To obviate this, he caused several royal summons to be proclaimed in various parts of the realm, for the assembling of men at arms and quartering them in the villages round Paris, to be ready to defend the king and his government against the ill-intentioned. By the advice of his brothers and the king of Navarre, he resolved to defend himself by force against his adversaries, and caused it to be proclaimed throughout the kingdom, in the king’s name, that no one should dare to assemble armed in company of the dukes of Berry and Orleans, and their allies, under pain of corporal punishment and confiscation of goods.
The Orleans-faction, however, continued their meetings in spite of this proclamation, and even forced their vassals to serve under and accompany them: I mean, such of them as were dilatory in obeying their summons. There were, therefore, at this time, great and frequent assemblies of armed men in different parts of France, to the prejudice of the poor people.
Those lords that were well inclined to the king came to Paris, and their men were quartered in the flat country of the island of France. The Orleans-party fixed their quarters at Chartres and the adjacent parts; and their forces might amount, according to the estimate of well-informed persons, to full six thousand men in armour, four thousand cross-bows, and sixteen hundred archers, without counting the unarmed infantry, of which there were great numbers.
In regard to the army which the duke of Burgundy had assembled by orders from the king, it was estimated to consist of upward of sixteen thousand combatants, all men of tried courage. During this time, the king of Navarre and his brother, the count de Mortain, at the request of the duke of Burgundy, negotiated a peace between the duke of Brittany, their nephew, and the count de Penthievre, son-in-law to the duke of Burgundy.
This was done in the hope that the duke of Brittany would be induced to assist the king with his Bretons, and give up the Orleans-party, to whom he had engaged himself. On the conclusion of this peace between the two parties, twenty thousand golden crowns were sent the duke, to defray the expenses he had been at in raising men at arms.
Large sums of money were also sent to the lord d’Albreth, constable of France, that he might collect a numerous body of men at arms, and march them to Paris, to serve the king. He had not any great desire to perform this, for he was wholly inclined to the duke of Orleans and his allies, as was perfectly notorious shortly afterward.
CHAP. XXI.
THE DEATH OF THE DUKE OF BOURBON.—THE PROCLAMATION OF THE KING OF FRANCE.—THE DUKE OF ORLEANS AND HIS ALLIES SEND LETTERS TO THE PRINCIPAL TOWNS IN FRANCE.
During this troublesome time, Louis duke of Bourbon, uncle to the king of France by the mother’s side, being full sixty years of age, feeling himself oppressed with years and sickness, caused himself to be conveyed to his residence at Moulins[63] in the Bourbonnois, where he departed this life, and was buried in the church of the canons, which he had founded.