The next day, the king and queen went to the Tournelles, to see the tournaments, that had been before proclaimed. At the entrance of the lists was a triumphal arch surmounted with the shields of arms of the king and queen: below them were the emblazoned shields of the lords and princes, the tenants and defendants of the lists. The duke of Valois was the chief tenant, with his assistants,—and many gallant courses were ran with lances, to the advantage of some, and to the loss of others. In short, it was a handsome spectacle, and all in compliment to, and for the love of, queen Mary; but her popularity would not have lasted long, for although the poor people were already heavily taxed, yet the king intended, had he lived longer, to have greatly increased the taxes.
After these justs and tourneys, the king carried the queen to St Germain en Laye, where they spent some time, leading as joyous a life as he was able. He thence returned to his palace of the Tournelles at Paris, and was taken so dangerously ill that he made preparations becoming a good Christian, and rendered his soul to God on the 1st day of January, in the year 1514. His body was aromatically embalmed, and lay in state some days at the Tournelles, where every body went to see it who pleased. The usual ceremonies on such occasions were then performed, but it would be tiresome to detail them. Some days after, the body was carried to the church of Nôtre Dame, and placed in a chapel that had been purposely erected in the choir,—and a solemn service was performed by the bishop of Paris. The next day it was borne to a cross near to St Denis, where the abbot and his monks of St Denis met it, and was, by them, interred with great pomp, amidst the tears of his officers and domestics. He was buried beside his queen, Anne of Brittany. May God receive their souls! The principal mourners were the lord of Alençon, the lord of Bourbon, the lord of Vendôme, and other princes and great lords.
It is of some moment when a king or great prince dies, who may, perhaps, have caused the deaths of numbers of human creatures like themselves; for I believe that in the other world they will have enough to do, more especially respecting this circumstance, that a poor man, with six or seven small children, not worth twenty sols in the world, shall be taxed from ten to twenty sols, and when the collector shall come to receive the tax, finding the man worth nothing, and without means of raising the money, he commits him to prison, where he languishes out his days. Now I would like to have shown any written law for this injustice; but no one will attempt so to do, because every one is eager to push himself forward in this world. May God assist the poor people!
FRANCIS I. KING OF FRANCE, IS CONSECRATED AT RHEIMS.—HE MAKES HIS PUBLIC ENTRY INTO PARIS.—HE LEAVES FRANCE TO ATTACK THE SWISS, IN THE MILANESE, WHO HAVE TAKEN POSSESSION OF THAT DUCHY.
After the death of Louis XII. Francis, the first of the name, succeeded him on the throne as the fifty-seventh king of France. He set out from Paris, to be consecrated king in the cathedral of Rheims, according to the custom of his ancestors kings of France, and was there anointed with the holy oil on the 25th day of January, in the year 1514. The twelve peers of France, or their substitutes, were present exercising their functions in the usual manner on such occasions.
Madame d'Angoulême, the king's mother, was present at the ceremony, accompanied by madame de Bourbon, madame de Vendôme, and other ladies and damsels. The king went from Rheims to be crowned at St Denis, and, on his return, made triumphal public entries into Laon, Noyon, Compiègne, Senlis, and other towns. He continued his way toward Paris, very grandly attended, and made the most brilliant public entry into that city that had ever been seen. The accoutrements and trappings of the horses were of wrought silver, with frized cloth of gold; and, to sum up the whole in few words, the lords and gentlemen, with their horses, were covered with cloth of gold: some had their dresses interwrought with solid silver.
The king entered in triumph, dressed magnificently: the trappings of his horse were of worked silver, and his attendants equipped in cloth of silver brocade. He went, as usual, to the royal palace, where a sumptuous banquet had been prepared, with a numerous band of trumpets and clarions; after which, a grand tournament was held in the rue St Antoine, when the king acquitted himself most gallantly.