A 7th Example happned in the Year 1484, when Lewis the Eleventh dying, and leaving his Son Charles, a Boy of 13 Years old; a Council was held at Tours, wherein it was decreed, “The Education of the Boy shou’d be committed to Anne the King’s Sister;” but the Administration of the Kingdom shou’d be intrusted to certain Persons Elected and approved by that Council; notwithstanding Lewis, Duke of Orleans, the next Kinsman by the Father’s Side, demanded it as his Right.  A Testimony of which Transaction is extant in the Acts of that Council, printed at Paris; and in Joannes Buchettus 4th Book, folio 167.

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CHAP.  XVIII.

    Of the Remarkable Authority of the Council against
    Lewis the Eleventh.

The Power and Authority of the Council and the Estates assembled, appears by the foregoing Testimonies to have been very great, and indeed (as it were) Sacred.  But because we are now giving Examples of this Power, we will not omit a signal Instance of the Authority of this Council, which interposed it self in the Memory of our Fathers against Lewis the Eleventh, who was reputed more crafty and cunning than any of the Kings that had ever been before him.

In the Year 1460, when this Lewis governed the Kingdom in such a Manner, that in many Cases the Duty of a good Prince, and a Lover of his Country, was wanting; the People began to desire the Assistance and Authority of the Great Council, that some Care might therein be taken of the Publick Welfare; and because it was suspected the King wou’d not submit himself to it, the Great Men of the Kingdom (stirred up by the daily Complaints and Solicitations of the Commons,) “resolv’d to gather Forces, and raise an Army; that (as Philip de Comines expresses it) they might provide for the Publick Good, and expose the King’s wicked Administration of the Commonwealth.”  They therefore agreed to be ready prepared with a good Army, that in Case the King should prove refractory, and refuse to follow good Advice, they might compel him by Force:  For which Reason that War was said to have been undertaken for the Publick Good, and was commonly called the War du bien public. “Comines, Gillius, and Lamarc, have recorded the Names of those Great Men who were the principal Leaders, the Duke of Bourbon, the Duke of Berry, the King’s Brother; the Counts of Dunois, Nevers, Armagnac, and Albret, and the Duke of Charalois, who was the Person most concern’d in what related to the Government.  Whereever they marched, they caused it to be proclaimed, that their Undertakings were only design’d for the Publick Good;