As all the circumstances of this treaty were not agreeable to the duke, and as he had many suspicions respecting Montagu, he was not disposed to receive the negotiators in the way they were sent to him. He even personally made many reproaches to Montagu, who bore them patiently, excusing himself for any thing that had passed. The treaty, however, having been altered and corrected, was sent back to the king at Tours, and in the end agreed to in the manner you shall hear.
While these negotiations were going forward, and before their conclusion, the duchess-dowager of Orleans, daughter to Galeazzo duke of Milan, died in the town of Blois, broken-hearted at not having been able to obtain justice from the king and council against the duke of Burgundy for the murder of her late lord and husband, Louis duke of Orleans. The duke of Burgundy was much rejoiced at this event, for the duchess had bitterly carried on her prosecution against him.
Her heart was buried at Paris, near that of her husband, and her body in the church of the canons at Blois. After her death, Charles, her eldest son, was duke of Orleans and of Valois, count of Blois and of Beaumont, lord of Coni and of Ast, with many other lordships:—Philip, the second son, was count of Vertus,—and John, the youngest, was named count of Angoulême. These three brothers, and one sister, thus became orphans, but they had been very well educated; yet, by the deaths of the duke and duchess of Orleans, they were much weakened in support and advice,—and several of the king’s ministers were not so zealous to prosecute the duke of Burgundy as they had been. This was very apparent in the negotiations which took place some little time after the death of the duchess, between the duke of Burgundy and the children of Orleans; for although the treaty sent by the king was not wholly to the liking of the duke, as has been said, yet it was so corrected that the parties accepted of it, in the following terms:
First, it was ordered by the king and his great council, that the duke of Burgundy should depart from Paris with his men at arms, and return to his own country, where he was to remain until a certain day, namely, the first Wednesday in February, when he was to meet the king at the town of Chartres, accompanied only by one hundred gentlemen at arms, and the children of Orleans with fifty. It was also ordered, that duke William, count of Hainault, should have under his command four hundred of the king’s men at arms, to preserve the peace. It was also ordered, that the duke of Burgundy, when he appeared before the king, should be attended by one of his council, who should repeat the words he was to say; and the duke, in confirmation of them, was to add, ‘We will and agree that it should be thus.’
Afterward, according to the tenor of the treaty, the king was to say to the duke of Burgundy, ‘We will, that the count de Vertus, our nephew, have one of your daughters in marriage.’ The duke was by this treaty to assign over to his daughter three thousand livres parisis yearly, and give her one hundred and fifty thousand golden francs.
When this treaty had been concluded, duke William set out from Paris for Hainault; and shortly after, the duke of Burgundy disbanded his men at arms, and left Paris to go to Lille, whither he had summoned the duke of Brabant his brother, duke William and the bishop of Liege, his brothers-in-law, and many other great lords.
At this period, there was a great quarrel between the duke of Brabant and duke William. It was caused by the father of duke William having borrowed in former times from the late duchess of Brabant one hundred and fifty thousand florins to carry on a war against some of his rebellious subjects in Holland, which sum the duke of Brabant had claimed as belonging to him. He had in consequence, by the advice of his Brabanters, taken possession of a castle called Heusden[16], situated between Brabant and Holland.
The duke of Burgundy took great pains to make up the quarrel between these two princes, that they might the more effectually assist him in his plans, which were very extensive. After this business had been settled, and the parties had separated, duke William assembled in Hainault, according to the king of France’s orders, four hundred men at arms and as many archers. The principal lords among them were, the counts de Namur, de Conversant and de Salmes. The duke of Burgundy, conformably to the treaty, set out, the day after Ash-Wednesday, attended by his son-in-law the count de Penthievre[17], and lay at Bapaume. Thence he went to Paris, with duke William, the above-named lords, the count de St Pol, the count de Vaudemont[18], and several others of the nobility.
On Saturday, the 2d day of March, they arrived all together at the town of Gallardon, four leagues distant from Chartres. The Wednesday following, duke William of Holland advanced with his body of forces to Chartres, where the king then was. On the ensuing Saturday, the duke of Burgundy set out from Gallardon, to wait on the king, escorted by six hundred men at arms; but when he approached Chartres, he dismissed them all, excepting one hundred light horsemen, in compliance with the treaty, and thus entered Chartres about ten o’clock in the morning, riding strait to the church as far as the cloisters of the canons, where he was lodged.
At this same time, the duke of Orleans, in company with his brother the count de Vertus, and, according to the treaty, attended by only fifty men at arms, entered the church of our Lady at Chartres, with the king their uncle, the queen, the duke of Acquitaine, and several princes of the blood.