Paris (France) -- Description and travel; Paris (France) -- History
exclaiming against the foul murder, blood is said to have issued from
the wounds. At the funeral he held a corner of the pall, but his guilt
was an open secret, and though he braved it out for a time he was
forced to flee to his lands in Flanders for safety. In a few months,
however, Jean was back in force at Paris, and a doctor of the Sorbonne
pleaded an elaborate justification of the deed before the assembled
princes, nobles, clergy and citizens at the Hotel St. Paul. The poor
crazy king was made to declare publicly that he bore no ill-will to
his dear cousin of Burgundy, and later, on the failure of a conspiracy
of revenge by the queen and the Orleans party, to grant full pardon
for a deed "committed for the welfare of the kingdom." The cutting of
the Rue Etienne Marcel has exposed the strong machicolated tower still
bearing the arms of Burgundy (two planes and a plumb line), which Jean
sans Peur built to fortify the Hotel de Bourgogne, as a defence and
refuge against the Orleans faction and the people of Paris. The
Orleans family had for arms a knotted stick, with the device "_Je
l'ennuis_": the Burgundian arms with the motto, "_Je le tiens_,"
implied that the knotted stick was to be planed and levelled.
The arrival of Jean sans Peur, and the fortification of his hotel were
the prelude to civil war, for the Orleanists and their allies had
rallied to the Count of Armagnac, whose daughter Anne, the new Duke
Louis of Orleans had married, and fortified themselves in their
stronghold on the site now occupied by the Palais Royal.
[Illustration: TOWER OF JEAN SANS PEUR.]
The Armagnacs, for so the Orleanists were now called, thirsted for
revenge, and for five years Paris was the scene of frightful
atrocities as each faction gained the upper hand and took a bloody
vengeance on its rivals. At length the infamous policy of an alliance
with the English was resorted to. The temptation was too great for the
English king, and in 1415 Henry V. met the French army, composed
almost entirely of the Armagnacs, at Agincourt, and inflicted on it a
defeat more disastrous than Crecy or Poitiers. The famous oriflamme of
St. Denis passed from history in that fatal year of 1415. The Count of
Armagnac hurried to Paris, seized the mad king and the dauphin, and
held the capital.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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