The king had also vowed to make a pilgrimage to St Claude[100], which he undertook, but went first to make his offerings to our Lady of Clery, and thence departed for St Claude. For the security of his person, he was escorted by eight hundred lances, and a large force of infantry, amounting, in all, to six thousand combatants. Before he set out from Touraine, he went to Amboise to see his son the dauphin, whom he had but little noticed, gave him his blessing, and put him under the care of the lord de Beaujeu, whom he made lieutenant-general of the kingdom during his absence. The king declared to the dauphin that he must obey the lord de Beaujeu in whatever he should order him, the same as if he himself were present and gave the orders.
Corn was exceedingly dear this year throughout France, more especially in the Lyonnois, Bourbonnois, and in Auvergne, insomuch that great numbers of people died of famine; and had it not been for the profuse alms and succours from such as had corn, the mortality would have been more than doubled. Crowds of poor people left the above-named provinces, and came to Paris and other great towns. They were lodged in the barn and convent of St Catherine-du-Val-des-ėcoliers, whither the good citizens of both sexes came from Paris to relieve and nurse them. They were at length carried to the great hospital, where the most part of them died; for when they attempted to eat they could not, having fasted so long that their stomachs were ruined.
FOOTNOTES:
[99] John Doyac—was governor of the province of Auvergne.
[100] St Claude,—in Franche Comté, six leagues from Geneva.
[A.D. 1482.]
CHAP. XXXI.
THE DEATHS OF THE LADY JANE OF FRANCE, DUCHESS OF BOURBON, AND OF THE COUNTESS OF FLANDERS,—AND ALSO OF SEVERAL PERSONS AT PARIS.—EVENTS THAT HAPPENED THERE.—THE KING RETURNS FROM HIS PILGRIMAGE TO ST CLAUDE, TO NÔTRE DAME OF CLERY, AND TO OTHER PLACES.—AMBASSADORS ARRIVE FROM FLANDERS.—OF THE CAPTURE OF THE TOWN OF AIRE.—OF THE ASSASSINATION OF THE LORD LOUIS OF BOURBON, BISHOP OF LIEGE.—OTHER EVENTS THAT HAPPENED IN THE COURSE OF THE ABOVE YEAR.
On Thursday the 4th of May, between four and five in the afternoon, that noble example of good morals and virtue, the lady Jane of France, wife to John duke of the Bourbonnois and Auvergne, departed this life, in her castle of Moulins in the Bourbonnois, in consequence of a fever which the art of medicine could not subdue. She was buried in the church of our Lady at that town, and was greatly lamented by her lord, her servants, and indeed by all in France who were any way acquainted with her virtues and the many excellent qualities she was endowed with.
Some little time prior to this event died the countess of Flanders and of Artois, sole child to the late Charles duke of Burgundy, wife to the duke of Austria, and niece to the duke of Bourbon. She left issue two children, a son and a daughter, who remained at Ghent under the guardianship of the Flemings.