Part 57 (2/2)

Addressed ”to the loyal Frenchmen of the town of Tournay.”[1351]

[Footnote 1351: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 125. _Registre des consaux, extraits a.n.a.lytiques des anciens consaux de la ville de Tournay_, ed.

H. Vandenbroeck, vol. ii, p. 329. F. Hennebert, _Une lettre de Jeanne d'Arc aux Tournaisiens_ in _Arch. hist. et litteraires du nord de la France_, 1837, vol. i, p. 525. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. iii, p. 516.]

An epistle in the same tenor must have been sent by the Maid's monkish scribes to all the towns which had remained true to King Charles, and the priests themselves must have drawn up the list of them.[1352]

They would certainly not have forgotten that town of the royal domain, which, situated in Flanders,[1353] in the heart of Burgundian territory, still remained loyal to its liege lord. The town of Tournai, ceded to Philip the Good by the English government, in 1423, had not recognised its new master. Jean de Thoisy, its bishop, resided at Duke Philip's court;[1354] but it remained the King's town,[1355]

and the well-known attachment of its townsfolk to the Dauphin's fortunes was exemplary and famous.[1356] The Consuls of Albi, in a short note concerning the marvels of 1429, were careful to remark that this northern city, so remote that they did not exactly know where it was, still held out for France, though surrounded by France's enemies.

”The truth is that the English occupy the whole land of Normandy, and of Picardy, except Tournay,”[1357] they wrote.

[Footnote 1352: Letter from Charles VII to the people of Dauphine, published by Fauche-Prunelle, in _Bulletin de l'Academie Delphinale_, vol. ii, p. 459; to the inhabitants of Tours, in _Le Cabinet historique_, vol. i, C. p. 109; to those of Poitiers, by Redet, in _Les memoires de la Societe des Antiquaires de l'Ouest_, vol. iii, p.

106. _Relation du greffier de la Roch.e.l.le_ in _Revue historique_, vol.

iv, p. 341.]

[Footnote 1353: This is a mere form of speech. Le Tournesis has always been territory separate from the County of Flanders, the Bishops of which were the former Lords of Tournai. As early as 1187 the King of France nominally held sovereign sway there. In reality the town was divided into two factions: the rich and the merchants were for the Burgundian party, the common folk for the French (De La Grange, _Troubles a Tournai_, 1422-1430).]

[Footnote 1354: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 352.]

[Footnote 1355: _Chambre du Roi._]

[Footnote 1356: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 184-185. _Chronique de Tournai_, ed. Smedt (_Recueil des chroniques de Flandre_, vol. iii, _pa.s.sim_); _Troubles a Tournai_ (1422-1430) in _Memoires de la Societe historique et litteraire de Tournai_, vol. xvii (1882). _Extraits des anciens registres des consaux_, ed. Vandenbroeck, vol. ii, _pa.s.sim_.

Monstrelet, ch. lxvii, lxix. A. Longnon, _Paris sous la domination anglaise_, pp. 143, 144.]

[Footnote 1357: The Town Clerk of Albi in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 301.]

Indeed the inhabitants of the bailiwick of Tournai, jealously guarding the liberties and privileges accorded to them by the King of France, would not have separated themselves from the Crown on any consideration. They protested their loyalty, and in honour of the King and in the hope of his recovering his kingdom they had grand processions; but their devotion stopped there; and, when their liege Lord, King Charles, urgently demanded the arrears of their contribution, of which he said he stood in great need, their magistrates deliberated and decided to ask leave to postpone payment again, and for as long as possible.[1358]

[Footnote 1358: H. Vandenbroeck, _Extraits a.n.a.lytiques des anciens registres des consaux de la ville de Tournai_, vol. ii, pp. 328-330.]

There is no doubt that the Maid herself dictated this letter. It will be noticed that therein she takes to herself the credit and the whole credit for the victory. Her candour obliged her to do so. In her opinion G.o.d had done everything, but he had done everything through her. ”The Maid hath driven the English out of all their strongholds.”

She alone could reveal so nave a faith in herself. Brother Pasquerel would not have written with such saintly simplicity.

It is remarkable that in this letter Sir John Fastolf should be reckoned among the prisoners. This mistake is not peculiar to Jeanne.

The King announces to his good towns that three English captains have been taken, Talbot, the Lord of Scales and Fastolf. Perceval de Boulainvilliers, in his Latin epistle to the Duke of Milan, includes Fastolf, whom he calls _Fastechat_, among the thousand prisoners taken by the folk of Dauphine. Finally, a missive despatched about the 25th of June, from one of the towns of the diocese of Lucon, shows great uncertainty concerning the fate of Talbot, Fastolf and Scales, ”who are said to be either prisoners or dead.”[1359] Possibly the French had laid hands on some n.o.ble who resembled Fastolf in appearance or in name; or perhaps some man-at-arms in order to be held to ransom had given himself out to be Fastolf. The Maid's letter reached Tournai on the 7th of July. On the morrow the town council resolved to send an emba.s.sy to King Charles of France.[1360]

[Footnote 1359: Letter from Perceval de Boulainvilliers, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 120. Fragment of a letter concerning the marvels which have occurred in Poitou, _ibid._, p. 122. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 74-76.]

[Footnote 1360: Hennebert, _Archives historiques et litteraires du nord de la France_, 1837, vol. i, p. 520. _Extraits des anciens registres des consaux_, ed. Vandenbroeck, vol. ii, _loc. cit._]

On the 27th of June, or about then, the Maid caused letters to be despatched to the Duke of Burgundy, inviting him to come to the King's coronation. She received no reply.[1361] Duke Philip was the last man in the world to correspond with the Maid. And that she should have written to him courteously was a sign of her goodness of heart. As a child in her village she had been the enemy of the Burgundians before being the enemy of the English, but none the less she desired the good of the kingdom and a reconciliation between Burgundians and French.

[Footnote 1361: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 127. These letters are now lost.

Jeanne alludes to them in her letter of the 17th of July, 1429. ”_Et a trois sepmaines que je vous avoye escript et envoie bonnes lettres par un heraut...._”]

The Duke of Burgundy could not lightly pardon the ambush of Montereau; but at no time of his life had he vowed an irreconcilable hatred of the French. An understanding had become possible after the year 1425, when his brother-in-law, the Constable of France, had excluded Duke John's murderers from the Royal Council. As for the Dauphin Charles, he maintained that he had had nothing to do with the crime; but among the Burgundians he pa.s.sed for an idiot.[1362] In the depths of his heart Duke Philip disliked the English. After King Henry V's death he had refused to act as their regent in France. Then there was the affair of the Countess Jacqueline which very nearly brought about an open rupture.[1363] For many years the House of Burgundy had been endeavouring to gain control over the Low Countries. At last Duke Philip attained his object by marrying his second cousin, John, Duke of Brabant to Jacqueline of Bavaria, Countess of Hainault, Holland and Zealand, and Lady of Friesland. Jacqueline, finding her husband intolerable, fled to England, and there, having had her marriage annulled by the Antipope, Benedict XIII, married the Duke of Gloucester, the Regent's brother.

[Footnote 1362: Dom Plancher, _Histoire de Bourgogne_, vol. iv, pp.

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