Shortly after, he dispatched other letters to Paris, to say, that he should send thither the queen of England, consort to king Henry, with her son the prince of Wales, his princess, daughter to the earl of Warwick, and her mother the countess of Warwick, the lady Wiltshire, and other ladies and damsels that were with the queen of England.
Queen Margaret came thither as the king had given notice, attended, according to his orders, by the counts d'Eu, de Vendôme, and de Dunois, the lord de Châtillon and other noblemen. When she approached Paris, the bishop, the court of parliament, the university, the provosts of Paris, and the court of Châtelet, by express orders from the king, together with the principal inhabitants, came out to meet her, handsomely dressed, and in very numerous bodies.
She made her entry by the gate of St James,—and all the streets through which she passed from that gate to the palace, where apartments had been handsomely prepared for her, were adorned with hangings of tapestry, and had tents pitched in all the squares. At this time the royal artillery was removed from Tours to the Louvre, wherein it was deposited,—and the king wrote to the provost and sheriffs, that it was his pleasure to hold the feast of his order in their city: having the intention to bring a large company of nobles and knights-companions with him, he willed that lodgings should be provided for them by the inhabitants, according to the choice of his harbingers which was complied with.
In the month of December of this year, sir Arthur de Longueval entered the town of St Quentin, in the name of the king, with the consent of the inhabitants. Afterward, on the 10th day of that month, the constable came thither with two hundred lances and archers; and on the 14th, master John Ladriesche, treasurer of France, master Robert Fessier, master Pierre de Boieuval, and other officers attached to the constable, made a proclamation by sound of trumpet, at the table of marble, in the palace at Paris, to make known the capture of the town of St Quentin, in the Vermandois, by the lord constable, and ordering the public to return thanks to God, praying him to grant prosperity to the king and to the constable, in the recovery of the other pledged towns, which he intended to wrest from the hands of Charles, styling himself duke of Burgundy: such were the words of the proclamation.
The king left Amboise, in the month of January, for Clery and Orleans, and thence went into Beauce. He lay the first night at Puiset[35], and on the morrow at Palaiseau, near Montlehery. The next day, he dined at Seaux, at the house of master John Baillet, master in ordinary of requests of the king's household, and that evening came to his hôtel of the Tournelles at Paris. He was accompanied by the queen, madam de Bourbon, and other ladies and damsels, their attendants, and remained in Paris until the 26th of January, when he set out for Senlis, Compiégne, and other places thereabout, where his army was quartered, in readiness to march against the duke of Burgundy. His artillery was sent after him, by land and water, to Compiégne, Noyon, and other parts of Picardy and Flanders. Proclamation was also made in Paris, that all franc-archers and nobles, in the Isle of France, should make themselves ready, and, properly equipped, to follow the king to the army. In the mean time, great quantities of powder and cannons were made and constructed at Paris.
Before the king joined his army, he sent sir Christopher Paillard, member of the chamber of accounts, and sir James Hesselin, comptroller of the salt magazines at Paris, to the town of Auxerre, to summon the inhabitants to surrender the place to the king, and admit a garrison from him. These commissioners made them an eloquent harangue; but they required time for consulting among themselves, and until the Thursday following to give their answer. To wait their answer, the commissioners went to the town of Joigny, six leagues distant, where they staid until the Thursday, when the townsmen sent them their answer by an inhabitant of Auxerre, said to be a cobbler, who told them, that the inhabitants of Auxerre had garrisoned their town with a steady garrison for the duke of Burgundy, as they were resolved to live and die in his service, and to defend their town for him. The day the duke's garrison was admitted, one of the townsmen, called Guillemin Goutier was killed,—which was a pity, for he suffered from supporting the cause of the king.
On the king's departure from Paris for Senlis, the towns of Amiens, Roye and Mondidier, surrendered to his obedience. The 4th of February, general processions were made at Paris, at which the queen, madame de Bourbon, and the court assisted, to the cathedral church of Nôtre Dame, and thence to our Lady of Recovery at the Carmelites. At both places prayers were offered up for the prosperity of the king and queen.
It was now published, that the three before-mentioned towns had submitted to the king's obedience, to which Abbeville was added,—but this was groundless. Masons, carpenters, and various other workmen, were now collected at Paris, and sent to the towns that had surrendered, under the care of master Henry de la Cloche, king's attorney at the Châtelet, a good and loyal Frenchman, who conducted them to Roye, where they erected strong outworks and bulwarks, as well as at the other towns. These workmen remained in those parts a considerable time, even unto Easter, when the king agreed to a truce with the duke of Burgundy. The duke had been besieged in his encampment between Bapaumes and Amiens, and was in such misery and distress for provision that, had it not been for the truce, the king might have had his whole army at his pleasure.
Since the commencement of this war, the king had been very successful in his different engagements with the Picards and Flemings, as well against the foraging party from the enemy's camp as against others of the burgundian party. Great damages had been done in the duchy of Burgundy, the county of Charolois, and in the Mâconnois, where the royal partisans gained much plunder, made many good prisoners, and slew numbers. The lords count-dauphin of Auvergne, of Comminges, of Combrodes, of Charente, sir William Cousinot, and several others of the nobility, would have conquered the whole country had not the king sent to stop them on account of the truce, which was very displeasing to them as well as to many more who had a regard for the king's honour. On this occasion several libels were written and placed in the churchyard of the holy Innocents at Paris and on the town-house, greatly blaming and abusing many of the lords about the king's person.
During the truce, the king, the duke of Guienne, and others of the nobility fixed their quarters at Ham with the constable, whence there were great goings and comings between the ambassadors of the king and those from the duke of Burgundy. Nothing, for a long time, was concluded on; but at length, a truce for one year was signed,—during which, commissioners were to be appointed on each side, to examine into the matters in dispute between the king and the duke, and between their partisans. The king now left Ham, and every person retired to his home, but the royal army was quartered in the towns he had won prior to the truce.