Part 27 (1/2)

[Footnote 601: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. iii. Accounts, p. 316.

_Cabinet historique_, June, 1858, p. 176.]

[Footnote 602: _Cabinet historique_, September and October, 1858, p.

263.]

[Footnote 603: Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 374.]

[Footnote 604: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.

632.]

[Footnote 605: Loiseleur, _Compte des depenses_, p. 57.]

[Footnote 606: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.

634.]

[Footnote 607: Vuitry, _Les monnaies sous les trois premiers Valois_, Paris, 1881, in 8vo, pp. 29 _et seq._ Loiseleur, _Compte des depenses_, p. 47. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol.

i, p. 243. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, pp. 620 _et seq._]

The only t.i.tle borne by La Tremouille was that of Conseiller-Chambellan, but he was also the Grand Usurer of the kingdom. His debtors were the King and a mult.i.tude of n.o.bles high and low.[608] He was therefore a powerful personage. In those difficult days he rendered the crown services self-interested, but none the less valuable. From January to August, 1428, he advanced sums amounting to about twenty-seven thousand livres for which he received lands and castles as security.[609] Fortunately the Royal Council included a number of Jurists and Churchmen who were good business men. One of them, an Angevin, Robert Le Macon, Lord of Treves, of plebeian birth, had entered the Council during the Regency. He was the first among those of lowly origin who served Charles VII so ably that he came to be called The Well Served (_Le Bien Servi_).[610] Another, the Sire de Gaucourt, had aided his King in war.[611]

[Footnote 608: Clairambault, _t.i.tres, Scelles_, vol. 205, pp. 8769, 8771, 8773, _pa.s.sim_. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol.

ii, p. 293.]

[Footnote 609: Archives nationales, J. 183, no. 142. Duc de La Tremolle, _Les La Tremolle pendant cinq siecles_, vol. i, p. 177. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 198.]

[Footnote 610: Le P. Anselme, _Histoire genealogique et chronologique de la maison de France_, vol. vi, p. 399. Vallet de Viriville, in _Nouvelle biographie generale_. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 63.]

[Footnote 611: Marquis de Gaucourt, _Le Sire de Gaucourt_, Orleans, 1855, in 8vo.]

There is yet a third whom we must learn to know as well as possible.

For he will play an important part in this story; and his part would appear greater still if it were laid bare in its entirety. This is Regnault de Chartres, whom we have already seen promoted to be minister of finance.[612] Son of Hector de Chartres, master of Woods and Waters in Normandy, he took orders, became archdeacon of Beauvais, then chamberlain of Pope John XXIII, and in 1414, at about thirty-four, was raised to the archiepiscopal see of Reims.[613] The following year three of his brothers fell on the gory field of Azincourt. In 1418 Hector de Chartres perished at Paris, a.s.sa.s.sinated by the Butchers.[614] Regnault himself, cast into prison by the Cabochiens, expected to be put to death. He vowed that if he escaped he would fast every Wednesday, and drink water for breakfast every Friday and Sat.u.r.day, for the rest of his life.[615] One must not judge a man by an act prompted by fear. Nevertheless we may well hesitate to rank the author of this vow with those Epicureans who did not believe in G.o.d, of whom there were said to be many among the clerks. We may conclude rather that his intelligence submitted to the common beliefs.

[Footnote 612: Le P. Anselme, _Histoire genealogique et chronologique de la maison de France_, vol. vi, p. 339. _Gallia Christiana_, vol.

ix, col. 135. Hermant, _Histoire ecclesiastique de Beauvais_ (Bibl.

nat. fr. 8581), fol. 15 _et seq._ Article by Vallet de Viriville, in _Nouvelle biographie generale_ and _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, pp. 160 _et seq._]

[Footnote 613: Le P. Denifle, _Cartularium Universitatis Parisiensis_, vol. iv, p. 275.]

[Footnote 614: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 109. In 1411 the Butchers of Paris, led by Jean-Simonnet Caboche, rose in favour of the Duke of Burgundy (W.S.).]

[Footnote 615: Le P. Denifle, _La desolation des eglises_, vol. i, pp.

594, 595. Garnier, _Doc.u.ments relatifs a la surprise de Paris par les Bourguignons en Mai_, 1418, in _Bulletin de la Societe de l'Histoire de Paris_, 1877, p. 51.]

A tragic fidelity, an inherited loyalty to the Armagnacs recommended my Lord Regnault to the Dauphin, who entrusted him with important missions to various parts of Christendom, Languedoc, Scotland, Brittany, and Burgundy.[616] The Archbishop of Reims acquitted himself with rare skill and indefatigable zeal. In December he prayed the Holy Father to dispense him from the fulfilment of the vow taken in the Butchers' prison,[617] on the grounds of his feeble health and his services rendered to the Dauphin, who required him to undertake frequent journeys and arduous emba.s.sies.

[Footnote 616: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, pp.

268, 276, 339. P. Champion, _Guillaume de Flavy_, p. 4, and proofs and ill.u.s.trations, lxxj.]