[A. D. 1411.]
CHAP. XXV.
THE DUKE OF ORLEANS SENDS AMBASSADORS TO THE KING OF FRANCE, WITH LETTERS OF ACCUSATION AGAINST THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY AND THOSE OF HIS PARTY.
At the commencement of this year, the duke of Orleans was displeased that those ministers who had been nominated by the duke of Burgundy had greater influence than any of the others, and that they daily deprived such as had been attached to the late duke of Orleans, and were now his friends, of their offices. In consequence, he sent ambassadors to the king to complain of this conduct, and to require that the murderers of his father should be punished conformably to the articles of the treaty, but who were now residents within the kingdom. To these ambassadors promises were made, on the part of the king, that proper remedies should be applied to give them satisfaction.
On their departure, the king sent to his uncle, the duke of Berry, at Bourges, to require that he would interfere between his two nephews of Orleans and Burgundy, and make peace between them, which he engaged to do; and in consequence, he sent his chancellor, the archbishop of Bourges, to Paris, well instructed by the duke how he was to act.
Shortly after, this chancellor, the marshal Boucicaut, with others, were dispatched to the duke of Burgundy, then at St Omer, who, having heard all they had to say, replied, that it was no fault of his, nor should it ever be so, that any articles of the late treaties were infringed; for that in this, and in every thing else, he was very desirous of obeying the king. And this his answer they laid before the king and council.
But as the proceedings against the murderers of the late duke of Orleans did not seem to his son, and his advisers, to be carried on with sufficient vigour, he wrote letters, signed with his own hand, to complain of this and other matters to the king, the contents of which were as follows:
‘Most redoubted lord, after offering my humble recommendation,—lately, very redoubted lord, two of your counsellors came to me, namely, sir Collart de Charleville, knight, and sir Simon de Nanterre, president of your parliament, whom you had been pleased to send me to signify and explain your good will and pleasure touching certain points, which they have clearly and distinctly declared, according to the terms of their commission.
‘First, they require and entreat of me, in your name, who may command me as your loyal subject and humble servant, that I should submit the quarrel that subsists between me and the duke of Burgundy, for the inhuman and cruel murder of my very redoubted lord and father, and your own brother, on whose soul may God have mercy! to my lady the queen, and to my lord and uncle the duke of Berry, who has been in like manner solicited by your ambassadors to labour diligently to establish a firm peace, for the general good of the kingdom.
‘They have informed me, that you have also made a similar proposal to the duke of Burgundy,—and that, to effectuate so desirable an object as peace, I should send four of my friends to my said uncle of Berry, who will there meet the same number from the duke of Burgundy.