[4] A description of the taking of Pont de l'Arche will be found in the _Histoire du roy Charles VII._, by Alain Chartier. He states that from a hundred to six score Englishmen were there either killed or taken prisoners: "Entre les autres y fut prins le sire de Faucquembergue, qui d'aventure y estoit venu la nuict." This was William Neville, lord Fauconberg, a younger son of the first earl of Westmerland, and uncle to the King-making earl of Warwick. Dugdale describes his imprisonment on the authority of letters patent (30 Hen. VI. p. 1, m. 24) whereby he was granted some compensation: "Being sent ambassador into Normandy, to treat of peace and truce betwixt both realms, he was most perfidiously seized upon by the French, and kept prisoner: in respect of which sufferings he had in 30 Hen. VI. an assignation of 4108l. 18s. 10¼d. then in arrears to him for his pay whilst he was governor of Roxburgh, to be received out of the customs of wool, cloths, skins, lead, and other commodities, arising in the ports of Boston, Kingston upon Hull, and Ipswich." In 32 Hen. VI. (1453-4) he was still prisoner in France. (Baronage of England, i. 308, 309.) [5] Fougères was a strongly fortified town, and was considered one of the keys of Bretagne. It was taken by surprise, in the night of the 23-24 of March 1448, by François de Surienne, on the part of the English: an event which was followed by very important results, for Charles VII. made it an excuse for resuming hostilities in order to protect the duke of Bretagne as his vassal and ally: the Constable of France Artur de Richemont, who was the duke's uncle, (but who had been opposed to the arrest of his nephew Giles,) recovered the captured town; the duke invaded Lower Normandy, whilst the king of France entered the upper province, and by a rapid series of successes they within fifteen months drove the English out of the country. [6] Honoré Bonnet was prior of Salon in Provence, as is shown by his own dedication of the book to Charles VI. written during the sovereignty of Louis II. of Anjou in Provence, that is, from 1384 to 1390. In some of the early editions of the book the author's name was altered to Bonnor: its title is "Larbre des batailles. Sensuyt larbre des batailles qui traicte de plusieurs choses comme de leglise. Et aussi des faictz de la guerre. Et aussi c[=o]ment on se doyt gouuerner. Paris, 1493." folio. Also Paris, 1505, 4to. Among the Royal collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (20 C. VIII.) is a magnificent copy in large folio, and another, in quarto, has been recently purchased (Addit. MS. 22,768.) Respecting others at Paris see the work of M. Paulin Paris on "Les Manuscrits Français de la Bibliothèque du Roi," vol. v. pp. 101, 307. On the fly-leaf of the Royal MS. is the following inscription in an old hand, the writer of which avowedly followed the note at p. 54 of the present volume: _L'Arbre des Battailles compose par Honore Bonet Prieur de Sallon en Prouuence._