Between the two rivals in France, relations with England were a subject of constant manoeuvring and strife.  In spite of reverses on the Continent and civil wars in their own island, the Kings of England had not abandoned their claims to the crown of France; they were still in possession of Calais; and the memory of the battles of Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt was still a tower of strength to them.  Between 1470 and 1472 the house of York had triumphed over the house of Lancaster; and Edward IV. was undisputed king.  In his views touching France he found a natural ally in the Duke of Burgundy; and it was in concert with Charles that Edward was incessantly concocting and attempting plots and campaigns against Louis XI.  In 1474 he, by a herald, called upon Louis to give up to him Normandy and Guienne, else, he told him, he would cross over to France with his army.  “Tell your master,” answered Louis coolly, “that I should not advise him to.”  Next year the herald returned to tell Louis that the King of England, on the point of embarking, called upon him to give up to him the kingdom of France.  Louis had a conversation with the herald.  “Your king,” said he, “is undertaking this war against his own grain at the solicitation of the Duke of Burgundy; he would do much better to live in peace with me, instead of devoting himself to allies who cannot but compromise him without doing him any service;” and he had three hundred golden crowns presented to the herald, with a promise of considerably more if peace were made.  The herald, thus won over, promised, in his turn, to do all he could, saying that he believed that his master would lend a willing ear, but that, before mentioning the subject, they must wait until Edward had crossed the sea and formed some idea of the difficulties in the way of his enterprise; and he advised Louis to establish communications with my lord Howard and my lord Stanley, who had great influence with King Edward.  “Whilst the king was parleying with the said herald, there were many folks in the hall,” says Commynes, “who were waiting, and had great longing to know what the king was saying to him, and what countenance he would wear when he came from within.  The king, when he had made an end, called me and told me to keep the said herald talking, so that none might speak to him, and to have delivered unto him a piece of crimson velvet containing thirty ells.  So did I, and the king was right joyous at that which he had got out of the said herald.”

[Illustration:  Philip de Commynes——­217]

It was now three years since Philip de Commynes had left the Duke of Burgundy’s service to enter that of Louis XI.  In 1471 Charles had, none knows why, rashly authorized an interview between Louis and De Commynes.  “The king’s speech,” says the chronicler Molinet, in the Duke of Burgundy’s service, “was so sweet and full of virtue that it entranced, siren-like, all those who gave ear to it.”  “Of all princes,” says