they published Freedom from Taxes and Tributes, and sent Ambassadors with Letters to the Parliament at Paris, to the Ecclesiasticks, and to the Rector of the University, desiring them not to suspect or imagine these Forces were rais’d for the King’s Destruction, but only to reclaim him, and make him perform the Office of a Good King, as the present Necessities of the Publick required.”—­These are Gillius’s Words, lib. 4. fol. 152.

The Annals intituled the Chronicles of Lewis the Eleventh, printed at Paris by Galliottus fol. 27. have these Words.——­“The first and chiefest of their Demands was, That a Convention of the Three States should be held; because in all Ages it had been found to be the only proper Remedy for all Evils, and to have always had a Force sufficient to heal such sort of Mischiefs.”—­Again, Pag. 28.  “An Assembly was called on Purpose to hear the Ambassadors of the Great Men, and met on the 24th Day in the Town-House at Paris; at which were present some Chosen Men of the University, of the Parliament, and of the Magistrates.  The Answer given the Ambassadors, was, That what they demanded was most just; and accordingly a Council of the Three Estates was summon’d.”—­These are the Words of that Historian.—­From whence the Old Saying of Marcus Antoninus appears to be most true.—­“Etsi omnes molestae semper seditiones sunt, justas tamen esse nonnullas, & prope necessarias:  eas vero justissimas maximeque necessarias videri, cum populus Tyranni saevitia oppressus auxilium a legitimo Civium conventu implorat.  Altho’ all Sorts of Seditions are troublesome, yet some of them are just, and in a Manner necessary; but those are extraordinary just and necessary, which are occasion’d when the People oppress’d by the Cruelty of a Tyrant, implores the Assistance of a Lawful Convention.”

Gaguinus, in his Life of Lewis the Eleventh, pag. 265. gives us Charles, the Duke of Burgundy’s Answer to that King’s Ambassadors. “Charles (says he) heard the Ambassadors patiently, but made Answer, That he knew no Method so proper to restore a firm Peace, at a Time when such great Animosities, and so many Disorders of the War were to be composed, as a Convention of the Three Estates.  Which when the Ambassadors had by Special Messengers communicated to King Lewis, he hoping to gain his Point by Delays, summon’d the Great Council to meet at Tours, on the Kalends of April 1467; and at the appointed Time for the Convention, they came from all Parts of the Kingdom, &c.”