It was also reported, that the king's anger arose from the death of the fair Agnes being caused by poison, of which the dauphin was suspected, as he had frequently blamed and murmured against his father for his attachment to her. In truth, Agnes Sorel was the handsomest woman of her age, and in more favour with the king than the queen: the great lords also paid more court to her than to the queen, who was a very good and honourable lady, which had vexed the dauphin much,—and he had hastened her death.
However, after the decease of the fair Agnes, the damsel de Villequier, her niece, succeeded her in the affections of the king, who, in his latter days, would have about him the finest and handsomest women of his realm.
Whatever may have been the real cause of the quarrel between the king and the dauphin, the king ordered sir Anthony de Chabannes count de Dammartin, to proceed into Dauphiny with a sufficient body of men at arms to arrest the dauphin and bring him to his presence by force or otherwise; but the dauphin fortunately escaped,—for it was then commonly believed that, had he been arrested, the king would have treated him very harshly, and would have made king his younger son Charles.
The dauphin having had intimation of the orders to arrest him, gave public notice for a hunting party on the morrow, and ordered his dinner to be prepared at the place of rendezvous. Intelligence of this was carried to the count de Dammartin, who posted ambushes to seize the dauphin the moment he should arrive at the place; but, as he suspected their machinations, early on the morrow, when it was thought he was gone to the hunt he with six of his most confidential attendants, mounted their fleetest horses, and set off, as fast as they could travel, for Burgundy, and never stopped until they arrived at St Claude, a town in Burgundy. It was well for them that they made this haste, or they would have been overtaken by the count de Dammartin, who followed very closely at their heels.
Shortly after the dauphin's arrival at St Claude, he went to the prince of Orange at Nasere[232], who received him most honourably: and on hearing him declare that he feared he should be pursued, and that he was desirous of going to the duke of Burgundy, the prince sent off in haste for the marshal of Burgundy, who came to him with a handsome escort of men at arms,—and they instantly departed for Brabant.
This conduct was truly extraordinary,—for the prince of Orange and the duke of Burgundy were the two men in the world whom the dauphin hated the most, for having several times repulsed, with loss, his own and the king's men, whenever they made any excursions on the duke's territories, which he was determined to preserve from inroads; but necessity, which owns no law, forced him to seek an asylum among those he hated, and to make use of them in his time of need.
The marshal of Burgundy conducted him with such prudence through the territories of the duke of Burgundy that he arrived safely at Louvain, whence he went to Brussels, and thence he sent one of his attendants with information to the duke, at that time in Holland, of his arrival. The good duke, anxious to receive and entertain him as the eldest son of his sovereign lord, hastened as much as possible the treaty of Deventer, that he might return to Brabant.
Immediately on his arrival at Brussels, he went to the dauphin, and paid him every respect in honour to the king, and to himself personally,—and no prince knew better how to do these honours. He instantly assigned him three thousand francs monthly to maintain his estate, and begged of him to make choice of what place he should please for his residence, and he would give orders for its being immediately delivered up to him. The dauphin asked for Geneppe[233], a castle in Brabant, pleasantly situated, and a handsome residence, where he lived for a long time.
In the course of this year, sir Thibault de Luxembourg, lord of Fiennes, brother to the count of St Pol, and widower of the daughter of the lord of Antoing, by whom he had several children, became a monk of the order of Cistercians, notwithstanding that in his youth he had been a very free liver.
Toward the end of October, soon after the arrival of the dauphin in Brabant, the duke of Burgundy sent a handsome embassy to the king of France, the chief of which was the lord de Chimay high bailiff of Hainault, to satisfy him as to his son's coming to his territories, and to say that he would show him every possible honour in his power. The ambassadors waited long for an audience; and while they were thus delayed, the king of France sent a body of men at arms to Compiègne and Soissons, two towns on the frontiers of the duke of Burgundy's possessions. The duke, hearing of this, suspected that the king intended to make war on him, as indeed did many others, and issued a summons throughout Picardy, Flanders, and Hainault, for all men capable of bearing arms to be ready in his defence in case the king should attack him.