In 1398 things did not improve. The King had fewer lucid intervals, during one of which, however, he went to Reims and entertained with lavish hospitality the Emperor Wenceslas. The two monks were still at the Bastille occupied with their necromancy, but as it had no effect upon the King, who had more attacks than ever this year, the terror they inspired began to diminish, while the horror excited by their supposed dealings with the powers of darkness remained. Seeing the danger of their position they tried to propitiate the Duke of Burgundy by laying the blame of their failure on the Duc d’Orléans, saying that the diabolic arts he employed against the King were too strong for them to counteract. But by this outrageous accusation against the King’s brother, they had gone too far. The Duc d’Orléans complained, the monks were arrested and given over to the clergy, who delivered them to the provost of Paris, and they were soon afterwards beheaded.
{1398}
In August another son was born to the King and Queen and named Jean.[171]
In October died Queen Blanche de Navarre, alike beloved and honoured by the royal family, the court, and the people. The adventures of her brilliant youth when she shared the throne of Philippe de Valois, or the fortunes of her brothers, the gallant Princes of Navarre, have been related in a former volume. She had always been rich and powerful, but never through oppressing her subjects or vassals, so that they loved and venerated her as a mother. She was the providence of the poor and suffering, and a good friend to the religious houses. With every earthly gift and advantage, brilliant beauty, an irresistible fascination, distinguished talents, high rank and great riches, living in the midst of the most dissipated court in Europe, no taint of dishonour ever sullied her name; she seemed, in the midst of all the cruelty, violence, and corruption with which she was surrounded, like a bright star in a dark and stormy sky. For fifty years she had been Queen-dowager, and she had been present certainly at the marriage of the eldest, and almost certainly at the marriage of the second, and the consecration of the third of the great-great-granddaughters of her husband. Her dowry reverted to the crown, her personal property, which was large, she divided between her favourite nephew, Pierre de Navarre, and certain charities. But as to the relic she left to the Carmelite Church, the worthy monk of St. Denis earnestly declares that she “was deceived by vain and lying tongues of those who brought it from Constantinople, for the only true and undoubted nail which pierced our Lord belongs to St. Denis and nowhere else, as is proved by the history of Charlemagne and by continued miracles which for five hundred years have been done by contact of that relic.”[172]
The officers of her household went to ask the Dukes of Burgundy, Berry, and Orléans whether, not having been crowned Queen, her funeral was to be at St. Denis with royal pomp. To which (the King being probably ill then) they replied at once that it was undoubtedly to be so, and it was attended by all the royal family and court.[173]
The health of the King gradually grew worse. The attacks came oftener and lasted longer. But whenever they subsided, as they often did quite suddenly, he became sane again, resumed the government, went out hunting and hawking, and took part in everything, whether amusement or business, as usual. During his intervals of insanity, the Queen ought of course to have been a most important part of the government, but she cared nothing about that or any rational thing; what interested her were only the dissipations of the court, her dress, the sums of money and treasure she could collect, eating and drinking, and the constant society of Louis d’Orléans. The only praiseworthy or harmless tastes she had were a sort of natural affection for her children and a fondness for animals of which she had a good many for pets. She was also fond of music. Amongst the accounts of the period we find sums paid to the “varlet de chambre” of Madame Michelle de France for having, during her absence at Poissy (probably to attend the consecration of her little sister) mended her gold cup which the monkey had broken; to Guillaume Juvel “varlet de chambre de la royne,” for money lent the Queen to give a poor man who had given her a goldfinch that would eat out of her hand; also for a milch cow for Monseigneur Jehan de France and for a tent for him with tapestries with histories on them; for the harpist of the Queen and the minstrels of the Dauphin; and for a large box of wood and iron with holes in it to burn a candle by night in the room of Madame Jehanne de France. Among the same accounts come splendid clothes for the Queen’s relevailles on getting up after her confinement; baths of oak; sums for putting iron on two large cupboards in the Queen’s stables at St. Paul to keep the harness of pearls and embroidery of her horses; for two pair of wheels for her “char”; for mending some tapestries bearing the histories of nine heroes, that is to say, Joshua, David, Judas Maccabeus, Hector, Alexander, Cæsar, Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godefroi de Bouillon; histories of the seven deadly sins, of the seven ages of man; of Godefroi de Bouillon, of the Dukes of Aquitaine; and the history of stags.
{1399}
And for making a chair of red Cordova leather fringed with silk, gilt nails, and two gold chains, decorated and painted with choice colours.
Isabeau had much more idea of comfort than had hitherto been usual even in the palaces of the Kings of France. Mingled with the splendour that had been more or less customary for some generations we see various attempts at convenience not yet introduced. She is said to have been the first to use a “suspended carriage,” and those she had were luxurious and commodious to a degree never seen before, and drawn by very swift horses. She had one chariot on purpose for thunderstorms, “pour le tonnerre,” but in what the safety of it consisted is not stated.[174]
She had calorifères like little iron chariots filled with red-hot ashes wheeled about the cold galleries of the palaces, and hollow balls of gold and silver full of red-hot cinders to hold in the hand as chaufferettes. In hot weather she caused herself to be fanned by huge fans to keep her cool and drive away the flies; her rooms were hung with costly tapestry and stuffs which were taken down and went with her from one palace to another. She had one room entirely hung with white satin, another with green satin, and her plate was almost always of gold. She used an Eastern talisman against poison, fastened with a silver gilt chain to her goblet and salt-cellar, and an officer of her household tried every dish before she tasted it. She had a cupboard painted and decorated by a skilful artist, in which she kept her relics and perfumes. For the latter she had a mania. She always kept damask rose water about her, and used also a great quantity of what were called “oiselets de Chypre.” These were little bottles something the shape of birds, filled with different Oriental perfumes. She and her ladies were constantly eating all sorts of sweetmeats, of which there seem to have been innumerable kinds.[175]