The king again issued his summons to the different bailiwicks and seneschalships in the realm, for all persons to arm without delay who were bounden so to do from the tenure of their fiefs or arriere fiefs, and to march instantly to Paris to serve the king against the dukes of Orleans, Berry, Bourbon, the counts d’Armagnac, d’Alençon, and others their allies, who, notwithstanding the king’s positive orders to the contrary, continued daily to assemble large bodies of men at arms, to the destruction of his country and subjects. The above dukes wrote letters to the king, to the university of Paris, and to many of the principal towns, to explain the causes why they had thus confederated and collected men at arms; one of which, signed with their signs-manuel, they sent to the town of Amiens, and the contents were as follows: ‘To our well-beloved and very dear citizens, burgesses, and inhabitants of the town of Amiens, health and affection. We have written to our most redoubted and sovereign lord the king of France in manner following:--We dukes of Berry, of Orleans, and of Bourbon, counts of Alençon and of Armagnac, your humble uncles, relations and subjects, for ourselves and all others our adherents, wellwishers to your person,--as the rights of your domination, your crown and royal majesty, have been so nobly instituted, and founded on justice, power, and the true obedience of your subjects,--and as your glory and authority are resplendent through all parts of the world, you having been worthily consecrated and anointed by the holy roman see, and considered by all Christendom as sovereign monarch and equal distributor of justice, as well to the poor as to the rich, without owing obedience to any other lord, but God and his Divine Majesty, who has been pleased most worthily to have gifted you,--may all those who are connected with you by blood, by their frank and loyal affections, guard and defend your sacred person as your relations and subjects. ‘And may we, in particular, as your near relations, and for that cause more obliged to it, set an example of due obedience to your other subjects, and exert ourselves in preserving to you free liberty of action in every part of your government, insomuch that you may have power to reward the good and punish the wicked, and to preserve every one in his just rights, and likewise that you may execute justice in such wise that your kingdom may remain in peace, first to the honour of God, and then to your own honour, and to the example of your good friends and subjects, by following the paths of your predecessors, the kings of France, who, by this noble way of governing their great kingdom, have ever preserved tranquillity and peace, insomuch that all Christian nations, far and near, and even infidels, have had recourse to them in their disputes, and have been perfectly contented with their decisions on the cases referred to them, as the fountains of justice and loyalty.