[Footnote 5:  Laborde, i., 127.]

[Footnote 6:  II., 361.]

[Footnote 7:  The text says in the Burgundian or recluse fashion. Beguine is probably the right reading.]

[Footnote 8:  Mathieu d’Escouchy (ii., 222) gives all the vows as though made then, and differs in many unessential points from La Marche’s account.

[Footnote 9:  Du Clerq, ii., 203.]

[Footnote 10:’"Michel dit que le gigot de la cour etait rompu.”—­La Marche, i., ch. xiv.]

[Footnote 11:  Chastellain, iii., 20, note.]

[Footnote 12:  “Toute fois que ce ne soit pas sans moy.”]

[Footnote 13:  The original, signed, is in the Archives de la Cote-d’Or, B. 200. See Du Fresne de Beaucourt, Histoire de Charles VII., v. 470.]

[Footnote 14:  Chastellain, iii., 23, etc.]

[Footnote 15:  Chastellain, iii., 24]

[Footnote 16:  The chroniclers differ as to this date.  Chastellain (iii., 25) says the first Sunday in Lent.  D’Escouchy (ii., 270, ch. cxxii) the night of St. Martin.  Alienor de Poictiers, Hallowe’en (Les Honneurs de la Cour, p. 187).  The last was one of Isabella’s ladies in waiting.]

CHAPTER IV.

BURGUNDY AND FRANCE

1455-1456.

The duke’s journey failed in accomplishing its object, but it proved an important factor in the development of the character of Charles of Burgundy.  The opportunity to administer the government in his father’s absence changed him from a youth to a man, and the manner of man he was, was plain to see.

His character was built on singularly simple lines.  Vigorous of body, intense of purpose, inclined to melancholy, he was profoundly convinced of his own importance as heir to the greatest duke in Christendom, as future successor to an uncrowned potentate, who could afford to treat lightly the authority of both king and emperor whose nominal vassal he was.

The Ghent episode, too, undoubtedly had an immense effect in enhancing the count’s belief in his father’s power, in causing him to forget that the communes of Flanders did not owe their existence to their overlord.  As yet, Charles of Burgundy had not met a single check to his self-esteem, to his family pride.  As a governor, he probably exercised his brief authority with the rigour of one new to the helm.

“And the Count of Charolais bore himself so well and so virtuously in the task, that nothing deteriorated under his hand, and when the good duke returned from his journey, he found his lands as intact as before.”

Such, is La Marche’s testimony.[1] Intact undoubtedly, but possibly the satisfaction was not quite perfect.  Du Clercq[2] declares that Count Charles acquitted himself honourably of his charge and made himself respected as a magistrate.  Above all, he insisted that justice should be dealt out to all alike.