“to give order to the estate, the police and the government of the kingdom, the princes of the blood as chief supports of the crown, by whose advice and not by that of others, the business of the king and of the state ought to be directed, are ready to risk their persons and their property, and in this laudable endeavour all virtuous citizens ought to aid."[10]

Thus wrote Charles to the citizens of Amiens, and the words were typical of similar appeals made in every quarter of the realm by the various feudal chiefs to their respective subjects.  In truth this war, ostentatiously called that of the Public Weal, was but a struggle on the part of the great nobles for local sovereignty.  The weal demanded was home rule for the feudal chiefs.  The War of Public Weal was a fierce protest against monarchical authority, against concentration.  A king indeed, but a king in leading strings was the ideal of the peers.

Thus matters stood in June, 1465.  Louis almost alone, deserted by his brother the Duke of Berry, and his nobles banded together in apparent unity, hedged in by their pompous and self-righteous assertions that all their thoughts were for the poor oppressed people whose burdens needed lightening.  Of all the great vassals, Gaston de Foix was the single one loyal to the king.

The part of the great duke fell entirely to the share of the Count of Charolais.  A small force was levied for him within the Netherlands, and he started for Paris where he hoped to meet contingents from the two Burgundies and his brother peers of France with their own troops.  His men were good individually but they had not been trained to act as one, and there was no coherence between the different companies.

July, 1465, found Charles at St. Denis, the appointed rendezvous.  He was first in the field.  While he awaited his allies, his little army became restive at the situation in which they found themselves, fifty leagues from Burgundian territory with no stronghold as their base.  It was urged again and again upon the count that his first consideration ought to be his men’s safety.  His allies had failed him.  He should retreat.  “I have crossed the Oise and the Marne and I will cross the Seine if I have but a single page to follow me,” was the leader’s firm reply to these demands.

The leaguers were slow to keep their pledges, and Charles decided that it was his mission to prevent Louis from entering his capital, to which he was advancing with great rapidity from the south.  To carry out this purpose Charles disregarded all protests, crossed the Seine at St. Cloud, and made his way to the little village of Longjumeau, whither he was preceded by the Count of St. Pol, commanding one division of the Burgundian army.  Montl’hery was a village still farther to the south, and here it was that La Marche and other gentlemen were knighted.  This ceremony was evidently part of the count’s endeavour to encourage his followers—­all unwilling to risk an engagement before the arrival of the allies.