Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

sovereign. But they turned a deaf ear to all that he could urge, justly declaring that the commands of one himself a captive were of no force. When, however, the town at length surrendered at discretion, after costing the besiegers a loss of seventeen hundred men, Nov. 17, Henry put twenty Scotch prisoners to death

1420. on the empty pretence that they had been taken in arms against their king. Four hundred prisoners, French and Scotch, were also carried to Paris and cast into dungeons, where most of them perished of hunger. Several of them were executed on suspicion of having been concerned in the murder at Montereau; and Barbason himself, although clearly proved to be guiltless, was kept nine years in prison, under a very singular article of the capitulation, that those acquitted of the crime for want of proof might be detained. Such of the garrison as were released altogether had to pay severely for it: in the expressive and accurate phraseology of the times, "they were made the subjects of Finance.” 2

From Melun the Sovereigns, with their retinues and their troops, proceeded to Paris, where they made their entry in the greatest pomp, and were received with every outward demonstration of joy. Nor would it be contrary to the known effects of party rage making men forget the public ruin in their eagerness to destroy their adversaries, if it were confessed that for the

Juv. des Urs., 384. P. de Fen., 483. Good., 282. Hol., iii. 123. T. Wals., 452. Monstrelet, ch. ccxxvi. ccxxix.

"Mis à finance." Juv. des Urs., 384 et passim.

moment this exultation was sincere. Philip certainly regarded the grand entry as a Burgundian triumph, and while Charles moved around in the procession, being permitted to take the right of Henry, their powerful ally was seen on the opposite side of the way, as if to gratify the people with the recollection of their favourite, and the proof that this solemnity was the consummation of their revenge for his death. But more substantial homage was paid to the Parisian tastes than mere sentimental indulgence. Feasting and shows were given with a lavish hand; fireworks were exhibited by night, and wine flowed by day through channels so ingeniously contrived that all might be regaled by their streams. But the curiosity of the people was mainly directed towards the persons of their new Monarch and his Queen. While Charles and Isabel were lodged in their hotel or palace of St. Pol, Henry and Catherine, with his brothers and his suite, occupied the Louvre, and it was speedily apparent that under what title soever he might be made manifest to the people, the English Monarch was the Sovereign of France. To him all the court was paid, all the homage rendered. Upon him all eyes rested; and by an indiscretion highly blameable, if not with deliberate meaning more reprehensible still, there was a marked difference between the attendance and the treatment of the real and of the nominal King. While the foreign conqueror held a court at once crowded and sumptuous, the native Prince and his Consort were left in a deserted mansion, with few

P

attendants and a frugal household. The lapse of four centuries must have strangely altered the character of the French as now we know them, if this spectacle, reflecting their own subjugation in the fallen greatness of their Prince, did not mortify and humble that high-spirited people, and did not awaken them to a feeling of remorse for the factious conduct by which their past misfortunes had been caused, and the humiliation of that day brought about.

The Regent was, however, resolved to show that the mere pageants of authority by no means satisfied him. His troops were put into possession of the fortress of Vincennes and of the Bastile, and they were quartered in the villages surrounding the capital. He appointed his brother Clarence Governor of Paris. He made such removals from office, and such appointments to supply the vacancies, as he pleased; and it was remarked, that he displaced not only persons who had owed their appointment to the King, but those also whom the Duke John (the Burgundian) had promoted.' He then called together the States General, and obtained a formal confirmation of the treaty of Troyes, with their oath of allegiance to his person. person. A baseness was added which seemed more voluntary, and therefore more despicable. They asked for an Dec. 1420. edict from the Crown, which was of course readily issued, denouncing all as traitors who should refuse to acknowledge Henry's title. A mockery was then performed with much solemnity, by assem

Monstrelet, ch. ccxxxiv.

1420.

bling a Council, somewhat anomalous in its composition, for it consisted of the Parliament, Dec. 23, the Estates of some towns and districts, and the Royal Councillors; and before this tribunal, presided over by the imbecile King, with the Regent at his side, Philip and his family, supported by the Public Prosecutor, preferred his formal complaint against the Dauphin and his accomplices, demanding a decree that they should do public penance for the murder of Duke John, build and endow churches upon the spot where it was perpetrated, and suffer the punishment due to the offence. This decree was accordingly pronounced; but as the parties against whom it was directed were altogether beyond the jurisdiction of the Court, it would have been wholly nugatory, had not an important addition been made, which was evidently the only purpose of the proceeding. The Dauphin was, with his accomplices, declared to have forfeited all civil rights, and all titles of inheritance; his subjects were absolved from their allegiance, both present and future; all oaths, before or after, taken to him were pronounced null; and all persons so swearing or keeping such oaths, or in any way obeying or assisting him, were declared guilty of treason.1 A few days after the Dauphin, by the title of Duke of Touraine, was with his accomplices cited to appear hofore the Court of the Peers of Parliament at the marble table, and on their making default, he was declared to be attainted and outlawed,

1

Rym., x. 35. Monstrelet, ch, ccxxxii. Note XLVIII.

and the others were condemned to death. Against this sentence he proclaimed that he appealed to his sword; but he at the same time summoned the Parliament and University of Paris to attend him at Poictiers; and thither, it is said, all the independent members of either body very willingly repaired.'

Soon after Christmas Henry left Paris with the purpose of carrying his Queen over to England. On his way thither he stopped a month in Normandy, where he found that some enforcement of discipline was required both in the garrisons and among the clergy. In some of the former the troops, giving way to their thirst of plunder, had rashly undertaken a combined expedition to despoil Brie and the Valois, in returning from which they had been attacked and defeated with severe loss, being stripped of all their booty and leaving many of their number on the field. The nonresidence of the clergy also called for a remedy. He had some time before issued requisitions to the Prelates, both in Normandy and in England, to enforce residence, and he now strictly enjoined it on all who had left their cures in order to avoid taking the oaths since the peace of Troyes. He made other regulations of a very praiseworthy kind. One was, to prohibit the oppressive practices of persons in authority, as officers, bailiffs, gatekeepers of towns, who were in the habit of exacting gratuities in the nature of toll from all bringing goods to market or carrying them

1 Mez., i. 1027. P. Daniel, vi. 554. Juv. des Urs., 385, 703. Rym., x. 84.

« ZurückWeiter »