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15tbliotheta (turtoga.
El Ringg (II)istress,
CHARLES WIL, & AGNES SOREL
Chivalry in the XV. Century,
By
Ma C A P E F : G U Ea
Now FIRST TRANSLATED from THE FRENCH,
WITH AWOTES & AEEZ U.S. 7 RA Troy S
by
EDMUND GOLDSMID, F.R.H.S.,
F.S.A. (Scor.)
---
J.N. ººz"O YO.Raº Mººs,
VOL. I.
-
PRIVATELY PRINTED, EDINBURGH
1887,


Agnès Sorel and Chivalry in
the XV, Century.


- ºpeº M. (Jºaº tº/ *ºte
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15tbliotbeta (Turibga.
El TRíng's (II)istres3,
OR
CHARLES WII, & AGNES SOREL
AND
Chivalry in the XV, £entary,
BY
M. C. A P E F I G U E.
-**835-336–
NOW FIRST TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH,
WITH AWOTES & Z ZZ US7RA 77OAVS
BY
EDMUND GOLDSMID, F.R.H.S.,
F.S.A. (Scot.)
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IN Tºo Sror, UIVCEs.
VOL. I.
PRIVATELY PRINTED, EDINBURGH.
1887.

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A GN ES SO R. E. L.
AND
€hivalry in the XV, Century.
—ººººº-
I.
3.3abeau of JBavatia. Cbe flyaotlegg of
Qbatić3 lji, (5¢ntle (WOette,
(1390-1400.)
On the 13th of July 1385, was celebrated in the
Cathedral Church of Amiens, the marriage of
Charles VI, and Madam Isabella or Isabeau of
Bavaria. The King was at that time seventeen
years of age, and a knight of a brave and noble
character. He had already distinguished himself
in battle in Flanders and Normandy. In the
skirmish at Rosbecque, he had been seen, though
º

6 AGNES SOREL,
quite a boy, dispersing a body of Flemish brewers
led by their chief, Arteveld. He had checked the
rising of the halles of Paris, which had been
organised under the butchers Legoys, Sanctyon
and Thibert. These worthy townspeople and
workmen had imagined that they would cause con-
sternation among the knighthood of Charles VI.,
by collecting to the number of more than 20,000,
armed with bows, bludgeons, and long swords,
between the Saint Denis gate, and the enclosure
of Saint Lazare. The King told them to be off
instantly, and take their arms and equipments
with them. They obeyed without a sign of
resistance." He snatched their disorganised power
from the hands of the surgeon-barber Capeluche,
(afterwards the public executioner) and of the
butcher Caboche, the favourite of the rabble.”
From the miniatures of the manuscripts, we
know that Charles had a slightly pale face, large
eyes, arched eye-brows, and a childish and smiling
mouth. He was always high principled, cheerful
* One of the five miniatures of Froissart’s MS. in
the National Library, shows this martial deed of the
townspeople of Paris.
* Compare “La Chronique de Saint Denis” for
years 1391-14oo and Juvenal des Ursins, ibid. The
“Journal d’un bourgeois de Paris,” only begins at the
year 14oz, The learning of Le Laboureur and
Secousse, of the academy of inscriptions, has thrown
much light on the reign of Charles VI.


AGNES SOREL. 7
in speech, but not given to express his feelings.
This arose from his having long been under the
tutelage of the constable of Clisson, the gravest
knight of the Breton race.
The Princess Isabeau of Bavaria, who now
became the King's wife, was the daughter of
Stephen II., Duke of Bavaria, and Prince Palatine
of the Rhine.” Her mother was Tadie Visconti of
Milan. Isabeau of Bavaria had in her veins both
German and Italian blood, that is to say, the
noblest and purest of all.
Her beauty was something wonderful. Of
more than middle height, she had blue eyes, dark
eye-lashes, and, by a peculiar gift of Heaven, her
hair was of a golden hue. In a miniature she is
seen presented to the young King by the Duchess
of Burgundy; her hair is arranged high on her
head, her veil, thrown behind her, falls below
her slender waist. Her dress of blue brocade
comes down and touches her pointed shoes,
according to the fashion of the day. Voluptuous
grace breathes in her whole person. Brautóme,
who wrote a century later, says of Queen Isabeau
of Bavaria—“She is praised for having introduced
into France the grandeur and elegance of attire
which lend a superb grace to ladies’ dress.” She
*According to the Chronicles, Charles V. had, on
on his death bed, advised an alliance with Germany.
8 AGNES SOREL.
had been brought to Amiens on a pilgrimage by
Duke Frederick of Bavaria. King Charles VI.
had seen her as she knelt before the Virgin : he
had fallen hopelessly in love with her," and their
nuptials were celebrated with great pomp in the
Cathedral of Amiens.
Queen Isabelle, lovely above all others, intro-
duced into the life of the chateaux a spirit of
luxury and pleasure, and most brilliant personal
adornment. There was rivalry between her and
the Duchesses of Burgundy and Berri, the
Countesses of Bar and of Nevers, the ladies of
Coucy and Touraine. The most magnificent
entertainment was the entry of the Queen into
Paris for her coronation at Notre Dame. The
Middle Ages carried the grandeur of these
solemnities to a great pitch, especially as regarded
shows and processions. The start was made,
therefore, from Saint Denis in a litter covered
with cloth of silver. The young Queen was sur-
rounded by a most brilliant escort of knights :
along the whole route twelve hundred well-known
burgesses, with red, blue, and green head-dresses,
welcomed her. At the Saint Denis gate little
angels, who issued from a beautiful cloud,”
* This pilgrimage had been arranged like an inter-
view. Isabelle was born in 1371. She was therefore
fourteen years of age.
* This description of the fêtes of Paris is found in


AGNES SOREL. 9
-
amused themselves by playing with little rattles
made out of hollow nuts. In the Rue Saint
Denis young girls, dressed in cloth of gold, were
seated near a fountain draped in blue, and while
they offered wine and hippocras,” they sang in a
the Chronicle of Saint Denis. Juvenal des Ursins is
more serious; the miniatures in the Froissart manu-
script give us a representation of these fêtes.
* A medicated drink, composed usually of red wine,
but sometimes white, with the addition of sugar and
spices. It is not improbable, that, as Mr. Theobald
observes, in a note on the “Scornful Lady,” it was
called Hippocras, from the circumstance of its being
strained ; the woollen bag used for that purpose being
called, by the apothecaries, Hippocrates's sleeve. It
was a very favorite beverage, and usually given at
weddings.
“P. Stay, what's best to drink a mornings
R. Ipocras, sir, for my mistress, if I fetch it, is most
dear to her.” Honest Whore, iii., 283.
“Drank to your health, whole nights, in Hippocras,
Upon my knees, with more religion
Than e'er I said my pray'rs, which heav’n forgive
me.” Antiquary, x., 28.
In old books are many receipts for the composition of
Hippocras, of which the following is one :
“Take of cinamon 2 oz. of ginger 34 an oz. of grains
a 34 of an oz., punne [pound] them grosse, and put
them into a pottle of good claret or white wine, with
half a pound of sugar; let all steep together, a night
at the least, close covered in some hottle of glasse,
Pewter, or stone; and when you would occupy it, cast
a thinne linnen cloath or a piece of boulter over the
mouth of the bottle, and let so much run through as
-
IO AGNES SOREL.
melodious voice, with a choir of angels—
“Notre dame des fleurs de lys,
Soyez reine du Parisis :
De France, de ce beau pays
Nous retournons au Paradis.
Then the seraphim were wafted towards the cloud
of blue and gold.
you will drink at that time, keeping the rest close,
for so it will keep both the spirit, odor, and virtue of
the wine and spices. And if you would make but a
quart, then take but half the spices aforesaid.” -
Haven of Health, ch. 228, p. 264.
By a pottle is meant two quarts. See also Strut's
“View of Manners, &c.,” vol. iii. p. 74.
“To make Hypocrass the best way—Take 5 ounces of
aqua vitae, 2 ounces of pepper, and 2 of ginger, of
cloves and grains of paradice each 2 ounces, amber-
grease three grains, and of musk two grains, infuse
them 24 hours in a glass bottle on pretty warm embers,
and when your occasion requires to use it, put a pound
of sugar into a quart of wine or cyder; dissolve it well,
and then drop 3 or 4 drops of the infusion into it, and
they will make it taste richly.”
Lupton's Thousand Notable Things.
“The wind blows cold, the weather's raw,
The beggars now do skulk in straw,
Whilst those whose means are somewhat higher,
Do warm their noses by a fire.
Sack, Hippocras now, and burnt brandy,
Are drinks as warm and good as can be ;
But if thy purse won't reach so high,
With ale and beer that want supply.”
Poor Robin, 1696.
–See Nares’ “ Glossary.”


AGNES SORELA II
Thus no one was so popular as Queen Isabelle,
who was soon to be the mother of sons and
daughters, the heirs of the lineage of France; the
people dreamed of nothing but chivalry and
entertainments, pilgrimages and tournaments.
Palestine, Italy, Brittany, Normandy, had each to
be visited and conquered, and the young King
found himself continually making progresses on
horseback. The large number of seditions and
conspiracies that had burst out around him made
his life one of sadness and distrust. He passed
from extreme gentleness to acts of violent passion,
and this to such an extent that it was already
whispered everywhere, “Can our Sovereign Lord
be out of his wits?” At the time of his expedition
into Brittany a particular circumstance occurred to
aggravate his condition. When already exhausted
by the scorching rays of the sun and the fatigue of
a long journey, a man with unkempt beard, and
in strange garments, stood before him, and, grasp-
ing his horse's bridle, cried out, “Oh King, you
are being betrayed *
The king thought it was a kind of apparition;
seizing his sword with both hands, he struck out
right and left.* They seized him as they would a
*According, to Juvenal des Ursins, he killed four
knights with his own hand before he could be stopped.
(Chronicle of the year 1391.) -
I2 AGNES SOREL.
raving maniac. He was taken in a close carriage
to Paris, to the castle of Tournelles, and then to
the old Louvre," where he continually showed a
sad, restless, and pre-occupied frame of mind.
From time to time he returned to a state of cheer-
fulness and pleasure that were parts of his character,
and especially agreeable to the tastes of the
coquettish and Smiling Queen Isabeau.”
Ballets and masques by torchlight were at that
time in great vogue. One evening when the King
and some young lords of the court were dis-
guised as Savages all covered with sheep-skins,
people crowded round them in a familiar
manner. The fleeces took fire and soon the
clothes of the savages were in flames, and they
became actual human torches. Nothing but a
miracle saved the King. Some one threw a cloth
over his head, wrapped him in it, and pressed it
close to his body.” His life was saved, but his
madness became now of a sad and melancholy
type, for he entertained suspicions of treason.
The Council, which was composed of his uncles
of Burgundy and Berri, determined to shut
* The Louvre was a prison tower built by Philip
Augustus in 1204. It afterwards became a library,
and Charles VI. made it his palace in 1364.
*Chronique de Saint Denis 1392.
3In the year 1394 (at the carnival of the month of
March.)

AGNES SOREL. I3
Charles VI. up in the castle of the Louvre in the
most profound solitude. He refused to see his
Queen Isabella, his uncles or his children, and
declined all nourishment as if it had been poisoned.
To distract his thoughts, they brought him some
loose women; one only of their number, a young
girl who waited on the King, was able to acquire
a gentle ascendancy over him. Her name was
Odette de Champvillers. Her father was a horse-
dealer and frequently came the Louvre on business.
The King had conceived such a love for her
that he obeyed her caprices, like a child obeys
the laws of a master, Charles VI. was twenty-
five years old, Odette seventeen. She played on
the lute, and knew the tales and stories of chivalry.
Surrounded with images and illuminated manu-
Scripts, Odette taught the King the games
of cards" and Pope Joan, which Jacquemin
Gringoneur, a painter and illuminator of Paris,
presented to him. The cards reproduced the
whole history of the heroes of chivalry — the
Knights of the Sword and of the Cup, Otger the
Dane, the Duke Nayme of Bavaria, so celebrated
among the twelve fabulous peers, the noble
spouses of Charlemagne, knaves of hearts, clubs,

*These gilded cards were paid for at the rate of 56
sous Parisis to a man named Gringoneur (account of
the treasurer, Charles Poupart).
I4 AGNES SOREL.
spades, and diamonds, named after some great
paladins.” -
This pleasant game was the only thing capable
of amusing the poor King Charles VI, who, from
time to time, recovered his reason. The Biblio.
thèque has in its possession the Pope Joan cards,
which are said to have been used by him."
These cards are in a wonderful state of preserva-
tion. In the first place, we have the Pope on his
throne, with two cardinals, then the Emperor in a
Byzantine character, the hermit, the house of God,
the knight with his fair hair, the jester, the lover,
the man on the gibbet with two purses in his
thand, the moon and the astronomer, the sun and
the spinner who counts the hours, justice, strength,
temperance, fortune that guides the world, Death
on horseback with his gracious smile, for he rides
apace; the last judgment where are assembled the
fairest models of form, women of most entrancing
charms—and all this produced in the style of
Giotto. One of the caprices of the wretched mad-
ness of the King was his casting a thousand
* Father Menetrier has said, without giving proofs,
that playing cards were invented by Jacquemin Grin-
goneur; they existed before. They are mentioned in
the “Chronique du petit Jehan de Saintré,” cap. 15,
of the time of Charles V.
* The collection of playing cards in the Bibliothèque
Nationale is magnificent.


AGNES SOREL. 15
reproaches at his Queen Isabeau. He could no
longer endure the sight of her, although she
had been so beloved by him, and notwithstand-
ing that she had given him a noble posterity.
One might say that, like the story found in the
chansons de geste of Britany, he had drunk at the
waters of the spring of hatred, which caused him
to conceive a horror for the woman he had loved
most of all. This tradition was in later times
borrowed by Ariosto in describing the loves of
Orlando and Angelica. -
On the other hand, it was said that the Queen,
the lovely and coquettish Isabelle of Bavaria,
forgot the poor King amidst pleasures and dances,
in her palace at the corner of the old Rue du
Temple and of the Rue Barbette, which she had
just purchased. There she gave receptions to the
Dukes d’Orleans and their gayest companions,
It was in fact a Court quite separate and distinct
from that of the Tournelles and of the old Louvre.
The strangest rumours were abroad concerning
the Queen's behaviour; we must, however, re-
member that at this time the country was in the
midst of civil war, and that the Burgundians and
Armagnacs hated each other cordially. Now,
the favourite weapon of partisans is calumny.

I6 AGNES SOREL,
II.
TRégency, allo (50Vetilment of jūall Cé
Öuting the ſking’s flyaonegg.
(1400-20.)
Isabella, through her marriage with the King,
had issue eleven children, of whom six were
boys. The eldest was Louis, the Dauphin of
France, Duke of Guienne, the second John, and
the third Charles. According to the custom of
the capital, the Regency ought to have belonged
to the mother and to the first prince of the blood,
the Duke of Orleans, brother of the King. The
madness of Charles VI. being, however, but an
intermittent malady, and seeing that he had lucid
intervals of reason, it was decided that there
should be simply a government by family arrange-
ment, in which the King's uncles, the Dukes of
Burgundy and Berri, were to have a share." This
act amounted to the placing of anarchy in the
very seat of authority, and the sad consequences
soon showed themselves. The Duke of Bur-
gundy, who was already so powerful by his
feudal posessions, became master of the Council,
* Parliamentary Register, 1401. The edition of
Juvenal des Ursins, Paris, 1614, 4to, may be con-
sulted, along with the annotations by the scholar
Godefroi.

AGNES SOREL. 17
by reason of his faculty of currying favour with
the popular interests, and a great party was formed
of which he was the centre.
The chivalry of France had indeed lost much of
its prestige since the sad defeats of Poitiers and
Crecy, where it had shewn but undisciplined
courage. From this dates the development of the
bourgeois or popular power. The multitude in
the Paris markets had been dominant in the state
by their frequent tumults and revolts during King
John's captivity; they still cherished the remem-
brance of this, and the orderly and almost
constitutional reign of Charles V had further
contributed to the downfall of chivalry. A
transformation had even been introduced into the
military spirit. Companies of armed mercenaries
had replaced the old feudal bands, so that the
leaders of these companies once so popular, were
driven to seek for power in the management of
State affairs. This had not escaped the notice of
John, Duke of Burgundy; bent on forming a
party, flattering especially the corporations, the
guilds, and popular leaders of the Paris Halles, he
had made the multitude thoroughly Burgundian in
sympathy. In this way he was enabled to govern
with the assent of the populace.
He did not stop at a deed of violence and
bloodshed, the asasssination of the Duke of
B


18 AGNES SOREL,
Orleans.” This young prince was leaving Queen
Isabella's mansion in the Rue Barbette : it was
eight o'clock in the evening, the curfew had tolled
and the streets were deserted. The Duke, who
was the King's brother, was only attended by
Some pages or lacqueys. A band of armed men
rushed upon him with axes and daggers, and left
him lifeless on the street. Some days later the
Duke of Burgundy came forward and boldly
declared that the deed had been done by his
orders to avenge the King's honour, and to relieve
the people of Paris. The Duke's action was
applauded, and he took into his hands the govern-
ment of the State. The Duke of Orleans was the
embodiment of the old spirit of chivalry which
was gradually disappearing. Queen Isabella had
backed up his love for splendour, entertainments
and pleasures. He was accused of foolish extra-
vagance to the detriment of the poor people. One
of the curés of Paris (the great tribunes of the
people at this time), in the presence of the Queen
herself, who was adorned with precious stones
and braided velvet, cried out, “Doubtless I
should like to please you noble Queen, but I
prefer your welfare to the fear your anger
* This murder took place on the night of the 23rd
November 1407. There is still shown a tower of the
palace of Queen Isabella at the corner of Rue Barbette.
This, however, I consider must belong to a later date.

AGNES SOREL, I9
may cause me; Venus is the only goddess that
reigns at your court, luxury and drunkenness
turn night into day, and are mingled with licen:
tious dances. These accursed and infernal revels
beset your court, enfeeble your morals, and pre-
vent the knights and squires enervated as they are
from setting out her warlike expeditions from fear
of being deprived of some of their limbs.”
These complaints formulated against the Queen,
raised the popular feeling against her. At this
moment the power of the Dukes of Burgundy
found a rival. Death had laid low the two eldest
sons of the King, the Dauphin, Louis, and after
him, John; thus Charles, the third of the children,
became the direct heir to the throne, and took in
turn" the title of Dauphin. Charles obtained for
a little the direction of the Council by placing all
his confidence in the marshall of Armagnac.
Hence are derived the names which were given to
the two great factions that divided the country,
the Burgundians and the Armagnacs, the former
consisting of all the elements that are found in the
passions of the people, and the halles of Paris, the
latter having as leaders the Dauphin and the
captains of the companies of men-at-arms, most of
them brave adventurers, but undisciplined and
* The name of the Dauphin appeared by itself in the
statutes (Collect, des Lois par de Cruzy 14oo-1410.)

2O AGNES SOREL.
intensely hated by the people. In a seditious
rising, the Armagnacs were massacred, the
standard of Burgundy was planted in the popular
quarters of Paris, and the Dauphin protected by
the captains of the companies, was carried off
from the vengeance of the Burgundians, and
sought an asylum in the provinces of the Loire, in
the beautiful castles of Touraine.
King Charles VI., who was all this time shut
up alone in the old Louvre, only interfered occa-
sionally with public affairs. Not that he had no lucid
moments and a certain will of his own, but it is
more than probable that the princes who were at
the head of the government exaggerated the
gravity of his complaint in order to remain in
power themselves. The Burgundians had removed
from his reach everything calculated to enlighten
or direct him ; they enfeebled his fiery tempera-
ment by every kind of weakening influence.
Odette was no longer the sole mistress of his
senses, for many loose women were, as I have
said, introduced into the Louvre.” The King
had been maddened into anger against his wife,
Isabeau of Bavaria, whom the Dauphin had caused
to be shut up in a lonely tower, in consequence of
* Compare, on the subject of the King's malady,
the Chronicle of Saint Denis for the year 1417;
Monstrelet, p. 1, No. 1 12, Monstrelet is the most
exact of the chroniclers, and is almost an archivist.

AGNES SOREL. 2I
her debaucheries, as was said. Isabelle had spent
many wretched days there; she remembered
them. At the very moment that she protested
lively gratitude to the Burgundians, who had set
her at liberty, she conceived the greatest contempt
and hatred for the leaders of the great companies
—namely, Tanneguy Duchatel, La Hire, Dunois,
the successors of Armagnac, who surrounded the
Dauphin and directed his will.”
Isabelle of Bavaria, in allying herself with the
Burgundians, had recovered a certain popular
ascendancy over the halles oſ Paris. She neither
resided at the Tournelles nor at the Louvre, but
in her house in the Rue Barbette. Now some-
what aged, she had renounced her luxurious life,
in order to please the preachers of the parish and
the holy monks of the Blancs Manteaux and of
the Célestins in the Rue Saint Antoine. Madame
Isabeau was henceforth the popular idol, under
the guardianship of the sword of the Duke of
Burgundy, and she became so even more when

# The learned Secousse and Laboureur have dis-
cussed at length the murder of the Duke of Burgundy
at Montereau. They have added nothing to what
has been said by Philip of Commines, the Chronicle
of Saint Denis, and Monstrelet. In a modern book
there is an empty and pretentious work on the gloomy
event which took place in 1419 as a vengeance for
the death of the Duke of Orleans.
22 AGNES SOREL.
she made her appearance in the Rue du Temple
with a black veil on her head, her hair in dis-
order, at the moment that the fatal news reached
their ears—The Duke John of Burgundy had just
been assassinated on the bridge of Montereau.
Who were to blame? The Armagnacs, the
Dauphin, or the officers who were his intimate
friends? Of this no one had a doubt. Whether
it was the Dauphin himself or the leaders of the
great companies, Tanneguy, Le Boutellier, Pierre
Frottier, this crime had none the less been com-
mitted in some way under the safe conduct of the
Prince. He accordingly was alone to blame and
responsible for it. The grief displayed in Paris
when the death of the noble Duke was learned,
and his body lay shrouded in the common bier in
the church of Montereau, cannot be expressed.
The artisans and guilds, exasperated beyond
measure, were prepared for anything that would
constitute an act of hatred and violence against
the Dauphin.
III.
|\OWęt of Englano in jtalice. Creaty of
Croye.g.
(130I-I4I4.)
The struggle between France and England was
a very old one and had existed since Philip
Augustus had conquered Normandy, and subju-

AGNES SOREL. 23
gated Guienne as a feudal possession. To these
deep-set rivalries there came to be added a question
of succession of very great gravity in feudal law
and one which concerned what was called the
Salic law. Now, what was the Salic law P Was
it a written code? Who was the chronicler of the
first or second race that made mention of it 2
According to the general feudal law women
succeeded to ancestral rights just as much as
barons themselves, and at the coronation of Philip
the Fair, Mahaut of Flanders had sat amongst
the Peers, with the coronet of a countess on her
brow." The following are the circumstances under
which this question of the Salic law arose.
Philip the Fair left three sons, Louis, Philip,
and Charles, and a daughter Isabelle who was
married to Edward II of England. Louis, the
eldest, surnamed Le Hutin, lived only for a short
time, leaving a daughter, and the Queen emceinte.
Philip, the second son of Philip the Fair, took the
Regency till the confinement of his brother's widow,
but the son that was born Survived his birth but
a short time. In this interval, Philip, called the
Long, had himself crowned at Rheims with the
doors of the church closed 4 and then came to Paris
*The words “De quo aliqui indignati fuer int” are
however, added by the continuator of Nangis,
*4 January 1317.

24 AGNES SOREL.
where an assembly of prelates, barons and
burgesses declared with all haste that “no
woman could succeed to the crown of France.”
Philip in his turn died, leaving only daughters.
His brother Charles succeeded him, and after him
the grandson of Philip the Hardy, since Philip de
Valois.
In the midst of this rapid succession to the
throne, the King of England, Edward III, thrust-
ing aside the principle of the Salic law, which he
pretended was an invention and a usurpation, laid
claim to the crown of France through his mother,
who was the fourth child of Philip the Fair.
Edward was a brave knight, and one of surpassing
power, and he commenced war in support of his
claim * accompanied by his famous son, the Black
Prince, Buch, Chandos, Felton and Lancaster.
This campaign was fatal to France. Crecy, Poitiers,
fatal fields where the chivalry of France was over-
come by the unerring aim of the English archers
“In truth, the English archers gave their side
great advantage, for their flights of arrows were
*Tunc etiam declaratum fuit quod in Franciae regno
mulier non succedere. Guill. Nangis, 1317. Spicilegium
of father d’Achery.
* These claims are found set forth at length in a
writ addressed by Edward III. to the bishop of
Worcester (Rymer Foedera, vol. iv. p. 314).

AGNES SOREL. 25
so thick that the French did not know where to
turn, whilst the English crept forward and gained
ground little by little.” King John fell into the
hands of the enemy, and the sad treaty of Bretigny,
the veritable division of France, was signed in the
midst of the excesses of the Jacquerie" and the

*Jacquerie, derived from the name Jacques Bon-
homme, familiarly applied to the rural population of
France, is the name given to insurgent risings on the
part of the peasantry against the nobility. The most
important of these outbreaks was that which broke
out in 1358. At this time the condition of France
was miserable in the extreme. Civil and foreign wars
had sapped its strength, and plague and famine had
followed in their train. The French king, John II.
the Good, was a prisoner in the hands of the English,
civil war raged in France itself, the people of Paris had
risen in rebellion, and were striving to establish a free
commune, when, in May, 1358, in the neighbourhood
of Clermont and Beauvais, the peasantry also rose and
commenced a war upon the nobles and gentry.
Driven to desperation by hunger and the shameful
wrongs they had so long endured, they sought to des-
troy all their oppressors, and to this end they burnt
every castle and feudal house they captured, killing the
nobles and their children, and violating their wives
and daughters. The insurrection spread like fire
among the rural population, and in a few weeks
immense mischief was wrought. The nobles, how-
ever, made common cause against them ; and while
besieging Meaux they were on 9th June completely
routed by Captal de Buch and Gaston Phoebus, count
of Foix. This defeat was followed by the wholesale
slaughter of all who could be captured, and the
26 AGNES SOREL.
revolt of the Paris Halles. King John, and for
him the Dauphin (afterwards Charles V) recognised
the absolute sovereignty of England over Guienne,
Gascony, Poitou, Saintonge, Limousin, Angoumois,
Calais and the county of Ponthieu." John was
left with the mere fragments of the ancient
kingdom of France; a crown crushed by the
gripe of the leopard.
But shortly after, the treaty of Bretigny was cast
aside like a yoke : Charles, aided by the Bretons,
under the conquering sword of Duguesclin had
chased the English from Guienne, Poitou and
Normandy. But under the reigns of Richard II.
and Henry IV. Kings of England, the English, tak-
ing advantage of the civil wars, and the madness of
Charles VI., landed once more on the continent.
It seemed left to Henry V. to complete the work
of Edward III. That King with his followers
invaded Normandy, and in his advance on Calais
gained the fatal victory of Agincourt. Alas! all
the flower of French chivalry fell on that mortal
field. Bushels of gold spurs, the mark of chivalry,
were carried into the tent of Henry V., who was
insurrection was completely suppressed, though its
results were long remembered.
*The treaty of Bretigny is dated October 24, 1360.
M. de Breguigny of the Académie des inscriptions has
satisfactorily cleared up the history of this time.


AGNES SOREL. 27
so proud of his victory, that he made the following
proposition to the Council of Henry VI. The
King of England was to be recognised as King
of France, and if there were any difficulty, pending
the settlement of these claims, he demanded
Normandy, Touraine, Maine and Guienne together
with the homages of Brittany and Flanders. The
Council of France proposed to grant him Guienne
and Saintonge with the hand of the princess Cath-
erine and a dowry of eight hundred gold pieces.”
This was the state of the negotiations when the
Duke of Burgundy was assassinated at Montereau,
in presence, if not by the orders of the Dauphin ;
one can scarcely imagine the public grief produced,
especially at Paris, by the news of this murder.
There arose in the halles a feeling of indignation
against the Dauphin who was declared the author
of this crime. The townsfolk, the parliament,
and the university joined in a common vow of
vengeance, and the presence of the heir of the
Duke of Burgundy, dressed in mourning, caused
all to unite in pronouncing solemnly the forfeiture
of his rights by the murderer of the noble John on
the bridge of Montereau. The English, who


* Act found in Rymer, vol. ix., p. 218.
* As to these negotiations, consult throughout the
“Foedera” of Rymer, vol. ix., p. 34, 138, 304:
nothing can exceed the insolence of Henry the fifth's
style towards the Dauphin.
28 ...AGNES SOREL.
were now masters of Normandy, had their out-
posts at Pontoise; the Duke of Burgundy, their
ally, had already recognised Henry V. as lawful
King of France. It was in the midst of these
circumstances of political indignation and general
misery that the treaty of Troyes was signed.
This treaty was negociated by Queen Isabella of
Bavaria and the Duke of Burgundy, the accredited
agents of Charles VI. The first clause related to
the marriage of Henry VI., King of England,
with Madame Catherine of France.” In con-
sequence of this marriage, the throne of France
was to pass into his hands by virtue of his claim
to the inheritance of Charles. “Until his death,
however, the government would be placed under
the sceptre of the said King of England, Henry V.,
as if this right belonged to him by uncontested
inheritance, in spite of the pretended Salic law.”
This Treaty of Troyes, so daring, was not an
act of isolated will, a capricious concession on
the part of Isabella of Bavaria; it was not merely
applauded by the artizans of Paris, but also pro-
claimed by the University and approved by a
meeting of the States General which declared the
right of Henry V. to the Crown of France.” At
* The treaty of Troyes is dated the month of May,
I42O.
* Rymer, in his “ Foedera,” Vol. x. p. 30, gives all
the acts of the new royalty of Henry V. There is


AGNES SORF.L. 29
Paris all Statutes were sealed with the seal of the
new King, Henry V. ; the Duke of Burgundy did
him homage; some popular ordinances drew the
good feelings of the masses to the Government.
Isabella of Pavaria, far from being blamed for
having excluded the Dauphin, her son, from the
succession to the Throne, recovered her popularity
by the Treaty of Troyes. She became again the
idol of the citizens, as she had been in her balmy
days: her residence was the centre of gaiety and
pleasure and extravagant masquerades. When
Madame Catherine, daughter of the King of France,
went to rejoin her husband, the King of England,
there were festivities in every quarter. When she
gave birth to a son, he was treated as the Dauphin,
and the guilds wrote to London to congratulate
the King of England. At last on the death of
the weak and unhappy Charles VI., not a Soul
in the provinces of the north of France, in
Normandy, in Flanders, in Burgundy or in
Paris, was found to raise a voice against the
proclamation of the Parliament that hailed
Henry V. by the title of King of France. When
the rabble have conceived a strong hatred against
a power which they have banished, the nature or


also found among them the Act of the English Parlia-
ment, which registers its adhesion to the Treaty of
Troyes.
3O AGNES SOREL.
character of the government that takes its place
matters little to them: they accept it, proclaim it,
and serve it with all the hatred they bear towards
the power they have themselves proscribed.
IV.
(Ibe Court of the Eaupbin (afterwatog
Çbatſeg lºfi.) CD2 (5teat Companić3.
(I42O-I424.)
After the violent deed on the Bridge of Mon-
tereau, resulting in the murder of John Sans
Peur, Duke of Burgundy, the Dauphin's cause
seemed lost, Charles found shelter at Bourges,
an ancient city in the centre of France, which
had always held aloof from the popular move-
ment. The Dauphin's authority did not extend
beyond Amboise and Chinon, except in some
towns in the south of France. Condemned to
exclusion by the treaty of Troyes, disinherited by
the will of Charles VI., disowned by his mother,
proscribed by the Parliament of Paris and the
vote of an Assembly of the States, the Dauphin
was now only known as the Roitelet de Bourges;
and while the populace of Paris and the three
orders acclaimed Henry VI, King of France in
the Cathedral of Notre Dame, seventeen knights
all told were ſound grouped round the Dauphin
in the Castle of Espally, and lifting their swords

AGNES SOREL. 3 I
to proclaim Charles, Dauphin of France, King of
the country. His seal henceforth was marked
with three fleurs de lys, whilst Henry VI. quar:
tered the lilies on the arms of England." What
a wretched and sad Court was that at Bourges
Their privations were so great that the King
never had a full meal, even on the royal feast
days,
“Une jour que La Hire et Poton *
Le vinrent voir par festoiement,
N'avait qu'une queue de mouton
Et deux poulets tant seulement.”
The only military forces of Charles VII. consisted
in the chiefs and captains of the Great Companies
of adventurers and armed men, who had him
completely under their control. Tanneguy du
Châtel, of good Breton race, a former Mayor of
Paris, who had rescued the Dauphin and after-
wards treacherously done away with the Duke of
Burgundy at Montereau, was a perfect constable
to the King.3 Then another adventurer, a leader


* On the situation of Charles VII, at Bourges, com-
pare the book entitled “Vigiles de Charles VII,”
Monstrelet, Froissart, and Juvenal des Ursins, 1420 to
I424.
* Poton de Xaintrailles.
3 Tanneguy du Châtel had been the contemporary
and chamberlain of the Duke of Orleans, who was
murdered in the Rue Barbette; he was Mayor of
Paris, and Charles VII, appointed him Marshal of
32 AGNES SOREL.
of one of the Great Companies, Stephen Vignole,
better known under the name of “La Hire *
(this name, or rather soubriquet, came perhaps
from Zre, anger), and whose portrait used to be
seen on playing cards, was also one of the King's
followers. La Hire belonged to the province of
Guienne, and had been robbed of his fiefs by
Henry VI. In return, he vowed the deepest
hatred against England. At the head of a large
band of armed men of Gascony he had prose-
cuted the war with vigour; fourteen of these
braye Southerners put to flight a company of one
hundred archers of Wales, a deed of heroism
which caused a great sensation.” The most noble
friend of Lahire, a leader of a great company like
himself, was Jean Poton, lord of Xaintrailles (or
Soulte Treille), likewise belonging to the proud
and hardy Gascon race.” “Then they made two
squires, who were with them, captains, Stephen
of Vignole, called Lahire, and Poton de Xain-
Guienne in 1420. The Duchatels of the present day,
an honourable and middle class family, have nothing
in common with the Tanneguy du Châtel.
* Lahire, whose renown was great, died at Mon-
tauban in 1442. His name in playing cards is the
knave of hearts, Father Ménestrier, with little re-
gard for accuracy, says he was the inventor of playing
cards (“Bibliothèque Curieuse du père Ménestrier”).
*Xaintrailles was a simple gentleman, without land.

AGNES SOREL. 33

trailles.” The Gascon race was always the same
—of high courage, but somewhat braggart. These
intrepid and predatory bands carried terror into
the English and Burgundian forces. “They
consisted then of no more than forty lances, who
spared neither themselves nor their horses. They
were for the most part Gascons, who are excel-
lent and sturdy horsemen.” Scouring the open
country right and left in search of adventures,
they were sometimes fighting hand to hand;
sometimes, shut up in their castles, they pounced
like a flight of eagles on their prey. Xaintrailles,
like Lahire, has earned the glory of seeing his
face depicted on playing cards.”
Jean Dunois also found great favour with these
bands of adventurers; a bastard by birth, and Son
of Louis of France, Duke of Orleans, who was
killed in the Rue Barbette, he had neither fiefs,
nor estates, nor lands, but cherished an uncon-
querable hatred against the Burgundian faction.
He had not been the last to raise his hand at the
murder on the bridge of Montereau and Valentine
de Milan (Duchess of Orleans), had not formed a
bad judgement of him, when, after the assassina-
tion of the Duke of Orleans, she gathered her

* Froissart, and the Monk of Saint Denis, 1410.
*Xaintrailles died at Bordeaux in 1461. He had
married Catherine of Salignac.
C
34 AGNES SOREL.
children, not excepting the fair bastard, round her,
and said, “Here is Jean, Count of Dunois, your
brother ; I only regret that he is not my son.
Jean" has been denied to me, he ought to have
belonged to me, for no one is better fitted than he to
avenge his father's death.” These words, sacredly
cherished in his breast, had borne their fruit; there
was in the heart of f)unois a measureless amount
of hatred against the Burgundians; of this he had
given proof at the bridge of Montereau, by aveng-
ing himself on the Duke of Burgundy.
Thus Dunois, Lahire, Xaintrailles, Tanneguy
with their brave hearts and practised arms, formed
all the court of Charles VII; they brought with
them, it is true, an unsurpassed courage, but few
resources. They possessed neither castles, nor
fiefs, nor lands, nor silver; nor property. They
were but brave adventurers, who gave nothing but
their arms to the cause they wished to serve; but
often, in history, success remains with adventurers,
who, without calculations, without plans, stake
their fortunes on chance, and their lives on the
cast of a die. Charles VII. was reproached by
the followers of the house of Burgundy, and by
* Jean Dunois, Count of Orleans and Longueville,
was son of the Duke of Orleans, and Mariette
d'Enghien. He was born on the 25th November 1402:
he rejoiced in his title of the Bastard of Orleans, and
wore the fleurs de lys as his cognizance,


ACNES SOREL. 35
the English for allowing himself to be ruled by
these knights-errant of fortune. But could he
have done otherwise? The “Roitelet of Bourges,”
with all his great vassals against him, was com-
pelled to court fortune, for want of substantial
advantages, with legends of youth, of victory, and
of glory !

V.
Cbe jSteton, ºcotch, alto Lombato
Žlutiliarieg of Cbatićg l)ii.
(1320-1420.)
With this wandering band of knights, without
fiefs or money, King Charles VII. could never
have hoped for success in a sustained struggle
against the English and Burgundians unless
auxiliaries had come to his help with considerable
forces, national hatred, and profound feelings of
jealousy against his enemies. Such auxiliaries
were at first found in the Bretons, who had an
instinctive repugnance to the Saxo-Norman race.
These feelings dated from long ago. It was in
vain that the powerful sword of Charlemagne had
striven to unite the Bretons and Normans under
a single Count or Duke. The Bretons had fretted
under the yoke, and their proud independance
had been roused against the Norman race that
ruled England. In all the wars which the Kings

36 AGNES SOREL.
of France had had to wage with the English and
the Gascons" the standard of the Dukes of
Brittany had been proudly placed by the side of
the Sovereign when he marched against the
English, and it had again been seen in the
deliverance of the country under Charles V.
The splendid embodiment of the Breton nation-
ality was at that time the Constable, Bertrand
du Guesclin. In this noble and sacred soil of
Brittany, where the history of great persons
mingled with myth and legend, the origin of du
Guesclin was found in the prophecies of the
enchanter Merlin, and the Chazzsons de Gesſes of
Charlemagne.” We find even that his renown
had been great in Castille, Gascony, and in
France, and always as the foe of the English. .
“A lui n'était chevalier comparable
De prouesses son vivant, ce dit-on
Ne qui tant fust ni bon ne convenable
Pour gouverner le bon peuple charton
Or il est mort Dieu l’y fasse pardon
Qu'il plust a Dieu qu'il vecust encore
* One of the most faithful chroniclers of this reign
is William the Breton, who has written a complete
poem on the King of France. -
* The Chansoms de Gestes said he was descended from
a Moorish King of the name of Aquin established in
Brittany, where he had built a castle to which he gave
the name of Glay, from which we have Glay Aquin
(du Guesclin).

AGNES SORELL. - 37
Pour defendre du leopard felon
L'escu d'azur a trois fleurs de lys d'or.''*

The war waged against the English by the
Constable du Guesclin in the reign of Charles V.,
is a noble monument of devotion to the crown of
France. It was the more bitterly waged that
hatred of the English seemed innate in the Breton
race. Less than a century before the Chateaux of
France had resounded with the fame of a glorious
combat between thirty Breton and thirty English
knights : An ancient MS. in the National Library
thus describes the famous deed :
*Seigneur, or faisons paix, clers et barons,
Bannerets, chevaliers, bacheliers et trestous nobles
hommes,
Evesques, abbés et gens religieux
Heraults et menestrels, et vous bons compagnons
Gentilshommes et bourgeois de toutes les nations
Ecoutez ces roumans que dire nous voulons.
L'histoire en est vrai eat les dire en sont bons
Comment trente Anglais hardis comme lyons
Combattirent en un jour contre trente Bretons."

Amongst the knights whose names have been
* MS. 7595. Biblioth. Nationale. The following
verses descriptive of Guesclin's coat of arms are still
extant.
* L'ecu d'argent a un aigle de sable
A deux tetes et un rouge baton
Portant le preux, le vaillant conetable
Qui de Bertrand Guesclin avoit le nom.
38 AGNES SOREL.
preserved as having taken part in this struggle,
are to be found the Bretons, Roger de Beaumanoir,
the Sire de Tintiniac, Guy de Rochefort, Henri
de Saint-Yvon, Guillaume de Montauban, Alain
de Keravrai, Louis de Goyon, Jean de Serent, and
Geoffroi de la Marche, whose coats of arms are
all given by the author.
Amongst the English who fought most bravely,
are named Robert Bembroke, Robert Knox,
Rupeſorte Hennequin, Hugo le Gaillard, Ganne-
lon, John Russell, and others. The fight was
long and bloody, owing to the hatred of the
combatants.
This hatred still survived and led the Bretons
to assist Charles VII against the English masters
of France. A few concessions of feudal dignities,
and the raising of their valiant Duke to the
dignity of Constable of France, sufficed to bind
the Bretons to Charles VII.
The other race, the mountaineers of Scotland
and the sworn foes of England, had fought
Henry V. on the very soil of England; and when
the Regency of Scotland, after the reign of
James I., saw the power of Henry in France
increasing and developing, and the crown of the
country passing to his successor, it did not hesitate
to offer its support to Charles VII., that Prince
whom the English contemptuously nicknamed the
Roitelet de Bourges. Accordingly, six thousand

AGNES SOREL. - 39
brave Scots came to join the French adventurers,
led by the Earl of Douglas, a man descended
from an illustrious family, and to whom Charles VII.
gave the Duchy of Touraine." Among the
Scottish chiefs, we find also Stewart of Darnley,
who became so celebrated, and to whom
Charles VII. gave the lands of Aubigny.” Trust-
worthy followers had to be secured for the battles
about to be fought with England, who was
now mistress of Paris and of all the north of
France. Accordingly Charles VII, gave the
Scots everything he could, even to his last fiefs.
From the first moment that the Scottish guards
made their appearance in France, every year
. witnessed the departure from their highlands of
bands of these brave companions on their way to
take service under the King.3 In France they
found relatives, friends, protectors, lands, and
fiefs. This was the origin of the company of
Scottish guards in the household of the King of
France. But another source of succour presented
itself from an unexpected quarter, namely Italy.
* Douglas was made lieutenant-general, a dignity
which was above that of Constable, 1421.
*The lands long remained in the family.
3 This custom still continued in the reign of
Louis XI., whence Walter Scott has taken his Quentin
Durward,


40 AGNES SOREL.
Jacobo Sforza, a condottieri leader, had made
himself master of the Duchy of Milan," and of the
chief cities of Lombardy. When his power
was established, and he himself recognised by
Charles V., he was able to dispense with his troops
of followers, which were composed of brave men,
accustomed to the hardships of war, and it was
one of these large guerilla bands, which Ludovic
Sforza, Jacobo's son, sent to Charles VII.
The forces of the King of Bourges were com-
posed of several elements. Firstly, there were
the leaders of the Gascon and Touraine men-
at-arms, brave but unable alone to obtain victory.
Secondly, the Bretons, profoundly jealous of the
English, and as brave as the Gascons, but obstin-
ate, and exacting in the concessions they obtained
from their sovereign, Thirdly, the Scots and
Lombards who had to be paid in money or in
land, although the King had scarcely any provinces
of his own, and even these were wavering in their
allegiance, with the exception of the Dauphiné,
which yielded itself a ready instrument in the
levying of imposts. It was in fact a faithful
domain of the French crown. Among these
three mutually hostile forces, who could be found
to take the leadership? Was the constable or
* He was the first of the Sforzas who was called
Attendolo, and was born in the humblest rank of
society, in 1369.
AGNES sor EL. 4I
commander-in-chief to be chosen ſrom among the
men-at-arms, the Bretons or the Scots in the
expeditions that were to be undertaken against
the English P

VI.
Cbe Courts of jSoutge; and Cbinoll.
Qbatleg u)ii,’ g Elliſiance with the ſpouge Of
Tânjou. Eittival of Elgnég $otel,
(I420-1427.)
Charles VII., while still Dauphin of France,
had married Marie of Anjou, a lady of that illus-
trious house that claimed connection with Provence,
Naples, and Sicily." Marie had had as father
Louis II., Duke of Anjou, and as mother Iolanthe,
daughter of the King of Brittany; her favourite
brother was that unfortunate René of Anjou,
possessing an excellent heart, a poet, a good
musician, and an illuminator of MSS., of whom
Provence has long cherished the memory. The
Counts of Anjou were the last Princes of that
race of trouvères and troubadours whose songs,
like that of Petrarch, formed the epic crown of
the Middle Ages. A sister of Marie of Anjou
had married François de Montfort, Duke of
Britanny, and René himself was engaged to the
* Louis II. of Anjou was King of Naples and Sicily.
42 AGNES SOREI.
heiress of the house of the Dukes of Lorraine.
It was impossible to find a more splendid alliance
than that of the house of Anjou. Queen Mary
was thus destined to help in no small way the
agreement between Charles VII. and the great
feudatories, and thus eventually to bring about .
his restoration. -
Besides her high birth and breeding, the young
Queen had an active and versatile character, and
a deep love and devotion for the young King, to
whom she had just borne a fair young Dauphin,
afterwards Louis XI. No character could be
more submissive or more resigned. Never did
she utter a complaint against Charles VII. “He
is my lord,” she used to say : “he has a right to
guide all my actions, and I have none.” Not-
withstanding that the King was then miserable
and abandoned by all, yet the Queen Marie of
Anjou brought him the support of the inhabitants
of Touraine, of Brittany, and of Lorraine, and all
the Southern districts. With her active and intel-
ligent character, the Queen made herself the
negotiatrix among her relatives for alliances
against the English, whom she hated like a true
Angevine.
The retinue of the Queen, according to the
custom of all the house of Anjou, was a veritable
court of chivalry. Tournaments and love affairs
were the staple and constant occupations of her

AGNES SOREL. 43
attendants. We here find a reflection of those
festivities which René of Anjou, Count of Pro-
vence, invented later for the town of Aix. René's
wife, Isabelle of Lorraine, was not the least fair
and charming of ladies; she had brought among
her maids of honour a young lady of the name of
Agnes. Her family name differed in pronunciation
according to the dialectal difference in Anjou,
Orleans, or Burgundy. Some called her Soreau,
others Sorel, or even Soret. Her real name was
Soreau, for she was the daughter of Jean Soreau,
Lord of Codun, squire of the Count of Clermont,
and her mother was Catherine de Meignelai," a
noble and illustrious family of Touraine. Agnes
had when quite young entered in the service of
Madame Isabelle of Anjou-Lorraine, who had
taken a great liking for her and had brought her
up, and loved her, so that she had given her much
land and gear.”
Such is our first information regarding the origin
of Agnes Sorel. After comparing dates and facts,
we can place the time of Agnes's birth between
I409 and I4 Io. She was therefore, when she
followed the Queen of Sicily to the Court of
Bourges, about sixteen or seventeen years old.3
* Agnes was born in 1409 in the village of Fro-
menteau, in Touraine.
* Jean Chartier,
3She was then called Mademoiselle de Fromenteau.

44 AGNES SOREL.
It was at the time of the captivity of the good
René of Anjou in the hands of the Duke of
Burgundy, when he painted the illuminated por-
traits on glass of the Dukes Jean and Philip.
Agnes's features have been very imperfectly
preserved to us, but still we can discover from
them that her forehead was high and open," her
eyes blue and piercing, surmounted by long eye-
lashes and languishing lids, her nose of perfect
shape, and her mouth small. Her neck, shoulders,
and bosom were of perfect symmetry and snowy
whiteness.
“Agnès, la belle Agnès deviendra le surnom
Tant que de la beauté, beauté sera le nom.”
And with all this beauty she had the gentlest
spirit in the world, “and her eloquence was so
much beyond that of other women that she was
looked upon as a prodigy.” It is impossible to
tell precisely when the King first fell in love with
Agnes Sorel. Their interviews have remained a
mystery. Not very long since, in the ruins of the
castle of Chinon, were shown the subterranean
vaults that lent their shadows to these midnight
interviews.” -
What was the influence of Agnes Sorel on the
* Collection of portraits and engravings (Biblioth.
Nat.) There still exists a bust of Agnes.
* I believe this account to be very doubtful.

AGNES SOREL. 4.

destinies of Charles VII., and what part did she
take in the deliverance of France P. We have
glorious traditions on this point, and we shall
aſterwards examine how far they are to be trusted.
At no period was the situation of Charles VII.
more gloomy than at the moment of the appear-
ance of Agnes Sorel. In all the battles the great
companies were broken, and the towns were
captured. The Scots themselves, for all their
bravery, had just been dispersed at the battle of
Verneuil : the sturdy Highlanders had comported
themselves like heroes, but the chivalry of France
and Scotland had left their spurs on the field of
battle, and thus the King met with a new disaster,
which can compare with those of Poitiers and
Agincourt. The English crossed the Loire under
the Duke of Bedford, Regent of the kingdom for
Henry VI. What was the real reason for this
superiority of the English archers over the
chivalry of France? This reason must have been
one founded on general grounds, for it always
produced the same results. In the first place, it
would be an error to believe that the troops who
were constantly victorious were all English.” The
*The English leaders were Warwick, Salisbury, and
Talbot.
*The English troops were very highly paid, every
man-at-arms receiving a shilling, every archer six-
pence. (Rymer, vol. x., p. 392.)
46 AGNES SOREL.
ſairest feathers in the Crown of England were at
that time the fiefs of Guienne and the sub-fief of
Gascony. Thus the English King had under his
banner, Gascons, Normans, and Flemings, agile
and robust men, whose lances were a very forest
on the field of battle. A severe discipline bound
them together. The soldiers of Gascony were
good men at drawing the long and cross bows,
and seldom missed their man. The English
wore better forged armour, their iron and steel
being of finer quality, and their cuirasses, arm-
plates, and lambays were perfectly fitted to their
limbs by reason of great exactness in the work-
manship, which, while preserving the body of the
wearer, left him freedom of movement. The
Flemish towns furnished them with battle-axes,
swords, extremely sharp lances, and cross-bows
that shot so exactly as seldom to miss their mark;
these were so small that they could be protected
from rain under a cloak. Their order of battle
was closer and more regular. While the Gascon
archers swept round the knights, the compact
squares of lances" from Normandy, Northumber-
land, and Wales resisted the somewhat undis-
ciplined charges of the French host, so that when
once unhorsed the knights could only with great
* Monstrelet discusses the causes of the English
success at considerable length, p. 1, fol. 303.

AGNES SOREL, 47
difficulty remount their steeds, which were
caparisoned, like their riders, in iron armour
They could be described as so many feudal
castles —-formidable when upright, ruins when
overthrown. It was also evident that the English,
being more advanced in the art of iron work and
in the construction of artillery, maintained a
superiority in the casting of pieces of ordnance,
which were a recent invention, and which hurled
large round stones to a great distance. These
various advantages are sufficient to explain the
almost constant triumphs of the English from the
days of the Black Prince. Alas ! the cause of
Charles VII. seemed altogether desperate |

VII.
ILøgenö of the flyai() of lºaucoulcutg.
(I4IO-I429.)
In the midst of these undisciplined movements
of the royal troops of Charles VII., and when it
was even seriously proposed under his tent to
withdraw within the Dauphiné, and no longer
remain and defend a cause that seemed beyond
hope—at this moment there suddenly spread a
rumour that a young girl had just arrived at
Chinon, asking an audience with Charles. She
was said to have had divine revelations, and
declared she was destined to make the English
raise the siege of Orleans, and thereafter to con-
-
48 AGNES SOREL,
duct the noble King to the church of Saint Rémi
at Rheims."
In order to explain how this legend grew with
such great rapidity and produced such a powerful
effect, we must first examine of what elements the
army of Charles VII, was composed. The knights-
errant, captains of the Great Companies, had all
quick and active imaginations, and were under the
influence of the romances of chivalry and legendary
ore. The Scots, on the other hand, were still more
susceptible to romantic feelings, and peopled the
mountains and lochs of Scotland with sylphs,
with apparitions of women in white, who kept
guard over the ancient castles. The legends of
the Bretons, again, those other brave allies of
Charles VII., told of the appearance of fairies and
enchanters among their plains, woods, and rocks.
There were Morgana the kind, Merlin, and old
Druid or magician” of Scotland, whose prophecies
* Joan reached Chinon on the 24th February, 1429.
(Read the fine essays of M. de Laverdi on the story of
the Maid.)
* Merlin was born in Caledonia or Scotland, in the
fifth century : some attributed his prophecies to
divine virtue, others to intercourse with the devil.
For the rest, the part played by Merlin in the popular
“Romances of the Round Table” is considerable; his
prophesies have been translated into all languages.
Bibliophiles value highly the rare French black letter
edition in 3 vols, folio, Paris, 1498.


. AGNES SORF.L. *49

were everywhere well known, and in which was
written, that “France would be delivered by a
warlike virgin.” It was not, therefore, astonish-
ing that the sudden arrival of a young girl in
armour at the camp of Charles VII., with a
mission from Heaven, should exalt the enthusiasm
of the captains and soldiers to the highest pitch.
On an old tapestry discovered at Lucerne, there
are seen three or four heavily armed knights, who
are received by Charles VII. on his throne, and
among them we could not distinguish a female
ſorm but for a legend in German, which runs as
follows—“How a young girl was sent from God
to the Dauphin on earth.”* Who, then, was
this girl, whose name was already on every one's
lips | She was called Jehanne (Joanne) a name
distinctively belonging to Lorraine. Her birth-
place was the village of Domremy (domus
Remensis) between Neufchateau and Vaucouleurs.
Her parents were worthy labourers, living by the
work of their hands, and her father was called
Jacques d'Arc (or the archer.) Heaven had
granted him fine children, three boys and two
girls. Lorraine was in the domain of René, King
of Sicily, who had obtained it through his marriage

*“Vie Kunt die Jock frow von got gesant dem
Delfin in suit land.” This very hideous tapestry has
been bought by the Marguis d'Azeglio, minister of
Sardinia in London.
- D
50 AGNES SOREL.
with Isabeau, but such was the power of the
Burgundians and the English at this time, that
they were masters of a large part of the district,
which was contested from hamlet to hamlet.
Near Domremy was the village of Marié, which
sided with the English, while Vaucouleurs took
the part of René and of Chârles VII., so that
there had already been stone throwing and slinging
between the inhabitants of the two villages.”
Lorraine, a country abounding in thick forests
and Druidical rocks, was also a favourite abode
of spirits. It had sacred springs and mysterious
woods, and the inhabitants loved to hear long
stories and fabulous histories. Heathenism had
left lasting traces in Gaul. At Domremy for
example, there was still standing the fairy or
nymph tree, which the young boys and girls
covered with flowers, during the festivities of the
month of May.” Christianity had placed the
image of the Holy Virgin under the cool shades,
and she went under the name of Notre Dame of
Domrémy. To her, Joan had vowed a deep
devotion, as well as to her two patrons, Saints
*The most curious study on the Maid of Orleans,
is that contained in the third volume of Notices et
extraits des MSS. de la Bibliothèque du Roi.
* The Maypole had its origin in the Roman festival
of Flora, where the youths danced in a circle, adorned
with garlands, &c.
-


AGNES SOREL. 5 I

Catherine and Marguerite. According to the
custom of the proud race of the Lorraine women,
Joan rode a large bony horse of the district.
Some more simple chronicles say merely that she
knew only how to spin thread and weave the web,
with the intention doubtless of adding to the
marvellous nature of her mission.
Throughout Lortaine, nothing was spoken of but
the siege of Orleans by the English, under their
famous chiefs, Salisbury, Suffolk, and Talbot."
It was well known that the destiny of Charles
was at stake at Orleans; if this large for-
tified city were once taken, the English could
spread beyond the Loire. Tours, Chinon and
even Bourges could not withstand them, and the
cause of the lilies of France was lost. Conse-
quently the last remnants of the chivalry of the
country were grouped round Orleans, William d’
Albret, Jacques de Carbannes, Lahire, Xaintrailles,
Dunois and the Scottish Guards, under their proud
mountain chieftains, Stewart and Douglas. All
would know how to die in support of the heroism
of the citizens of Orleans, who defended their city
with the energy of despair.
Captain Baudricourt commanded for the

* Consult for the siege of Orleans, the Chronicle of
Monstrelet, and compare it with Chartier and
Holinshed. There exists also a journal du siège
d'Orléans, and a Chronique de la Pucelle.
52 AGNES SOREL.
Duchess of Bar, (the Queen's sister) that part of
Lorraine which remained loyal to its Dukes.
The young girl Joan presented herself before this
brave chief, to ask permission to go to the town
of Chinon, because the Holy Virgin, Saint
Catherine and Saint Marguerite had revealed to
her that she was destined to deliver Orleans, and
to conduct the King under his own banner to the
cathedral of Rheims, to be crowned King of
France. The chronicle of the Maid tells us of the
apparitions and the miracle which confirmed Joan
of Arc's mission; the Church has not admitted
this as a particular case of sanctity, and the
absence of such authentication cannot be sup-
plied by miracles. There is in all this wonderful
case a mixture of Merlin's prophecies, and of
miracles from heaven which would lead us
to believe that the chronicle of the Maid was
added to like the legends of the Wandering Jew,
or of Geneviève de Brabant, which were sung in
the war tents and castles of the middle ages. The
only thing that a sober historian can admit is,
that at any cost the courage of the men-at-arms
had to be roused, and that the appearance of a
young girl on horse-back, like a messenger from
heaven, at the head of the companies of warriors,
preceded by a religious banner, and herself
endowed with a character of sanctity, was cal-
culated to revive the energy of mercenaries, create


AGNES SOREL. 53
hopes, and increase their heroism. It would be
impossible to deny the wonderful deeds of the
Maid, and the new spirit of discipline with which
she inspired the army of Charles VII. ; but the
real glory" of the defence of Orleans belongs to
the burgesses of the city, who defended themselves
with an energy inspired by their hatred of Eng-
land. Joan of Arc was but the standard that
directed the great actions of chivalry : she trans-
formed the war into a crusade; she imparted a
peculiar sanctity to their courage. Her prediction
to the Lord of Baudricourt was accomplished; the
siege of Orleans was raised by the English ; she
brought the King to Rheims, where he was
crowned, almost without pomp, and without a
nobility. Joan failed before Paris, where she
fought with the utmost bravery from the summit
of the Butte des Moulins. Wounded and sur-
rounded by the press of men-at-arms, she fell into
the power of the English at Compiègne.” Thus
ended her mission and her influence over the
cause and events of Charles's reign. In the short
period of eight months all the glorious episodes of


* There has been found in the Maison de Ville at
Orleans a vellum manuscript, with the title, “Discours
au vrai du siège qui fut mis devant Orleans,” and it is
the most curious work on this siege.
*In the month of January, 1430 : Joan of Arc had
fought like a hero.
54 AGNES SOREL.
the life of Joan of Arc took place. With the
exception of the raising of the siege of Orleans,
there was no decisive contest which could decide
the supremacy of Charles VII., and the English
remained masters of the fields of battle. The
legend of Joan of Arc was a passing gleam of
light cast on the history of France. This episode
produced a peculiar effect of fear on the English.
What the French camp attributed to an inspiration
or providential sanctity, the English had found a
cause for in sorcery. England was the country
of gloomy witches and incantations. The transieut
success of the chivalry of Charles VII. under the
standard of the Maid had deeply embittered the
mercenaries and Welsh archers,” as well as the
Norman and Saxon knights. Joan was not re-
garded as an ordinary prisoner whom the fortune
of war had allowed to fall into their hands, but
as an armed sorceress, who had frequently been
without mercy for the English archers who fell
into her hands. Accordingly, a general cry of
execration against the Maid of Orleans arose in
the English army as an expression of savage
hatred; her trial had to be arranged so as to
satisfy the clamours of the camp, “We must
have the sorceress.” The records of this trial
*The Duke of Bedford had a Te Deum sung for
the capture of the Maid. (Monstrelet, vol. 8.)

AGNES SOREL. 55
still exist; the patient and scholarly erudition of
historians has examined the nature of the pro-
ceedings. It has been presented, so to speak, as
a work of the Inquisition, and an eternal reproach
to the Church, and we find a perfect show of
cardinals, bishops, and monks in the pictures and
engravings of modern schools. It is time, how-
ever, to give this trial its true character—namely,
that of vengeance on the part of the English
soldiery, when the Count of Vaudemont had
delivered the Maid into the hands of the Duke of
Bedford.
Let us follow, then, one by one, all the steps of
this trial. The first demand that Joan should be
prosecuted came from the University of Paris.
(The Inquisition did not exist in France.*) This
demand was addressed to the Duke of Burgundy,
in order that Joan might be handed over to the
English. After she was taken to Rouen and
imprisoned, by the commands of the Earl of
Warwick, a Commission of sixty Anglo-Norman
assessors (a kind of jury) was named, under the
presidency of Jean Conchon, the former Maitre
de Requêtes to the Parliament of Paris, and


“Saint Louis had been unwilling to admit the
Inquisition or the presence of a grand-inquisiteur. Before
him Philippe Auguste had rejected this institution,
except for the repression of the Albigenses.
56 AGNES SOREL,
whom the Duke of Bedford had raised to the
Bishopric of Beauvais.
Besides this Commission there was nominated
an enquesteur or public prosecutor, and it is this
name of enquesteur which has led people to
believe that the Inquisition intervened. The
Inquisition had other forms of procedure; it had
no assessors nor council, but pronounced irre-
vocable and secret judgment in cases of heresy,
though, of course, it handed the accused over
for execution to the secular authorities.* Joan
underwent six public examinations. First of all,
enquiries were made in Lorraine; all were favour-
able enough to the accused, only it was established
that she was accustomed to wear men's dress, and
to speak of her heavenly visions. On several
occasions the assessors counselled Joan to cease
from wearing such garments as they were not those
of her sex, and to give up believing herself
inspired. Joan, however, persisted in both these
COllrSeS.
The judgment pronounced by the assessors
against Joan of Arc is still extant.” The Bishop
of Beauvais, who was president, declared that
*The records of the trial of the Maid have been
collected, and can be seen in the National Library.
*Taken from the trial of Joan of Arc. (National
Library.)

AGNES SOREL. 57
“seeing that Joan persisted in her sin, she should
be confined, and kept on bread and water.”
There was no sentence of death. As soon as
this sentence was known, a cry of indignation
arose in the English army. The Earl of Warwick,
full of anger, exclaimed, “The business is
botched, for Joan has escaped us.” The assessors
declared “they could do nothing.” The Earl
of Warwick insisted that henceforth the trial
should be conducted by the secular authoritiy.
The English soldiers demanded her death. Joan
of Arc exclaimed, “If, as I asked, I had been
kept by the functionaries of the Church, and
not by my enemies, my lot would not have
been such a cruel one.”" The Bishop of Beauvais,
who is represented as extremely harsh, said to
Joan, “Go in peace, the Church can no longer
defend you, and abandons you to secular power.”
This secular power, which meant but the will of
the soldiery, handed Joan of Arc over to punish-
ment. The veterans and English archers, impatient
of delay, exclaimed, “Well then, priests, get you
gone quickly; do you want us to miss our dinner
to day? Leave her to us at once, and it will
soon be all over.” This hatred followed Joan even
to her place of execution. The English veterans
*These words are curious when found coming from
Joan of Arc.

58 AGNES SOREL.
assisted at this with a grim smile of pleasure; every
one there was connected with the camp; if there
were any priests round the stake, it is because con-
demned persons according to the general formulas
of the Church, were to be assisted during their last
moments; the priest who lifted the cross to her lips,
that she might kiss the Christ, did not do so in
derision, but as a duty, in order to assist this soul
in pain. If there was a regular pyre made, it was
because the English treated Joan as a sorceress.
It was always in this solemn and almost infernal
way that the English interpreted miracles, an
example of which we have in the legend of
Macbeth, which Shakespeare, a century later, illum-
inated with his genius." In this fatal and solemn
persecution, the English leaders displayed an
obstinacy which was a result not only of their
vindictive character, but also of their military
situation. The spirit of the soldiers required
awakening, for it had been greatly depressed by
Joan of Arc's success. The belief had to be
established that her temporary victories had a
magical cause which must necessarily disappear as
soon as the ashes of the sorceress were scattered
to the wind. Armies are like crowds, impression-
* These facts are all drawn from the trial of Joan,
compared with Monstrelet, book iii., cap. II, and
Holinshed’s chronicle. The records of the trial fill
thirty MS. vols, in the National Library.


AGNES SOREL. 59
able to the last degree, and any unexpected
occurrence rouses or discourages them. If the
English had believed in Joan's miracles, they would
have seen in them the hand of heaven, and their
hearts would have been cowed. The spell cast
by the sorceress they thought was bound to cease
having its effect on the army from the day she
ascended the funeral-pyre.
VIII.
Eicts of the Engliab (50wetnment at
parig. Elcceggion of benty lºi,
(1424-1430.)
The tendency of the populace, after great civil
troubles, is to accept any government that offers
it protection or flatters its pride, especially when
it is deeply compromised in regard to the power
which has been overthrown. Its main fear, as I
have said, is that of seeing the old power rein-
stated, with the prospect of reprisals on its former
opponents, and to escape this, the rabble will
acclaim anything, even violence itself. In this
we find the explanation of the strength, duration,
and even the undoubted popularity of Henry the
Sixth's regency at Paris. Henry was, besides,
supported by the Burgundian faction, which
included the inhabitants of the halles and the
guilds ; and he had on his side Queen Isabeau of
Bavaria, one of the favourite personages of Paris.

60 AGNES SOREL.
Though now of an advanced age, the Queen kept
up all her old tastes for pleasures, pomp, and
festivities. In her mansion in the Rue Barbette,
there were plays, ballets, masquerades, and even
Courts of Love, to sit in judgment on faithless
knights, who craved mercy from their mistresses.
The King of England had entrusted his supreme
authority, both in Paris and over the whole of
France, to his brother, the Duke of Bedford, one
of the leading statesmen of the day, and a great
popular favorite. Commerce, invigorated by the
close union with England, was prosperous; the
citizens' shops were ever full of strangers. A
favorite of the the Church, the Duke of Bedford
had begun, in the centre of the public markets,
the magnificent basilisk of St. Eustache, on the
lines laid down by the canons of Anglo-Norman
architecture. One of his followers, the Earl of
Winchester, fortified a castle between the Bièvre
and the Marne, which took his name, since
corrupted into Bicêtre. To facilitate the unload-
ing of merchandise, the duke of Bedford built a
quay, long known as the Port aux Anglais. Every-
thing was flourishing in Paris; obedience therefore
was universal. Parliament, clergy, citizens, all
were devoted to the Regent.”
* John Plantagenet, Duke of Bedford, was the
third son of Henry IV. of England.


AGNES SOREI. 61
The accession of Henry VI. as King of France
took place at the death of the poor imbecile King,
Charles VI., and every constitutional and legal
formality was observed in this transmission of the
Crown. We read in the registers of the Parliament
of Paris, “On this Thursday, the 19th day of
November 1422, there came together, and were
assembled in the House of Parliament, the presi-
dent, counsellors, and Bishop of Paris, the chiefs
and deputies of the chapters, monasteries and
colleges, the provosts of Paris, and of the mer-
chants, the magistrates, lawyers, and procurators
of the Chatelet, as well as many burgesses,
villains, and inhabitants of the city of Paris. To
these came the duke of Bedford, brother of the
Regent, and who has since died, and the said
Duke of Bedford sat alone at the head of the said
court of Parliament, and he declared to them that
from the marriage of the said late King of Eng-
land with a daughter of France, had been born a
goodly son, called Henry," King of France and
England according to the said treaty of Troyes,
who should be proclamed King of France and
England, and that the said Duke of Bedford was
minded to employ his body, soul and chivalry for
* Henry was at this time only nine months old.
The Duke of Gloucester held the Regency in the

absence of the Duke of Bedford, who was then in
France. (Parliamentary Rolls iv. 170.)

62 AGNES SOREL.
his nephew, for the good of this kingdom, and to
maintain the subjects thereof in good faith and
peace. And that the said Regent was minded to
have the Duchy of Normandy restored to the
Crown of France . . . . And then he caused
the aforesaid assembly to come and swear in his
hands, and in the hands of the Chancellor, who
held a missal, and they caused each one to swear
that they would keep the said Treaty of peace,
under obedience to the said Henry, King of France
and England, and of the said Regent, and the
chancellor charged the chief magistrate and the
deputies to cause the inhabitants of the town to
take the oath at the town hall, district by district.”
All the legal formalities were carefully observed,
and nothing was wanting to the acknowledgment
of Henry VI., as King of France and England.
The populace desired the presence of the young
King Henry at Paris; the nature of this desire on
their part can be seen in the petitions of the
Parisians, who were anxious to see the young King
of England and France take possession of his
kingdom and his good city of Paris; it was dis-
cussed at every meeting at the Town Hall. It
was with disappointment that they learned the
* This strange and curious act is preserved in the
Parliamentary registers, 19. November 1422. It is
given with corresponding accuracy in the Memoires des
Paris p. 71o.
AGNES SOREL. 63
obstacles the English parliament placed in the
way of the King's making this journey. The
Lords and Commons had a feeling that if their
King were to be established in Paris, there would
be perforce a modification in his title and pre-
rogative, and that the three fleurs de lys would
appear in chief, while the leopard of England
would be merely quartered on the national arms."
Accordingly, the Commons refused the subsidies
for defraying the expense of the King's journey,
which would necessarily be great, considering that
it involved his entering into possession of a whole
realm.
The Parisians therefore sighed and longed after
their young King, although the regency of the
Duke of Bedford was carried on with solicitude
and intelligence. A laborious man himself, the
Regent granted the artisans and guilds consider-
able privileges and a new organisation. In the
archives of France are found several ordinances
of the Duke of Bedford, regent of the kingdom,
which have been kept like those of the King.
One confirms all the magistrates, officers and
notaries in their functions, without any change or
alteration.” Another divides Paris into districts,
each with its own magistrate. On the request of

* Rot. Parlem. iv. 175.
* 5 December 1422.
64 AGNES SOREL.
the burgesses, he freed every house that was in
ruins from loans and mortgages. The Regent
also modified the system of annuities and of
succession. The jurisdiction of the Châtelet was
regulated by a special ordinance. In each of
these acts the Regent, in the name of Henry VI.,
speaks of “his fair kingdom of France and his
good city of Paris.” The formula used by the
Regent is this—“By the King, on the motion of
his Council, convened by the order of the Duke
of Bedford, Regent of the kingdom.” The sys-
tematic character of the English constitution is
revealed in these acts, and the Parliament acted
spontaneously and on its own account, provided
it secured the approbation and sanction of the
King. The reign of Henry VI. would have seen
the Paris Parliament constituted in the same
forms, and with the method of government by
Lords and Commons, as in England. “On this
day, the 7th of February, 1424, at eight o'clock,
there left the Parliament Chamber the Presidents,
MM. Morvilliers and Longueil, and several Coun-
sellors, to journey to the Regent, the Duke of
Bedford, at Tournelles, to elect a Chancellor in
place of Master Jehan Leclerc, who had on the
previous day given up his seat, and had been
excused and deposed from the office and exercise
of Chancellorship, to which office was then elected,
as was desired, M. de Luxembourg, Bishop of

AGNES SOREL. 65
Therouane, who was received that day into
office, and took the accustomed oath in the hands
of the said Bedford, Regent of this kingdom.”
(Register of Parliament, ſolio 1424.) Some time
aſterwards the desire of the burgesses of Paris
was granted: their dear little King, Henry VI.,
received authority from Parliament to make a
journey to France, and a subsidy was voted
in order to put him in a position to hold his
State with plentiful generosity during his journey.
Henry VI. set out and landed at Havre, whence
he passed to Rouen, an essentially Norman town,
and consequently always somewhat English. The
young King was received with enthusiasm; most
of the barons and knights wore on their breast the
Norman coat of arms. On his arrival at Pontoise
the King gave an audience to the Parliament of
Paris, the provost of the merchants, and the guilds,
who came with banners flying to congratulate
him." The moment he made his appearance at
the gates of the capital all the bells were set
pealing; at every street corner triumphal arches
of fruits and flowers spanned the streets ; then
there were scaffolding where mysteries and rhap-
sodies were enacted : angels descended from the
blue sky as if they came from paradise to crown
the young King, who seemed to share in the

* 14th December, 1431.
E
66 AGNES SOREL.
public joy." Paris kept high holiday for eight
days, in the midst of the feasting and rejoicing of
the inhabitants. Oceans of cider, ale, and wine
of Argenteuil were drunk. When the young
King was seen to raise his cap to salute his
grandmother Isabeau, seated at a balcony at the
Hôtel de Saint Paul, the house destined for the
abode of her little grandson, applause seemed
inadequate to satisfy the eager joy of the people.
Persevering historical research has enabled me to
discover an act emanating from the Court of the
young Henry VI., and sealed at Paris. It is thus
worded—“Henry, by the grace of God King of
France and England, . . . . . . given under our
seal of the Châtelet (Supreme Court) of Paris, in
the absence of our own, and of our reign the first
year.” The Parliamentary seal (the great seal)
represented the young King seated on a chair
holding two sceptres, one in each hand—in the
right the shield of France, on the left that of
England, the ſleurs de lys and the leopard being
quartered thereon.”
The chronicles of this time, written after the
*The procession passed the Rue Saint Denis, before
the Châtelet, the Sainte Chapelle, the Rue de la
Calandre, the Vieille Juiverie, the pont Notre Dame,
and the faubourg Saint Antoine, on its way to the
Hôtel Saint Paul. (Journal de Paris, 1431.)
* Biblioth. Nationale (collection of engravings.)

A&NES SOREL. 67
restoration of Charles VII., mention but a few
names of French barons or knights, as taking
part in the royal procession of Henry VI., with
those of the cardinals of Winchester and York,
the Duke of Bedford, and the Earls of Warwick
and Suffolk. But these very chronicles declare
that the numerous and magnificent procession
extended from the Rues Saint Antoine and
Saint Paul, to the Bastille, in the midst of
cries of noël / močl The young King with his
charming face, graciously bowed to the multitude
that cheered him. From the Hôtel Saint Paul,
he went to reside at the Hôtel des Tournelles,
which had been thoroughly repaired by the Duke
of Bedford. The richness displayed in its apart-
ments, and the various styles of buildings, rendered
it almost unrecognisable. The Duke of Bedford
had a great taste for Anglo-Norman architecture.
King Henry VI., by the advice of his barons,
resolved to be consecrated and crowned at Notre-
IDame, in Paris, that cathedral church so loved
and respected by the Parisians. The ceremony
was splendid, the streets were richly decked, and
the acclamations unanimous. The King went
to the marble table of the parliament to
dine. Contrary to custom, which only admitted
nobles, magistrates, and rich burgesses round this
festal board, Henry wished the doors to be opened
to all the people, and the result was that the

68 AGNES SOREL.
palace was invaded by the crowds from the
halles and workshops." The highest lords and
magistrates found themselves elbowed by butchers,
tanners, makers of hats, and even cobblers, and
this greatly disgusted them. But Henry VI. aimed
above all at popularity with the multitude. The
festivities at Paris during the King's short visit
were re-doubled; fireworks were displayed at the
Chatelet, and, following the English fashion, dis-
tributions were made of underdone meat, that found
little favour with the public palate. In the midst
of these rejoicings and feastings, the somewhat
sombre spirit of the Saxon race was seen bursting
forth. Comedy actors gave representations of the
Dance of Death, in which death spared no
condition. With a violin in his hand, and a flute
in his mouth, he danced with the Pope, Emperors,
Kings, Cardinals, members of Parliament, rich
burgesses, harlots, grinning with them all in a
very amiable manner. The Dance of Death took
place on the graveyard des Innocents, near the site
of the church of Saint Eustache.” Before leaving
*The following words, flattering for the Parisians,
are found in the preamble of an ordinance of the king,
“We wish to treat and honour our good city of Paris,
like Alexander treated the noble town of Corinth,
where he made his chief stay, or as the Roman
Emperors treated the city of Rome.” (Recueil du
Louvre, 1432.)
* The manuscripts of the National Library contain

AGNES SOREL, 69
Paris, and after the feasts and rejoicings, King
Henry, who was recalled by the English Parlia-
ment, caused a new ordinance to be proclaimed,
addressed to his subjects in France, to thank them
for their kind reception of himself, and at the
same time to confirm all the privileges of Parlia-
ment, of the jurisdiction of the Châtelet, of pro-
vosts, of the magistracy, and of citizenship.
The system of the guilds was essentially English.
If the power of Henry VI. had been consolidated,
a system of liberty would have resulted, very
similar to the Great Charter of England.”
IX.
3.nfluence of Elgnes $otel over Cbatić3
l)ii. Eliſiallce. Witb the Q5teat
jfellèatotić3.
- (I435-I438.)
The beautiful legend of Joan the Maid had but
a limited effect, and an incomplete conclusion. If
she inflamed some imaginations among the soldiers,
such as Dunois, Xaintrailles, and Lahire, this
transient excitement had not spread. The soldiers
of Charles VII. had been forced to raise the siege
minatures which represent with great accuracy the
Dance of Death long before the paintings of Holbein.
I consider these minatures as anterior to the Dance of
Death of Bâle, which is ascribed to the year 1543.
One dated 1383 has been discovered at Menden.
* Recueil du Louvre, December, 1432.


7o AGNES SOREL.
of Paris in all haste, and to withdraw between
Orleans and Bourges. The name of Joan had
found but a fatal renown on the occasion of the
cruel trial at Rouen; her very condemnation had
not been an unpopular act at Paris. Was it not
the University of the glorious city that had begun
the proceedings against Joan P All that we find
connected with the story and defence of Joan of
Arc, belongs to the period of quietude and repose
which followed the restoration of Charles VII.
It was then that the King granted to her family,”
letters patent of nobility, the verdict given
against her at the trial was reversed, and
her features were reproduced on canvas,” and
songs were sung about her miracles.
Tout au beau milieu d'Orleans
On voit une pucelle.
Qu'on propose dans tous les temps
Comme parfait modèle.
Elle fut dit-on, d’un très-bon renom,
Etnaquit en Lorraine.
Jeanne on l'appela
Tout comme sa maraine.
* 16th January, 1430.
* We have only comparatively modern portraits of
Joan of Arc; the monument which stood on the
bridge of Orleans was certainly not older than 1572;
the picture in the Hotel de Ville belonged also to the
16th century. The piece of tapes]ry engraved by
Ponsard bears no guarantee of authenticity: a copy
is in the National Library.
AGNES SOREL. 7 I
*
As the national antipathies during the pro-
tracted English wars were embittered, the image
of Joan the Maid was chosen as a standard ; her
trial was the symbol of the rivalry between the
two nations, and one of the grievances imputed to
England. But at the same time, in going over
the misfortunes of the Roitelet de Bourges, it is
certain that the intervention of the Maid must be
considered to have had little effect on the war.
The true awakening of Chivalry belongs to
Agnes Sorel, and the best testimony is found in
the following verses of Francis First, so often
quoted :
Gentille Agnès, plus d'honneur tu mérite
La cause etant de France recouvrer
Que ce que peut dedans un cloitre ouvrer
Close nonain ou bien dévot hermite.
This salutary and glorious influence of Agnes
Sorel on the awakening of chivalry is attested by
the contemporary chronicles, and a century later
Brantôme told how a wizard announced before the
court of Bourges to the Lady of Fromenteau (Agnes
Sorel) that she would be loved by a great King.
Gentle Agnes saluting Charles VII. with pro-
found reverence said, that “she asked permission
to withdraw to the Court of England, for it was
that King whom this prediction referred to, since
the King of France was going to lose his Crown,
and the King of England to place it on his head.”


72 AGNES SOREI.
The King was so struck by these words that he
began to weep, and then taking courage, and
quitting his hunting and his gardens, he acted so
as to drive the English from his kingdom by his
bravery and courage." Such is the tradition
which has been preserved through the ages, of the
noble influence of Agnes Sorel.” At the same
time, if there was at this epoch a great awakening
of chivalry, it was not the only element in this
movement of liberation. The triumph of Charles
VII., and his restoration to the throne belong to
general causes which must be followed and studied.
The influence of Agnes Sorel has a close connec-
tion with the union between Charles VII. and his
vassals, and especially with the Duke of Burgundy.
This negotiation was undertaken by the Duchess
of Lorraine and Bar, Queen of Sicily, and
a Princess of great intelligence and energy,
who exercised considerable influence on the
great vassals in Anjou, Brittany, and even
Burgundy. Agnes Sorel, her maid of honour,
* Brantôme, Charles VII.
* “And certainly she was one of the most beautiful
women I have ever seen, and by this beauty she had a
great influence on the realm of France. She brought
to the King young men-at-arms and noble comrades,
by whom the King was well served.” (Chron. d’Olivier
de la Marche.) Olivier de la Marche lived at the court
of Burgundy about the year 1444.

AGNES SOREL. 73
was her devoted go-between in this business, and,
so to speak, the guarantee given to the King.
The first condition of every agreement was that
the King should dismiss from him all the leaders
of the Great Companies—that council of adven-
turers who had been able to serve his cause in the
days of difficulty and despair when he was the
Roitelet de Bourges, but who were now nothing
but an element of turbulence and disorder when
the King of France was about to become the
constitutional suzerain of the great vassals of the
monarchy." The most compromised individual of
all these was Tanneguy Duchâtel, a faithful
adherent of the dauphin during the troubles
between the Armagnacs and Burgundians,” but
who was a man of the past, and consequently a
difficulty for the future. Tanneguy, besides, was
an obstacle to any kind of reconciliation with the
Duke of Burgundy; he was loudly accused of
having assassinated Duke John on the bridge
of Montereau, and how could the King hope for
peace with the Burgundian faction if Tanneguy
Duchâtel remained his friend and chief coun-
sellor P


* Preliminaries of the negotiation of Arras. (In
Monstrelet, 1430.) -
*It was Tanneguy Duchâtel who had rescued the
Dauphin from the midst of the Burgundians at the
time of the insurrection at Paris.

74 AGNES SOREL.
Dunois the bastard was in a similar position ;
his career ended with the glorious adventures of
Joan of Arc, whose arm he had seconded and
whose legend he had propagated. A new leaf
had to be turned over. If Lahire and Xaintrailles
remained still at the head of the armed troops, it
was because they were soldiers pure and simple,
and did not take part in affairs of State. The
new Council of State was to negotiate with the
vassals of Brittany, and to bring them to an
intimate alliance with the King; Agnes Sorel
was to gradually efface from the Duke of Bur-
gundy’s heart the terrible memory of the deed on
the bridge of Montereau—a stupendous task,
which the great negotiatrix of this time, the
Duchess of Lorraine and Queen of Sicily, set
herself. To arrive at this result they had to
disentangle the King from all responsibility, by
falsely suggesting that the Dauphin had had no
hand in the assassination of Duke John, and that
the evil counsellors were alone responsible.
The Duke of Burgundy had reason at this time
to complain of the English, because in his view
they had not kept the engagements entered into in
former treaties. The moment was favourable for
attempting direct negotiations,” and a reconcilia-
* The fathers of the Council of Bale had written a
touching letter, inviting the Christian Prince to return
to peace. (March 1435.)
AGNES SORFL. 75
tion with the King. With the absorbing person-
ality of the Anglo-Saxon race, with whom it was
difficult to remain for long on terms of alliance,
the English wished everything to be as they
wanted; they hoped to impose their laws, and
their often eccentric customs on the people ; the
Duke of Burgundy were too proud to suffer this
long. Again, it was not merely as a great vassal
of the crown that the Duke of Burgundy could
lend his aid to the restoration of Charles VII. ;
it involved likewise the popular feeling of Paris,
which was of considerable weight, as well as that
of the halles and the guilds. Under the standard
of Burgundy the revolt had begun. This standard
alone could cause it to cease. The English at
Paris could themselves recognise this, as they saw
their influence in the city decrease in proportion
as they separated from the policy of the House of
Burgundy. There are certain ideas, certain emo-
tions, even certain proper names, which are every-
thing with the people. When it was no longer
debated in Paris how success to the Burgundian
cause might be secured, but, how that of the
English might be promoted, all their affections
and memories turned at once towards Charles,
provided his restoration should be effected by the
Duke of Burgundy.” With this in view we can


* Consult Monstrelet for an account of the joyful
reception of the Duchess of Burgundy, at Paris.
76 AGNES SOREL.
understand the subjects discussed by Charles’
council, at Bourges, as well as the new policy
inaugurated by the influence of Agnes Sorel. We
must give full credit, doubtless, to the power of
love, and to the blind infatuation it can inspire,
but a continued favour, such as that shown to
Agnes Sorel, has frequently a general cause, and
we must find it in the great friendship felt for her
by the Queen of Sicily, the Duchess of Lorraine,
the Princess, who “ had snatched the Roitelet de
Bourges from the influence of the chiefs of the
great companies, (Duchâtel and Dunois) in order
to re-establish round him the feudal alliance of
Brittany, Anjou, and Burgundy. Agnes Sorel's
was the sweet countenance in which the new
position of parties found an expression.

X.
3|acques Coeur, the ſking's ºilvetømitb.
ibig Eilliance Witb ElgllC3 $50tcI.
(1435-I440.)
Charles VII., on releasing himself from the yoke
of the adventurers who formed his council, and
being joined by the great feudatories, found the
*The Duchess of Burgundy, sister of the Duke of
Burgundy, acted also as a mediator in the peace of
I435.
AGNES SOREL. 77
wretchedness and misery of the Chateau de
Chinon considerably abated. The King was no
longer compelled to offer his comrades in arms a
fowl or mutton bone only. There was now at the
Court of Bourges a certain magnificence round
he King, the Queen of Sicily, the Duke of Bour-
bon, the Duke de Richemont and Agnes Sorel.
The consequence was that financial arrangements
had to be come to : what hand could fill the
royal treasury P. From this point begins the
influence of Jacques Coeur.
In the Middle Ages, the Jews were the only
persons who lent money at exorbitant interest.
The moment they found a victim in their power
they pounced on him with the avidity of vultures.
Submissive and servile as they were, they stooped
even to kiss the dust of the ground, if by such
means they could gnaw the flesh and suck the
blood of a poor labourer, as wellias of a lord or
knight." At every period of commercial crisis
the Jew, resorted to as a last resource, granted a
sum of money on loan, and by this means society
was handed over to him to be tortured at his will.
Like Shylock the Jew in Shakespeare, he tore the
people's flesh into pieces, until the people, rousing
themselves, chased him from them like an unclean


* Consult the ordinances of Philippe Auguste, 1190.
78 AGNES SOREL,
beast." When once the Jews were exiled, how-
ever, as financial needs had still to be considered,
the Lombards replaced them, less in the way of
usury than in general commerce. At this time
the name Lombard was given to all who came
from beyond the mountains, such as the Venetians,
Genoese, Pisanese, and Florentines—those daring
merchants who, since the crusades, sailed abroad
to bring home the spices of Egypt, the cloths of
Constantinople, and the fabrics of Syria. A few
French merchants had in the fourteenth century
established a trade with the East by way of Mar-
seilles.” Several had become goldsmiths and
silversmiths—that is, workers as well as dealers
in silver. The silversmith was an indispensable
personage to kings and great vassals: he made
advances, and in exchange was allowed imposts,
customs, and revenues on better conditions than
the Jews or Lombards. To this class belonged
the rich merchant and silversmith, Jacques Coeur,
under Charles VII. On entering Bourges, one
still finds quite close to the cathedral, and in a
perfect state of preservation, a large house built
in a style between the Venetian and Flemish,

* M. Capefigue is known for his unreasoning hatred
of the Jews.
* The statutes of Marseilles (13th century) give
evidence of the great trade carried on with the East.
AGNES SOREL. 79
after the manner of the hôtels-de-ville of Bourges,
Antwerp, and Brussels. This is the famous house
of Jacques Coeur, silversmith to Charles VII.
There is no doubt existing regarding the French
origin of Jacques-Coeur," who was the son of a
goldsmith of Bourges itself. At this time the
trade of goldsmith was not merely a craft, but an
art: the goldsmith was not a simple worker
(smith); he had to do also with the minting of
money, the care of the coinage, and the testing
and purification of metals. As gold, in short,
was always an object of strong desire and the
first want of men, States, and Princes, the royal
goldsmith became a man of importance from the
time of Saint Eloi.” One of the malpractices of
the time was the adulteration of the coinage, and
the goldsmith rendered important services in these
coining operations. Several of these goldsmiths
were alchemists. There was no savant of the
Middle Ages who during his long course of studies
had not sought for the art of making gold, and as
examples we have the great and subtle Albert,
Raymond Lulli, etc. How many Frankish and
German alchemists had spent their lives in the
search for gold !

*See my work on Financiers, vol. 1.
*The life of Saint Eloi in the Acta Sanctorum and
in the Bollandists, contains a curious account of the
coinage of the Middle Ages.
8o AGNES SOREL.
Jacques Coeur, when quite a young man, had
been employed in the mint at Bourges; the
Roman art had bequeathed to the Middle Ages a
certain knowledge of stamping coins and medals;
the gold and silver pieces of his age have come
down to us in a good state of preservation.
Jacques Coeur, who by his knowledge of gold had
increased his trade till it extended, like that of the
Venetians and Genoese, to every kind of mer-
chandise, shewed a spirit of great intelligence and
dauntless enterprise in buying up coin from every
quarter.” He did this at Constantinople and
Venice, where gold was especially unalloyed.
Then he coined these pieces which he had bought
into new ones of less intrinsic value. All that we
have, however, of the coinage of Charles VII,
whether gold pieces, silver coins, or simple deniers,
are of great purity. Jacques Coeur's wealth resulted
from the sale of merchandise at the fairs of Paris,
Lyons, Bourges, Toulouse, and Albi. As soon
as the royal power was strengthened by its
alliance with the house of Anjou-Lorraine, Jacques
Coeur, who was at first appointed keeper of
the mines, and overseer of the coinage, received
the official title of royal silver-smith and keeper
* Le Blanc's splendid treatise on the Monnaies is a
summary of the science of numismatics during the
12th and 13th centuries.

AGNES SOREL. 81
of the treasury, and was charged with the Super-
intendence of the imposts and revenues of the
realm. Under the protection of the Queen of
Sicily, the friend and devoted mistress of
Agnes Sorel, he procured by his credit con-
siderable resources for the royal cause, by negoti-
ating loans at Genoa, Milan and Venice with the
Lombard merchants, to whom he gave his private
fortune and credit as security. With a view to
please the companies of men-at-arms, Jacques Coeur
had a law passed, regarding the divisions into
which the “marc” of gold was to be divided, and
which had until now been an accidental and arbitrary
impost. The officers were paid like the troops
themselves, and the masters of the court of accounts
were to receive counters of gold and silver" as pay-
ment. A goldsmith as well as royal treasurer, Jacques
Coeur was the first to cut the diamond, which till
then was unwrought and unpolished, as can be
seen on the coverings of missals, and even in the
reliquaries of the saints. Jacques Coeur also
brought workmen from Venice and Constantinople
to cut diamonds, and give them as well as other
precious stones, that brilliance which constitutes
the beauty of modern ornaments, the green of
the emerald, the blue of the saphire, the sparkling
* Counters were used in the middle ages for purposes
of calculation. See Dictionnaire de l'Academie under
“Jeton.”
F


82 AGNES SOREL.
fire and blaze of the diamond. The first ornament
consisting of diamonds was worn by Agnes Sorel,
if we can believe the chronicles. Jacques. Coeur
made her a present of a clasp for her waist, and in
her portrait she is represented with it on. This
ornament consisting of pearls and diamonds,”
fastens over her breast.
Agnes Sorel and Isabeau of Bavaria were the
first to make use of woven cloth for chemises,
which had up till then been wove of fine wool, a
product of Brussels and the Flemish towns. The
Queen of Naples wore lace and chemises of fine
linen; since then the King's daughters according
to the learned Benedictines, each received two of
them in their marriage dowry, independently
of two hundred thousand pieces of gold without
counting landed property.” The richness of the
costumes consisted especially in the gold brocades,
made at Venice and Constantinople. The head
dresses were like tall mitres, from which hung long
veils, the origin of which could evidently be traced
to the east. In the miniatures of the manuscripts,
the noble ladies are represented thus decked out,
riding to festivals on fine horses. These head-
dresses became their fair and delicate features

* Collection of portraits and engravings. (Biblioth.
Nat.) -
* Benedictines. L’Art de vérifter les dates, Reign of
Charles VII.
AGNES SOREL. 83
remarkably well, and the white veil draped their
figure, clothed in tight fitting gold brocade."
Shoes curved at the toes were worn with long
points, and were ornamented with precious stones,
as we see them later on the feet of the courtesans
of Venice. All this luxury came from the East.
Jacques Coeur's trade was connected with this
extravagance in dress. The fortune of Jacques
Coeur, who was the friend and protégé of Agnes
Sorel, seemed already an insult to the people's
misery. The phrase “rich as Jacques Coeur"
became common. Churchmen in the pulpit
accused him of trading with infidels without
scruple, and of having dealings with Turks and
Persians. Master of much money, Jacques Coeur
acquired great domains, more extensive than those
of the great vassals. He had just bought the lands
of Saint Fargeau,” with the twenty-seven parishes
which were at that time dependent on it, and the
right of high and low justice. Protected and
encouraged by Agnes Sorel, Jacques Coeur
furnished the King with all the necessary money
to allow him to prosecute the war with England,
* Monstrelet's manuscript (Collect. Gagnière) con-
tains a marvellous collection of miniatures (Biblioth.
nat). See also Lacroix's Costumes au moyenage.
* This fine estate passed to the family of Lepelletier.
It was held by the wretched regicide Lepelletier de
Saint Fargeau, a man too rich to be a true democrat.

84 AGNES SOREL.
and the restoration of his party, with perseverance
and courage, Silversmiths have more than once
served a national cause !
XI. .
Ecclínic of the Engligb [Yower in jfrance.
(I43O-I435.)
Henry VI.'s stay at Paris had been of too short
duration to leave a deep impression. After the
coronation at Notre Dame, the child King,
recalled by the English Parliament, had left the
Tournelles Palace and gone to Rouen, the favourite
city of the Anglo-Norman race." The Parisians
were all irritated at seeing the little value the new
King seemed to place on his good city of Paris.
Was it henceforth to rank as a secondary city,
after London, and even after Rouen P. These
questions as to the supremacy of cities one over
the other had a powerful effect on the proud
feelings of the masses. Yet King Henry VI. had
left as his representative at Paris his uncle, the
Duke of Bedford, an essentially wise and sym-
pathetic nobleman, and one who could have
governed the Parisians extremely well, had the
English Parliament not refused the subsidies

* Henry VI.'s stay at Paris did not extend beyond a
month, (“Journal de Paris,” April, 1432.)
-
AGNES SOREL. 85
necessary to maintain and consolidate a new
Government at Paris.
We know from the Parliamentary Registers that
not a single fee was paid to the councillors, com-
missioners, or masters of petitions, and that the
very clerk had not the means with which to buy
the parchment necessary to write down the
deliberations and decisions of the Council.” The
most absolute devotion of a people is sure to be
destroyed by a course of misery. “Why,” said
the citizens of Paris, “should we remain under
the sway of the English Kings when they do
nothing for this goodly city, and allow us to
perish for want?” What especially roused these
citizens was the state of penury in which the
English left Madame Isabeau of Bavaria, who it
is certain had acted well towards them. This
Queen, who formerly lived in such a state of
elegance in her mansion in the Rue Barbette,
who was so given to luxury and such a votary of
pleasure, had been obliged to sell her very gar-
ments to the Jews, and wore dresses of coarse
cloth, which were in tatters. When complaint
was made to the English, they accused her of still
taking too much interest in her son, the Roitelet
* Parliamentary Register, May, 1432.
*Trade was stopped from Jan., 1433. (“Journal de
Paris.”)

86 AGNES SOREL.
de Bourges. They demanded that, to serve the
cause of Henry VI., the aged Queen must openly
declare, by an act to be signed by herself, that
Charles VII. was only a bastard, and thus dis-
honour herself."
The English were at this time in fear of an
approaching rising of a party with the Duke of
Orleans at its head. The young Duke Charles of
Orleans, who had been made prisoner at the
battle of Agincourt, was for long years kept close
prisoner in the Tower of London, for the English
barons regarded him as an obstacle to the peace-
able reign of Henry VI. in France, and as a
support to the house of Valois. Charles, like his
father, the Duke of Orleans, who was murdered
in the Rue Barbette, was a man of charming
temper and surpassing sweetness. During his
imprisonment in London he had found consola-
tion for his misfortunes in poetry. His verses,
written in a pure and melancholy strain, and
which have been preserved to the present day,
are dedicated to love and the recollections of his
youth. Charles of Orleans loved his country; he
groaned inwardly when he thought of the political
dissensions which had dragged it to the depths of
wretchedness; but in the hands of the English

* Monstrelet, 1432.
AGNES SOREL. 87
he did not dare to speak all his thoughts. Poor
captive who could restore him to liberty P
- De Ballader j'ai beau loisir
Autres deduits me sont cassés
Prisonnier suis, d'amour martyr
Helas ! et n'est ce pas assez
Yes, this long and wretched captivity sufficed
Charles d’Orleans had still a party in Paris that
supported him. The fears of the English were
not baseless, for their Prince was in alliance with
Charles VII., and Madame Isabeau of Bavaria.
He longed for peace, and with it the restoration
of the royal house. The Armagnac party was
reviving; many prejudices against them had dis-
appeared. The halles, the guilds, the parlia-
ment, the Court of accounts had enough of
the English, who had brought only misery
and wars on them | The wretched condition
in which they left Madame Isabeau of Bavaria
caused much indignation. Not long after-
wards, she fell ill and died,” and, what was a
very sad thing, no pomp was observed at her


* The poems of Charles d’Orleans have been often
printed. The Abbé Salier was the first to make them
known. (Memoires de l'Académie des inscriptions,
vol. xiii.) The Nat. Library possesses many MSS.
One very curious MS. exists at the library of Grenoble.
* Madame Isabeau died at the hôtel Saint-Paul, on
the 4th September 1435.
88 AGNES SOREL.
obsequies. There was simply a religious service,
at which the councillors and presidents who had
always been devoted to the aged Queen, and who
had been the sharers of her schemes and mis-
fortunes, assisted. After the service in Notre
Dame, the body of Isabeau of Bavaria was carried in
a vessel to Saint Denis, accompanied only by four
servants or pages. It is not true that it was
abandoned and deserted by the attendants, as has
been stated ; but it was impossible for a funeral
procession to follow the high road to Saint Denis,
which was at the time beset by bodies of armed
and undisciplined men, who would have respected
neither the bier, nor the ornaments of the funeral
car." The last link which bound the Parisians
to the English cause had just been severed. In
an expedition which he made into Normandy, the
Duke of Bedford had died, during a hard fought
and glorious campaign ; much beloved and re-
spected at Paris, it was he, so to speak, who alone
held aloft the banner where the arms of England
and France were united. Of a grave and serious
countenance, his word was as good as his bond,
and those who did not love him, could not fail to
admire him.” The Duke of Bedford's death left

* A marble monument was erected to Isabeau of
Bavaria, besides that of Charles VI., at Saint-Denis.
* The Duke of Bedford died on the 14th September
AGNES SOREL. 89
-
no one at Paris to represent the authority of the
King of England. There were only a few Anglo-
Norman captains, who could not even speak the
language of the people. Rumour got abroad that
there was an impending peace between Charles VII:
and the Duke of Burgundy, and this popular peace
was actually negotiated by the heir of the Duke of
Orleans, who ought to have been kept apart ſrom
Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, by such
an accumulation of grievances. All wished for
peace and the restoration of Charles VII. At
certain times, people only long for the end of
civil war, and a regular government. The smallest
event at such a crisis serves to accomplish what
has been vainly attempted during twenty years of
continued conflicts.


XII.
Cbatić3 l)ii, allo Elgné3 $50tel at the
Ca3tle3 of JSoutge:3 allo Cbillon,
(1430-1435.)
The favour of Agnes Sorel was no longer a
mystery, and everything that had power or an
1435. A mansoleum was erected to him in the
cathedral of Rouen, beside the high altar. Louis XI.
was advised to have it removed ; he replied, “Let us
not displace him dead, who when alive defied all the
forces of France to make him budge.”
9:) AGNES SOREL.
-
instinct of chivalry had risen at her voice. This
awakening extended to all the nobility of the
southern provinces. Agnes, who had no liking
for the old chiefs of the men-at-arms, who were
worn out with the long civil war, loved, on the
other hand, the young, polished, and elegant
knights." She had not herself abandoned her
humble position with the Queen of Sicily,
Duchess of Lorraine. We find in the original
book of expenses of the said Queen the words,
“ten pounds tournois for the wages of Agnes
Sorel, one of her ladies-in-waiting.” The register
of the cathedral church of Loches states that
Agnes Sorel made a present to the church of a
small silver statue, to be placed in the chapel.3
Agnes Sorel's autographs are rare : at this period
of the Middle Ages women wrote little; still the
patience of scholars has discovered a letter written
by Agnes Sorel to the Provost of Chesnaye-ez-Bois:
“Monsieur le Prévôt, I have heard and been told
that some men of Chesnaye have been apprehended
by you under the suspicion of having taken certain
quantities of wood from the forest of Chesnaye, by
which I understand that some of the said persons
are poor and wretched. Monsieur le Prévôt, I
do not wish them further troubled with the same
* Chronicle of Jean Chartier.
3 Ann, 1431.


AGNES SOREL. 9I
charge, and by acting on this without delay you
will much oblige your good mistress, AGNES.”
From the terms of this letter, it seems clear that
it was as the lady of Chesnaye, possessing the right
of high and low justice, that Agnes wrote it,
and not as having an exalted position at the Court
of Charles VII. The words they contain are
sweet and humane ; they indicate a soul easily
touched by pity and mercy. But not long after
the coquette, longing for finery, appears in another
autograph letter written to Mademoiselle de
Bonneville.
“To Mademoiselle de Bonneville, my good
friend.” Mademoiselle, my good friend, I warmly
recommend myself to you ; I beg of you to be so
good as give the bearer Christopher, my grey
dress trimmed with white, and every pair of gloves
you find in the house, the said Christopher having
lost my cabinet : you will also be good enough to
receive from him my greyhound, carpet, which I
should like you to keep with you and take great
care of, and allow him to go to the chase with no
one. He obeys neither whistle nor voice, and it
would be as much as his life is worth were he to
go ; his death would cause me great sorrow, and
* It is not dated, but can be put down to 1430.
* This letter seems written during the hey-day of
her favour.

92 AGNES SOREL.
would be far from causing you joy. Praying God
that he keep you in his grace, my very good
friend ; AGNES.”
We have not here the country lady recommend-
ing her baillif not to prosecute the poor creatures
who have stolen some wood in her domains. We
have the woman who is already exalted to a
position of love and confidence by the King. The
lady of Bonneville is like a maid of honour to
Agnes Sorel; the formula of the letter is almost
lordly; she says “I pray God, etc.” She has
dogs, and goes hunting like King Charles VII.
Agnes writes again to the same lady—“My good
friend, we went hunting yesterday after a wild
boar, whose scent your little dog Robin had found,
but, unfortunately for himself, the little creature
was killed by an arrow. Your good friend,
AGNES.” +
Poor Robin . . . . . Agnes Sorel is as much
taken up with it, as with a personal friend. The
pack of hounds was for the ladies of the country
almost like a family; hunting was the occupation
of feudal life, and the ladies went with great
courage to face the boar or stag. It is not
said that they were ever frightened. They knew
the names of the pointers, setters and coursing


* Notwithstanding my researches, I have failed to
discover to what family this Madame de Bonneville
belonged.
AGNES SOREL. 93
dogs. The greyhound with its pointed head,
without any fine sense of smell, and without
attachment, was still par excellence the dog of
feudal days. It was reproduced on coats of arms,
it was carved lying at the foot of its mistress,
on her tomb; a faithful companion, it never left
her. Swift and alert when off the leash, it followed
the ladies’ tracks into the thickest woods, and to
tournaments. It wore her crest on its collar, and
on the covering that protected it during the frosts
of winter. Noble times of chivalry, what has
become of you since the days when everything in
history was ushered in by a fanfare of trumpets
Life was spent in the midst of legends, castellated
manors, the chase and war, emotions that have
their effect on great minds.
It was as much by the hardihood of her conduct
and the grace of her conversation, as by the
the beauty of her person that Agnes Sorel found
favour with King Charles VII., a man very easily
moved in his thoughts and intentions, and, accord-
ing to the chronicles of Burgundy, taking up and
leaving his favourites with a strange facility.
This mobility was partly, perhaps, accounted for
by the very situation of the King, who was
obliged to satisfy the wishes and caprices of
all the chiefs who surrounded him, Bretons,
Angevins, and Scots: the King was forced to
give the preference sometimes to one, sometimes

94 AGNES SOREL.
to another, according to the forces they brought
to support his cause.” “The love the King bore
to Madame Agnes was, as everyone said, owing to
her gaiety, her merry and laughing moods, and
the purity and polish of her conversation, as well
as to the fact that among ladies of fashion and
beauty, she was the youngest and fairest ever seen.
Besides all this, the said Agnes was very charitable,
and gave large and liberal sums in alms, distribut-
ing from her own purse large gifts to the poor of
the Church.” This is how Jean Chartier expresses
himself, whose father had lived at the small Court
of the Roitelet de Bourges.”
This Court had become that of the Queen of
Sicily and of all the house of Lorraine, of which
Agnes was the vassal. Charles VII. had shown
himself a great soldier : if there was little dis-
cipline in the war, no one could deny the valour
and courage exhibited in it. Everything was in
the hands of the Bretons and the Scots. It was
in order to definitely acquire the help of the Scots


* I am obliged to destroy an illusion as regards the
disinterestedness of the Scots round Charles VII.
They were very exacting in their demands for fiefs
and concessions. The Earl of Buchan was made
Constable of France; John Stewart, Count of Aubigni
and then of Dreux; Earl Douglas was created Duke
of Touraine. These are not the Scots of Walter
Scott.
*Chronique de Jean Chartier.
AGNES SOREL. 95
that Charles affianced the Dauphin, then aged five
years, to Margaret, daughter of James I., King
of Scotland, who was then only three years old."
The Dauphin, who afterwards became Louis XI.,
and who had a great love for his mother, con-
ceived from his very infancy a certain repugnance
for Agnes Sorel. At the age of twelve, Margaret
came to France with a fresh body of Scots, who
were to serve in the royal cause. The castles of
Chinon and Tours became brilliant Courts of
chivalry. On every occasion that the knights
were not engaged in war, they amused themselves
with love, hunting, and tournaments. Agnes
never ceased to inspire the King with “the
thought of France's restoration.” But the strong
and powerful hand that accomplished the restor-
ation was that of the Duke of Burgundy. With
his aid alone could Paris return to Charles VII.
XIII.
creatics with the Duke of Burgunov."
'iReConciliation With Qºbatićg lº)ii.
(I434-I435.)
From the depths of his hard captivity, Charles
of Orleans had hopes by his gentleness and resig-
*In 1438. The English tried to capture this
Princess in her voyage across.


96 AGNES SOREL.
nation to prepare a general peace, not only between
the great vassals and Charles VII., but also between
Henry V., and him whom the King of England.
treated with so much disdain. Charles of Orleans,
Prince and Poet as he was, and imbued with
generous impulses, had no eyes to see the impass-
able obstacles that lay in the way of a peace
between the pretenders, who both declared them-
selves with the same warmth, Kings of France,
and claiming the same absolute right. How
could he bring them together P The Supreme
Pontiffs’ hopes in this direction had proved
abortive. The Congress of Arras had been
dissolved by the action of the English plenipoten-
tiaries, who had insisted on the recognition of
Henry VI., as King of France, as a first and
fundamental condition. The French on the other
hand had equally laid down the condition that
Charles VII. should be recognised as rightful heir
to the crown of Charles VI."
The attempts of the Congress of Arras having
proved useless, it was of course necessary to
consult the Duke of Burgundy, the only vassal
who was sufficiently powerful to end the civil war
by recognising the title of Charles VII: this

* The conferences were at first held at the abbey of
Saint Wast. Monstrelet enters into some details of
them.
AGNES SOREL. 97
reconciliation, already tried on several occasions,"
had never been effected, by reason of the deep-
seated animosities of both parties. Was it not a
Duke of Burgundy who had murdered a Duke of
Orleans in the Rue Barbette P And it was by the
friends and followers of Charles VII. that the
Duke of Burgundy had been slain on the Bridge
of Montereau : there was blood on the hands of
both parties. But, naturally, by the lapse of time
these gloomy deeds became buried in the past,
and personal interest obtained supreme dominion.
Nothing is forgotten so easily as a deed, however
bloody, which belongs to the past, and which is
no longer connected with the thoughts and needs
of the present. The Dukes of Bourbon and
Rochemont were taken as mediators, and they
appointed the Counts of Clermont and Vendôme,
the friends of the Duke of Burgundy, as deputies,
to bring him round to a reconciliation. When
the English absolutely declined to sign the peace,
the King of France and the Duke of Burgundy
resolved to conclude it without him, and under
conditions which their friends had arranged.”
“The King disavowed the fatal affair of
Montereau, the character of which was not
* In conferences at Auxone and Corbeil.
*These negotiations are found at great length in
Monstrelet, 1435.
N

98 AGNES SOREI.
specially described ; he even engaged to seek
out the authors of the assassination.” This was
certainly a difficult engagement, for was it not
Tanneguy Duchâtel, the King's most faithful
follower, who had been the first to lift his hand
against Duke John P. He also engaged to raise an
expiatory chapel on the very bridge, and at the
spot where the murder had been committed, and,
in order to maintain the services of this chapel, a
convent of monks was founded. When the
expiation had been made, independently of an
indemnity in gold coin, the King granted the
Duke of Burgundy the counties of Mägon,
Châlons, and Langres, and the counties and cities
of Auxerre, Montdidier, Péronne, Saint Quentin,
Corbie, Amiens, the county of Artois, with the
town of Boulogne-sur-Mer, and these new and
ancient possessions were to be held thereafter
without the obligation of paying homage. It
was almost the reconstruction of a kingdom of
Burgundy, as it existed before the great days of
feudalism,' only the heir of each successive Duke
had to make acknowledgement of his accession to
the King of France. There was a curious clause
in this agreement which indicates the caution with

* In letters patent, Philip takes the kingly formula
of “By the grace of God.” (Corps diplomat. anno
1435.)
AGNES SOREL. 99
which money transactions were carried on. It
takes care to declare that “the four hundred
thousand pieces of gold paid by the King of
France must be an alloy of sixty-four to the Troyes
mark, and of eight ounces to the mark.” With
such frequent changes in the standard of money,
it was essential to fix its value and the amount of
alloy to be used in each coin."
In order to secure the future of his kingdom, the
Duke of Burgundy exacted as a pledge for its
reality, the signature of the Dauphin, afterwards
Louis XI., and in his childish hand writing, Louis
wrote: “Good Uncle Philippe, Duke of Burgundy,
we promise you by the faith and oath of our
body, to keep and hold in every particular, the
treaty and agreement of the peace made between
the king and you, in every respect, as it is here
written down, without change or opposition;
nd when it shall please God that we come to the
throne of France, we promise once more to give our
letters patent to confirm these presents. Written
by my hand and sealed with the secret seal of the
Dauphin, with green wax, and red and green silk.”
The great precautions demanded by the Duke of
* The treaty is found in Monstrelet, that famous
collector of original deeds. The treaty of Arras was
ratified by the King in letters patent of December Io.
I435, and was sealed at Tours. -
* Corps Diplomatique Ann., 1435.


IOO AGNES SOREL.
Burgundy, and which limited the ſuture power of
France, were taken because the conditions were
so hard for the King that there was always a
fear lest they would not be carried out. The
ceremonies that were celebrated in the cathedral
of Arras on taking the oath to keep the peace
were most solemn. As the Papal Legates had
acted as mediators, three cardinals presided at
this solemn service. There was a full choral
mass, and the cathedral organs pealed forth hymns
of joy. When the officiating cardinal had read
the Holy Gospels, he placed the sacred book on
the altar, covered with Byzantine paintings, and
the envoys of France and Burgundy, attired in
robes of ermine, with bared hands, took the oath
of peace in the name of their masters, while the
people showed their joy by shouts of “AWoël /
AVoël /” The war was at an end | *
The same oath was repeated by Charles VII.
at the Court of Bourges, and by the Duke of
Burgundy at Dijon, which he was embellishing
with his churches and palaces.
The King of France, brave as a paladin of
chivalry when under the influence of Agnes Sorel,
was, nevertheless, tired of a war which caused so
much disorder, and subjected him to so much

* All these ceremonies are described in Monstrelet,
I435.
AGNES SOREL. IOI
insolence on the part of the leaders of his merce-
naries. These chiefs fought even among themselves;
the most devoted among them were simply in-
supportable." La Hire, for example, entered at
all hours into the King's presence to dictate terms
to him, and even impose on him his caprices.
Peace was to put a stop to this great disorder, and
this domineering of insubordinate mercenaries. It
gave Charles VII, the support of the Duke of
Burgundy; these two Princes deeply regretted the
events of the past ; Charles VII. passionately
swore to punish the assassins of John of Burgundy,
a vain promise, as the assassins were his own
friends. The expiation, however, began by funeral
chants; the monks, who were to occupy the
monastery of Montereau, went in procession to
the expiatory chapel, and there, amid the strains
of the Miserere, they prayed for the pardon of
Heaven for the assassins. -
The Council of the King of England fully rea-
lised all the meaning of the Treaty of Arras.
When the heralds-at-arms of the Duke of Bur-
gundy came to London to announce that peace
had been made with Charles VII., the Lords of
the Privy Council manifested lively indignation ;
the young King, Henry VI., began to weep, saying

* See Olivier de La Marche, 1434-1435.
IO2 AGNES SOREL.
aloud “that he had lost his kingdom of France.”
He noticed with pain that in the message from the
Duke, lately his faithful ſriend, he no longer gave
him the title of King of France, as in the past,
and this omission caused him much bitterness.
The English nation was indignant at the Burgun-
dian party, and the Flemish merchants who resided
in London for purposes of trade felt the effects of
this feeling. Some of them were even pillaged,
so angry were the people at the Burgundian party
having so treacherously broken the alliance which
united them with the English in a common cause.
* These are his words, “I see clearly that my good
uncle of Burgundy has been faithless towards me, and
has become reconciled with him ; this will endanger
the sovereignties which I have in France.” It has
even been said that the Duke of Bedford died of grief,
but this is a chronological error: the Duke-regent
was already dead when the Treaty of Arras was signed.
£ND OF WoL I,

15tbitofibeta (Turibga.
£1 ſking's ſibistress,
(HARLES VII, & AGNES S()REI,
ANI)
£ºy in the XY, teatºry,
HY
Mr C A PE F : G U E,
-º-º-sº-
NOW FIRST TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH,
- WZZY/AWQZY.S & //, / (ZSZAAZZONS
BY
EDMUND GOLDSMID, F.R.H.S.,
F.S.A. (Scot.)
JCN Tºº? O YOTC, ÚTVC35; S.
VOL. II.
--~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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1887.


Agnes Søre, and Chivalry in
the X


15tbliotheta Curioga.
El Ring's (II)istress,
OR
CHARLES VII, & AGNES SORE,
AND
£hivalry in the XV, Century,
Mr C A P E F I G U E.

NOW FIRST TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH,
WYTH AVO ZTES & ZZZ US 7"RA 7TWOAVS
BY
EDMUND GOLDSMID, F.R.H.S.,
F.S.A. (Scot.)
JCN OC. YNZ O YOIC, U JVC3ES.
WOL. II.
~~~
PRIVATELY PRINTED, EDINBURGH,
1887,
7%ts Edition is limited to 275 small-paper and
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-


AG NES SO REL
AND
£hivalry in the XV, Cebtºry.
XIV.
CbC Corporation3 amo (5uílog of lyatig,
iRegtotation of Qºbatić3 l)ii.
(1435-1438.)
It is a harsh necessity attached to a power that
is enfeebled to become suspicious, severe and
sometimes even cruel until its fall. Such was the
case with the English after the death of the Duke
of Bedford and the waning of the attachment of
the Parisians for their cause. They had even
failed in ordinary sagacity in not showing honour
to Queen Isabeau of Bavaria when in her coffin.
The circle of their friends had narrowed in the
markets and among the artisans, by whom they
had formerly been greatly liked : it was said that


6 AGNES SOREL.
they ſavoured Normandy more than Paris.” They
had exacted from the Parisians a new oath of
fidelity to Henry VI., King of France and Eng-
land, a kind of guarantee which avails little in
times of danger. A proclamation had been made
declaring to all loyal subjects that the Duke of
York was appointed Regent of the kingdom in
the name of King Henry VI., but matters were
so disorganised that the Duke did not even cross
to the Continent, and the direction of the English
Government in France was left to brave warrior
chiefs, who made movements to the right or left
without any preconcerted plan, at Saint Denis
and Pontoise: the struggle was carried on on
both sides with a feeling of desperation; the
environs of Paris were ravaged.
The English party had still, however, a con-
siderable hold on the popular classes in Paris, in
the markets, and that for several reasons. When
parties, as I have said, have conceived certain
hatreds and certain repugnances, they prefer any-
thing, and any solution of the difficulty, to the
triumph of the power they detest and which they
have crushed. They have no longer any eyes for
their country, and, at need, the foreign invader
* An edict or bill of Henry VI, King of France
founded the University of Caen. These letters of
Henry, “ad perpetuam rei memoriam,” are dated from
his favourite town of Rouen.

AGNES SOREL. 7
becomes a support and a hope. What formed the
main strength of the English was the fact that a
large number of people were compromised in
regard to Charles VII. The Parliament, the
Châtelet, the mayor, and the magistrates had all
pronounced for Henry VI. : they had hailed the
advent of his power and had supported the Duke
of Bedford. Had they not every reason to fear a
reaction and a bitter vengeance should fortune
favour Charles P
Quite other causes, again, tended to the King's
restoration: the peace with the Duke of Burgundy
gave a new direction to the policy of Charles VII.
Saint Andrew's Cross, so beloved of the populace,
was united to the fleurs de lys. The hand which
was now supporting Charles VII.'s restoration
had formerly been itself the instrument whereby
the revolt was raised. No one could be found
guilty, now that the greatest sinner in this respect
had been, not only pardoned, but placed at the
head of the King's party. Letters of indemnity,
cancelling the past, were issued by Charles and
circulated almost publicly through Paris. The
King promised never to recall what had taken
place at Paris, provided that henceforth the loyalty
of the city were sincere.” Lastly, the Duke of

*These letters of absolution had been given at
Poitiers in February, 1435. They are found in the

8 AGNES SOREI.
Burgundy, impatient at the obstinate rejection of
the conditions of peace by the Council of England,
suddenly declared war on that country. From
that moment, the archers of Burgundy began to
make their appearance in the environs of Paris.
The cross of Saint Andrew was seen not far from
the ramparts, at the gates of the city, under
chieftains formerly well known and beloved by
the populace, especially the marshal de Lisle
Adam, one of the most ardent, of Burgundians,
and one who had formerly been most compromised
in opposition to the Dauphin. It was possible for
the citizens, so long in a state of revolt, to treat
with such a conspicuous rebel converted to
Charles's cause, and that too as with a comrade
and fellow conspirator. Were they to open the
gates to him, they had no cause to fear reprisals,
and the less so, since it was now merely a question
of handing over Paris to the Duke of Burgundy,
and had nothing to do with the banner of the King,
emblazoned with its fleurs-de-lys.” Restorations
are frequently brought about by the chiefs of
the rebellion, when they find security and advan-
appendix to the Histoire de Charles / II, p. 795, They
were officially published at Paris only in April, 1436.
*The leader of the citizens who took the chief part
in the restoration was a draper, of the name of Pierre
Lhuilier or Lallier, (journal de Paris, 1436.)
-
AGNES SOREL. 9
age offered them, and when an agreement can
put an end to a civil war.
The gates of Paris were accordingly secretly
opened to the Marshal de Lisle Adam, by some of
the citizens, and the English ſound themselves
supported only by the implacable enemies of the
restoration, that is to say, by the rabble to whom
disorder and confusion are not displeasing.”
Almost taken by surprise, the English archers
under Lord Willoughby, retired in good order,
and with invincible courage to the gates of the
Bastille, of Vincennes and of Bicêtre, which were
the only fortified posts left to them. The Marshal
de Lisle Adam and the Burgundians became
masters of Paris, and thus the first step towards
the restoration of Charles VII. was taken. That
night the people read under the glare of torches, an
ordinance “which declared all the faults and acts
of the past committed against our Lord the King
forgotten and forgiven.” “ The object of this
proclamation was to strengthen the weakest hearts,
and reassure guilty consciences, while the English
shut up in the Bastille, still kept up a slight

*The popular leader who was most devoted to the
English cause was the butcher Legoix, a very well
known figure in the revolts under Charles VI. The
surrender of Paris took place on Easter Wednesday, in
April 1436.
*This was the edict of Bourges mentioned above.
IO AGNES SC) REL.
cannonade on the city. Dunois, the Marshal de
Lisle Adam, the Constable, the Count of Riche-
mont, along with the knights and archers of the
King and Burgundy, besieged the Bastille, in
hopes of its surrender. After some days, the
Bastille and Wincester (Bicêtre) surrendered, and
thus the English entirely abandoned the city of
Paris, which they had occupied for more than
twenty years. The death of the Duke of Bedford
had done much to weaken their popularity; they
were nothing but a foreign army of occupation set
over the city. The Duke had caused liberal
additions to be made to the public works, and
Paris owed to him municipal monuments, churches,
mansions and even aqueducts. The Duke of
Bedford possessed some personal characteristics of
a serious and agreeable nature, but the English
captains, and especially Lord Willoughby, lost
favour through the haughtiness of their manners
and the overbearing tone of their commands; they
took so little interest in the affairs of the capital,
that they allowed the houses to fall into ruins and
the market places to get out of repair, and in
general, acted like men who knew well that sooner
or later they would be compelled to quit the city."
* Already the Duke of York, who had replaced the
Duke of Bedford in the regency, was becoming the
object of popºlar scorn :
“Et bien la peau nous fourbirons

AGNES SOREL. II
Couplets composed in defiance of the English were
sung about the streets: -
Le mieux est de partir sur l'heure
Et de ne plus faire ici demeure.
The news of the surrender of Paris found the
King still at Bourges and Chinon. The King did
not seem anxious to return to his good city, after
the events that had taken place in it : every kind
of concesion was made to the burghers and
populace. The past seemed so completely for-
gotten that the most seditious of the rebel leaders
were recalled, not excepting the butchers Sainct
Yon and Legoix, who had been the principal
ringleaders of the revolts, and who had left the
city with the English. The Parliament, which
was devoted to Henry VI., and which had sat at
Paris, was confirmed in its functions, although
there was a Royal Parliament at Poitiers with the
lawful King." All these assurances seemed in-
sufficient for the persons who were compromised;
murmurs were heard on all sides; the very city
populace and corporations, which were willing to
pay extra taxes at the time of the insurrection,

A la venue du duc d’ York ;
Retournez vers le vent du Nord
Et ne parlez plus de combattre.
Que la fièvre vous puisse abattre
*A section of this Parliament was reunited to that
of Paris. - -
| ??
I2 AGNES SOREL.
bitterly exclaimed against the slightest levy of
money necessitated by the requirements of the
war. But such is the weak spot in restorations :
they exhaust themselves in doing well and yet are
only considered as governments of reaction, unless
a strong power (like that of Louis XI.) cuts short
the discontent with an inflexible and firm hand.
Meanwhile the Constable wrote to Charles VII.,
saying that his presence was indispensable to the
good government of Paris and of France. Agnes
Sorel had just persuaded the King to lay siege to
Montereau, an important point for uniting the
south and the centre of the monarchy. Montereau
once taken, the King directed his movements
towards Melun and Fontainebleau, and then,
leaving the forest of Sénart on his left, he
marched on Vincennes, Bagnolet and Pantin."
On the 12th of November, I437, King
Charles VII., (whom God preserve) came to
Saint Denis, to pass the night in that abbey,
which had formerly been the royal abode of the
young English King, Henry VI., at the time of
his solemn entry into Paris. On the following
day, Charles VII. cameito Chapelle Saint Denis,
where the provost, merchants and magistrates,
followed by their men-at-arms, ran to receive

* Charles VII. was afraid to march straight on
Paris. (Monstrelet, 1437.)
AGNES SOREL, I3
him." There was a repetition of the same
ceremonies and the same festivities as had been
held for the English King, Henry VI. ; there was
the same white and blue drapery, the same
attendants with their red and green head-dresses;
the rector and members of the University, who
had formerly proscribed the “Kinglet of Bourges,”
now received him with shouts; he was presented
with the same keys that had been handed to King
Henry. At Saint Lazare there was seen descend-
ing from the sky the coat of arms of France,
borne by the very angels who had formerly
descended with that of England. Poets made
the very same verses in praise of Charles VII. :
Très excellent roi et seigneur,
Les manants de votre cité
Vous reçoivent en tout honneur
Eten très grant humilité.
The same blue dais was used, excepting that it
was covered with fleurs de lys, azur, instead of
with leopards, gules; the fountains ran white and
red wine and hypocras; mysteries were played;
the people cried, as they had done before, Moil 1
For whom had the people of Paris not cried
* Chronicle of Saint Denis ; journal d'un Bourgeois in
Secousse, by Martial de Paris. There is a chronicle
which cannot be too much studied. Vigiles de la mort
au feu roi Charles VII, en neuf psaumes, et neuf leſons,
Contenant la Chronique. Paris, 1493, 4to, written by
Martial de Paris.

I4 AGNES SOREL.
AVoë! ? The ornaments which had been used at
Notre Dame for the coronation of Henry VI.
were employed in the same way for the vespers
and vigils which were said for Charles VII., and
the same benedictions from heaven were called
down on his head. Governments change; cere
monies and adulations never do.
XV.
Qbatićg l)ii. and Elglieg $otel at Daríð.
- (I437-I439.)
Among the ladies, old and young, that accom-
panied the Queen to Paris at the time of her
solemn entry into the city, the citizens and country
people had noticed one who was especially beauti-
ful, decked with pearls and diamonds, and riding
on a richly caparisoned palſrey. The people
called her by her name, and said she was Agnes
Sorel, the companion of the King in his pleasures,
and, as among the rabble, the] restoration of
Charles VII. had many enemies, several mur-
murs rose against her whom the bishop of
Thérouine (so loved at Saint-Eustache) had called
the new Herodias, and had described as a beast
of the Apocalypse. Thus Agnes Sorel, when
informed of these murmurs, exclaimed in a moment
of sadness: “The Parisians are but vilains; if I
had known that they would not have done me

AGNES SOREL. I5
more honour, I should never have set foot in their
city.” Agnes Sorel had a keen sense of the
services she had rendered to the King by awaken-
ing him from his apathy; his restoration not
finding popular favour, everything that had helped
to bring it about was by no means liked by the
Parisians. She could recall with what zeal they
had persecuted Joan of Arc; her accusation had
emanated from Paris.
Still the people were not wrong in those sad
murmurings against so much luxury and riches dis-
played in the midst of such wide-spread misery.
The winter had been very severe; there had been
one hundred and thirty-three days of such intense
frost that the Seine was frozen so as to allow
waggons to pass over it. The result of this
had been a famine, contagious epidemics and
wide-spread poverty. The Chronicle of Saint
Denis mentions that wolves had invaded the town,
that they devoured the living and unearthed the
dead, even in the Cemetery of the Saints Innocents.”
A royal charter awarded a bonus of 17 sols
tou, nois to every man, civilian or military, who
brought in a wolf's head. Was it not odious to
see the contrast between so much misery and so

* Jean Chartier.
*“Chronique de Saint Denis,” ad ann. 1437-1438.
I6 AGNES SOREL.
much unbridled luxury, in the festivities at Paris,
at the Tournelles, and at the old Louvre P"
The festivities of this time had a peculiar
character; they presented a mixture of worldly
pomp and theology; at Tournelles, the scenes of
the Passion were represented; a fountain had been
erected, surmounted by a lily of great size, the
flowers and leaves of which cast floods of hypocras;
in the midst of the ſountain, dolphins of wood,
covered with silver, swam about on the surface of
the water. At the end of a terrace, John the
Baptist showed the Heavenly Lamb surrounded
by angels, who sang hymns, and at his side were
Saint Thomas, Saint Denis, Saint Maurice and
others of the blessed: beneath was Sainte Gene-
viève spinning, as represented in the legend. The
mysteries of the Passion were played by the
pilgrims from Palestine, who sang:
Ci gist l'amère passion
De notre Sauveur Jesus Christ.
Et sa crucification.
Et de Judale grand delit
Qui en un arbre se pendit A
Parsa grande desesperance ;
D'où en enfer il descendit
Où est puni de son offense.
With these holy ideas were mingled worldly
*The King had just convoked the States General
at Orleans (1437). “Recueil des Etats Généraux,”
vol. ix, p. 134.


AGNES SOREIL. 17
pleasures, such as balls and masquerades, over
which Agnes Sorel, who was called the Queen of
Beauty, presided : this name, which suited her
sweet person so well, was given her from the
pleasant Manoir of Beauté-sur-Marne, built by
Charles V., and already celebrated in song by
Eustache Deschamps, in one of his ballads.*

Sur tous les lieux plaisans et agréable
Que l'on pourrait en ce monde trouver
Edifié de manoirs convenables,
Gais et jolis pour voire et demourer
Joyeusement, puis devant vous prouver
Que c'est à la fin du bois
De Vincennes que fit faire le roi
Charles que Dieu donne paix, joie et santé,
Son fis aîné dauphin de Vienois
Donna le nom à ce lieu de Beauté.
Et c'est bon droit, car moul est délectable ;
L'on y oit le rossignol chanter,
Marne l'enceint, les hauts bois profitables
Couvreut les daims,
Des oiselets ouïr la doulce voix
Dans la saison de printems et d'été
Où gentil mai qui est si noble mois
Donna ce nom à ce lieu de Beauté.
Les prés enceignent les jardins délectables
Les beaux preaulx, fontaine belle et clere,
* A large part of the poems of Eustache Deschamps
are still in manuscript ; he, best of all poets has
described the times of chivalry and tournaments.
B
18 AGNES SORF.L.
Vignes aussi et les prés arables
Moulins tournans, beaux plains a regarder
Et beaux viviers pour less poissons
Oü l’on peut se retraire en sureté, -
Pour tous les points le beau prince courtois
Donna ce nom a ce lieu de Beauté.
This was the pleasant “manoir of Beauty”
which Charles VII. gave with all its appurten-
ances, to Agnes Sorel, who took henceforth the
name of “Dame de Beauté;” it was also the
name by which she was described in the ballads
and at court receptions, and that with which she
signed historical charters.
It was to this Castle of Beauty that Charles VII.
ſrequently came to regain his courage, in the midst
of the sadness and discouragements of his Restora-
tion. Paris was in the possession of the King, but
the English still kept hold of Normandy, Guienne
and the whole of Gascony. Ten leagues from
Paris the standard emblazoned with the leopard
was seen fluttering in defiance, and Pontoise was
the headquarters of the English army. Great
disorder reigned in the armies of the French
Ring. The Jacquerie, a tumult of peasants and
serfs, raged far and wide. The chieſs of the great
companies aspired to resume their ancient dominion
over the councils of Charles VII." It was Agnes
* The most undaunted and most insolent of all was
Chabannes; the King said to him one day—“The

AGNES SOREL. I9
Sorel who supplied all the energy which the King
displayed. When the taxes were not paid and
the States General held at Orleans only gave
subsidies on very hard conditions, Agnes Sorel
engaged her friend Jacques Coeur to make heavy
advances to the extent of ten million crowns, to
recover Normandy by force of arms.
The King's decided triumph in the war on
which he was entered depended on the capture of
Pontoise, which was in the hands of the English,
commanded by Talbot the brave. The King was
surrounded by the flower of his knights—Saint
Paul, Lahire, Xaintrailles, and Chabannes him-
self; Agnes Sorel cume to live in the camp to
awaken the King's courage and his power of will.
The siege lasted a long time, and, like the
Homeric heroes, the besiegers and besieged used
to dare each other. The English shouted and
sang all kinds of raillery against the French.

Vous contrefaites les vaillans
Il semble qu'ayez tout conquis ;”
English call Blanchefort and you captains of flayers.”
Chabannes answered—“When I flay your enemies,
their skin profits you more than me.” Compare Jean
Chartier, Monstrelet, and the Life of Chabannes.
*At this time the French had not won any
decisive success, and the King was obliged to take
refuge at Saint Denis; the English re-appeared before
Montmartre. (“Chronique de Saint Denis,” 1440-
1441.)
2O AGNES SOREL.
Vous vous dites bons bataillans
Dès l'heure que futes naquis.
Bien parait quêtre fort peureux,
Oncques ne futes si heureux
De nous venir aux champs combattre,
Grand orgueil est bon a rabattre.
To these insolent words the French replied:
Votre grand orgueil rabattrons
Et bien la peau vous fourbirons
A la venue du duc d’York,
Tous les natifs de Normandie
Qui on votre parti tenu
Sont traitres, je n'en doute mie,
Autant le grand que le menu.

It was during the siege of Pontoise that the
most splendid and noble scenes of chivalry were
enacted. Struggles, body to body, lance to lance,
sword and battleaxe to sword and battleaxe, suc-
ceeded each other daily; and chivalry threw a
ray of glory over the cruellest scenes of a bloody
War.
XVI.
Cbívaſty, in the jfifteenth Century.
In the troubled and agitated period which
elapsed between the reigns of John and Charles VII.,
the splendid institution of chivalry which had ruled
and purified the middle ages, was effaced and
almost entirely disappeared ; and it was in vain
that half a century later, Francis the First tried to
AGNES SOREL. 2I
revive it : the great institution of chivalry found
its grave at Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt. Every-
thing that dies leaves a void, and inspires a feeling
of sadness, and it is with a certain feeling of
melancholy, that I proceed to study the institution
of chivalry, and to inquire into its true character,
as displayed in our history.
The scholars, who have sought the origin of
chivalry in the cold and aristocratic institutions of
the Romans, have taken the name for the
thing signified. Roman chivalry was a title, a
dignity, a prerogative, requisite for obtaining a
seat at the circus and in the comitia." Nor is this
origin discoverable among the Germans, where
Montesquieu has even sought feudalism ; there was,
among the Germans, courage, a certain respect for
women, and a worship for the divinities who,
under the tall oaks, and in the sacred groves,
uttered their oracles. But such an institution as
this was not chivalry, with its fine feelings, its
holy obligations, its inflexible law of duty. The
Paladins of Charlemagne (with their gigantic
stature, their great swords,” their enchanted

* Introduction aux mémoires sur la chevalerie, by M. M.
de Saint-Palaye. Du Cange, Gloss, latin, voc. Miles
militaris.
*The epics of Charlemagne all date from the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
22 AGNES SOREL.
weapons and their great battle-axes), Roland,
Otger the Dane, the Duke Naymes were not
knights such as the middle ages produced. The
tenth century, which saw the downfall of the
Carlovingians, was a period of disorder and con-
fusion; the Gallo-Roman organisation, which had
been maintained in some faint tracings of its former
glory by the missi dominici of Charlemagne and
Louis the Debonnaire, had left no further trace.
The territory of the Gauls, in the north and south,
presented the aspect of a boundless desert; the
charters of the tenth century speak only of immense
forests and plains covered with undergrowth,
tenanted by wild animals. The men-at-arms were
scarcely restrained in their violence by the sanctity
of the monasteries, or softened by the recital of
legends, by the shells and bread-sack of the pilgrim,
and by the prayer of the poor hermit, a man lost
to the world, and living on some mountain
summit or in the gloomy depths of some pathless
wood. Citeaux, Clairvaux, holy abbeys, how
often have you proved a shelter against men
of violence and ruthless barbarity | Poor widows
and orphans, how often have you felt the oppres-
sive cruelty of men . The Flemish legend of
Geneviève of Brabant, and her treacherous sene-
chal is the truest picture of the tenth century.
At this time, under the influence of the Church,
an order, that of chivalry, was founded, to defend

AGNES SOREL. 23
the weak against the strong, right against violence
and truth against oppression.
La veuve et l'orphelin défendre,
Estre hardi et le peuple garder, -
Prudommes, loyaux, sans rien de l'autruy prendre,
Ainsi se doit chevalier gouverner."
Chivalry was an order, entrance to which was
only possible after long trials and a peculiar
education. From the moment the child could
walk alone in the castle, he was page or varlet ;
Jehan de Saintré, when a boy of thirteen, was
already page of honour to King John. Pages and
varlets were taught to love God and the ladies,
who themselves instructed them in the art of
serving them faithfully. The doctrine of helping
the feeble and small was most carefully inculcated.
“Courtesy shown to inferiors comes from an open
and Sweet temper, and the inferior to whom it is
shown considers himself honoured thereby.”3
It was only after this long and pleasant
apprenticeship that a youth was raised to the

* Eustache Deschamps says again :
Chevalier en ce monde-ci,
Ne peuvent vivre sans souci.
Ils doivent le peuple défendre,
Et leur sang pour la foi espandre.
* Ordre de Chevalerie, fol. 2. -
3 Compare these works—Traité de l'espée Française,
by Savaron ; Théâtre d, Honneur, by Favin; and Traité
de la Chevalerie Ancienne et Moderne, by Ménétrier.
24 AGNES -SOREL.
rank of esquire; the esquire carried the shield
and the lance of the knight, and held his horse
by the bridle. “Then were seen approaching my
Lord Gauvain and two esquires, one of whom led
his charger by the bridle, and carried his sword,
and the other his helmet and his shield.” The
esquire could only ride on a “rousin,” or steed
of poor appearance."
Le chevalier erra pensant
Et l'écuyer chevaucha avant
Sur son roucin a grand alure.
“I have heard it said by the old captains,”
says Brantôme, “that the first or chief esquires
of the Kings of France must always be near them.”
This duty of the esquire had nothing dishonour-
able or lowering in it, even rendered to simple
knights.
Les jeunes gens poursuivaient
Lances et bucines portaient
Des anciens chevaliers
Les coustumes apprenaient
De chevacier . . . . *
After a long period of squireship, the candidate
was admitted to the title of knight after some
great tournament, where he had shown superior
* “Romance of Lancelot of the Lake.”
* MS. Poems of Eustache Deschamps, p. 77, col.
1 and 2.

AGNES SOREL. 25
prowess; for we must note that knighthood had
the pre-eminence in honour, and that every knight
had a higher office than a thousand men-at-arms.
We need not, then, be astonished at the solemn
ceremonies that accompanied the reception of a
knight into the order. “He who grants the
order of knighthood ought to know from him who
receives it, with what intention he wishes to assume
it; for if it be with the intention of becoming rich,
idle, or from mere ambition, he is unworthy of
it.”* The squire who desired to be knighted had
to kneel; and “the knight had to gird him with
his sword, in token of chastity, justice and
charity.” The purpose, then, of the order was
to recall equity, gentleness and charity into the
midst of this society of the Middle Ages, by the
help of God, Our Lady, and Saint Denis. Some-
times a simple maiden, the symbol of weakness,
armed the knight; “with her fair white and
delicate hands she began to lace his armour on.”
“The duty of the knight is to support widows,
orphans, and persons in evil straits and feeble.”
According to the romance of Zancelot of the Zače,
the requisites of the knight are—“Strength,
endurance, gentleness, dignity of bearing, cour-
tesy and munificence.”

* Chevalier de la Tour, Guidon des Guerres, “Le
Signes du fort Chevalier,” p. 9o.
26 AGNES SOREL.
Des vaillans les prouesses comprendre
Afin qu'il puisse les grands faits achever,
Comme jadis fist le roi Alexandre,
Ainsi se doit chevalier gouverner."
It was in the midst of the violent society of the
tenth century that this 'splendid religious and
military association made its appearance and
began to develop. To the most enterprising
courage it joined the deepest generosity, the most
complete abdication of all personality and of all
brutal violence : substituted courtesy and polite-
ness-for that barbarous life of selfishness lived by
the French and German lords of the first and
second dynasties.” By the side of this chivalry,
was systematised feudalism, that splendid and
great system which re-established the hierarchy,
and the bonds of obebience and respect through-
out the whole community, in the midst of general
confusion of ideas. Rank, property, everything
was organised into such a perfect system of fiefs
and sub-fiefs, that, in fact, the whole kingdom
was connected with the towers of the Louvre.
Chivalry and feudalism founded society and
government in France, and gave to the manners
of the people that politeness and courtesy which
remained as the elevated type of the national
character. The knights devoted themselves to
* Poésies d'Eustache Deschamps, fol. 309, No. 4.
* La Colombière, Théâtre d'Honneur et de Chevalerie,

AGNES SOREL. 27
the protection of feebleness, under the symbol of
the Virgin Mary, who was supreme in the Middle
Ages, and thus raised the condition of women.
What character is finer than that of the knight-
errant l Surely Miguel Cervantes is to blame for
turning such a character into ridicule in “Don
Quixote,” and ſor exalting materialism, sensuality
and selfishness in the person of Sancho. Behold
a true knight-errant He belonged frequently to
an exalted line of kings, princes or barons; he
could live comfortably in his castle, surrounded
by festivities and tourneys, and intoxicated with
feasting and sensual passion; all at once he
abandoned these delights, and for what? To
fulfil a vow of knighthood, to penetrate the
depths of obscure forests, and protect women and
orphans, without looking for recompense and
without caring even for life; the knight slept on
the hard earth," pursued the spoiler of the weak
and the false vassal; he appeared suddenly at
judicial combats to take on him the defence of
forsaken prisoners. What noble feelings must
have been inspired by the reading of those
Chansons de Gesſes which treated of chivalrous
deeds ! Their existence was strange; the knight
was recognised from afar when he suddenly
* Qui bien et mal ne sait souffrir,
A grant honneur ne peut venir.
(Petit jehan de Saintré, p. 136.)

28 AGNES SOREL.
appeared, with his vizor lowered, to defend a
desperate cause. It was the Knight of the Swan,
or of the Unicorn, with his white or black plume.
Whence came he P What was his name or his
estate P He was unknown, and yet he was
surrounded with renown and respect. When
wounded, he was cared for by throngs of noble
maidens, who would tend his wounds and cure
them with what were thought enchanted balms,
a wonderful art cultivated by the noble ladies of
the manor. “‘Your arm seems to be troubling
you.”—“I’ faith,’ replied the knight, “if such be
the case, I ask you, madam, to be good enough
to tend it.’ Then the lady called one of her
daughters, whose name was Helen, who examined
his arm, and found that it was out of its place,
and took such care of it that it was set again.””
What were the causes of the decline and fall of
this noble institution, which had been such an
important factor in elevating and purifying society?
The discovery of firearms caused, in my opinion,
rather a change in the order and issue of battles
than in the feelings of courage and honour. Such
sentiments were affected most of all by the
contact of mercenary foreigners, by the introduc-
tion into the armies of Lombard archers, tribes of
salaried men-at-arms, and peasants of the com-
* Perceforest, MS., fol. 169. º
º


AGNES SOREL. 29
munes. In the midst of these mercenaries, who
were undoubtedly brave, though freebooters and
devoid of all conscience, could chivalry remain
pure and maintain itself in its generous madness
of devotion ? It had been conquered and almost
destroyed at Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt; it
dragged out a weary existence under Charles V.,
a prince who was an enemy to sentiment, and in
the midst of civil disorders and the selfishness of
the mercenary soldiers and craftsmen of Ghent,
Malines, Brussels and Paris.”
After King John's time, chivalry was in a state
of collapse ; Eustache Deschamps notices already
in his time this sad change in noble and generous
feelings:
Or Mesbahis quand chacun jongle et ment
Car meilleur temps fut le temps ancien
S'Arment,” savetiers et charbons (charbonniers)
Escuyers s'appellent garçons
Or est venu le temps
Et or est la raison
Plus apartient bordiaux
Qu'il n'a autre maison.3

* Les Pigiles of Charles VII. already complain of
this love of gain :
Marchandise lors estait en sa vogue,
En son grant bruit triomphe et s'en gogue
Pour les grands biens
Que l’on gagnait pour soi et pour les siens.
* Eustache Deschamp's Manuscipt Poems, p. 160,
col. 2.
3 The poet exalts ancient times, as may be seen in
3O AGNES SOREL.
No doubt there have been, in all ages, enthusiasts
of the past as compared with the present ; but
the chivalry of the Middle Ages closed with the
first Valois. At that time a new military society,
in the hands of the captains of the mercenary
companies, and the leaders of the markets and
crafts, sprang up. Chivalry still remained in name,
but it existed only in the past. Great disorders
reigned, but in the sentiments of duty or of honour
no means of repression were to be found. The society
of the fifteenth century assumed a cruel and bloody
character; the Middle Ages were free from these
excesses; there reigned over chivalrous society
a feeling of loyal generosity. Scattered over the
country were many fierce and cruel barons; but
knight-errantry was there to besiege and demolish
these nests where vultures took shelter; comba-
tants fought loyally, with the soothing sounds of
legends and songs of trouvères and troubadours in
their ears.
This, however, was no longer the case when
foreign mercenaries, the people of the markets,
the workmen of the guilds, and the chiefs of the
great companies made their appearance in war :

the following lines :
“Les chevaliers &taient vertueux
Et par amour pleins de chevalerie.”
* The reader of Brantôme will notice the cruelty
that reigned among men-at-arms in the 16th century.
-
AGNES SOREL. 3 I
cruelty now assumed the ascendant. The annals
of the fifteenth century are horrible even to read.
Now that knight-errantry no longer existed to
repress the violence of the great feudatories, they
remained rude and implacable in character. We
read accounts of the war between the Burgundians
and Armagnacs that make our blood run cold.
There was here no chivalry; the only impression
it left was a gentlemanly spirit, gallantry, and the
refined and exalted feelings that are still found in
some of the French nobility. Just as, in the Middle
Ages, the worship of the Virgin elevated women
and ennobled the finest instincts of their nature,
so chivalry formed the best past of the national
character, all that remains of patriotism and
devotion, the self-denial of the soldier, and the
love of military glory.

XYII.
Cbe Eaupbin. Ibig batteo of
Žigned $otel.
(1438–1441.)
The most persevering of the enemies of Agnes
Sorel was the Dauphin, afterwards Louis XI.
Affianced to Margaret of Scotland at the age of
five, at the time of Charles VII.'s greatest diffi-
culties at Bourges, he had welcomed with deference
His young bride, who was of a melancholy and
32 AGNES SOREL.
poetical disposition. The Dauphin himself was
learned; Margaret, one of the most precious gems
of the Court of Charles VII., loved the old songs
of the trouvères and troubadours. She was some-
what extravagantly fond of poets, and it is said
that one day, having found Master Alain Chartier *
asleep in one of the apartments of the castle of
Chinon, she had kissed him on the mouth to
breathe in the beauties of his poetry, an action
which savoured of an indiscreet enthusiasm, and
which did not agree with the ideas of the Dauphin,
a man of a restless and morose disposition.
In his early years he had acted like a brave and
noble knight; in the train of the King, his
ather, he had fought bravely in battle and siege.
He made friends of almost all the discontented
people who were irritated by the new favours
shown to Agnes Sorel, for whom the Dauphin
had conceived a violent hatred. After the King's
entry into Paris, there was a disturbance caused
by a rising of the Great Companies and peasants,
a “Praguerie,” as it was called then, after the
revolts of the Bohemians raised by John Huss and
Jérôme of Prague. Under the influence of Agnes
*Two volumes of poetry by Alain Chartier had
specially struck Margaret of Scotland; they were, La
belle Dame sans Merci and Demandes d’Amour. They
are both found in the rare edition of Galliot Dupré,
Paris, 1529, 4to. -

AGNES SOREL. 33
Sorel, Charles VII. had fought against this con
spiracy, which had the support of the leaders of
the men-at-arms.” It is seldom that a change in
a military organisation (the transition from dis-
order to order) does not produce this kind of
rebellion. The Dauphin, who was for a very
short time at the head of this rising, was compelled
to submit, without ever pardoning Agnes Sorel
for having armed the King. Agnes had been
attached by the liveliest friendship to Margaret of
Scotland, a lady of a chivalrous and enthusiastic
temper. Margaret of Scotland, suspected by the
Dauphin of having betrayed his faith, died at the
age of twenty, with these sad words on her lips:
“F / de la zie ; qu'on ne m'en parle plus.”
The Dauphin, at liberty after the suppression
of the conspiracy, appeared to be reconciled to
Agnes Sorel, and served Charles VII. with fidelity
and courage in the war against England. Those
who have represented Louis XI. after his accession
as a cowardly and low-minded prince, and as
shunning war, have not studied this first part of
his life: he was one of the bravest captains among
the troops; he was seen at the sieges of Pontoise,
Dieppe and Réole, exhibiting the most brilliant
courage against the English. But the more

* The principal chiefs of the “Praguerie” were the
Bastard of Bourbon, Boucicault, Sanglier, &c. &
* Jean Chartier.
C
34 AGN F.S SOREL.
honour he gained as a knight, the more did
he seek to gain over partisans to himself and
form devoted friendships. At the siege of Dieppe
he gave his chief confidence to a rude captain,
called Tristan, a name frequently met with in
romances: Lancelot of the Lake, at the time of
his souffrance d'amour, had taken this surname of
Tristan," and a chanson de gestes had Tristan le
Leonais for its hero. No adventurer was braver
han Tristan, who had been engaged in wars for
fifteen years; he had been among the forty-nine
men-at-arms whom Dunois had chosen to help
him to carry on the siege and take possession of
Fronsac.” -
Tristan had been dubbed a knight at the hands
of the Bastard of Orleans, at the breach in the
walls, and the latter had recognised his bravery,
The Dauphin took brave Tristan into his special
service, and made him provost, which gave him
the right of administering justice on all those
engaged in the war—a justice which was frequently
expedited by the hangman's noose. Tristan took
as his companion his squire, Trois Echelles, an
active yeoman (this surname is often men-
tioned in the chronicles). Tristan and Trois

* Sometimes that of the Beaux tºn&breux : “Aven-
tures de Tristan et de la belle Iseult.” This romance
has often been printed. .
* The 20th June, 1445.
AGNES SOREL. 35
Echelles had the charge of keeping order in the
Dauphin's Court, a task which was no easy one
in the midst of these undisciplined warriors. The
miniatures in the manuscripts, when they repre-
sent a troop on the march or a camp of warriors,
are always sure to give each tree a peculiar fruit,
the body of a yoeman swaying from the branches.
This sad spectacle was reproduced two centuries
later by Callot, in his admirable engravings on
the misfortunes of war. At this time, the noise
of the bodies of the men who were hung, as they
swayed in the wind, produced a singular music in
the midst of these troops of adventurers on their
march. 1
After this glorious campaign, the Dauphin
returned to Paris, where Charles VII. had his
residence, dividing his time between the castle
des 7 ournelles and the Manor of Beauty, the
favourite residence of Agnes Sorel. The chronicles
say they had three children, and this open and
scandalous attachment was borne with great resig-
nation by the Queen, who had a true love for
Charles VII. ; but the Dauphin did not cease to
manifest a righteous indignation against Agnes:
was it a tender attachment for his outraged
mother ? Was it because Agnes Sorel held in

* Of these disciplinary measures of war, Brantôme
has left us a very curious description in the portrait
of the Constable de Montmorency and his patenátres.
36 AGNES SOREL.
her hand the sceptre of France and because she
wielded it firmly for the repression of every
revolution, and that thus she had guessed the
Dauphin's impatience to assume the crown? The
chroniclers mention that the Dauphin reached
such a pitch of anger as to give Agnes Sorel a
slap on the face," and that she thereafter with-
drew from the Court to reside at the castle of
Loches, in Touraine.
Touraine, Berri and Orléanais ! Were not these
the fairest tracts of the earth, and full of royal
residences? It was not by chance that the Kings
had chosen Loches and Chinon for their homes,
those sweet retreats which had witnessed the first
feelings of love, the early aspirations after glory
of Charles VII. and Agnes Sorel.
It was more from necessity than from choice
that Charles VII. resided at his Castle of Tour-
nelles, situated in the middle of Paris, in that
palace where the Kings, John, Charles V., and
Charles VII., had lived. In order to gain as
much popular favour as possible, the King raised
again from their ruins most of the buildings which
the civil war or neglect had destroyed : * to
Charles VII, we owe a great number of these
small turretted Bastilles, the ruins of which still

* Monstrelet and Jean Chartier tell us this.
* Ordinance of Charles VII. Collect. du Louvre, 1441.
AGNES SOREL. 37
remain. Up to this reign, the castles of feudalism
were gloomy, massive and built with thick walls,
almost without windows or decoration. Paris
now presented a varied aspect. I have before me
a bird’s-eye view of the city, street by street,
houses and islands, in the reign of Charles VII.,
and the appearance presented is of the most
charming and varied character." The streets are
narrow, it is true, but each block of houses stands by
itself with trim plots and gardens, vine trelisses, and
fine vegetable enclosures. The town is crowded
with churches and convents, fine mansions, so
elegant that one would say they might be carried in
the hand, as the stone statues of saints, set under
porches, carry the models of Cathedrals on the tips of
their fingers. There are only three bridges crossing
the Seine, sheltered from the sun, rain, and wind;
the pont Aux Meuniers is in the form of the Bridge
of Sighs at Venice. Every house, even those of
the middle classes, is adorned with emblematic
figures, with gables and strangely-shaped water-
spouts.
In the extreme south stands Sainte-Geneviève
with its shrine surrounded by charming cottages,
the gardens of which, planted with vines, stretch
*The National Library is very poor in relief-plans
of the cities of the Middle Ages. We must have
recourse to private collections.

38 AGNES SOREL.
to the Bièvre; on the Seine was Nôtre-Dame,
the pride of the city, and, as if to present a con-
trast, the Châtelet, with its turrets, the bright
Sainte-Chapelle of Saint-Louis, with its lofty
spire, and the vast convent of the Augustine
monks, the hôtel de Nesle; farther off there are
seen the charming Pré aux Clercs and the buildings
of the University.
-On the other bank of the river Seine, the
Bastille, with its four towers, surrounded by a
park and orchard, the royal residence of the
Tournelles, with its small forests of cherry-trees,
its vine trelisses, where the muscatel grapes hang
in beautiful clusters, the Rue Saint-Antoine,
reserved for tournaments: Saint-Paul, Les iCeles-
tins, la Grève and the Louvre, from which, to the
north, on the eminence that bordered on the
beautiful factory of Venetian glazed tiles, could
be seen the windmills that turned as the breeze
shifted this way or that.
Such was Paris under Charles VII., where were
seen passing and repassing processions of lords
and ladies, on richly caparisoned horses, monks,
black and white, armed men dressed in two colours,
as they have been painted on cards and tarots,
shopkeepers with their hoods, gypsies, pages, and
varlets, long processions of pilgrims, walking to
the sounds of the peals of bells, ringing out joy-
ously at the prospect of a festival, but full of

AGNES SOREL. 39
Sorrow and lamentation for the dead. There were
none of those monotonous crowds, unbelieving
and heartless, which are now crowded into our
great towns, in the midst of a civilization that is
WOrn Out.
XVIII.
CbC Couttg of Jôutgun Oyº, Elnjou and
|St.0VClice. CbC (5000 ſking 'iReile, ill the
jfifteenth Century), -
The Court of Charles VII., even when super-
intended and arranged by Agnesſ Sorel in its
pleasures and its chivalry, could never compare
for splendour and magnificence with the Courts
of Burgundy, Anjou and Provence, climates
favoured of heaven. We may regard the Dukes
of Burgundy as the last and fairest reflection of
the spirit of chivalry and feudalism ; the Treaty
of Arras had still further increased their power of
sovereignty; Dijon, their capital, a city of splen-
dour in the fourteenth century, built its beautiful
churches of Sainte Bénigne and of Saint Michel,
and the palace of its Dukes. Time destroys
everything, and the hand of man more than that
of time. The stranger who visits Dijon to-day,
with its look of nobility and seriousness still
unchanged, is struck with the neglect of its
antiquarian glory. Of the palace of the Dukes
of Burgundy, there remains but one. tower and

40 AGNES SOREL.
the ruins of a kitchen like those described by
Homer, wherein, no doubt, was prepared the
feudal peacock. In the Church of Sainte Bénigne
I have seen old figures of knights and mitred
abbots lying stretched on the flags of the cathedral,
half effaced by the feet of visitors; an outrage to
the dead, to Art, and to history.”
Independently of the Duchy of Burgundy, with
its beautiful capital, the Dukes possessed, besides,
the county of Maçon, and of Charollais as far as the
town of Auxerre, Franche-Comté and Flanders,
with its rich but democratic and ill-regulated
towns, the cities of the Somme, &c. Twenty-five
leagues from Paris the colours of Burgundy were
floating on the high towers of Amiens. The
character of the Dukes of Burgundy was violent,
proud, imperious, but relieved by a brilliant
generosity; they loved splendour, festivities, lists
and tournaments, and, ever magnificent them-
selves, they were prodigal in their expenditure.
At Bruges, at the time of the marriage of Duke
John with Madame Isabelle of Portugal, the
festivities were so splendid that the Flemings still

* Dijon has kept its grave and magisterial character;
I appeal to the learning of its many scholars. In
France there are many societies and inspectors of
historical monuments, who make a great noise in the
newspapers, but leave our national treasures to be
ruined by neglect.
AGNES SOREL. 4I
remember them. The burgesses, those unsur-
passed beer drinkers, were astonished to see before
the palace, on one side, a lion of pure gold, which,
for a whole week, never ceased spouting a copious
stream of Rhenish, and, on the other, a silver stag
throwing out Beaune, Romanée and Malvoisie.”
While the Flemings got drunk at one of these
feasts, which, in later times, Teniers so well
reproduced, Duke John presided at a magnificent
tournament in the court itself of the palace, where
the bells pealed the most charming airs in honour
of Flanders.
On this day was instituted the illustrious order
of the Golden Fleece.” Some have sought the
origin of this order in a mysterious and lascivious
gift of love, presented by a lady of Bruges to
Duke John.3 It is more natural to believe that
the fable of Jason and the conquest of the Golden
Fleece—a fable reproduced and imitated by more
than one rhymer—was the true source of the
institution of this illustrious order of chivalry. In
the terms of the statutes, everything is graveland
* Compare Monstrelet, Chroniq. ann., 1430, with the
Annales de Flandres, by Meyer.
*The statutes bear date Ioth January, 1429 ; but
as the year only began at Easter, we must read I432.
3 Favin, in the Théâtre d’Honneur, discusses with
some detail the causes of the foundation of the order
of the Golden Fleece.

42 AGNES SC REL.
religious. “We make known that, by reason of
the great and perfect love which we bear to the
noble estate and order of chivalry, the honour of
which by our glowing and particular affection we
wish to increase, in order that, by its means, the
true Catholic faith, the state of our Holy Mother
Church, the tranquility and prosperity of the
commonwealth, may be, as much as possible,
defended, guarded and preserved. On the tenth
day of January, 1429, the day of the solemnisation
at Bruges of the marriage between us and our
very dear and dearly-beloved spouse, Elizabeth,
we have instituted and created an order and
fraternity or amicable association of knights,
which it is our wish to call the Golden Fleece,
conquered by Jason.” " ... "
Thus it was the idea of the Golden Fleece,
Jason's conquest, which had inspired this new
order of chivalry” under the great mastership of
the Duke of Burgundy. Each knight wore a scarlet
mantle lined with varied coloured furs, and took,
like a monk to an abbot, the oath of obedience to
the grand-master. At this period of chivalry and
honour, people had reached the point, at the Court
* The number of the knights of the Golden Fleece
could not exceed thirty.
*In the Chansons de Gestes, Jason is regarded as the
model of knighthood. -

AGNES SOREL. 43
of Burgundy, of indulging in fanciſul vows, which
were sworn in feudal feasts, over the golden
pheasant or the heron. One engaged never to
sleep in a soft bed until he had conquered twenty
knights; another, never to touch or kiss a woman's
dress before breaking ten lances in single combat,
or taking a towered fort. This faith in himself
on the part of the knight, and these legends of
courage, might introduce a certain disorder into
the regular life of a nation, but they begat a con-
fidence in great enterprises; they formed the
beauty-spot in the character of the people, and
Froissart depicts the noble scene of knights going
to affix their shield to the old oak of Charlemagne,
and to proclaim the beauty and honour of women
in the face of all coming.
The institution of the order of the Golden
Fleece was almost contemporaneous with the
greatest disaster of the Christian era, the capture
of Constântinople by the Turks. Let one imagine
the effect that must have been produced by the
fall of the Greek empire, scarcely two centuries
aſter the crusades. Even when nations are asleep,
there are certain events that awake them with a
start, with despair in their heart and shame on
their brow. For a century the Popes, those pro-
tectors of Christian society, had sought to prevent
this catastrophe by calling kings and their peoples
to arms against the hordes that were invading

44 AGNES SOREL.
Europe." They had been scarcely listened to ;
the Byzantines had lost themselves in vain dis-
putes ; the capture of Constantinople resounded
like a clap of thunder, and while Charles VII., to
please the universities, promulgated the act of
opposition to the Holy See of Rome, called the
Pragmatic Sanction, the Duke of Burguundy
offered, himself and all his knighthood, to march
against the infidels.”
The “Vow of the Heron ’’ on this occasion had
for its object the accomplishment of the crusade
against the infidels: 3 the Duke of Burgundy was
to place himself at the head of this expedition,
the purpose of which was to hurl the Turks back
into Asia.
These same exalted feelings of chivalry rose to
a very high point in the house of Anjou, and
especially in the imagination of that prince whom
Provence still fondly calls by the name of the
“good King Réné.” An enthusiastic artist, he

* Continuation of Baronius, ad ann. 1440-50.
a The true character of the Pragmatic Sanction has
been pointed out in the author's book on the Church
in the Middle Ages.
3 “The Vow of the Heron" (see ante) has been
published by MM. de Sainte-Palaye at the end of their
Memoire sur la Chevalerie.
4 Compare the portraits of Tristan and Trois-
Echelles in Quentin Durward, and of Réné in Anne of
AGNES SOREL. 45
painted pictures, glasses, and the portraits of those
whom he loved ; a good musician, he composed
all the airs for festival and tournay; when a captive
of the Dukes of Burgundy, he had been taken by
the tournaments and pomps of chivalry. The
Bibliothèque Nationale has a splendid illuminated
manuscript entitled : “Les Tournois du Roi
Réné.”* There is nothing like it for splendour
and richness of colouring: we there see depicted
the rough encounter of knights, each bearing his
distinctive coat of arms: the lances are crossed
the shock is terrible ! See the number of knights
unhorsed ' What huge horses richly caparisoned
The tournaments of King Réné are a theatre of
honour and courage. This society lived only in
such ideas; it was strangely mixed, like the ſan-
tastic ornaments that deck illuminated missals;
at the bottom of all hearts was the belief that
gives a colouring to everything, the fair epic of a
future life, of heaven and of hell. Existence was
in God.
Good King Réné had an imaginative soul, and

Geierstein, with those drawn by Capefigue, here and on
page 34.
* From the point of view of the miniatures of the
Middle Ages, the manuscript of King Réné's tourna-
ments is one of the most splendid treasures of this
Library. It enables us to perceive the dawn of
Italian Art.
46 AGNES SOREL.
the town of Aix owes to him the beautiful repre-
sentation of that mystery which still preserves the
name of the /eux du Roi A'éné. Provence, in the
month of May, is permeated with a thousand
perfumed odours of flowers, rose, broom and
thyme; and the celebration of the Fête Dieu º
takes place with magnificent ceremonies under its
bright unclouded sky. Along with these holy
rites, King Réné, ever an artist, instituted a fête
which lasted five days, and had the whole of the
city of Aix for its scene. King David was there
represented, surrounded by fiends, male and
female; Innocence, protected by an angel all clad
in white; the golden calf, worshipped by all (a
symbol of the society which was to be); graceſul
dancers, playing on the flute and tambourine to
an air which the King himself had composed ;
the three wise men; the massacre of the innocents;
Saint Christopher, the representative of the Giants,
and spirited horses prancing around him.”


Celebrated in honour of the Holy Sacrament.
* King Réné was a poet : he has left some ballads;
one of them is the Conqueste de la doulce Mercy. His
illuminated book bears the title, Traité des Tournois.
A great man, one of the distinguished leaders of the
Restoration of 1815, the Count Villeneuve de Bar-
gemont, Prefect of the Bouches-du-Rhône, who has
specially studied the history of King Réné, has written
thereon in the Provençal dialect.
AGNES SOREL. 47
This mystery was represented before Charles VII.
and Agnes Sorel during a journey they made to
Sainte Baume. It had to be repeated each year
at the Fête Diéu. Réné was always happy when
living at his good city of Aix or in his little country
house of Marseilles, where the warm sun causes
the cicada” to sing, as it does under the sycamores
at Athens. He had an affection for those walls
where the salamander drinks in the rays of the
sun, and shelters itself under the tender leaves of
the Italian jessamine or under the golden ball of
the scented cassia, near wells, true African cisterns.
What inhabitant of Provence does not bless the
name of the good King Réné P. Which of them
has not been to see his country house, called Za
A'ose, with its charming situation on the banks of
the Jarret? What child has not glanced through
the pages of the book the Fête de ZXieu du Roi
A'éné, with its old engravings of somewhat fan-
tastical costumes of the time of Charles VII, and
Agnes Sorel, borrowed from the cards and tarots
of this period? In the fifteenth century a revolu-


* Cicada, which is commonly rendered “a grass-
hopper,” is affirmed by naturalists to be an insect of a
far different make, and peculiar to hot countries,
usually sitting on trees, and singing so loud that it
may be heard afar off. The French cigale means
both cicada and locusta, the latter being the correct
rendering of grasshopper. (See Ainsworth.)
48 AGNES SOREL.
tion took place in art; paintings assumed the
brilliant hues of carmine, gold and azure. The
landscapes are most charming; the flowers, on
which little birds are seen ensconsed, seem almost
as if plucked yesterday. Here we have rural
pieces, grapes hanging from vines, with wells and
almond trees. There, again, we see the cell of
the good hermit, with the flocks sporting round
those fair-faced shepherds and shepherdesses, such
as Froissart has described in his great Chronicles.

XIX.
TLa3t peata of Elglleg $otel. [Bet Oeatb.
(I440-1450.)
Agnes Sorel had exiled herself from the court
of Charles VII. after the conquest of Normandy,
at the time when popular ſeeling against her
influence made itself ſelt. Although some brave
knights assumed her badge and defended her
beauty, yet all those who, on the contrary, wished
to rule the feeble Charles, that is, the Dauphin,
the Captains of the armed bands, the Scottish
Counts and Dukes, who were always exacting in
their demands, had declared themselves against
her, and Agnes Sorel had withdrawn to her Castle
of Loches. Sometimes she resided at the Manoir
de Beauté, on the Marne, where the king came to
visit her in secret, and even to consult her on the

AGNES SOREL. 49
affairs of his realm. From general admission we
know that Agnes Sorel had preserved a vigorous
resolution and a firmness of judgment which were
unsurpassed, and, above all, that chivalrous spirit
which impelled Charles VII., with all his irresolu-
tion, towards strong and courageous measures.
Nothing regarding the life of Agnes Sorel during
her last days would have come down to us, had
a faithful chronicler, Jean Chartier," not taken
care to relate, from personal knowledge, almost
the entire life of Agnes, whom he had seen and
known. Speaking of the conquest of Normandy
and the capture of Rouen, Jean Chartier says:
“In the Abbey of Jumiège” the king found a
fair maiden, who name was Belle Agnes, who had
come there, as she said, to warn the King, and
tell him that some of his people wished to betray
him and give him into the hands of his old
enemies, the English;3 of which the King took
no notice and did nought but laugh, and by reason
that the said Agnes had been in the Queen's
service for the space of five years or thereabouts,


* Jean Chartier, who must not be confounded with
the poet Alain Chartier, wrote a chronicle on the
reign of Charles VII.
* The Abbey of Jumiège was one of the gems of
Anglo-Norman Architecture.
3 The English had always numerous supporters in
Normandy.
D
50 AGNES SOREL.
in which she had had every kind of worldly
pleasure, and all the pastimes and amusements
that were known, that is to say, to wear splendid
finery, ornaments, dresses, furs, necklaces of gold
and precious stones, and having there all other
pleasures, as became her youth and beauty"
wherefore it was a common saying that the King
kept and entertained her, for to-day the world is
more inclined to speak evil than good . . -
although it was often against the wish of the King
that the said Agnes Sorel lived in such high state,
but it was her own pleasure : wherefore he winked
at it as much as he could ; and when the King
went to see the ladies of the Court, especially in
the absence of the queen, there was ālways a large
multitude of people present, and never did they
see her touched. by the King below the chin, but
she withdrew after the lawful pastimes, as became
a King's Court: and each went to his own apart-
ment at night, and likewise the said Agnes to
hers.”
Thus the chronicler seeks to explain and justify
the relations subsisting between Charles VII. and
Agnes Sorel. However, the simple narrator is
led into making some avowals: “And that if the
said Agnes did anything wrong, if she had any
culpable relations with the King, of which no

* Agnes Sorel's love of jewels was well known,
AGNES SOREL. 5 I
one could obtain any proof, they were always
entered into with caution and secretly, she being
at that time in the service of the Queen of Sicily
before she was in that of the Queen of France,
with whom she resided for some years. The
publication of these evil reports and the scandal
occasioned having come to the knowledge of the
said Agnes, who was called Madame de Beauté,
she was so saddened and displeased that she shewed
great contrition and repentance for her sins: she
remembered Mary Magdalene, who was also a
great sinner. When falling ill she called on God
and the Virgin Mary to come to her aid ; then,
like a good Catholic, after receiving the Sacra-
ment she asked for her prayer book to read the
verses of Saint Bernard, which she had written
with her own hand, and made the noble Jacques
Coeur her testamentary executor, along with
Robert Félicien, the Queen's doctor, and Master
Stephen Chevalier, the King's secretary and
treasurer. She ordained that the King alone, and
in every way should have the control of these
three persons. The said Agnes declared to all
her maids that our frail flesh was an odious and
disgusting thing, and expressed her regrets to the
said Master Denis, her confessor, that she might
receive absolution from him. Then aſter raising

* Hence her pilgrimage to Saint-Baume.
52 AGNES SOREL.
very loud cries, calling on and invoking the
blessed Virgin Mary, her soul left her body on
Monday, the IIth day of February 1449, at six
o'clock in the afternoon, and her body being after-
wards opened, her heart was taken to the said
Abbey. As regards her body it was taken up and
carried for burial to Loches, where the ceremony
of sepulture took place with all pomp in the
College Church of Notre Dame, which she had
enriched with many foundations and gifts. May
God grant mercy to her soul. Amen.”
Such is the short account given of the life of
Agnes Sorel by the pious chronicler, Master Jean
Chartier, who finds an excuse for her profane
amours in the sanctity of her death. The abbey
in which the noble Dame de Beauté died is
Jumièges, that finest gem of Anglo-Norman archi-
tecture which to-day lies in ruins amid its broken
columns, its mutilated figures of saints scattered
around, its crumbling tracery, with its sacred
chapels, its fountains and its piscinae destroyed 1
Jumiège, that existed in the days of William the
Conquerer, and the mitred abbot of which issued
the ban of excommunication against Robert the
Devil | Again, in the history of the abbey of

*The Chronicles of Jean Chartier have often been
printed. -
AGNES SOREL. 53
Jumiège we find these words: “Charles VII.
had been at Jumiège for six weeks when Agnes
Sorel was prostrated by an acute attack of dysentry,
of which she died at the farm of Mesnil, a depend-
ency of the said abbey, on the 9th day of February
1449, at six o'clock at night, aged forty years.”
The few charters that have escaped the hand of
time tell us “that Agnes Sorel bequeathed thirty
crowns to the Church of Saint Aspar de Melun,
and 2000 gold pieces to Nôtre Dame de Loches,
the place of her burial, for a daily service to be
celebrated in the said church.” Thus the name
of Aumöneuse, which she commoly receives in the
Chronicles, was well merited.
It has been said that Agnes Sorel died from the
effects of poison, and the indictment of Jacques
Coeur included this among the crimes with which
the royal silversmith was charged. But can there
be the slightest truth in such an accusation, when
we remember that in her will Agnes Sorel names
Jacques Coeur among the executors of her last
wishes P All the life of the Dame de Beauté
mingled with that of the royal silversmith, her
most faithful friend, and the treasurer of her
savings, who furnished her with the most beautiful
+ A Norman archaeologist of great fame has issued
a remarkable work on the abbey of Jumiège : the
drawings were made by Mlle. Langlois, his daughter.
1826–27.

54 AGNES SOREL.

gems and diamonds and the splendid stuffs that
formed her dresses : besides, could there be any
Symptoms or suspicion of poisoning in an illness
that lasted forty days? This accusation of poison-
ing, whenever the great are cut down by death, is
a meaningless but common hypothesis in history.
Agnes Sorel, to whom the name of Dame de
Beauté was henceforth given as a charming nick-
name, left three daughters, who made good
marriages; the first, Charlotte, was married to
Charles de Brézé; the second, called Marie, to
Olivier de Créqui ; and lastly, the third, Jeanne,
to Antoine de Bueil. Jacques Coeur erected to
her memory the tomb which was long seen in the
church of Loches. On it these sad words were
written: Q95 ! mort, foujourg inflexible, tu ag
arracíje Je (a bie un gi beau corpg bang geg
pluſ jeute; anmeeg." Graves in churches, tombs
scattered over the pavements with reflections on
death and future life, leave a lasting impression on
visitors. There was no more beautiful shelter for
the dead than the church vaults, which taught a
severe lesson to those who lived in the midst of
luxury and debauchery; so much beauty, so much
grace abandoned to the worms of the tomb The
* There have been several recent discussions about
the family of Agnes Sorel. Her portrait may be found
in the Collection des Gravures. (Bibliothèque Nat.)
AGNES SOREL, 55
name of Agnes Sorel survived her ſortune ; she
was the object of invocations two centuries after.
The poet Baïf, who paid a visit to the farm of
La Ferté Mesnil, the scene of Agnes Sorel's death,
wrote this sad ballad on the Dame de Beauté :
Mais la ! Elle ne put rompre la destinée
Qui pour trancher ses jours l'avait ici menée
Où la mort la surprit. . . .
O mort ! cette beauté
Devait par sa douceur flechir ta cruauté ;
Mais la lui ravissant à la fleur de son age
Si grand que tu cuidais n'a esté ton outrage,
Car si elle eût fourni l'entier nombre de jours
Que lui pouvait donner de nature le cours,
Ses beaux traits, son beau teint et sa belle charnure
De la tarde vieillesse allait subir l'injure
Et le surnom de belle avecque sa beauté
Lui fust pour tout jamais par les hommes ostés ;
Mais jusques à sa mort l'ayant vue toujours telle,
Ne pouvait lui oster le surnom de belle.*

Baïf lived in the reign of Henry II. and
Charles IX. ; the traditions of Francis the First on
the Dame de Beauté, which that prince had
placed above * les monains et les dévots hermittes
pour France recouvrer,'' were collected. The
services, indeed, which she rendered to the King
* Jean Antoine de Baïf, the friend of Ronsard, pub-
lished many poems. The first edition of his works
is dated Paris, I 572 and I 573.
*This thought has been imitated by Malherbe in
those celebrated lines addressed to his friend Duper rier,
on the death of his daughter.
56 AGNES SOREL.
and to France were of great importance: Agnes
had decided Charles VII. on his patriotic crusade
against England : she had made him shake off
the troublesome yoke of the undisciplined captains
of the Great Companies, and instead raise up a
regular and stable government, which would give
force and impulse to the poor monarchy of the
Kinglet of Bourges. Agnes Sorel dominates the
history of Charles VII.'s reign ; Joan of Arc was
but an episode of it.
A right consideration of the legend of Joan of
Arc shews us that the Maid of Orleans exercised
but a transient influence on the destinies of
Charles VII.’s monarchy; hers was but one of
those camp legends destined to raise the sinking
courage of soldiers. Agnes Sorel, with the help
of Jacques Coeur, reconciled the King to the great
feudatories of Brittany and Burgundy, and to the
House of Anjou, which henceforth were the main-
stay of his cause: strengthened by this assistance,
Charles VII. entered Paris again, reconquered
Normandy and Guienne, and finally delivercq the
territory from the hateful presence of the English.
Still, the legend of the Maid of Orleans has
remained with us, and is better loved, more cele-
brated and much more popular than that of Agnes."
* In these latter days some systematic historians
have given an extraordinary extension to the legend of


AGNES SOREL. 57
The former was connected with a holy mysticism,
a wonderfully romantic life ; an inspired daughter
of the people, leading the King to Rheims to have
him crowned, formed an episode capable of
appealing to the imagination of the fifteenth cen-
tury, while on the other hand the career of Agnes
Sorel never went beyond the simple conditions of
chivalry, and even, perhaps, of politics. This is
just what we frequently find in history; we
attribute to a wonderful accident something that
is but the result of a combination, the action of
which has been prepared by events. It will be
noticed that after the siege of Paris by the men-
at-arms under Joan of Arc, the standard of France
remained quite as low as before the consecration
of the King at Rheims. The Maid had even
fallen into the hands of the English Discourage-
ment was as profound as ever in the camp of
Charles VII. Who, then, was it that revived
the courage of all P. Who was it that made the
bewildered monarch take energetic resolutions?
Who gave him the wise advice to negotiate with
the great feudatories of Brittany and Burgundy ?
And at last, when the King was restored, who
was it that urged him against the English in
Normandy and Guienne?
the Maid of Orleans; democracy has even been traced
to her.


58 AGNES SOREL.
The modern soldier's song,
“Il faut partir, Agnes l'ordonne,”
is but an adaptation of the verses of Francis the
First, a connaisseur in honour and courage 1
*The foregoing is as close a translation as possible
of that part of M. Capefigue’s first volume of the
“Reines de la main gauche” which relates to
Agnes Sorel.
The remainder of the volume consists of a
literary criticism of the historians of the period,
Froissard, Monstrelet and Jean Chartier, together
with a sketch of the history of the early years of the
reign of Louis XI., and quotations from Voltaire's
“Pucelle d’Orléans;” all of which, in the opinion
of a well-known critic, weakens the effect pro-
duced by the author's life-like picture of a very
obscure period of history.
THE END.


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