CHAP. XLVIII.
COMMISSIONERS ARRIVE AT PARIS FROM DIFFERENT TOWNS IN THE KINGDOM OF FRANCE.—THE TWO KINGS HOLD THERE A COUNCIL OF THE THREE ESTATES.—OTHER MATTERS.
COMMISSIONERS ARRIVE AT PARIS FROM DIFFERENT TOWNS IN THE KINGDOM OF FRANCE.—THE TWO KINGS HOLD THERE A COUNCIL OF THE THREE ESTATES.—OTHER MATTERS.
Atthis time, deputies arrived at Paris from the three estates of the principal towns within the realm, according to the orders before given. Many councils were held in their presence and absence, concerning the public welfare, at which the gabelles, and other taxes, were renewed, with the exception of those on grain.
At the feast of the Nativity, the two kings, with their queens and households, kept open court in Paris,—the king of France, at the hôtel de St Pol, and the king of England at the Louvre; but their state was very different, for the king of France was poorly and meanly served, compared with the pomp with which he used to keep open court in former times, and attended only on that day by some old servantsand persons of low degree, which must have been very disgusting to all true and loyal Frenchmen, thus to see by the chance of war this noble kingdom in the possession and under the government of its ancient enemies, to whose dominion they were forced to bend themselves.
With regard to the state of the king and queen of England on that day, it is impossible to detail its magnificence, or that of the princes who attended them. The french nobility came from all parts to do them honour, with the utmost humility; and from that day king Henry took on himself the whole government of the kingdom, appointing officers at his pleasure, and dismissing those whom the king and the late duke of Burgundy had given appointments.
He nominated the earl of Kyme, of the name of Umphraville, to the government of Melun, with a sufficient garrison of men at arms and archers. The earl of Huntingdon, his cousin-german, was made captain of Vincennes; and the duke of Exeter was ordered to remain with king Charles in Paris, with five hundred combatants.
After these appointments had been made, and the feasts concluded, king Henry set out from Paris with his queen, the dukes of Clarence, of Bedford, and others of his great barons, for the town of Rouen, where he remained a considerable time before he returned to England, and held many councils respecting the future government of the kingdom of France.
Duke Philip of Burgundy departed also from Paris, and went to attend at Beauvais the feast of enthroning master Pierre Cauchon, doctor of divinity, the new bishop of that place, who was strongly attached to the burgundian party.
When the feasts were over, the duke set out for Lille, passing through Amiens and Dourlens, and from Lille to Ghent, where his duchess resided, with whom he staid about three weeks.
The red duke of Bavaria, who, as you have heard, had come to serve his brother-in-law, king Henry, with five hundred combatants, returned in haste through Cambray to his own country; for he had received intelligence that the Bohemians, led on and encouraged by an heretical priest of thatcountry, were risen in rebellion, not only against the catholic faith, but against the emperor of Germany, and the monarchs of Hungary and Bohemia, and were waging a murderous war on all their subjects.