CHAP. XXII.
THE DUKE OF MILAN IS MURDERED.—THE TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF THE BURGUNDIAN ARMY, AND DEATH OF THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY, BY THE VICTORIOUS DUKE OF LORRAINE, BEFORE NANCY.—THE REDUCTION OF THE COUNTRIES AND TOWNS THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY HAD USURPED FROM FRANCE, SUCH AS ARRAS, HESDIN, &C.—SEVERAL BEHEADED IN ARRAS, CAMBRAY, AND IN OTHER TOWNS.
In the month of December, and during the feasts of Christmas, the duke of Milan[68] was unfortunately assassinated by a gentleman of that country. He had accosted him in the great church of Milan, under pretence of speaking with him, while he was walking there with a foreign ambassador, and had thrust his knife through the slashes of his robe, three or four times, into his lower belly—so that he fell down instantly dead, without saying a word. The cause of this action was, that the gentleman, his relatives and friends had employed all their money to purchase a vacant abbey for one of their kindred,—and the duke had deprived him of it, to bestow it on another, and would not suffer their relative by any means to enjoy it. The gentleman, having made many fruitless requests to the duke on this business, determined to put him to death, which he did as above related.
Had this gentleman failed, he had a companion bent on the same business, who would have killed the duke of Milan, because he had detained his wife as a mistress against her inclinations. By the judges and nobles of Milan, it was resolved that the whole of the families of these two persons, males and females, should be put to death, wherever they should be found,—their habitations demolished, and razed to the ground,—all their possessions destroyed,—and even their trees bearing fruit should be pulled up by their roots; and this sentence was carried into execution!
In the month of December, the lady Agnes of Bourbon departed this life, at the castle of Moulins, in the Bourbonnois. She was the widow of the late prince Charles duke of Bourbon and of Auvergne, by whom he had a noble issue, as well males as females,—namely, the present noble prince John duke of Bourbonnois and Auvergne, who married the most excellent princess Jeanne of France, eldest daughter to the late king Charles of France; Louis lord of Beaujeu, who died young; Charles archbishop of Lyon, primate of France and cardinal of Bourbon; Pierre lord of Beaujeu, married to the eldest daughter of the present king of France; the prince bishop of Liege; the lord James who died at Bruges; the lady Jeanne, married to the prince of Orange lord of Arlay; the lady Margaret, married to Philip of Savoy lord of Bresse[69]. The defunct lady had long lived a holy life, and her loss was much regretted and bewailed by her children, family and friends, and by all the inhabitants of the Bourbonnois and Auvergne,—and may her soul be blessed! Her remains were interred in the church of Souvigny.
The duke of Burgundy, as before related, had marched to besiege the town of Nancy, and had reduced it to such distress, by famine, that negotiations were opened for its capitulation. But on the eve of Epiphany, the duke of Lorraine arrived with twelve or fourteen thousand Swiss and Germans to raise the siege, combat the Burgundians, and secure Nancy.
Four days before his arrival, which was on the 5th of January, the count of Campo Basso, the lord Ange, and the lord de Montfort, quitted the duke of Burgundy, and abandoned his camp,—and, prior to the battle, the count of Campo Basso carried away with him full nine score men at arms. On the Saturday following, the other two captains, before named, took with them six score men at arms, who were all resolved to turn to the french party,—but this was kept secret on account of the existing truce; and it was ordered, by those to whom they had addressed themselves, that, for the present, they should march into Lorraine. This was done, with the exception of a party which remained for the guard of Condé[70], on the Moselle, through which place all the provisions for the Burgundian army passed, from the vale of Metz and the country of Luxembourg.
The count of Campo Basso[71] joined the duke of Lorraine, and informed him minutely of the exact state of the burgundian force. On this day, the 4th of January, the duke of Lorraine arrived at St Nicholas de Varangeville with his reinforcement of Swiss, who amounted, from an account taken, to ten thousand five hundred. Of Germans, there were also many, beside Lorrainers and other fighting men.
On Sunday, the 5th, the duke of Lorraine dislodged, about eight in the morning, and marched the Swiss to Neuville, and beyond a pond, when they formed their army in array. The Swiss were formed in two divisions; the one commanded by the count d'Abstain and the governors of Fribourg and Zurich,—the other, by the governors of Berne and Lucerne. About midday, the whole began to advance,—one division along the river side, and the other on the great road leading from Neuville to Nancy.
The duke of Burgundy had already drawn up his army in battle-array without his camp, having in front a rivulet that was by the hospital called La Magonne, between two strong hedges, and between him and the Swiss. On the great road by which the other division of the Swiss was advancing, he had posted the main body of his artillery. Thus, as the two divisions of the Swiss were advancing, the Burgundians fired on them when within cross-bowshot, and did them some mischief; but that division which had taken the main road, wheeling through a small wood, fell on the duke of Burgundy's flank.