THE KING OF ENGLAND DISEMBARKS WITH HIS WHOLE ARMY AT CALAIS.—THE FRENCH ARE DEFEATED BY THE SWISS, AT NOVARA.
When the king of England had completed his preparations, he put to sea with his army, disembarked at Calais, and thence, with part of it, marched strait for Flanders. Had he then been attacked, the perplexities that ensued afterwards would have been avoided.
At the same time, the king of France had collected an army for the recovery of the Milanese, under the command of the lord de la Trimouille, Jean Jacques de Trivulce, sir Robert de la Marche, the lord of Albany and others,—but the lord de la Trimouille was commander in chief.
This army crossed the Alps, and entered Piedmont, where it halted for the arrival of the rear and baggage, and then pushed forward toward Novara, in which place was a body of Swiss. The French, supposing them not very numerous, determined to attack them, which they did; but the evening before, a very large reinforcement of Swiss had joined their countrymen in Novara, which the French were ignorant of. A battle, however, ensued, when the French defeated the van of the enemy; but such numbers of Swiss now poured in on all sides, the French were thunderstruck, and hastily retreated to Turin: some, however, of their infantry, stood their ground, and died valiantly,—and the son of the lord de la Marche shone pre-eminent for his valour.
The Swiss gained a considerable park of artillery, which the lord de la Marche had brought thither, and great part of the baggage. The king of France, on hearing of this event, ordered the remainder of the army home, and sent part of it into Guienne, where the illustrious lord of Bourbon had the command of an army, with many nobles and able captains under him, to carry on the war in Navarre. He had there a fine camp, and a variety of skirmishes took place on both sides.
The king afterwards sent the next heir to the crown, the duke of Valois and count of Angoulême, accompanied by numbers of gentlemen, to take the command of this army and camp, where they remained a long time,—but nothing of importance was done, and they returned to France. The king then sent them into Picardy to oppose the English, who were advancing toward Therouenne. The lord de Longueville died immediately on his return from Guienne.
In this year, there was an appearance in the heavens, visible in Piedmont, of three suns, three moons, with various figures of circles and bows, of different colours, and a white cross in the center. These were terrible presages,—and I believe that it was a year of wonders.
About this time, the king sent the lord de la Trimouille into Swisserland; but the cantons would not agree to any conference until they should receive a certain sum of money, which was paid them. The conferences now took place; and the lord de la Trimouille staid long among them, giving great gifts, in hopes to gain them over to the interests of France; but after they had received large sums of money, they dismissed him. He returned through Burgundy, to have some of the towns of that province put into a good state of defence, to resist the Swiss, who had determined to attack them.