was added one of even more importance. Agnes
Sorel had died eighteen months previously (February
9, 1450); and on her death-bed she had appointed Jacques
Coeur one of the three executors of her will.
In July, 1451, Jacques was at Taillebourg, in Guyenne,
whence he wrote to his wife that “he was in
as good case and was as well with the king as ever
he had been, whatever anybody might say.”
Indeed, on the 22d of July Charles VII. granted him
a “sum of seven hundred and seventy-two livres
of Tours to help him to keep up his condition and
to be more honorably equipped for his service;”
and, nevertheless, on the 31st of July, on the information
of two persons of the court, who accused Jacques Coeur
of having poisoned Agnes Sorel, Charles ordered his
arrest and the seizure of his goods, on which he immediately
levied a hundred thousand crowns for the purposes
of the war. Commissioners extraordinary, taken
from amongst the king’s grand council, were
charged to try him; and Charles VII. declared, it
is said, that “if the said moneyman were not
found liable to the charge of having poisoned or caused
to be poisoned Agnes Sorel, he threw up and forgave
all the other cases against him.” The
accusation of poisoning was soon acknowledged to be
false, and the two informers were condemned as calumniators;
but the trial was, nevertheless, proceeded with.
Jacques Coeur was accused “of having sold arms
to the infidels, of having coined light crowns, of
having pressed on board of his vessels, at Montpellier,
several individuals, of whom one had thrown himself
into the sea from desperation, and lastly of having
appropriated to himself presents made to the king,
in several towns of Languedoc, and of having practised
in that country frequent exaction, to the prejudice
of the king as well as of his subjects.”
After twenty-two months of imprisonment, Jacques
Coeur, on the 29th of May, 1453, was convicted, in
the king’s name, on divers charges, of which
several entailed a capital penalty; but “whereas
Pope Nicholas V. had issued a rescript and made request
in favor of Jacques Coeur, and regard also being had
to services received from him,” Charles VII.
spared his life, “on condition that he should
pay to the king a hundred thousand crowns by way of
restitution, three hundred thousand by way of fine,
and should be kept in prison until the whole claim
was satisfied;” and the decree ended as follows:
“We have declared and do declare all the goods
of the said Jacques Coeur confiscated to us, and we
have banished and do banish this Jacques Coeur forever
from this realm, reserving thereanent our own good
pleasure.”