The duke of Guienne, having taken leave of the king and court departed for La Rochelle and St Jean d'Angeli to hold his estates, to appoint officers for his duchy, and to regulate the government thereof.
When the king was returned again to Amboise, he sent ambassadors to the duke of Brittany with the collar of an order[28] which he had lately instituted, that he might wear it, and swear to the observance of its laws as a knight-companion, as other princes and barons of the realm had done. But although the king did him this honour, at first he refused to accept or wear it,—owing, as was said, to his having accepted the order of the Golden Fleece, and thus becoming the brother and ally to the duke of Burgundy, which much offended the king, and not without reason[29].
Shortly after, the king issued orders for an army of men at arms, archers and artillery, to be ready to march and make war on the duke of Brittany; but ten days were first allowed the duke, to declare his future intentions, as to his conduct toward the king,—and the 15th of February was the day on which he was to give his positive answer.
On the 14th of that month, a summons from the king, signed 'William de Cerisay,' was published in Paris, by which the king informed the provost, that from certain intelligence he had learnt how king Edward of England had established a peace with all the lords and others who had opposed his government,—and that it had been unanimously resolved in parliament to invade different parts of the French coast, to destroy and conquer the country as they had formerly done: that the king, in consequence, was determined to oppose them by every means in his power, and had ordered his ban and rear ban to be assembled.
He commanded the provost, by these presents, to constrain vigorously, without admittance of excuse, all nobles and others, vassals of the crown, privileged or not, to appear in arms, and sufficiently equipped, on the first day of March next, on pain of corporal punishment and confiscation of effects. He likewise forbade the provost and all others to receive any excuses, under penalty of losing their offices, with confiscation of effects, any appeals to the contrary notwithstanding. He also declared all such as should fail to make their appearance in arms on the appointed day enemies to his crown, and that their effects should be confiscated, without hopes of pardon.
News was this day brought to Paris, that the duke of Burgundy had been seen, at Ghent, wearing the blue garter[30] on one of his legs, and the red cross on his mantle, the badge of king Edward, which plainly demonstrated his friendship to the English, and that he was a capital enemy to the king of France. The duke, however, sent ambassadors to the king at Tours, who waited there a long time before they were dismissed.—At this time, the viscount of Villars[31], in Poitou, departed this life: he had, while living, left his fortune to the king of France, to be enjoyed by him immediately on his decease. The king, therefore, went into Poitou, to receive possession of Villars and the other property, and on this account remained there the whole month of April.
In this month master Pierre Durand, nephew to the cardinal Balue, who had been long confined in the castle of Mailly, escaped from prison, and went to Paris, where he was discovered by an apothecary called Chambatin. He was again arrested, and confined in the prison of the Conciergerie of the palais-royal, wherein he remained until the 20th day of April, in the ensuing year, and was then delivered into the hands of the sergeants of the provost of the marshals, to be carried whither they had been ordered.
FOOTNOTES:
[27] Montbason,—a town of Touraine, on the Indre, five leagues from Tours.
[28] An order. The order of St Michael.