HENRY KING OF ENGLAND ARRIVES, WITH HIS WHOLE ARMY, AT TROYES IN CHAMPAGNE, TO CELEBRATE HIS MARRIAGE, AND TO CONCLUDE A PERPETUAL PEACE WITH THE KING OF FRANCE.
At this period, Henry king of England, accompanied by his two brothers the dukes of Clarence and of Glocester, the earls of Huntingdon, Warwick and Kyme, and many of the great lords of England, with about sixteen hundred combatants, the greater part of whom were archers, set out from Rouen and came to Pontoise, and thence to St Denis. He crossed the bridge at Charenton, and left part of his army to guard it, and thence advanced by Provins to Troyes in Champagne.
The duke of Burgundy, and several of the nobility, to shew him honour and respect, came out to meet him, and conducted him to the hôtel where he was lodged, with his princes, and his army was quartered in the adjacent villages.
Shortly after his arrival, he waited on the king and queen of France, and the lady Catherine, their daughter, when great honours and attentions were, by them, mutually paid to each other. Councils were then holden for the ratification of the peace; and whatever articles had been disagreeable to the king of England in the treaty were then corrected according to his pleasure. When all relating to the peace had been concluded, king Henry, according to the custom of France, affianced the lady Catherine.
On the morrow of Trinity-day, the king of England espoused her in the parish church near to which he was lodged; great pomp and magnificence were displayed by him and his princes, as if he were at that moment king of all the world. On the part of the king of France was present at this ceremony Philip duke of Burgundy, by whose means this treaty and alliance had been brought about. He was attended by Pierre de Luxembourg count de Conversan, sir John de Luxembourg his brother, the prince of Orange, the lord de Joinville, the lord de Chastellus, the lord de Chateau Vilain, the lord de Montagu, sir Regnier Pot, le veau de Bar bailiff of Auxois, sir James de Courtejambe, sir John de Coquebrune marshal of Burgundy and of Picardy, the lord de Croy, the lord de Longueval, sir Actis de Brimeu, sir David his brother, the lords de Roubaix, de Humbercourt bailiff of Amiens, sir Hugh de Launois, sir Gilbert his brother, with numbers of other notable knights, and some prelates and churchmen from the states of the duke. The principal of these last were master John de Torsay bishop of Tournay and chancellor of Burgundy, master Eustace de Lactre, master John de Mailly; all, or at least the greater part, joined with the duke in promising for ever to preserve inviolate the peace, the terms of which were as follow:
'Charles, by the grace of God, king of France, to all our bailiffs, provosts, seneschals, and to all the principal of our officers of justice, or to their lieutenants, greeting. Be it known, that we have this day concluded a perpetual peace, in our town of Troyes, with our very dear and well beloved son Henry king of England, heir and regent of France, in our name and in his own, in consequence of his marriage with our well beloved daughter Catherine, and by other articles in the treaty concluded between us for the welfare and good of our subjects, and for the security of the realm; so that henceforward our subjects and those of our said son may traffic and have a mutual intercourse with each other, as well on this as on the other side of the sea.
'Item, it has been agreed, that our said son, king Henry, shall henceforth honour us as his father, and our consort the queen as his mother, but shall not by any means prevent us from the peaceable enjoyment of our crown during our life.
'Item, our said son, king Henry, engages that he will not interfere with the rights and royalties of our crown so long as we may live, nor with the revenues, but that they may be applied as before to the support of our government and the charges of the state; and that our consort the queen shall enjoy her state and dignity of queen, according to the custom of the realm, with the unmolested enjoyment of the revenues and domains attached to it.
'Item, it is agreed, that our said daughter Catherine shall have such dower paid her from the revenues of England, as English queens have formerly enjoyed,—namely, sixty thousand crowns, two of which are of the value of an English noble.[5]
'Item, it is agreed, that our said son, king Henry, shall, by every means in his power, without transgressing the laws he has sworn to maintain, and the customs of England, assure to our said daughter Catherine the punctual payment of the aforesaid dower of sixty thousand crowns from the moment of his decease.