With so mean an attendance did this duke quit Paris, after the death of the duke of Orleans, leaving the great lords of France in the utmost tribulation and distress.
When those of the household of the late duke of Orleans heard of the secret departure of the duke of Burgundy, they armed themselves, to the amount of six score, having at their head sir Clugnet de Brabant, and, mounting their horses, sallied out of Paris in pursuit of the duke of Burgundy, with the intent of putting him to death, could they overtake him. The king of Sicily, learning their intentions, sent after to forbid them executing their plan,—on which they returned, very indignant, to their hôtels.
It was now publicly known throughout Paris that the duke of Burgundy had committed this murder; but the Parisians were not well pleased with the duke of Orleans, for they had learnt that he was the author of all the heavy taxes that oppressed them, and began to say among themselves in secret, ‘The knotty stick is smoothed.’
This melancholy event took place in the great winter of the year 1407, when the frost lasted for sixty-six days with the greatest severity. On the thaw, the new bridge at Paris was destroyed, and fell into the Seine; and the floods did very great mischief to many parts of the kingdom of France.
I have no need, in this chapter, to speak of the great hatred and jealousy that had taken place between the dukes of Orleans and Burgundy, prior to the death of the former, as it would occupy too much room; and besides, they will be fully spoken of in the proceedings which were shortly afterward instituted,—namely, in the justification which the duke of Burgundy proposed offering publicly, in the presence of the princes of the blood, the nobility, both ecclesiastical and secular, shewing the causes why he openly avowed being the author of the death of the duke of Orleans, and likewise from the answers which the dowager-duchess of Orleans and her children made in exculpation of the late duke,—which shall all be written in this present chronicle exactly in the manner in which they were proposed in the presence of the whole royal council, and great numbers of others of different ranks.
CHAP. XXXVII.
THE DUCHESS OF ORLEANS, WITH HER YOUNGEST SON, WAIT ON THE KING IN PARIS, TO MAKE COMPLAINT OF THE CRUEL MURDER OF THE LATE DUKE HER HUSBAND.
The late duke of Orleans had married the daughter of Galeazzo duke of Milan, his cousin-german, by whom he left three sons and one daughter,—namely, Charles, the eldest, who succeeded his father in the dukedom of Orleans; Philip, count de Vertus; John, count of Angoulême. The daughter was married to Richard of Brittany. We shall say more hereafter respecting these princes, and of the fortunes that befel them.
On the 10th day of December, the duchess of Orleans, widow to the late duke, with her youngest son John, and accompanied by the late queen of England, now wife to her eldest son, set out for Paris. The king of Sicily, the dukes of Berry and Bourbon, the counts of Clermont and Vendôme, the lord Charles d’Albreth, constable of France, and many other great lords, went out of the town to meet her, attended by a number of people and horses, and thus escorted her to the hôtel de St Pol, where the king of France resided. Being instantly admitted to an audience, she fell on her knees to the king, and made a pitiful complaint to him of the very inhuman murder of her lord and husband. The king, who at that time was in his sound senses, having lately recovered from his illness, raised her up with tears, and assured her he would comply with all her request, according to the opinion of his council. Having received this answer, she returned to the hôtel of Orleans, accompanied by the before-mentioned lords.
On the following Monday, the king of France, by the advice of his parliament, resumed in court the county of Dreux, Chastel-Thierry, and Mont d’Arcuelles, and all the lands which the king had given to his brother for his life.