In the year 1458, the king of France summoned the twelve peers of his realm, secular as well as temporal, and the members of his court of parliament, to assemble in the town of Montargis on the 8th day of June, in which place he intended holding a court of justice, and for considering other matters that greatly affected the welfare of the realm. The most part of those summoned attended, and were there for two months, treating on the condemnation or acquittal of the duke of Alençon, cousin-german to the king, and one of the peers of France.
The duke of Alençon had been imprisoned for certain treasonable acts imputed to him, and of which he was said to be guilty. There were present at this meeting the count de Dunois and de Longueville, the chancellor of France, master Pierre du Reffuge,[4] general of France, and many other great lords and officers. The duke of Burgundy would not appear, although he had been summoned, and was the first of the peers. He had refused to come in consequence of an article in the treaty of Arras, by which he could not be constrained to attend any meeting but at his own free will.
The king remained at Baugency during these two months, always intending to have gone to Montargis; but fearing the epidemic distemper which raged there, and the badness of the air, he dissolved the meeting, and appointed it to assemble within fifteen days afterward at Vendôme.
On the 4th of April, in this year, died pope Calixtus,—and Pius, a native of Italy, was elected in his room.
The 15th of August, all the king's counsellors, as well laics as ecclesiastics, of his court of parliament, who had been summoned, came to Vendôme,—even the bishop of Paris and the abbot of St Denis, who had not appeared at Montargis.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] Reffuge. Q.
THE DUKE OF ALENÇON IS CONVICTED, AND CONDEMNED TO DEATH FOR HAVING INTENDED TO DELIVER UP HIS STRONG PLACES TO THE ENGLISH, THE ANCIENT ENEMIES OF FRANCE, AND TO INTRODUCE THEM INTO NORMANDY.