'Some he starved to death in prison, denying them confessors or any of the ecclesiastical sacraments, throwing their bodies into the fields to be devoured by dogs, birds, or wild beasts, without allowing them to have Christian burial, or that their new-born children should be baptised, which is expressly against our religion. In these transactions, the most horrid and unheard-of cruelties were committed.
'Under cover of this war, which neither was nor ought to have been ours, but his own, and personal to himself, this Burgundian caused excessive and extraordinary taxes to be raised on our people, by tallies, loans, and other means; such as seizing the treasures of churches, the deposits in our courts of parliament, Châtelet, and elsewhere, which had been there placed for the advantage of widows, and children under age, or for the purpose of completing purchases or repayment of mortgages.
'The said Burgundian also made great depreciations in our coin, by which he gained large sums of money, but to the severe loss of us, our people, and the public welfare. By these and other equally fraudulent means has he reaped very considerable profit, and for these two or three years last past has applied to his own benefit the money of our people, amounting to ten hundred thousand golden florins at the least, as has been clearly demonstrated to us by the statement of the accounts, without any part of it being employed for our service.
'This has caused a failure and total stoppage of commerce, so necessary to us and our kingdom, for some time past; consequently the revenues of our domain and taxes have been shamefully diminished, as is notorious to all.
'But not contented with this, and in the design of totally destroying our nephews aforesaid, our very dear and well beloved uncle the duke of Berry, and several others of our blood, with the intent of gaining the sole government of our kingdom to himself, the duke of Burgundy constrained us and our dearly beloved eldest son the duke of Acquitaine to oppose with force of arms our said nephews and their adherents, under colour that the war was ours—whereas it was no such thing—and obliged us to march from Paris against them, as if they had not alway been our very loyal and affectionate relatives and subjects.
'In fact, we laid siege to the city of Bourges, wherein was our uncle aforesaid; and we were detained before it for upwards of six weeks against our will, and to our very great displeasure.
'We and our son were in great personal danger, as well from the excessive heat of the season as from the attacks made on our army, insomuch that we thought it right to remove to our town of Auxerre, where we had assembled our said uncle, nephews, and other princes of our blood. There, by the grace of God and his holy aid, and by the commands of ourself and of our eldest son, certain articles of pacification were drawn up and agreed to by our said uncle, son, and nephews, with their allies, on the one part, and the duke of Burgundy and his allies on the other,—which articles both parties solemnly promised and swore before us to keep, without any way infringing them.
'Nevertheless, not long after we were returned to our town of Paris, the said duke of Burgundy, contrary to his promise on oath, came thither, intending to annul the said peace made by us, and sworn to by him, as has been before said, and caused to be drawn up certain letters in our name, which he had attached to our edict concerning the peace, by which he made us repeal and annul the greater part of what had been granted by us and our said eldest son, thus infringing the articles of the peace, namely, the restitution of estates, inheritances, honours and offices, to such as had adhered to the party of our said uncle and nephews, and to others of our blood and lineage, their allies and partisans. He has, moreover, retained, for a long space of time, against our will, and contrary to the agreements we had entered into, and his own oath, the castles of Coucy and Pierrefons, belonging to our said nephew the duke of Orleans, with many other castles, estates, and houses of several of that party, notwithstanding letters of restitution granted by us, and verified by our court of parliament. Neither the duke of Orleans nor any of his adherents could regain the possession of their lands,—for there was scarcely any one member of our court of parliament who dared to gainsay the will and enterprises of the duke of Burgundy or his accomplices, who were solely bent on having the entire management of us, of our dear companion the queen, our well beloved eldest son the duke of Acquitaine, and the whole government of the realm.
'To keep us in the greater subjection, the said Burgundian raised persons of low rank and consideration in Paris to places of trust, who, by his authority and exhortations, and being in his full confidence, undertook the government of our royal self, that of the queen, the duke of Acquitaine and the whole kingdom. These persons frequently came to our councils, and those of our court of parliament, in a violent and disorderly manner, menacing our faithful and honest counsellors in such wise that the regular course of justice was stopped; and it was impossible to prevent whatever they should ordain or desire from being agreed to, one way or other.
'In pursuing their wicked courses and damnable designs, it is a fact, that on Friday the 28th day of April last passed, when the said Burgundian, his accomplices, adherents, and people of low degree began to perceive that several of our blood and lineage, and others our officers, and those of our well beloved son, the members of the university, wealthy merchants and loyal burgesses of the town of Paris, were discontented with their mode of government, suspecting also that they intended even to drive them from their power and authority by force, and then punish them for their malversations, caused a great assembly of the populace to be holden, the most part of whom knew not for what they were thus assembled.