CHAP. LXXVIII.
THE KINGS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND GO FROM PARIS TO SENLIS.—THE SIEGE OF SAINT VALERY.—THE REDUCTION OF COMPIEGNE.—AN EMBASSY SENT TO SIR JAMES DE HARCOURT.
THE KINGS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND GO FROM PARIS TO SENLIS.—THE SIEGE OF SAINT VALERY.—THE REDUCTION OF COMPIEGNE.—AN EMBASSY SENT TO SIR JAMES DE HARCOURT.
Thetwo kings, with their queens and attendants, departed from Paris and went to Senlis, where they made some stay. As the day for the surrender of Gamaches was near at hand, the king of England sent the earl of Warwick thither with three thousand combatants; and, according to the terms of the treaty, he entered the town on the 18th of June. Having delivered back the hostages safe and well, he received the oaths of allegiance from the inhabitants, in the name of the two kings, and then appointed sir John Felton, an Englishman, governor, with a sufficient garrison of men at arms and archers.
Having finished this business, the earl of Warwick marched for St Valery, which was in the possession of the Dauphinois.When he was near the town, he sent forward the van of his army to reconnoitre the place; but the garrison made a sally, of a hundred picked men at arms well mounted, who instantly attacked the English, and a sharp conflict ensued, in which many were killed and wounded, and some prisoners taken from the English.
While this was passing, the earl hastened the march of his army to the support of the van, which forced the Dauphinois to retreat within their town. The earl marched round part of the town with his army, and quartered some of his men in the monastery, and the rest in tents and pavilions. After this, he caused his engines to play incessantly on the walls, and damaged them in many places. With regard to the frequent sallies of the garrison, I shall, for brevity sake, pass them over; but, as the town was open to the sea, from the besiegers' want of shipping to blockade the port, the garrison and inhabitants could go whither they pleased for provisions, to Crotoy or elsewhere, to the great vexation of the earl of Warwick.
The earl sent to the ports of Normandyfor vessels; and so many came that the harbour of St Valery was shut up, to the grief of the besieged, who now lost their only hope of holding out the town. In consequence, at the end of three weeks or thereabout, they made a treaty with the earl to surrender on the fourth day of September, on condition of being allowed to depart safely with their baggage, should they not be relieved before that day by the dauphin. During this time, the besieged were to abstain from making any inroads, and from foraging the county; and to deliver sufficient good hostages to the earl for the due performance of the articles of this treaty, who, after this, returned with the English to king Henry.
The king of England sent also his brother the duke of Bedford, and others of his princes, grandly accompanied, to the town of Compiègne, to receive it from the hands of the lord de Gamaches, who had promised to surrender it to the duke on the 18th day of June.
The lord de Gamaches marched from Compiègne with about twelve hundred combatants, and, under passports from theking of England, conducted them across the Seine to the dauphin. In like manner did the lord de Gamaches yield up the other forts before mentioned, according to his promises.
Thus were all the places which the Dauphinois had held between Paris and Boulogne-sur Mer subjected to the obedience of the two kings, excepting the town of Crotoy and the territory of Guise. When the duke of Bedford had received oaths of allegiance from the burghers and inhabitants of Compiègne, and nominated sir Hugh de Launoy governor thereof, he returned to his brother the king at Senlis.
At this time, ambassadors were sent by the two monarchs to sir James de Harcourt in Crotoy: they were his brother the bishop of Amiens, the bishop of Beauvais, sir Hugh de Launoy master of the cross-bows of France, with a herald from king Henry, to summon sir James to yield up the town of Crotoy to their obedience; but, notwithstanding their diligence and earnestness, they could not prevail on him to consent, nor to enter into any sort of treaty.