'Then, without any justifiable reason, they marched with displayed banners, in a warlike manner, to the hôtel of our said son, whence, against his commands and will, and to his great displeasure, they carried away our very dear and well beloved cousin the duke of Bar, with many others the especial counsellors and servants of our said son, according to a written list of names which the duke of Burgundy held in his hand, and who had them first conducted to his hôtel of Artois, and thence to different prisons.
'Not long after, on another day, these same people of low degree, by the practices of the duke of Burgundy again returned to our palace of St Pol with displayed banners, and with force and violence, contrary to our will and pleasure, as well as in disobedience to the commands of our said queen and eldest son, they seized our very dear and well beloved brother Louis duke of Bavaria, with other officers of our said son, and also certain ladies and damsels attached to and in the service of our said companion the queen, whom they arrested in her chamber, she being present, and carried to different prisons, where they were long detained in great personal danger.
'This same populace, through the connivance and encouragement of the duke of Burgundy, committed a variety of crimes and excesses, such as seizing day and night, without any judicial authority, many of our officers and other inhabitants of our said town of Paris, confining them in prisons, murdering some, and throwing the bodies of others into the river, by which means they were drowned, ransoming several for large sums of money, without any one daring to check or punish such atrocious acts.
'All this was done through the practices and support of the duke of Burgundy; by which means he has detained us, our companion the queen, and our said eldest son, in such subjection and danger that we had not liberty to do any one thing as we should have pleased; for after these arrests had taken place, he appointed others to fill their places, who were firmly attached to him and his measures. Even persons of the lowest order were raised by him to offices,—and this conduct was pursued until it pleased the Lord, by means of the activity and diligence of our very dear and well beloved cousin the king of Sicily, in conjunction with our dear nephews of Orleans, our well beloved cousins the duke of Bourbon, the counts d'Alençon, d'Eu, and others of our royal blood, many prelates, barons, knights, esquires, and several of our court of parliament and of our dear daughter the university of Paris, and capital burgesses of that town, to restore us, our dear companion the queen and son, to that liberty which we should reasonably enjoy; and the peace that had been agreed to at Auxerre was again confirmed and sworn to by the said Burgundian, and others of our blood and lineage. Nevertheless, the duke of Burgundy, prior to the expedition which our said eldest son made, by means of the populace of Paris, on the 4th day of August last past, exerted himself to the utmost to put an end to this peace, by having it published in several hôtels and other places in Paris, that if the people consented to such a peace, it would be the ruin of the town, which was notoriously false.
'Since the peace was thus renewed and confirmed, the duke of Burgundy has been much discontented; and when some of those disturbers of the peace, persons of low degree, quitted Paris under pretence of going to Burgundy, though in fact they went to Flanders, Artois, and other territories of the duke, he received them graciously, criminals as they were, with other traitors and murderers of our said brother the duke of Orleans, notwithstanding we had sent him especial ambassadors, who, among other things, required and commanded him in our name that those criminals whom he had received, and who had been convicted of treason against us, and consequently banished the realm for ever, should be delivered up that justice might be done on them. They also demanded restitution of several castles that he kept possession of, by himself or others, contrary to our pleasure, namely, the castles of Crotoy, Laon, and Chinon,—but to all these demands he has been disobedient.
'The worst part of his conduct is, that under colour of the most abominable falsehoods, he has raised as large a body of men at arms and archers as was possible, as well from his own countries of Burgundy and Savoy as from Flanders, Artois and elsewhere, which he has marched to the walls of our good town of Paris. To gain partisans, and an undisturbed march, he has sent sealed letters to several of our large towns to require aid and support, under colour that he was marching to Paris by the command of our said eldest son, to deliver us from the bondage in which, as he said, we were detained, and which is a notorious falsehood,—for we never enjoyed greater liberty than we do at this moment, and have done ever since his departure from Paris.
'It is also false that he has had any commands from us on this subject: on the contrary, we and our dear son have, by our letters patent, positively forbidden him, under pain of our displeasure, to dare to come before us with any assemblage of men at arms, which he has not only disregarded and paid no attention to, but has imprisoned one of the sergeants at arms of our court of parliament, whom we had sent with the above letters patent, solemnly to forbid his assembling any bodies of men at arms, and which he properly executed.
'Pursuing his evil designs, his conduct from bad becomes worse; and, contemning the orders of us, who are his sovereign, he marched like a rebel, in a hostile manner, toward our town or Paris, with the largest force he could collect, in direct opposition to our express commands, thus breaking the peace which he had so solemnly sworn to keep, and rendering himself unworthy of those graces and favours which had been shown him in former times. He has with him, and under his obedience, all those false traitors who on conviction of their treasons have been for ever banished the kingdom, that through their means he may be enabled to stir up sedition in our good town of Paris and elsewhere.
'He has gained possession of our town of Compiegne, although we had sent orders to the inhabitants not to suffer him to enter it with any body of men at arms, or in an hostile manner, which orders were shown to him; but he held them in contempt, and what is worse he now occupies that town, and has placed therein a garrison contrary to our commands. In like manner has he taken possession of the town of Soissons, although the inhabitants had received orders similar to those sent to Compiegne, of which the army of the duke of Burgundy was assured.
'This Burgundian has even advanced his army to St Denis, which he has seized and made his head-quarters, contrary to our will and pleasure, forming of it, as it were, a frontier to our good town of Paris; and by way of demonstrating his wickedness and infamous designs, he advanced his army with displayed banners, and in a warlike manner, to the very walls of Paris, and remained there a long time in battle-array. He even sent his scouts to the very gates, in the hope of raising a sedition among the populace, and then entering the town by force of arms, contrary to our will, and thus acting like an enemy, and being guilty of the crime of high treason toward us, many complaints of which have been and are daily made to us on this subject.