At Agincourt | Page 6

the duchess's advocate demanded that the duke should be forced to
make public reparation, and then to be exiled for twenty years. The
dauphin replied that he and all the princes of blood royal present held
that the charges against the Duke of Orleans had been amply refuted,
and that the demands with reference to the Duke of Burgundy should
be provided for in course of justice.
"Scarcely had the assembly broken up when it became known that
Burgundy and his army was on the way back to Paris. Resistance was
out of the question; therefore, taking the young dauphin with her, and
accompanied by all the members of the royal family, the queen retired
to Tours. Burgundy, unscrupulous as he was, finding that although he
might remain master of Paris, he could not hope to rule France, except
when acting under the pretence of the king's authority, soon sent an
embassy to Tours to endeavour to arrange matters. He was able to
effect this with the less difficulty, that the Duchess of Orleans had just
died from grief at her husband's death, and at the hopelessness of

obtaining vengeance on his murderer. The queen was won to the cause
of Burgundy by secret proposals submitted to her for a close league
between them, and in March a treaty was concluded, and a meeting
took place at Chartres, at which the duke, the king, the queen, the royal
princes, and the young Duke of Orleans and his adherents were present.
"The king declared that he pardoned the duke, and the princes of
Orleans consented to obey his orders and to lay aside all hatred and
thoughts of vengeance, and shortly afterwards Paris welcomed with
shouts of joy the return of the king and queen and the apparent
reconciliation of all parties. But the truce was a brief one; for the
princes and adherents of Orleans might bend before circumstances at
the moment, but their feelings were unchanged.
"A head of the party was needed, and the young duke married the
daughter of Count Bernard d'Armagnac, one of the most powerful and
ambitious nobles of the south of France, who at once,--in concert with
the Dukes of Berri and Brittany and other lords,--put himself at the
head of the Orleans party. On the 10th of July, 1411, the three princes
of Orleans sent a long letter to the king, complaining that no reparation
whatever had been made for the murder of their father, and begging
him that, as what was done at Chartres was contrary to every principle
of law, equity, reason, and justice, the case should be reopened again.
They also made complaints against the Duke of Burgundy for his
conduct and abuse of power.
"As the king was surrounded by Burgundy's creatures no favourable
reply was returned, and a formal challenge or declaration of war was,
on the 18th of July, sent by the princes to the Duke of Burgundy, and
both parties began at once to make preparation for war.
"Now for my own view of this quarrel. King Henry sent for me a year
since, and asked for whom I should hold my castle if Orleans and
Burgundy came to blows, adding that Burgundy would be viewed by
him with most favour.
"'My father and grandfather ever fought faithfully in the service of
England,' I said; 'but for years past now, the line betwixt your majesty's

possessions and those of France has been drawn in, and my estates and
Castle of Villeroy now lie beyond the line, and I am therefore a vassal
of France as well as of your majesty. It being known to all men that
even before I became Lord of Summerley, on my marriage with your
majesty's ward, Mistress Margaret, I, like my father, held myself to be
the liege man of the King of England. I am therefore viewed with much
hostility by my neighbours, and right gladly would they seize upon any
excuse to lay complaint against me before the king, in order that I
might be deprived of my fief and castle.
"'This I would fain hold always for your majesty; and, seeing how it is
situated but a few miles across the frontier, it is, I would humbly
submit to you, of importance to your majesty that it should be held by
one faithful to you--since its possession in the hands of an enemy
would greatly hinder any English army marching out from Calais to the
invasion of France. It is a place of some strength now; but were it in
French hands it might be made very much stronger, and would cost
much time and loss of men to besiege. At present your majesty is in
alliance with Burgundy, but none can say how the war will go, or what