A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 3 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 494 pages of information about A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 3.

A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 3 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 494 pages of information about A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 3.

These successes of the King of England were so many reverses and perils for the Count of Armagnac.  He had in his hands Paris, the king, and the dauphin; in the people’s eyes the responsibility of government and of events rested on his shoulders; and at one time he was doing nothing, at another he was unsuccessful in what he did.  Whilst Henry V. was becoming master of nearly all the towns of Normandy, the constable, with the king in his army, was besieging Senlis; and he was obliged to raise the siege.  The legates of Pope Martin V. had set about establishing peace between the Burgundians and Armagnacs, as well as between France and England; they had prepared, on the basis of the treaty of Arras, a new treaty, with which a great part of the country, and even of the burgesses of Paris, showed themselves well pleased; but the constable had it rejected on the ground of its being adverse to the interests of the king and of France; and his friend, the chancellor, Henry de Marle, declared that, if the king were disposed to sign it, he would have to seal it himself, for that, as for him, the chancellor, he certainly would not seal it.  Bernard of Armagnac and his confidential friend, Tanneguy Duchatel, a Breton nobleman, provost of Paris, were hard and haughty.  When a complaint was made to them of any violent procedure, they would answer, “What business had you there?  If it were the Burgundians, you would make no complaint.”  The Parisian population was becoming every day more Burgundian.  In the latter days of May. 1418, a plot was contrived for opening to the Burgundians one of the gates of Paris.  Perrinet Leclerc, son of a rich iron-merchant having influence in the quarter of St. Germain des Pros, stole the keys from under the bolster of his father’s bed; a troop of Burgundian men-at-arms came in, and they were immediately joined by a troop of Parisians.  They spread over the city, shouting, “Our Lady of peace!  Hurrah for the king!  Hurrah for Burgundy!  Let all who wish for peace take arms and follow us!” The people swarmed from the houses and followed them accordingly.  The Armagnacs were surprised and seized with alarm.  Tanneguy Duchatel, a man of prompt and resolute spirit, ran to the dauphin’s, wrapped him in his bed-clothes, and carried him off to the Bastille, where he shut him up with several of his partisans.  The Count of Armagnac, towards whose house the multitude thronged, left by a back-door, and took refuge at a mason’s, where he believed himself secure.  In a few hours the Burgundians were masters of Paris.  Their chief, the lord of Isle-Adam, had the doors of the hostel of St. Paul broken in, and presented himself before the king.  “How fares my cousin of Burgundy?” said Charles VI.; “I have not seen him for some time.”  That was all he said.  He was set on horseback and marched through the streets.  He showed no astonishment at anything; he had all but lost memory as well as reason, and no longer knew the difference

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A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 3 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.