Part 32 (1/2)
CHAPTER XVII
THE MEETING AT TReVES
1473
On Wednesday, September 28th, Emperor Frederic made his entry into the old Roman city on the dancing Moselle. Two days later, the Duke of Burgundy arrived and was welcomed most pompously outside of Treves, by his suzerain.
After the first greetings, ensued an argument about the etiquette proper for the occasion, an argument similar to those which had absorbed the punctilious in the Burgundian court, when the dauphin made his famous visit to Duke Philip. For thirty minutes, the emperor argued with his guest before feudal scruples were overcome and the va.s.sal was induced to ride by his chief's side into the city.
The entry was a grand sight, and crowds thronged the streets, more curious about the duke than about the emperor. Charles was then in the very prime of life. His personality commanded attention, but there were some among the onlookers who found it more striking than attractive. One bystander thought that the very splendour of his dress, wherein cloth of gold and pearls played a part, only brought into high relief the severity of his features. His great black eyes, his proud and determined air failed to cast into oblivion a certain effect of insignificance given by his square figure, broad shoulders, excessively stout limbs, and legs rather bowed from continuous riding.[l]
There is, however, another word portrait of the duke as he looked in the year 1473, whose trend is more sympathetic.[2] ”His stature was small and nervous, his complexion pale, hair dark chestnut, eyes black and brilliant, his presence majestic but stern. He was high-spirited, magnanimous, courageous, intrepid, and impetuous. Capable of action, he lacked nothing but prudence to attain success.”
From the two descriptions emerges a fairly clear picture of an energetic man, somewhat undersized, and sometimes inclined to a.s.sert his dignity in a fas.h.i.+on that did not quite comport with his physical characteristics. The conviction that he was a very important personage with greater importance awaiting him, and his total lack of a sense of humour, combined with his inability to feel the pulse of a situation, undoubtedly affected his bearing and made it seem more pompous.
[Ill.u.s.tration: CHARLES THE BOLD IDEALISED BY RUBENS. IN THE IMPERIAL GALLERY AT VIENNA BY PERMISSION OF J.J. LOWY, VIENNA]
The emperor was not an heroic figure in appearance any more than he was in the records of his reign, distinguished for being the feeblest as well as the longest in the annals of the empire. He was indolent, timid, irresolute, and incapable. His features and manners were vulgar, his intellect sluggish. Peasant-like in his petty economies, he was shrewder at a bargain than in wielding his imperial sceptre.
At Treves he was accompanied by his son, the Archduke Maximilian, a fairly intelligent youth of eighteen, very ready to be fascinated by his proposed father-in-law, who was a striking contrast to his own languid and irresolute father, in energy and strenuous love of action.
As the two princes rode together into the city, Charles's accoutrements attracted all eyes. The polished steel of his armour shone like silver. Over it hung a short mantle actually embroidered with diamonds and other precious stones to the value of two hundred thousand gold crowns. His velvet hat, graciously held in his hand out of compliment to the emperor, was ornamented with a diamond whose price no man could tell. Before him walked a page carrying his helmet studded with gems, while his magnificent black steed was heavily weighted down with its rich caparisons.
Frederic III., very simple in his ordinary dress, had exerted himself to appear well to his great va.s.sal. His robe of cloth of gold was fine, though it may have looked something like a luxurious dressing-gown, as it was made after the Turkish fas.h.i.+on and bordered with pearls. The emperor was lame in one foot, injured, so ran the tradition, by his habit of kicking, not his servants, but innocent doors that chanced to impede his way.
The Archduke Maximilian, gay in crimson and silver, walked by the side of an Ottoman prince, prisoner of war, and converted to Christianity by the pope himself. And then there was a host of n.o.bles, great and small. Among them were Engelbert of Na.s.sau[3] and the representative of the House of Orange-Chalons, whose t.i.tles were destined to be united in one person within the next half-century.
The magnificence remained unrivalled in the history of royal conferences. The very troopers wore habits of cloth of gold over their steel, while their embroidered saddle-cloths were fringed with silver bells. Surpa.s.sing all others, were the heralds-at-arms of the various individual states which acknowledged Charles as their sovereign, seigneur, count, or duke as the case might be. They preceded their liege lord, clad in their distinctive armorial coats, ablaze with colour. Before them were the trumpeters in white and blue, their very instruments silvered, while first of all rode one hundred golden haired boys, ”an angel throng.”
It was so difficult to decide as to the requisite etiquette of escort, that the emperor and duke agreed to separate on the fairly neutral ground of the market-place. Each proceeded with his own suite to his lodgings, Frederic to the archbishop's palace, and Charles to the abbey of St. Maximin, which had conferred on him, some years previously, the honorary t.i.tle of ”Protector.” His army was quartered within and without the city. Two days for repose and then the first official interview took place, which is described as follows, by an unknown correspondent, evidently in the ducal suite:[4]
”Yesterday, which was Sunday, Monseigneur waited upon the emperor and escorted him to his own lodging which is in the abbey of St.
Maximin. My said lord was clad in ducal array except for his hat.
The emperor wore a rich robe of cloth of gold of cramoisy, and his son was in a robe of green damask. As to their people, both suites were very brave, jewelry and cloth of gold being as common as satin or taffeta. Monseigneur received the emperor in a little chamber decorated with hangings from Holland that many recognised.
”The emperor made the Bishop of Mayence his mouthpiece to describe the stress of Christianity and to urge Charles to lend his a.s.sistance. Having listened to this address, Monseigneur requested the emperor to please come into a larger place where more people could hear his answer. Accordingly they entered a hall decorated with the tapestry of Alexander, while the very ceiling was covered with cloth of gold. There was a dais whereon stood a double row of seats. Benches and steps were spread over with tapestry wrought with my lord's arms. Thither came the emperor and mounted the dais with difficulty.... Mons., the chancellor, clad in velvet over velvet cramoisy, first p.r.o.nounced a discourse in beautiful Latin as a response to what had been said by the seigneur of Mayence.
Then, showing how the affairs of my said lord were affected by the king, he began with an account of the king's reception by Monseigneur, whom G.o.d absolve [evidently the late duke], in his own residence, and he continued down to the present day, dilating upon the great benefits, services, and honour by him [Louis]
received in the domains of Burgundy, and the extortions he had made since and desires to make. Never a word was forgotten, but all was well stated, especially the case of M. de Guienne.[5]
Finally, Monseigneur declared that if his lands were in security, there was nothing he would like better than to give aid to Christianity.
”After this statement, which was marvellously honest, the emperor arose from the throne, wine and spices were brought, and then Monseigneur escorted the emperor to his quarters with grand display of torches. This is the outline of what happened on October 4th, in the said year lxxiii. And as to the future, next Thursday the emperor will dine where Monseigneur lodges, _et la fera les grants du roy_,[6] and there will be novelties. In regard to the fas.h.i.+on of the said emperor and his estate, he is a very fine prince and attractive, very robust, very human, and benign.
I do not know with whom to compare his figure better than Monseigneur de Croy, as he was eight or ten years ago, except that his flesh is whiter than that of the Sr. de Croy. The emperor has seven or eight hundred horse as an escort, but the major part of the n.o.bles present come from this locality. In regard to Monseigneur's departure, there is no news, and they make great cheer--this is all for this time.”
The German scholars in the imperial party listened most attentively to the style of the Netherlander's speech as well as to his subject-matter. ”More abundant in vocabulary than elegant in Latinity,” was their comment, a fault they considered marking all French Latin. The audience found time to note the style for the subject of the address did not interest them greatly. The least observant onlooker knew that the main purpose of this interview was not the plan of a Turkish campaign, though Frederic appointed a committee to discuss that, whose members, Burgundian and German in equal numbers, were instructed to study the Eastern question while emperor and duke were absorbed in other matters.[7]
In their very first session, this committee decided that the chief obstacle to a Turkish expedition was the Franco-Burgundian quarrel. This point was also raised by Charles in his first conference with Frederic. No campaign was feasible until the European powers were ready to act in concert. Louis XI. was aiding and abetting the heathen by being a disturbing element which rendered this desired unity impossible. So Frederic appointed a fresh commission to discuss European peace. And this insolvable problem was a convenient blind for other discussions.
On October 5th, a Burgundian fete gave new occasion for a display of wealth; ”vulgar ostentation,” sneered the less opulent German n.o.bles who tried to show that their pride was not wounded by the sharp contrasts between imperial habits and those of a mere duke.
On their side, the Burgundians remarked that it was a pity to waste good things on boors so little accustomed to elegantly equipped apartments that they used silken bedspreads to polish up their boots!