Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/539

A.D. 1414.] Armagnacs in complete superiority. They had the king in their hands, and they compelled him to sign anything they pleased. The Duke of Burgundy was declared by royal proclamation guilty of "the damnable murder of the late Duke of Orleans," as well as of sundry other high crimes and treasons, and condemned to the forfeiture of all his territories.

The Armagnacs, having issued this proclamation, marched out of Paris, seized the duke's city of Compiègne and laid siege to Soissons. This town was defended by the brave Count de Bournonville, and at this siege the archers of England were found fighting against their fellow-subjects, the archers of Guienne. But the English very soon opened the gates to their countrymen from Bordeaux; the Armagnacs rushed in, and perpetrated one of the most frightful massacres in history. The rabble of Armagnacs appeared possessed with a demoniac frenzy, which sought the destruction of everything. Men, women, and children were massacred without mercy or discrimination. They pillaged the churches and monasteries; tore down the sacred ornaments of the altars; trod under foot the consecrated wafer; scattered the relics of saints, and demolished or defaced the images. The king was in their hands a complete puppet, and they made him the scapegoat of all their crimes. In his name the head of the brave governor, De Bournonville, was struck off, as well as those of a number of the principal officers and citizens; and, notwithstanding the English had admitted them, they hanged 200 of their archers from the walls. Others of the distinguished inhabitants were sent under guard to Paris, where they met with the same fate.

From the butchery of Soissons this fanatic army marched to Arras, into which Burgundy had managed to retire; but they were there successfully resisted. While meditating to raise the siege, the alarming news arrived of the King of England's preparations for the invasion of France. A hollow truce was patched up between the contending parties; but, before the Armagnacs withdrew from the city, the house in which the king lodged was found to be on fire (probably from design by some of the desperadoes of one or other faction), and he escaped with difficulty.

Once more Paris became the rendezvous of the various chiefs of these revolting factions; where, in the autumn, the infamous dauphin originated a conspiracy to drive both Burgundians and Armagnacs from the capital, secure the person of the king, and make himself dictator. The scheme failed; and Louis was himself obliged to flee to Bourges. The Armagnacs once more rose on his retreat, fell on the Burgundians with great fury, and expelled their wives and children from the city.

Again in April of the following year, 1415, the dauphin regained possession of Paris by a base stratagem. He invited his mother, Queen Isabella, the Dukes of Orleans and Berri, with the other princes of the blood, to meet at Melun, in order to settle all differences and unite with one accord against the English invader. The queen and princes fell into the snare. They set out for Melun, and the dauphin simultaneously hastened into the capital, closed the gates against them, and ordered them, with the exception of Berri, severally to retire to their estates. One great object of Louis was to secure the rich hoards of his mother, which she had deposited in the church of St. Denis. Once possessed of them, he charged his mother, Orleans, Burgundy, and the rest of the princes of the blood—for Louis was a perfect Ishmaelite in his enmities—with being the authors of all the calamities which had fallen on France. The declaration would have been true enough had he included his own share in them. But he now promised to redress everything; and, as an earnest of his intentions, he proceeded to perpetrate still worse extravagances, follies, and wrongs. He levied on all sides the most arbitrary exactions, which he spent surrounded by troops of insolent and insatiable courtiers. His court became still more disgracefully licentious than any before it. He shut up his wife, the daughter of the Duke of Burgundy, in the chateau of St. Germain-en-Laye, and placed at the head of his court a servant of the palace as his mistress. The Duke of Burgundy, enraged at the treatment of his daughter, vowed vengeance against the profligate dauphin, and prepared to march against him, accompanied by his butcher chiefs, Caboche, Legoix, and others of the white-hood clan. Meantime Armagnac was ravaging the south of France and St. Pol the north. Never was a country so torn by faction and desolated and degraded by crime; and it was at this moment that Henry of England prepared to descend on the devoted land, announcing himself as the scourge of a justly incensed Providence.

In little more than twelve months after mounting the throne, Henry forwarded to France, in July, 1414, his demand of the crown of that country. No answer was returned. He then reduced his requisition from the whole realm to the following modest one; namely, the provinces of Normandy, Maine, and Anjou; the territories which formerly composed the duchy of Aquitaine; and the several towns and counties included in the treaty of Bretigni; that Charles VI. should put him in possession of half of Provence, the inheritance of Eleanor and Sanchia, the queens of Henry III., and of his brother Richard, and two of the four daughters of Beranger, once sovereign of that country. That he should pay up the arrears of King John's ransom, 1,200,000 crowns, and give Henry his daughter Catherine, with 2,000,000 crowns more.

To this astounding demand the French Government replied that the king was willing to give the hand of his daughter, with 600,000 crowns, a higher sum than had ever been paid with any princess of France, and all the territories anciently included in the duchy of Aquitaine.

To this Henry refused to consent, but summoned a Parliament, the speaker of which was Thomas Chaucer, the son of the great poet, and received from it the unwontedly liberal supply of two-tenths and two-fifteenths. To give an air of moderation to his demands, however, Henry still pretended to negotiate. He sent over to Paris a splendid embassy, consisting of 600 horsemen, headed by the Earl of Dorset and the Bishops of Durham and Norwich. They entered the capital with so much parade and magnificence, that the French vanity was surprised and mortified by it. The ambassadors first proposed a continuation of the truce for four months.