It was not till the King Philippe-le-Bel bought the County of Chartres from Jeanne, the widow of S. Louis’s son, Pierre de France, and gave it to his own brother, Charles de Valois (1293), that the dispute was finally closed. Three years later the town received its charter and the _Bourgeoisie_ began to come into its own. The granting of the charter was a business transaction. The need of money was great in France. The differences of the King with the Pope, with England and the Flemings, rendered it imperative that he should prepare for war. Under the new conditions, when the King’s domain included [Illustration: Courtyard in the Old Hotel de Ville] two-thirds of all France and the days of feudalism had passed away, it was necessary both to maintain a fleet and to pay mercenaries. Philip, whose short-sighted methods of raising money had already got him into difficulties with Flanders and the Church, now sent his men through the ‘good towns of France’ to collect contributions. ‘But,’ says Souchet, the old historian of Chartres, ‘the people of Paris, Rouen, Orleans and other cities rose and slew the commissioners who prosecuted their charge with more violence than was needful,’ and the contemporary _Chronique de la Saint-Magloire_ records:-- ‘En Normandie et en Chartrain De ce suis je trestot certain Que en France, que en Champaigne Il n’y a nul qui ne s’en plaigne Des coustumes qu’estoient levées Sur blé, sur vin et sur denrées.’ In these circumstances, therefore, Count Charles of Valois, when he wished to raise money in Chartres to aid his royal brother, found that there was only one way of doing it and that was by granting to the citizens, who, as we have seen, had long been restive because they were subject to all kinds of feudal charges and services of which the surrounding towns had been freed, a kind of Charter of _Commune_. For a cash consideration of 12,000 _livres tournois_, he confirmed several usages which were already by tacit consent practised, and he compounded for the annual tribute paid to the Counts by the town. It would be interesting to quote this document in full, but I must be content to give a summary of it. Shortly, it provided that the citizens should in future be exempt from paying the Count the annual tribute of £400, and exempt also, unless in cases of pressing necessity, from _Taille_, _Ost_ and _Chevauchée_; their horses were not to be impressed for the use of the Count, their personal liberty was to be respected and, for criminals, before their trial, bail allowed after a certain period of imprisonment. Lastly, the citizens were authorised to assemble and elect _Procureurs_ or Governors for the needs and necessities of the town after the form and manner of the citizens of Orléans. The Count also undertook to make good the use and custom of the town by which contracting parties in case of dispute were judged exclusively by local courts.