The chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet, Vol. 02 [of 13]

by Enguerrand de Monstrelet

‘We offered to wait on you with very few attendants, but we could never obtain access to you, nor have a single audience, through the obstructions of this traitor, who was alway by your side; and he alone prevented the goodness of our intentions being made known to you, from his persevering ambition and his boundless desire of seizing the government of yourself and realm.

‘We, therefore, finding all hopes of seeing you fruitless, in consequence of agreements concluded with your council, returned home; but to avoid, if possible, the destruction of your country, we must again confederate.—We faithfully observed all the articles of the agreement; but we were no sooner at a distance than our enemy violated them in the most essential part. It had been settled that your new ministry should be composed of men of unblemished characters, who were not partisans or servants, or pensioners to either side; but he has kept those that were attached to him in power, so that he has now a majority in the council, and consequently rules more despotically and more securely than when he held the reins of government in his own hand.

‘These grievances are increasing, and will increase, unless God shall direct your mind to provide a remedy to them.

‘Pierre des Essars, who had been provost of your good town of Paris, and minister of finance, was to be deprived of these offices, and of every employment he held under your name. This was done for a short time,—but he has since obtained for him, by letters sealed with your great seal, a re-appointment to the provostship, under pretence of which the said Pierre des Essars has returned to Paris, and has attempted by force to execute the duties of that office. He came, in fact, to the court of the Châtelet, seated himself on the judgment seat, and took possession of his office with the knowledge and connivance of the duke of Burgundy,—and it was not his fault, if he failed in success.

‘Hence it appears plainly, that the late arrangements have been by him, and those of his party, violated; and that he never had any real intentions of keeping the treaty is clear from his having consented to the dismission of Pierre des Essars, and then secretly procuring his restitution. It was also stipulated in this treaty, that all who had been deprived of their offices for having been in the company of me, Charles d’Orleans, and the other lords, at the hôtel of Winchester, should be restored to them; and that, by your orders, and those of your council, sir John de Charencieres was to be replaced in his government of your town and castle of Caen,—nevertheless, the duke of Burgundy, in opposition to these your orders, had him displaced, and solicited the appointment for himself, from hatred to sir John de Charencieres, and, having obtained it, now holds it, which is another infringement of the treaty.

‘Notwithstanding, most redoubted lord and sovereign, all the diligence and exertions made by our much-loved mother, whose soul may God pardon! to obtain justice on the murderers of our late very dear father, four years have now elapsed without any judgment being passed on such enormous criminals, although she pursued every means in her power.

‘In consequence of this failure or neglect, I, Charles of Orleans, have of late most humbly supplicated you to grant me warrants against these aforesaid murderers, addressed to all your justices, that they might, on due examination of the charges, imprison and punish, according to the exigency of the case, all or any who may have been implicated in this abominable crime. In this I made not any extraordinary request; for justice is due to all your subjects, and cannot be refused them: you cannot believe that any man, however low his rank, in your kingdom, would have a similar request neglected by your courts of justice, for I know it could not be refused. However, in spite of every exertion I could make, I have never yet been able to obtain these warrants, the reason of which is, as I suppose, that some of your new ministers are implicated in the crime I am anxious to have punished, and therefore will not suffer such warrants to be issued.

‘For this reason, therefore, most redoubted lord, have I of late earnestly supplicated you, that you would, from personal considerations, and for the good of your realm, dismiss from your service the persons named in my letter,—for I therein charged them with having obstructed public justice and disturbed the peace of the country. When this should be done, I declared to your ambassadors, that I was willing, from my love to your person and attachment to your kingdom, to make publicly known my future intentions, and that my conduct should be such as would have the approbation of God and of your majesty; but notwithstanding this, I have not yet had any satisfactory answer to all my repeated solicitations for justice on the murderers of my late regretted lord and father.

‘We, therefore, most redoubted lord, again make our petitions that the aforesaid criminals may be brought to that justice which is due to them for the enormity of their offences; the principal having made a public confession of his guilt in the presence of my lord of Acquitaine, who presided, in your absence, at the meeting held at his request in the hôtel de St Pol, and before a numerous body of the nobility, clergy and others; and the traitor cannot deny that this his confession was made before a competent judge, and in the presence of such witnesses as the king of Sicily and my lord of Berry your uncle.

‘He had before privately confessed to these two persons, that he had committed the murder without any cause whatever, but through the instigation of the enemy of mankind. This confession, according to every law, ought to be to his prejudice, nor should he be suffered to offer any excuse in extenuation of a crime thus publicly and privately avowed; for he has condemned himself, and ought to have judgment passed on him accordingly.