nition. The King had issued his writ commanding six barristers, or apprentices of the law, to take upon them the degree of serjeant; and the Regent complained that they had not complied with its exigency. They now prayed to have the sentence respited to the following Trinity term, promising then to obey, and setting forth the grounds of their application for delay. The Parliament gave its formal assent by statute, placing them at the King's mercy should they fail to perform their undertaking.' 1417-18. The supplies granted by Parliament, and the men raised by Exeter, amounting by some accounts to 15,000, were not the only assistance which Henry's resources for prosecuting his Norman campaign received about this time. The civil war continued in France to desolate and distract the country. During the winter and spring the Burgundian's intrigues were as active as his troops had been during the summer and autumn; and the Queen, now a tool in his hands, powerfully seconded his efforts to subdue the Government and exhaust its means of resisting either himself or the common enemy. Armagnac, meanwhile, endeavoured to regain the towns which the Burgundian had taken, and instead of sending troops to oppose the English he marched an army to Senlis, the siege of which he carried on with a cruelty that added to the gene Rot. Parl., 107. There are no statutes on the Stat. Roll as made at this Parliament; but nothing can be more formal than the entry in the Parliament Roll, that the Regent gave his assent, and the Lords heirs, at the prayer of the Commons. Note XLV. ral hatred he was held in. The Burgundian sent a force to relieve the place; and the garrison having made a sally to support him, the Constable, enraged because they had previously engaged to surrender by a certain day, beheaded four of their hostages, causing their mangled bodies to be hung up before the town. The besieged in revenge put twenty of Armagnac's people to death. There were constant encounters between the contending parties in other parts of the kingdom, the lamentable condition of which, thus suffering at once the miseries of both foreign and intestine warfare, drew the attention of Martin V., recently elected by the Council of Constance, and he sent an embassy to mediate between. the adverse factions, if possible to reconcile them. A long negotiation took place at Montereau; and when terms had been agreed upon, to the unspeakable joy of the people, exhausted by the contest, suddenly the Constable, with the Chancellor Marle, Tanneguy du Châtel, Provost of Paris, and one or two more of his partisans, protested against the treaty being concluded, stigmatised it as favourable to the Burgundian, and prevented the King from signing it. All hopes of peace now vanished, and the King's troops were sent to recover Montlheri and other towns which had been lost the year before. The popular feeling against Armagnac had now reached its height. To his insolence and his oppression was added the grievous offence of maintaining a civil war in the heart of the country, and crippling 1418. Of its means of opposing a formidable invasion. the general indignation thus excited the Burgundian did not fail to take advantage; and at Paris a plot was formed by some of the common people, adherents of that faction, in concert with John de Villiers, Lord of L'Isle Adam, who had lately gone over to them from the Armagnacs. The result was his marching in the night a body of 800 picked men, to whom the conspirators opened the gate of St. Germain, having stolen the keys from the keeper while he slept. The city was thus surprised; and May 29, the assailants, being joined by the populace, made their way to the palace, seized the King's person, forced him to ride about with them as if countenancing their proceedings, arrested the Armagnac chiefs, massacred great numbers of their followers, filled the prisons with such as they did not put to death, and committed upon the mansions of the nobles the usual excesses of popular fury armed with a temporary power. Tanneguy du Châtel succeeded in carrying off the Dauphin, first to the Bastille and then to Melun. Afterwards, collecting a body of troops under Marshal de Riez, he made a desperate attack upon L'Isle Adam in hopes of delivering Paris; but they were repulsed with the loss of between three and four hundred men, and, as reinforcements kept pouring in from Picardy to the assistance of the Burgundians, they remained in quiet possession of the capital, issuing whatever orders they thought fit, and holding the King as a mere tool in their hands. This, however, did not satisfy the multitude. On the 12th of June they rose in great numbers, and, fearing or affecting to fear that the Armagnacs would be set at liberty, although all were under the care of a Burgundian lately appointed Provost of Paris, they broke open the gaols and massacred all the unhappy prisoners, without regard to age, or sex, or cause of detention, insomuch that individuals of their own faction confined for debt perished in the indiscriminate slaughter. This horrid carnage lasted from four in the afternoon till ten next day. The lowest account of the numbers murdered makes them exceed 1600, while others give a much larger estimate. Among them was the Constable himself, whose body was subjected to the most barbarous indignities, such as cutting the skin in the shape of a St. Andrew's Cross, the Burgundian badge. The Chancellor Marle likewise perished, and five bishops, with many other persons of eminent station. The leaders of the party, L'Isle Adam, Luxembourg, Chastellux, rode about encouraging the furious people, and they even had a strong force under arms ready to protect them should any dare to interrupt the work of death. A few days after the thirst of blood again seized these butchers; the houses of all were searched, and a slaughter took place both of the Armagnacs who were found and of all that were suspected of affording them shelter. Between 3000 and 4000 are supposed to have fallen. Whoever had a grudge against another, or wished for what reason soever to have any person removed out of his way, had only, we are told, to call him an Armagnac, and his doom was sealed.' It is a remarkable fact, offering another resemblance of these outrages to the popular excesses of later times, that a Swiss corps which happened to be at Paris in the pay of the Government was nearly destroyed by the multitude. Among other particulars of this warfare a striking passage has been preserved, illustrating strongly the perversion of all moral feelings to which religious and factious frenzy may give rise. The same people who could witness unmoved the murder and torture of thousands in cold blood were unable to endure an act of disrespect towards a stone image, and put to death with great torments a soldier of their own party who had struck at it with his sword when reeling drunk from a tavern where he had lost his money.3 The seizure of Paris was followed by the immediate surrender of Creil, Laon, Peronne, Corbeil, Soissons; and the Burgundian now declared that the time was come when he might appear in person to comfort his emissaries, put himself at the head of his victorious party, and exercise the whole powers June 14, of Government in the unhappy King's name. He accordingly repaired to the capital, accompanied 1418. Juv. des Urs., 351. Fenin., 468. Monstrel., ch. cxci. and excviii. Mezer., 11. The day, 3rd July, of this incident continued for ages to be celebrated by burning a soldier's effigy in the street Rue de l'Ours. P. de Fen., 468. Monstrelet, ch. cxc. and cxcviii. Mezer., 11. Juv. des Urs., 350. |