[42] The fact of earl Rivers having repaired to the duke of Burgundy _once_, at the end of April, is confirmed by the chronicle formed from the journals of the duke's _maistres d'hoste_: "Le 29. de ce mois (Avril) le sire de Riviers, ambassadeur du roy d'Angleterre, arriva vers ce duc, et en fut regalé." (Appendix to the edition of Commines, by the Abbé Lenglet du Fresnoy, 4to. 1747, ii. 216.) But in the previous January we read, "The King's ambassadors, sir Thomas Mountgomery and the Master of the Rolls (doctor Morton), be coming homeward from Nuys." (Paston Letters, vol. ii. p. 175.) [43] _i.e._ their horses protected by armour. [44] Hall, following this part of Commines's narrative, on mentioning this English herald, adds, "whome Argenton (meaning Commines,) untrewly calleth Garter borne in Normandy, for the rome of Gartier was never geven to no estraunger." The office of Garter was at this time occupied by John Smert, who was appointed in 28 Hen. VI. and died in 18 Edw. IV. He was the son-in-law of Bruges his predecessor in the office: and there are large materials for his biography in Anstis's Collections on the heralds, at the College of Arms, but containing no evidence either to prove Commines's assertion, or Hall's denial, of his being a native of Normandy. [45] The constable of France, Jacques de Luxembourg, comte de St. Pol. After temporising between Burgundy and France at this crisis, he paid the penalty for his vacillation, the duke surrendering him to Louis, by whom he was decapitated before the end of the year (Dec. 19, 1475). [46] Jacqueline duchess of Bedford, the mother of the queen of England, was one of the constable's sisters. The constable was also connected by marriage with king Louis, who called him "brother" from their having married two sisters. The relationship of all the principal actors in the transactions described in the text is shown in the following table:--