld."

[64] The documents which bear date on the day of the royal interview are these, as printed in the edition of Commines by the Abbe Lenglet du Fresnoy, 1747, 4to. vol. iii:--

1. The treaty of truce for seven years between Edward king of France and England and lord of Ireland and his allies on the one part, and the most illustrious prince Louis of France (not styled king) and his allies, on the other. (In Latin.) Dated in a field near Amiens on the 29th August 1475. The conservators of the truce on the part of the king of England were the dukes of Clarence and Gloucester, the chancellor of England, the keeper of the privy seal, the warden of the cinque ports, and the captain or deputy of Calais for the time being; on the part of the prince of France his brother Charles comte of Beaujeu and John bastard of Bourbon admiral of France.

2. Obligation of Louis king of the French to pay to Edward king of England yearly, in London, during the life of either party, the sum of 50,000 crowns. (In Latin.) Dated at Amiens on the 29th of August.

3. A treaty of alliance between king Edward and Louis of France (in Latin) stipulating, 1. that if either of them were driven from his kingdom, he should be received in the states of the other, and assisted to recover it. 2. to name commissioners of coinage, which should circulate in their dominions respectively. 3. that prince Charles, son of Louis, should marry Elizabeth daughter of the king of England, or, in case of her decease, her sister Mary. Dated in the field near Amiens, on the 29th of August.

4. Another part of the treaty, bearing the same date, appointing for the arbiters of all differences, on the part of the king of England his uncle the cardinal Thomas archbishop of Canterbury and his brother George duke of Clarence, and on the part of Louis of France, Charles archbishop of Lyons and John comte de Dunois.

In April 1478 the three years were prolonged by another like term to the 29th August 1481; the letters patent relative to which are printed ibid. p. 536.

On the 13th Feb. 1478-9 the truce was renewed for the lives of both princes, and for one hundred years after the decease of either, king Louis obliging himself and his successors to continue the payment of the 50,000 crowns during that term: the documents relating to this negotiation are printed ibid. pp. 560--570.

[65] Molinet, in his account of the conference, states that it lasted for an hour and a half, and that a principal topic of discussion was the conduct of the constable, Louis showing a letter, in which the constable had engaged to harass the English army as soon as it was landed.

[66] This Gascon gentleman is a person of some interest, from his name being mentioned by Caxton. He was resident at the English court, as a servant of Anthony lord Scales (the queen's brother) as early as the year 1466, when in a letter, dated at London, on the 16th of June, he challenged sir Jehan de Chassa, a knight in the retinue of the duke of Burgundy, to do battle with him in honour of a noble lady of high estimation, immediately after the performance of the intended combat in London between the lord Scales and the bastard of Burgundy. His letter of challenge, in which he terms the king of England his sovereign lord, is printed in the Excerpta Historica, 1831, p. 216; and that of sir Jehan de Chassa accepting it at p. 219, addressed, _A treshonnoure escueire Louys de Brutallis_. His own signature is _Loys de Brutalljs_. The encounter is thus noticed in the Annals of William of Wyrcestre: "Et iij^o die congressi sunt pedestres in campo, in praesencia regis, Lodowicus Bretailles cum Burgundiae; deditque Rex honorem ambobus, attamen Bretailles habuit se melius in campo:" and thus by Olivier de la Marche: "On the morrow Messire Jehan de Cassa and a Gascon squire named Louis de Brettailles, servant of Mons. d'Escalles, did arms on foot: and they accomplished these arms without hurting one another much. And on the morrow they did arms on horseback; wherein Messire Jean de Chassa had great honour, and was held for a good runner at the lance." Lowys de Bretaylles, as his name is printed by Caxton, was still attendant upon the same nobleman, then earl Rivers, in 1473, when he went to the pilgrimage of St. James in Galicia; and upon that occasion, soon after sailing from Southampton, he lent to the earl the Book of _Les Dictes Moraux des Philosophes_, written in French by Johan de Tronville, which the earl translated, and caused it to be printed by Caxton, as _The Dicts and Sayings of the Philosophers_, in 1477.

[67] Fabyan's Chronicle.

[68] The former importance and power of the constable are thus described by Commines: "Some persons may perhaps hereafter ask, Whether the king alone was not able to have ruined him? I answer, No; for his territories lay just between those of the king and the duke of Burgundy: he had St. Quintin always, and another strong town in Vermandois: he had Ham and Bohain, and other considerable places not far from St. Quintin, which he might always garrison with what troops (and of what country) he pleased. He had four hundred of the king's men at arms, well paid; was commissary himself, and made his own musters,--by which means he feathered his nest very well, for he never had his complement. He had likewise a salary of forty-five thousand francs, and exacted a crown upon every pipe of wine that passed into Hainault or Flanders through any of his dominions; and, besides all this, he had great lordships and possessions of his own, a great interest in France, and a greater in Burgundy, on account of his kinsmen."

[69] None had actually been made with Burgundy by the treaty of the 29th of August. Commines certainly wrote under a misapprehension in that respect, as well as upon the number of years of the truce with England.

[70] Besides the lady Margaret there were two sons: Maximilian, afterwards the emperor Maximilian, and Philip. There was a contract of marriage in 1479 between the latter and the lady Anne of England, one of the daughters of Edward the Fourth. (Rymer, xii. 110.)

[71] Margaret herself was eventually rejected by Charles VIII. who was nearly nine years her senior. When he had the opportunity of marrying the heiress of Bretagne, and thereby annexing that duchy to France, Margaret was sent back to her father in 1493, and afterwards married in 1497 to John infante of Castile, and in 1501 to Philibert duke of Savoy. She subsequently nearly yielded to the suit of Charles Brandon lord Lisle, (afterwards the husband of Mary queen dowager of France,) who was made duke of Suffolk by his royal master in order to be more worthy of her acceptance; but at last she died childless in 1530, after a widowhood of six and twenty years, and a long and prosperous reign as regent of the Netherlands.

[72] Paston Letters, vol. i. p. 172.

[73] "Whiche book was translated and thystoryes openly declared by the ordinaunce and desyre of the noble auncyent knyght Syr Johan Fastolf, of the countee of Norfolk banerette, lyvyng' the age of four score yere, excercisyng' the warrys in the Royame of Fraunce and other countrees for the diffence and universal welfare of bothe royames of Englond' and' Fraunce, by fourty yeres enduryng', the fayte of armes haunting, and in admynystryng Justice and polytique governaunce under thre kynges, that is to wete, Henry the fourth, Henry the fyfthe, Henry the syxthe, And was governour of the duchye of Angeou and the countee of Mayne, Capytayn of many townys, castellys, and fortressys in the said Royame of Fraunce, havyng' the charge and saufgarde of them dyverse yeres, ocupyeng' and rewlynge thre honderd' speres and' the bowes acustomed thenne, And yeldyng' good' acompt of the foresaid townes, castellys, and fortresses to the seyd' kynges and to theyr lyeutenauntes, Prynces of noble recomendacion, as Johan regent of Fraunce Duc of Bedforde, Thomas duc of Excestre, Thomas duc of Clarence, and other lyeutenauntes." This may be considered as a grateful tribute from William of Worcestre, when himself advanced in years (he died in or about 1484), to the memory of his ancient master, sir John Fastolfe, who had died in 1460. The biography of William of Worcestre was written by the Rev. James Dallaway in the Retrospective Review, vol. xvi. p. 451; and reprinted in 4to. 1823, in his volume entitled "William Wyrcestre redivivus: Notices of Ancient Church Architecture, particularly in Bristol," &c.; but the latest and most agreeable sketch of Worcestre's life is that given by Mr. G. Poulett Scrope in his History of Castle Combe, 1852, 4to.

[74] He has recorded that in 1473 he presented a copy of his translation to bishop Waynflete,--"but received no reward!" His version was not made from the original, but from the French of Laurentius de Primo Facto, or du Premier-Faict: an industrious French translator, who flourished from 1380 to 1420.

[75] Bale, in his list of the works of Worcestre, whom he notices under his _alias_ of Botoner, mentions _Acta Domini Joannis Fastolf_, lib. I, (commencing) "Anno Christi 1421, et anno regni--"

Oldys (in the Biographia Britannica, 1750, p. 1907) attributes to Worcestre "a particular treatise, gratefully preserving the life and deeds of his master, under the title of _Acta Domini Johannis Fastolff_, which we hear is still in being, and has been promised the publick;" but in the second edition of Oldys's life of Fastolfe (Biographia Britannica, 1793, v. 706), we find merely this note substituted: "This is mentioned in the Paston Letters, iv. p. 78." The letter there printed is one addressed by John Davy to his master John Paston esquire after sir John Fastolfe's death. It relates to inquiries made of one "Bussard" for evidences relative to Fastolfe's estate; and it thus concludes: "he seyth the last tyme that he wrot on to William Wusseter it was beffor myssomyr, and thanne he wrote a Cronekyl of Jerewsalem and the Jornes that my mayster dede whyl he was in Fraunce, that God on his sowle have mercy, and he seyth that this drew more than xx whazerys (quires) off paper, and this wrytyng delyvered onto Wursseter, and non other, ne knowyth not off non other be is feyth." It appears, I think, very clearly that this passage was misunderstood by Oldys, or his informant, and that the historian of the "journeys" and valiant acts of sir John Fastolfe was not Worcestre, but the person called Bussard. It is not impossible that the person whom John Davy meant by that name was Peter Basset, who is noticed in the next page.

Mr. Benjamin Williams, in the Preface to "Henrici Quinti Gesta," (printed for the English Historical Society, 1850,) says of Worcestre that "he wrote the _Acts of Sir John Fastolfe_, contained in the volume from which this chronicle is extracted," _i.e._ the Arundel MS. XLVIII. in the College of Arms; but that statement appears to have been carelessly made, without ascertaining that the volume contained any such "Acts." "Also (Mr. Williams adds) the _Acts of John Duke of Bedford_ (MS. Lambeth);" but those "Acts" again are not an historical or biographical memoir, but a collection of state papers and documents relating to the English occupation of France, which will be found described in Archdeacon Todd's Catalogue of the Lambeth Manuscripts as No. 506. Its contents are nearly identical with those of a volume in the library of the Society of Antiquaries, MSS. No. 41, as will be found on comparison with Sir Henry Ellis's Catalogue of that collection, p. 17. The latter is the volume which Oldys, in his life of sir John Fastolfe, in the Biographia Britannica 1750, has described at p. 1907 as a "quarto book some time in the custody of the late Brian Fairfax esquire, one of the Commissioners of the Customs," and of which Oldys attributes the collection to the son of William of Worcestre, because a dedicatory letter from that person to king Edward the Fourth is prefixed to the volume.

Another very valuable assemblage of papers of the like character, and which may also be regarded as part of the papers of sir John Fastolfe, is preserved in the College of Arms, MS. Arundel XLVIII., and is fully described by Mr. W. H. Black in his Catalogue of that collection, 8vo. 1829. This is the volume from which Hearne derived the Annals of William of Worcestre, and Mr. Benjamin Williams one of his chronicles of the reign of Henry the Fifth.

It is probable that the Lambeth MS. was formerly in the Royal Library, for abstracts of some of its more important documents, in the autograph of King Edward the Sixth, are preserved in the MS. Cotton. Nero C. x. These have been printed in the Literary Remains of King Edward the Sixth, pp. 555-560.