The chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet, Vol. 01 [of 13] : $b containing an account of the cruel civil wars between the houses of Orleans and Burgundy, of the possession of Paris and Normandy by the English, their expulsion thence, and of other memorable events that happened in the kingdom of France, as well as in other countriesMonstrelet, Enguerrand de
History
The chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet, Vol. 01 [of 13] : $b containing an account of the cruel civil wars between the houses of Orleans and Burgundy, of the possession of Paris and Normandy by the English, their expulsion thence, and of other memorable events that happened in the kingdom of France, as well as in other countries
Monstrelet, Enguerrand de
Europe -- History -- 476-1492 -- Sources; France -- History -- House of Valois, 1328-1589; Hundred Years' War, 1339-1453
It was talked of differently according to the bias of each party. Those
of Orleans were much angered, and declared, that the king ought to
assemble all his forces to subdue the duke of Burgundy, and punish him
as his conduct deserved. While others, attached to the Burgundy-party,
held a contrary opinion, thinking the duke had done a praise-worthy act
toward the king and his family; and this was the opinion of the greater
part of the Parisians, by whom the duke of Burgundy was much beloved.
The cause of his popularity in Paris were the hopes they entertained,
that through his means the heavy taxes with which they and all France
were oppressed would be taken off,—which the duke of Orleans, when
alive, had been so instrumental in imposing, because he had had a great
share in them.
The duke of Burgundy went shortly after to Flanders, and summoned a
great number of his nobles, gentry and men at arms, to prepare
themselves to accompany him to Paris,—notwithstanding the king of Sicily
and the duke of Berry had forbidden him, in the king’s name, to come
thither until further orders. He did not, however, pay any attention to
this command, but advanced, by short journeys to St Denis, whither the
king of Sicily, and the dukes of Berry and Brittany, and several of the
king’s council, came to visit him,—and again forbade him, in the king’s
name, to enter Paris, if accompanied by more than two hundred men.
The duke of Burgundy, on this, quitted St Denis, in company with his
brother the count de Nevers, his brother-in-law the count de Cleves, and
the duke of Lorraine, with a very large body of men well armed, and
entered Paris, with the intent of justifying his act and his quarrel
with the late duke of Orleans, as well before the king as before all who
might think proper to demand it of him.
The Parisians shewed great joy on his entering the town; and even little
children sung carols in all the squares, which much displeased the king,
the queen, and the princes then in Paris. He dismounted at his hôtel
d’Artois, and was, in truth, greatly beloved by the common people; for
they believed he was much attached to the good of the kingdom, and to
the general weal. This made him more popular than the other princes of
the blood,—and the people freshly remembered the heavy taxes that had
been laid on them since the death of the late duke Philip of Burgundy,
and principally, as they thought, by means of the duke of Orleans, who
was exceedingly unpopular with them; and they considered his death, and
the being delivered from his government, as a peculiar mark of God’s
grace, not foreseeing what was afterward to befal them and the whole
kingdom of France.
When the duke of Burgundy had been some days in Paris, and had learnt
from his friends and partisans how he was to conduct himself, he found
means to obtain an audience of the king, when the princes, clergy and
people should be present, to hear his justification of the murder of the
late duke of Orleans.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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