Charles the Bold, Last Duke of Burgundy, 1433-1477. Ruth Putnam
saw the wedding rites solemnised immediately. The bridegroom did not even know of the plan until the night preceding the important day. Then Philip Pot rode back to Dijon.
When the duke was assured that the alliance was irrevocably sealed he was quite ready to answer the king's messenger, whom he at once invited to an audience. In a casual fashion Philip remarked:
"Now bailiff, the king sent you hither about a matter which I am humbly grateful for his interest in. You know my opinion. I had no desire to dissemble. Here is a gentleman fresh from Flanders; ask him his news and note his reply."
"What tidings, Monsieur, do you bring us?
Prithee impart it" said the bailiff to the chevalier. And the gentleman, laughing, replied: "By my faith, Monsieur bailiff, the greatest news that I know is that Monseigneur de Charolais is married!"
"Married! to whom?"
"To whom?" responded the chevalier, "why, to his first cousin, Monseigneur's niece."
Merry was the duke over the Frenchman's blank amazement. Again the latter had to be reassured of the truth of the statement. Philip Pot told him that it was so true that the wedded pair had spent the night together according to their lawful right.
The bailiff did not know which way to turn. "So he acted out his two rôles. Returning thanks to the duke in the king's name with all formality, he then joined in the general laugh over the unsuspected trick. He was a man of the world and knew how to take advantage of sense and of folly."
It was on the morrow of this hasty tying of the wedding knot that the Countess of Charolais sent a messenger to announce the fact to her parents. They seem to have been perfectly satisfied, made no further objection to any point, and the mooted territory of Chinon made part of the dower in spite of the reasons urged against it.
As to the bailiff, when he made his adieux at Dijon, Philip presented him with a round dozen stirrup cups, each worth three silver marks, and he went home a surprised and delighted man.
"About this time [says Alienor de Poictiers] Monsieur de Charolais married Mademoiselle de Bourbon and he married her on the eve of All Saints16 at Lille, and there was no festival because Duke Philip was then in Germany. Eight days after the nuptials the duchess gave a splendid banquet where were all the ladies of Lille, but they were seated all together, as is usually done at an ordinary banquet, without mesdames holding state as would have been proper for such an occasion."
It is evident from all the stories that Charles protested against his father's orders as much as he dared and then obeyed simply because he could not help himself.
Yet, strange to say, the unwilling bridegroom proved a faithful husband in a court where marital fidelity was a rare trait.
Philip's plans for the international union against the Turk were less easily completed than those for the union of his son and his niece. In November, the diet met at Frankfort; the expedition was discussed and some resolutions were passed, but nothing further was achieved.
Charles VII. would not even promise co-operation on paper. He had gradually extended his own domain in French-speaking territory and had dislodged the English from every stronghold except Guisnes and Calais. Under him France was regaining her prestige. Charles had much to lose, therefore, in joining the undertaking urged by Philip and he was wholly unwilling to risk it. From him Philip obtained only expressions of general interest in the repulse of the Turks, and more definite suggestions of the dangers that would menace Western Europe if all her natural defenders carried their arms and their fortunes to the East.
When the anniversary of the great fête came round not a vow was yet fulfilled!
[Footnote 1: A performance repeated in our modern Lohengrin.]
[Footnote 2: The chroniclers are not at one on this point.]
[Footnote 3: DuClercq, Mémoires, ii., 159.]
[Footnote 4: This banquet at Lille was the subject of several descriptions by spectators or at least contemporary authors.]
[Footnote 5: Laborde, i., 127.]
[Footnote 6: II., 361.]
[Footnote 7: The text says in the Burgundian or recluse fashion. Béguine is probably the right reading.]
[Footnote 8: Mathieu d'Escouchy (ii., 222) gives all the vows as though made then, and differs in many unessential points from La Marche's account. The Count of St. Pol was the only knight present who made his going dependent on the consent of the King of France, a condition very displeasing to his liege lord of Burgundy.]
[Footnote 9: Du Clerq, ii., 203.]
[Footnote 10: '"Michel dit que le gigot de la cour était rompu."—La Marche, i., ch. xiv.]
[Footnote 11: Chastellain, iii., 20, note.]
[Footnote 12: "Toute fois que ce ne soit pas sans moy."]
[Footnote 13: The original, signed, is in the Archives de la Côte-d'Or, B. 200. See Du Fresne de Beaucourt, Histoire de Charles VII., v. 470.]
[Footnote 14: Chastellain, iii., 23, etc.]
[Footnote 15: Chastellain, iii., 24]
[Footnote 16: The chroniclers differ as to this date. Chastellain (iii., 25) says the first Sunday in Lent. D'Escouchy (ii., 270, ch. cxxii) the night of St. Martin. Alienor de Poictiers, Hallowe'en (Les Honneurs de la Cour, p. 187). The last was one of Isabella's ladies in waiting.]
CHAPTER IV
BURGUNDY AND FRANCE
1455–1456.
The duke's journey failed in accomplishing its object, but it proved an important factor in the development of the character of Charles of Burgundy. The opportunity to administer the government in his father's absence changed him from a youth to a man, and the manner of man he was, was plain to see.
His character was built on singularly simple lines. Vigorous of body, intense of purpose, inclined to melancholy, he was profoundly convinced of his own importance as heir to the greatest