Chapter XXI: Book THE EIGHTH (10)

In the same year, about October, the king fell violently ill, and thought he should have died at Plessis du Parc, near Tours; and, therefore, as soon as his majesty had recovered a little strength, he went to Amboise, where he made several long remonstrances to the dauphin in behalf of his servants and officers of his household and kingdom, exhorting and desiring him to be kind to all of them, but especially to Monsieur Oliver, his barber, and M. John de Doyac, governor of Auvergne, who had done him many considerable services, and always been very loyal and faithful subjects. He also recommended the Lord de Bouchage and the Lord Guyotpot, bailiff of Vermandois, as being very wise and able counsellors, and desired the dauphin to make use of their advice in all state affairs. Moreover, he entreated him to continue all the officers in their posts and employments, and to have a tender regard to his people, whom he had already too much harassed and oppressed. Lastly, he recommended the Lord des Querdes for military affairs, as being an officer of great valour and conduct, and the fittest person to make a general of any in the kingdom of France. After this, the king returned to Montils, near Tours.

In October and November several ambassadors arrived from Flanders to treat of a peace between his majesty and the Flemings, which at last was concluded to the great joy and satisfaction of both parties, by a marriage between the dauphin of France and the Duke of Austria’s daughter, upon which the king immediately ordered _Te Deum_ to be sung, and bonfires to be made in the public streets of Tours.

In January, 1483, the ambassadors that had concluded the peace between the king and the Flemings upon the marriage between the dauphin and the Countess of Flanders, daughter to the Duke of Austria, arrived at Paris, and were met and complimented in the king’s name by the Bishop of Marseilles, the mayor and aldermen of the city, and several other persons of quality, who nobly feasted and entertained them, and the next day they set out from thence to wait on the king at Amboise, who received them very kindly, as did also the dauphin; and upon their taking leave of the king, his majesty presented them with thirty thousand crowns, and afterwards they returned to Paris, where the articles of peace were ratified and confirmed in the court of parliament, and afterwards read, and published by sound of trumpet in all the public streets of that city; and as soon as the publication was over, Monsieur le Picard, bailiff of Rouen, treated the ambassadors and all the king’s officers with a splendid and magnificent dinner.

On Saturday, the 19th of April, 1483, the Lord de Beaujeu and his lady came to Paris, in order to go into Picardy to meet and compliment the dauphiness, whom, by the treaty of peace, the Flemings were to deliver to the Lord de Beaujeu, who was to conduct her to Paris.

In April, Edward IV., King of England, died of an apoplexy, though some say it was of a surfeit, occasioned by drinking too much of some rich wines that the king had made him a present of; however, he lived long enough to settle the affairs of his kingdom, and to leave the succession of the crown to his eldest son, Edward V.

On Monday, the 2d of June, the dauphiness, accompanied by Madame de Beaujeu, the Admiral of France’s lady, and several other ladies of quality, made her public entry into Paris about five in the afternoon, and all the streets through which the dauphiness passed were lined with soldiers, hung with tapestry, and crowded with persons of quality, richly dressed, who came thither on purpose to compliment and pay their respects to her; and in honour to the day of her arrival, all the prisoners in Paris were immediately set at liberty.

In July, the nuptial ceremony between the dauphin and the Lady Margaret of Austria was performed with great pomp and solemnity at Amboise, at which all the nobility and chief persons of the kingdom were present.

On Monday, the 25th of August, the king fell very ill at Montils, near Tours, and in two hours’ time lost his speech and his senses, and the news of his death came to Paris on Wednesday, the 27th of the same month; upon which the mayor and aldermen ordered the city gates to be shut up, and a strong guard to be placed at each of them, that none might go out or in without being examined, which made the common people cry out that the king was dead; but it was a false alarm, for his majesty was only in a fit, out of which he presently recovered, and lived till Saturday, the 30th of August, and then died about six or seven in the evening of the same day.

As soon as he was dead his body was embalmed, and buried in the church of Notre Dame de Clery, near Montils, having, in his life-time, ordered it should be so, and positively commanded the dauphin not to bury him in the church of St. Denis, where three kings of France (his illustrious predecessors) were interred. He never gave any reason for it, but some people were of opinion it was for the sake of the church, which he had liberally endowed, and out of a singular veneration for the blessed Virgin, who was worshipped there after a more solemn manner than in any other place in the kingdom. The king had during his whole reign, by the evil advice of M. Oliver, his barber, M. John de Doyac, and several other wicked counsellors that were about his person, committed great injustice in his kingdom, and so miserably oppressed and harassed his people, that the very reflection of his tyrannical usage of them stung him to the heart, and almost drove him to despair; so that when he lay upon his death-bed he sincerely repented of all his sins, and gave prodigious sums of money to the clergy to pray for his soul, and rewarded them for their prayers with what he had by violence and extortion gotten of his subjects. It must be owned that his was a very busy reign, and full of many great and important actions, yet he managed his affairs so well, that he forced all his enemies to submit to his mercy, and was equally dreaded both abroad and at home. He lay for a long time before his death under very sharp and severe illnesses, which forced his physicians to make use of violent and painful applications, which though they were not so successful as to recover his health and save his life, yet, doubtless, they were very beneficial to his soul, and, perhaps, the chief means of saving it from eternal damnation, and fixing it in paradise, through His tender mercy who liveth and reigneth world without end. Amen.

END OF THE SCANDALOUS CHRONICLE.

FOOTNOTES

[1] The English became masters of the duchy of Guienne about the year 1159, in consequence of the marriage of King Henry II. with Eleanor of Guienne. Charles VII. regained possession of the duchy in 1451; but Bordeaux having placed itself once more in the hands of the English, the French king reduced it finally on the 17th of October, 1453.

[2] Commines here alludes to the series of successes obtained over the English by the French under Joan of Arc.

[3] The battle of Agincourt was fought on the 25th of October, 1415. The English army, under Henry V., did not consist of more than 15,000 men; the French were, at the least, 50,000, and, by some computations, still more numerous. They lost 10,000 killed, of whom 9000 were knights or gentlemen. Almost as many were made prisoners. The English, according to Monstrelet, lost 1600 men; but their own historians reduce this to a much smaller number.

[4] Thomas Rotherham, Bishop of Lincoln, was chancellor in February, 1475. “He owed his elevation,” says Lord Campbell, “to his own merits. His family name was Scot, unillustrated in England at that time, and, instead of it, he assumed the name of the town in the West Riding of Yorkshire in which he was born. He studied at King’s College, Cambridge, and was one of the earliest fellows on this royal foundation, which has since produced so many distinguished men. He was afterwards Master of Pembroke Hall, and Chancellor of this University. For his learning and piety he was at an early age selected to be chaplain to Vere, thirteenth Earl of Oxford, and he was then taken into the service of Edward IV. Being a steady Yorkist, he was made Bishop of Rochester in 1467, and translated to Lincoln in 1471. In 1480, he became Archbishop of York, and he received a cardinal’s hat from the Pope.” In April, 1476, he was removed from the chancellorship, but reinstated in the office in September of the same year; and he “continued chancellor and chief adviser of the Crown during the remainder of the reign of Edward IV. He was considered the greatest equity lawyer of the age.” On the death of Edward IV., he delivered up the great seal; but though “he did not take any active part in the struggles which ensued, he was so strongly suspected by Richard III., that he was detained in prison till near the end of this reign. After the battle of Bosworth he quietly submitted to the new government, but he was looked upon with no favour by Henry VII. He died of the plague at Cawood, in the year 1500, aged 76, and was buried in his own cathedral. He was founder of Lincoln College, Oxford, and showed his affection to the place of his nativity by building a college there, with three schools for grammar, writing, and music.”—CAMPBELL’S _Lives of the Chancellors_, vol. i. pp. 393-403.

[5] “John Morton was born at Bere in Dorsetshire, of a private gentleman’s family, in the year 1410. He received his earliest education at the Abbey of Cerne, from whence he was removed to Balliol College, Oxford, where he devoted himself to the study of the civil and canon law, and took with great distinction the degree of LL.D. He then went to London, and practised as an advocate in Doctors’ Commons, where he soon became the decided leader, and rose to such distinction by his learning and eloquence, that he gained the good opinion of Cardinal Bourchier, who recommended him to Henry VI. He was sworn of the Privy Council by that sovereign, was made prebendary of Salisbury, and had the rich living of Blakesworth bestowed upon him. On the accession of Edward IV. he made submission to the House of York, and the new king continued him a privy councillor, appointed him Master of the Rolls, and conferred on him great ecclesiastical preferment, crowned with the Bishopric of Ely. Richard III. imprisoned him, but he contrived to escape to the Continent. Immediately after the battle of Bosworth, Henry VII. recalled him, raised him to the see of Canterbury on the death of Cardinal Bourchier, procured a cardinal’s hat for him from Pope Alexander VI., and made him Lord Chancellor. He continued in this office, and in the unabated favour and confidence of his royal master, down to the time of his death, a period of thirteen years, during which he greatly contributed to the steadiness of the government and the growing prosperity of the country. Several important statutes were passed on his recommendation, including that which protects from the pains of treason all who act under a _de facto_ king. In 1494, Morton was made Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and on the 13th of September, 1500, he died, after a lingering illness. Notwithstanding some arbitrary acts of government, which should be judged of by the standard of his own age, he left behind him a high character for probity as well as talents. His munificence was great, and he was personally untainted by the vice of avarice which disgraced the sovereign. Sir Thomas More, who was brought up in his house, says of him: ‘He was a man no less venerable for his wisdom and virtue than for the high reputation he bore. He was of a middle stature, in advanced years, but not broken by age; his aspect begot reverence rather than fear. He spoke both gracefully and mightily; he was eminently skilled in the law; he had a comprehensive understanding, and a very retentive memory; and the excellent talents with which nature had furnished him were improved by study and discipline. The king depended much on his counsels, and the government seemed to be chiefly supported by him; for from his youth he had been constantly practised in affairs, and having passed through many changes of fortune, he had, at a heavy cost, acquired a great stock of wisdom, which, when so purchased, is found most serviceable.’”—See LORD CAMPBELL’S _Lives of the Chancellors_, vol i. pp. 417-425.

[6] Thomas Gray, first Marquis of Dorset.

[7] On the 4th of May, 1471, the Duke of Burgundy granted a pension of twelve hundred florins to Lord Hastings.—LENGLET, ii. 198.

[8] Pierre Cleret, esquire, councillor, and steward to Louis XI. for many years.

[9] See book iv. chap 9. of these Memoirs.

[10] The Princess Elizabeth, who afterwards was married to Henry VII., by which match the Houses of York and Lancaster were united, was born in 1466.

[11] Charles VIII. was born on the 30th of June, 1470.

[12] Jeanne de la Clite, Lady of Commines, and wife of the Lord of Halewyn. She was a cousin of the author of these Memoirs.

[13] Charles of Orleans, Count of Angoulème, and father of King Francis I.

[14] According to Molinet (ii. 94.) these ambassadors were “My Lord Bishop of Mayence, Duke Louis of Bavaria, and a very elegant prothonotary named George Hesler.” To this list Lenglet adds a certain doctor, William Mortingle; and Oliver de la Marche (ii. 422.) substitutes the Bishop of Metz for the Bishop of Mayence.

[15] The character of this emperor is thus sketched by Mr. Hallam: “Frederic III. reigned fifty-three years—a longer period than any of his predecessors; and his personal character was more insignificant. With better fortune than could be expected, considering both these circumstances, he escaped any overt attempt to depose him, though such a project was sometimes in agitation. He reigned during an interesting age, full of remarkable events, and big with others of more leading importance. The destruction of the Greek empire, and appearance of the victorious crescent upon the Danube, gave an unhappy distinction to the earlier years of his reign, and displayed his mean and pusillanimous character in circumstances which demanded a hero. At a later season he was drawn into contentions with France and Burgundy, which ultimately produced a new and more general combination of European politics. Frederic, always poor, and scarcely able to protect himself in Austria from the seditions of his subjects, or the inroads of the King of Hungary, was yet another founder of his family, and left their fortunes incomparably more prosperous than at his accession. The marriage of his son Maximilian with the heiress of Burgundy began that aggrandisement of the house of Austria which Frederic seems to have anticipated. The Austrian provinces were re-united, either under Frederic, or in the first years of Maximilian: so that at the close of that period, which we denominate the middle ages, the German empire, sustained by the patrimonial dominions of its chief, became again considerable in the scale of nations, and capable of preserving a balance between the ambitious monarchies of France and Spain.”—HALLAM’S _Middle Ages_, vol. i. pp. 449, 450.

[16] On the 18th of August, 1477.—See Gachard’s edition of BARANTE’S _Dukes of Burgundy_, vol. ii. p. 577.

[17] Guines and Hames.

[18] The rule that a woman was incapable of succeeding to the crown of France—_quod in regno Franciæ mulier non succedit_—was first proclaimed when Philip the Long succeeded to the throne in 1317, to the exclusion of his niece. “French writers,” says Mr. Hallam, “almost unanimously concur in asserting that this exclusion was built upon a fundamental maxim of their government. No written law, nor even, as far as I know, the direct testimony of any ancient writer, has been brought forward to confirm this position. The text of the Salic law, which has, indeed, given a name to this exclusion of females, can only by a doubtful and refined analogy be considered as bearing any relation to the succession of the crown. It is certain, nevertheless, that from the time of Clovis, no woman had ever reigned in France; but, on the other hand, the crown resembled a great fief, and the great fiefs were universally capable of descending to women. And it was scarcely beyond the recollection of persons living, that Blanche had been legitimate regent of France during the minority of St. Louis. For these reasons it may be fairly inferred that the Salic law, as it was called, was not so fixed a principle at that time as has been contended. But however this may be, it received at the accession of Philip the Long a sanction which subsequent events more thoroughly confirmed. Philip himself, leaving only three daughters, his brother Charles mounted the throne; and upon his death, the rule was so unquestionably established, that his only daughter was excluded by the Count of Valois, grandson of Philip the Bold.”—HALLAM’S _Middle Ages_, vol. i. pp. 43, 44.

[19] Philip, Archduke of Austria, was born on the 22nd of July, 1478. He married Joanna, the second daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain; their nuptials were celebrated with great pomp and solemnity in the city of Lisle, on the 21st of October, 1496; and the first fruit of their marriage was the celebrated Charles the Fifth. Philip succeeded to the throne of Castile in 1506, and after a reign of two months, he died, on the 25th of September, 1506.

[20] The Princess Margaret had been affianced in her cradle to Charles VIII. of France, but their marriage never took place; and when her intended husband espoused Anne of Brittany, she was returned to her native land under circumstances of indignity never to be forgotten or forgiven by the House of Austria. In 1495 she was betrothed to Prince John, the heir of the Spanish monarchy, and on her passage to Spain, in 1497, to join her husband, she was nearly shipwrecked. She retained, however, sufficient composure amid the perils of her situation to indite her own epitaph, in the form of a pleasant distich:

“Ci gist Margot, la gentil’ damoiselle,
Qu’a deux maris, et encore est pucelle!”

Fortunately, her epitaph was not needed, as she reached Spain in safety, and was married to the Prince of the Asturias on the 3rd of April, 1497. On the 4th of October, in the same year, her husband died; and shortly afterwards Margaret returned to her native land. She subsequently married the Duke of Savoy, who died without issue in less than three years; and Margaret passed the remainder of her life in widowhood, being appointed by her father, the emperor, to the government of the Netherlands, which she administered with great ability. She died in 1530.

[21] This boy, born at Brussels, on the 10th of September, 1481, died on the 26th of December in the same year.

[22] She died at Bruges, at about two o’clock in the afternoon, on the 27th of March, 1481.—MOLINET, ii. 302.

[23] Commines is here in error as to the date; the year 1482 (old style) did not begin until the 7th of April, and the princess died on the 27th of March.

[24] The treaty of Trèves, by which the king restored all that he held in Burgundy and Hainault, bears date on the 11th of July, 1478.—LENGLET, iii. 540.

[25] Sigismund transferred his hereditary estates to his nephew, the Archduke Maximilian, in 1492.

[26] Maximilian was elected King of the Romans on the 16th February 1486.

[27] Dole, formerly the capital of Franche-Comté, is a very ancient town in the department of Jura, in France. It stands on the right bank of the Doubs, and is well placed for trade on the canal that joins the Rhone and Rhine. It is pleasantly situated on the crest and slope of a hill; the streets are rather steep, but well built, and ornamented with fountains; and the neighbourhood is prettily laid out in gardens, vineyards, and promenades. A ruined aqueduct and amphitheatre, and some remains of the old Roman road from Lyons to the Rhine, mark the place as having been a Roman station. After its capture by the French, as related in the text, it sustained several remarkable sieges. In 1530, it was strongly fortified by the Emperor Charles V., into whose hands it had come with the rest of Franche-Comté. In 1636 it was fiercely, but ineffectually, besieged by the Prince of Condé; but Louis XIV. took it in 1668, and again in 1674, when he demolished the fortifications. At length, by the treaty of Nimeguen, the town, together with the whole of Franche-Comté, was made over to France.

[28] The chief commander in Dole was the Lord of Montballon; with him was a Knight of Berne, with about 900 Swiss; the garrison consisted in all of about 2000 fighting men. In their sally, they slew 800 or 900 of the French.—MOLINET, ii. 49.

[29] On the 15th of June, 1478.

[30] Hugh de Chalon, son of William Prince of Orange.

[31] This Lord de Craon was at that time Governor of Champagne, Brie, Burgundy, and Touraine: he was also in possession of the government of several cities in France, and chief chamberlain to the king, besides enjoying the whole revenue of the barony of Craon in Anjou, which was his own inheritance.

[32] Rochefort, in the department of Jura, about four miles from Dole.

[33] Auxonne, a fortified town on the Saône, eighteen miles from Dijon; celebrated for its fine bridge and causeway. It surrendered to the king on the 4th of June, 1479.

[34] Joux, a strong fortress on a high mountain in the department of Doubs, was eventually surrendered to the king by the treachery of its governor, who sold it to Louis XI. for 14,000 crowns. In later times, Joux has acquired celebrity as the prison of Fouquet, of Mirabeau, and of Toussaint l’Ouverture.

[35] Besançon, now the chief town of the department of Doubs, is a very ancient city. Julius Cæsar mentions it as one of the largest and strongest cities of Gaul; it was then the capital of the Sequani. In 456 it was devastated by the Burgundians, and in 937 by the Hungarians. From 1184 to 1664 it was an imperial city; but in 1668 it was captured by Louis XIV., and it has since belonged to France.

[36] Beaune, an old Burgundian town in the department of Côte-d’Or, 23 miles from Dijon. It is now chiefly celebrated for its wines.

[37] Semur, a considerable town in the department of Côte-d’Or, built on a granite rock on the left bank of the Armançon, 45 miles west of Dijon.

[38] Verdun-sur-Saône, in the department of Saône-et-Loire.

[39] The Cardinal of Pavia wrote to the Pope: “I know that there is coming to us, on the part of the King of France, an ambassador of high esteem in Gaul, with a mission of overweening pride. He is charged to threaten us with the withdrawal of the allegiance of the French, and with an appeal to a council, if we do not revoke the censures pronounced against the Florentines; if those who murdered Giuliano de’ Medici, and those even who abetted his murder, are not punished; and, finally, if we do not abandon the war which we have just commenced.”—SISMONDI, xi. 110.

[40] The history of the Medici family is too well known to require recapitulation in this place. The family of the Pazzi was one of the noblest and most respectable in Florence: numerous in its members, and possessed of great wealth and influence. Of three brothers, two of whom had filled the office of gonfaloniere, only one was living at the period referred to in the text; and this man, Giacopo de’ Pazzi, who was regarded as the chief of the family, though far advanced in years, was, if we may credit the account of Politiano, an unprincipled libertine, who having, by gaming and intemperance, dissipated his paternal property, sought an opportunity of averting or concealing his own ruin in that of the republic. For a full account of the conspiracy of the Pazzi, see ROSCOE’S _Life of Lorenzo de’ Medici_, in BOHN’S _Standard Library_.

[41] Sixtus IV., previously called Francesco da Savona, or Della Rovere, was the son of a fisherman. By his talents he became general of the Franciscan order, and afterwards Cardinal. He was elected Pope on the 9th of August, 1471. “He was the first,” says Machiavelli, “who began to show how far a pope might go, and how much that which was previously regarded as sinful lost its iniquity when committed by a pontiff.” He died on the 13th of August, 1484, in the seventy-first year of his age.

[42] Ferdinand I., King of Naples, succeeded to the throne on the death of his father in 1458. His claim was contested by John of Anjou, supported by many of the chief barons of the kingdom; but Ferdinand subdued them, and reigned for thirty years, after the discomfiture of his competitor, with success and ability. His character was, however, dark and vindictive, and his government was marked by a degree of ill-faith as well as tyranny towards his subjects that rendered him deservedly odious. He died in 1494.

[43] Lorenzo de’ Medici, surnamed the Magnificent. For a full account of this illustrious man, no less celebrated as a politician than as an author and patron of science and art, see his _Life_, by Mr. ROSCOE, in BOHN’S _Standard Library_.

[44] Giuliano de’ Medici, a younger brother of Lorenzo, was born in the year 1453. Between him and his illustrious brother there subsisted a warm and uninterrupted affection. Educated under the same roof, they had always participated in the same studies and amusements. Giuliano was well acquainted with the learned languages; he delighted in music and in poetry, particularly in that of his native tongue, which he cultivated with success; and, by his generosity and urbanity, he gained, in a great degree, the affections of the populace. At the death of his father he was associated with his brother Lorenzo in the government of Florence, and he therefore incurred the animosity of the Pazzi. He was assassinated on Sunday, the 26th of August, 1478.

[45] In the Church of Santa Reparata at Florence, since called Santa Maria del Fiore.—MACHIAVELLI, p. 359. (BOHN’S _Standard Library_ edition.)

[46] Francesco Nori, a most intimate friend of the Medici.—MACHIAVELLI, p. 360.

[47] The assassination of Lorenzo de’ Medici had been committed, in the first instance, to Giovan Battista Montesecco, a distinguished condottiere in the service of the Pope; and he had willingly undertaken the office, whilst he understood that it was to be executed in a private dwelling; but he shrank from the idea of polluting the house of God with murder. Two ecclesiastics—Stefano da Bagnone, an apostolic scribe, and Antonio Maffei, a priest of Volterra—were therefore selected for the commission of the bloody deed. Maffei aimed a blow at Lorenzo’s throat, which took effect behind his neck, and only roused him to defend himself. Drawing his sword, he drove off his assailants, and made good his retreat to the sacristy.—See ROSCOE’S _Lorenzo de’ Medici_, pp. 142-144.

[48] Piero de’ Medici, who died in 1472.

[49] This was probably Francesco Nori.—ROSCOE, pp. 144, 501. Sismondi (xi. 97.) mentions two esquires, Andrea and Lorenzo Cavalcanti, as having assisted Lorenzo de’ Medici to beat off his assailants.

[50] Francesco Salviati, Archbishop of Pisa, with about thirty followers.—MACHIAVELLI, p. 360.

[51] Giacopo de Pazzi was the head of the family of that name, and at the time of this conspiracy was far advanced in years. He escaped from the city during the tumult; but on the following day he was made prisoner by the peasants of Romagna, who, regardless of his entreaties to put him to death, brought him to Florence, and delivered him up to the magistrates. He was immediately hanged from the palace windows; but, in consideration of his rank, his relatives were allowed to inter his body in the church of Santa Croce. “But,” says Machiavelli (p. 363), “as if to mark the event by some extraordinary circumstance, after having been laid in the tomb of his ancestors, he was disinterred like an excommunicated person, and thrown into a hole outside the city walls: from this grave he was taken, and with the halter in which he had been hanged, his body was dragged naked through the city, and, as if unfit for sepulture on earth, was thrown by the populace into the Arno, whose waters were then very high.” Such was the fate of a man who had enjoyed the highest honours of the republic, and for his services to the state had been rewarded with the privileges of equestrian rank.

[52] Francesco Salviati was appointed Archbishop of Pisa by Pope Sixtus IV., in opposition to the wishes of the Signory of Florence, who had for some time endeavoured to prevent him from exercising his episcopal functions. Hence his hostility to the Medici family. He appears to have been totally unfit for his high preferment; and his last moments, if we may credit Politiano, were marked by a singular instance of ferocity. Being suspended close to Francesco de’ Pazzi, he seized the naked body with his teeth, and relaxed not his hold even in the agony of death.—ROSCOE, pp. 141, 146.

[53] Giovanni Battista de Montesecco, a distinguished captain of Condottieri in the service of Pope Sixtus IV.

[54] Girolamo Riario was either the son or nephew of Pope Sixtus IV. He was dignified by the Pontiff with the appellation of count; and that it might not to be an empty title, 40,000 ducats were paid out of the papal exchequer for the principality of Imola, which was at once conferred on him, and to which was afterwards added the dominion of Forli. This dilapidation of the patrimony of the Church to aggrandise the relatives of the Pope was one of the most scandalous examples of what was afterwards called the nepotism of the Court of Rome. Girolamo Riario married a natural daughter of Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan; and was assassinated by three of his subjects, over whom he had shamefully tyrannised, on the 14th of April, 1488.

[55] Francesco de’ Pazzi, a nephew of Giacopo, seems to have been the leader in this conspiracy. He it was who gave the death-stroke to Giuliano de’ Medici; and such was the violence of his rage that, in striking his victim, he wounded himself severely in the thigh. He then hastened to his house, and endeavoured to mount his horse, in order to ride through the city, and call the people to arms; but he found himself unable to do so, from the nature of his wound, and the great effusion of blood it had caused. Soon after he was dragged from his bed by the infuriated populace, and hanged from the windows of the palace. His brother Renato was also hanged; and the rest of this devoted family were condemned either to imprisonment or exile; with the single exception of Guglielmo de’ Pazzi, who was connected by marriage with the Medici family, and spared accordingly.

[56] “The executioner,” says Sismondi, “did not rest till 200 Florentines had perished in consequence of the conspiracy of the Pazzi. All those who had any relation of blood or connection of friendship with them, all those who had shown any opposition to the government, were torn from their houses, dragged through the streets, and put to death.”

[57] The duchess granted him a contingent of 300 men-at-arms, to assist the Florentines against the Pope.—GUICHENON, ii. 145.

[58] The bull of excommunication was dated at Rome, on the 1st of June 1478.

[59] La Castellina, a fortress about eight miles from Sienna.

[60] Lorenzo de’ Medici was thirty years old at this time: he was born on the 1st of January, 1448.

[61] Federigo da Montefeltro, second Duke of Urbino, succeeded his natural brother Oddantonio, in 1444. His character is thus sketched by a writer in the _Edinburgh Review_ (xciv. 348.): “He was a man for whom every human being that becomes acquainted with him is bound to express his love and reverence. He himself was of a loving, a reverencing, and a thankful nature. He was a soldier, yet a lover of books; religious, but not bigoted; energetic, but superior to anger; severely bred, yet cheerful; voluptuous by temperament, but not by habit; a prince at once magnificent and paternal; a right gentleman and fellow-creature; and, above all, a man true to his word in an age of liars. He had the good fortune to receive an excellent education, as far as one person could give it. His master understood the training both of mind and body. At eight years of age he was affianced, and at fifteen he was married. He studied the art of war under Piccinino and Sforza, whose different systems of daring and caution he is said to have combined. He had long and successful contests with Sigismund Malatesta, his neighbour, a ferocious dilettante, who committed murders, and struck medals. He had also the honour of being excommunicated by Pope Eugene the Fourth for adhering to an unfortunate friend; became successively Captain-General of the Florentines, of the Duke of Milan, and of the King of Naples, the last of whom he delighted by his honesty; was then general in the service of the Church; refused to break his word with the most faithless of his enemies; built a splendid palace and library, and kept a stately court, which did not hinder him from mixing in the pleasantest manner with his people; was chosen commander of the first National Confederation, prototype of the measure so often since desired by Italians, and so invariably nullified by their divisions; helped to procure for his country, nevertheless, twenty-eight years of comparative tranquillity; attended with pomp the convocation of Pope Sixtus IV., who invested him with the dukedom, and married a nephew to his daughter; received the order of the Garter from our Edward IV., which, though truly fit for such a mirror of knighthood, was bestowed with an eye to his good offices with the Pope; indulged his love of scholarship and philosophy, and patronised art and science; rejected with scorn and horror a proposal to aid the Roman Court in the assassination of Lorenzo de’ Medici and his brother, yet thought it no dishonour to conceal the plot from its objects, and to conduct troops against them for his papal employer; found himself, nevertheless, in a short time fighting on the side of Lorenzo against papal encroachment; and on the 10th of September, in the year 1482, died of a fever, caught during a campaign, and rendered fatal by his refusal to quit his post.”—See DENNISTOUN’S _Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino_.

[62] Roberto Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, one of the most celebrated among the condottieri captains of this period.

[63] Costanzio Sforza, Prince of Pesaro, another eminent condottiere, nephew of Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan.

[64] Alphonso II., Duke of Calabria, succeeded his father on the throne in May, 1494. On the 23rd of January, 1495, he was forced to abdicate; and he died on the 19th of November following.

[65] Frederic, Prince of Tarento, became King of Naples in 1496, and died on the 9th of November, 1504.

[66] It is not surprising that Commines was pleased at his treatment by the Florentines, when he took leave of them; for Ammirato (iii. 126) informs us that, at his departure, the Signory presented him with fifty-two pounds weight of wrought silver for the use of his table.

[67] Giovanni Galeazzo Maria Sforza became Duke of Milan on the death of his father in 1476. In 1483 he married Isabella, granddaughter of Ferdinand, King of Naples. He died on the 22nd of October, 1494, at the age of twenty-five; and the popular belief of the time was that he was poisoned by his uncle. At the period referred to in the text the young Duke was only nine years old, and it was on this account that his mother did homage for him.

[68] On Thursday, July 29, 1479.—MOLINET, ii. 200.

[69] Guinegatte, a small village in the department of the Pas-de-Calais. The battle was fought on the 7th August, 1479. A detailed account of it will be found in MOLINET (ii 220.). The battle of the Spurs was fought on the same ground between the English and the French in 1513—See HUME, ii. 589.

[70] Elsewhere called Thomas D’Orican or D’Aurican.

[71] Aire, a town on the Lys, in the department of the Pas-de-Calais.

[72] Molinet tells several stories of the duke’s prowess in the fight. He says that “he charged a man-at-arms so violently that he broke his lance in three pieces; after which he knocked down a Frank archer with a stick which he had in his hand; and, finally, he took prisoner a native of Brittany named Alexander.”

[73] Engelbert, Count of Nassau and Vianden, Knight of the Golden Fleece, and Governor of Brabant. He was chief chamberlain to Duke Maximilian. He died in 1504.

[74] These projects were afterwards realised by the Treaty of Arras, concluded on the 23rd December, 1482.

[75] Adam Fumée, Knight, Lord of Roches St. Quentin in Touraine, councillor of the king, Master of Requests in the royal household, and Commissioner of the Great Seal of France. He died in November, 1494.—ANSELME, vi. 420.

[76] Claude de Molins, physician and councillor to the king.

[77] The other editions erroneously say “forty days.”

[78] Jacques d’Espinay, Lord of Segre and Ussé, and captain of the town of Saint-Macaire, was the son of Richard d’Espinay, one of the chamberlains of Francis II., Duke of Bretagne. He was afterwards appointed one of the councillors and chamberlains of King Charles VIII.

[79] See Vol. I. p. 258.

[80] Louis d’Amboise, Bishop of Alby, was the son of Pierre d’Amboise, Lord of Chaumont. In 1480 he was appointed the king’s lieutenant-general in Burgundy; and he died in 1505.

[81] See Vol. I. p. 34.

[82] See Vol. I. p. 271.

[83] The order for the cardinal’s deliverance was in these terms:—“My Lord Chancellor,—After dinner assemble the whole council, and deliver Cardinal Balue from my hands, and give him up to the Archpresbyter of Lodau, in the name of the Legate, who has express commission from our Holy Father to receive him: that is to say, I give him into the hands of our Holy Father, or to the Legate for him, or to the Archpresbyter for the Legate, until he shall come. I have written to him to come with all haste, and accordingly I believe he will be at Orleans at Christmas; whither you will go, as well as the greatest personages I can find, to require justice at his hands. Look to the protestations which you have to make after dinner, and give them up when you deliver him. And God keep you, my Lord Chancellor. Written at Plessis du Parc, on the 20th day of December, 1480.”

[84] Cardinal Balue was a prisoner for eleven years only, as he was arrested in April, 1469. See Vol. I. p. 165. of these Memoirs. He was confined in an iron cage of his own invention, in which it was impossible for him to stand upright, or to stretch himself at length. A special cage was made for his reception, at a cost of sixty livres.—DUPONT, ii. 217.

[85] This armament awakened the suspicions of the King of England, as is proved by the following letter from Louis XI. to Lord Hastings:—“My good cousin,—I have been informed by some merchants of Normandy just returned from England, that there is a report in your country that I was at Boulogne, and intended to lay siege to Calais. My good cousin, as this matter affects me and my honour, I beg you to be so good as to tell my cousin your king, that I have no such thought, nor will I do or suffer any damage to the smallest village in the territory of Calais, and if any one should attempt to injure it, I would defend it to the best of my power. And I did not go from Plessis du Parc until the 26th day of May; but I am going to see my camp at Pont de l’Arche, which I have not yet seen; and I have ordered the Lord des Cordes and the Picards to be there at the end of this month; and I assure you that this is the truth, and my cousin the king shall find no departure from what I have promised him.”—DUPONT, ii. 219.

[86] He was at Argenton in November, 1481; at Thouars in the months of January and February following; and at Saint-Claude in April.

[87] Louis, Count of La Chambre and Léville, and Viscount of Maurienne, in Savoy.

[88] Louis de Myolans, appointed Marshal of Savoy in 1478.

[89] Philibert de Grolée, Knight, Lord of Huis, councillor and chamberlain of Louis XI., and Governor of Lyons.

[90] Two hundred Frank archers of the King’s guard.

[91] “The Count de Bresse, being informed of the king’s intention, proceeded to Turin at daybreak on the day before St. Sebastian’s day, the 19th of January, 1480, accompanied by Thomas de Saluces, brother of the marquis. They entered the Castle of Turin, and went into the duke’s bed-chamber, where the Count de la Chambre was sleeping; whom Thomas de Saluces, by command of the Count de Bresse, seized, saying, ‘You are prisoner of the King of France;’ and he had him put in prison.”—GUICHENON, ii. 42.

[92] On the 27th of March. Her feminine delicacy was so great, that she preferred to die rather than allow a surgeon to examine her wounds.

[93] Margaret and Philip. See pp. 16, 17.

[94] William Ryn, appointed tenth echevin of Ghent in 1476, and town councillor in 1482; beheaded on the 8th of August, 1484.

[95] John Coppenolle, a hosier of Ghent, “a man of no better condition than William Ryn, and nevertheless appointed steward to the king of France, with a pension of six hundred francs a year.” He was beheaded at Ghent on the 11th of August, 1491.

[96] “He immured himself,” says Sir Walter Scott, “in his castle of Plessis, intrusting his person to the doubtful faith of his Scottish mercenaries. He never stirred from his chamber; he admitted no one into it; and wearied Heaven and every saint with prayers, not for the forgiveness of his sins, but for the prolongation of his life. With a poverty of spirit totally inconsistent with his shrewd worldly sagacity, he importuned his physicians, until they insulted as well as plundered him. Bodily health and terrestrial felicity seemed to be his only object. Making any mention of his sins when talking on the state of his health was strictly prohibited; and when, at his command, a priest recited a prayer to St. Eutropius, in which he recommended the king’s welfare both in body and soul, Louis caused the two last words to be omitted, saying it was not prudent to importune the blessed saint by too many requests at once. Perhaps he thought, by being silent on his crimes, he might suffer them to pass out of the recollection of his celestial patrons, whose aid he invoked for his body.”

[97] His physician in ordinary was named Jacques Coitier. He also held the office of Vice President of the Chambre des Comptes, of which he became President in 1482. He died on the 29th of October, 1506.

[98] In previous editions it is erroneously stated that the name of this holy man was Friar Robert; but there can be no doubt, that the personage alluded to in the text was St. Francis de Paulo, the founder of the Minims, or lowest order of monks. He was born at Paulo in Calabria in the year 1416. He began his career by retiring to a cave on a desert part of the coast, where his sanctity soon obtained for him many followers, who ere long constructed a monastery round his cell. His rule was extremely rigorous; he enjoined his disciples to abstain from wine, fish, and meat, never to sleep on a bed, to go always barefooted, and to practise many other bodily mortifications. He died in France, on the 2nd of April, 1507, at the age of ninety-one, and he was canonised by Pope Leo X. in 1519. By the confession of his admirers, he was perfectly illiterate.

[99] By letters patent, dated on the 6th of May, 1491, Charles VIII. ordains “that the furniture, vestments, and ornaments which decorate the chapel of St. Matthew in the lower court of his house at Plessis, and which belong to Francis de Paulo and his companions, shall be removed to the place where, at their prayer and request, he has recently caused a church to be built for them, behind the enclosure of the park of Montils, and dedicated to Jesu Maria.”

[100] Guynot de Boussière, or Guynot de Lauzière, as he is called in a letter from Louis XI. to Francis de Genas, superintendent of the finances. The letter is as follows:—“Mr. Superintendent,—The seneschal of Quercy, Guynot de Lauzière, who brought to me the good holy man, complains that you have deprived him of half of his pension, which amounts to 600 livres tournois, and that you told him I had ordered it, which I did not, and never intended to do. And I assure you I am not pleased with you, wherefore take care (and fear to disobey me), that as soon as you see these letters, the matter may be entirely settled, and the pension paid in such a manner that I may hear no more about it; for if you fail to obey, you shall be lodged in the hands of my Lord of Alby; and from this time forth, and until he is satisfied, I detain in my hands the wages and pensions which you receive from me. Written at Plessis du Parc, on the 15th day of May, 1482.”—DUPONT, ii. 229.

[101] Another letter from Louis XI. to Francis de Genas illustrates the holy man’s mode of life:—“Mr. Superintendent,—I beg you to send me some limes and sweet oranges and muscadel pears and water melons, for the holy man who eats neither flesh nor fish: and you will thereby give me very great pleasure. Written at Clery on the 29th of June, 1483.”

[102] He arrived at the castle of Plessis on the 24th of April, 1482.

[103] The marriage of the Dauphin with the Princess Elizabeth of England.

[104] The accounts of Jehan Raguier for the year 1479 inform us that he gave “to a Portuguese, who had brought some dogs to the King, six gold crowns; to an Englishman, who brought him a great dog, ten gold crowns; to a man who brought him a little dog, one crown; to six men who brought him some live hares, thirty crowns.”

[105] In 1482, a sum of 160 livres was paid to Master Macé Bastard, for the expenses of a journey he had made into Provence, by the King’s order, “to await the coming of certain galleys with strange and savage beasts, and other things, which the King had ordered to be brought from the countries of Barbary.”—FONTANIEU, 142.

[106] In the accounts of Pierre de Lailly for the year 1479, the following entry occurs:—“To Bernard More, an Easterling merchant, 750 livres, as agreed upon, for bringing to the King six beasts named elks, three males and three females, and six others named reindeer, also three males and three females.”—DUPONT, ii. 234.

[107] He was probably satisfied by the letter of Louis XI. to Lord Hastings. See p. 40.

[108] Aire surrendered on the 28th July, 1482. It was sold by the Lord de Cohen for an annual pension of ten thousand crowns.—MOLINET, ii. 306.

[109] Philip of Burgundy, Lord of Bevres and La Vere, councillor and chamberlain of Maximilian, King of the Romans, Knight of the Golden Fleece, and Governor of Artois.

[110] These ambassadors arrived at Paris on Saturday, the 3rd of January, 1483, and proceeded on the following Monday to Amboise, where the King was then residing.—LENGLET, ii. 168.

[111] John de Berghes, knight, Lord of Cohen and Olhain, and governor of the town of Aire for the Archduke Maximilian.

[112] Baudoin de Lannoy, second of the name, Lord of Molembrais, Knight of the Golden Fleece, chamberlain and steward of the Archduke Maximilian. He died on the 7th of May, 1501.

[113] Anne of France, daughter of Louis XI. and Charlotte of Savoy, married Pierre de Bourbon, Lord of Beaujeu, in 1474, and assumed the title of Duchess of Bourbon in 1488. She died on the 14th of November, 1522, after having governed the kingdom with great prudence and energy during the minority of Charles VIII.

[114] Alain le Grand, son of Jean d’Albret, Viscount de Tartas, succeeded his grandfather Charles II. in 1471. He married Frances, daughter of Jean de Blois, Count of Penthièvre; and in virtue of this marriage, set up a claim to the duchy of Brittany, and became a competitor for the hand of Anne of Brittany. He died in October, 1522.

[115] Margaret was then three years and a half old, and the Dauphin rather more than twelve. Their meeting took place on Sunday, the 22nd of June, 1483, at a place called Metairie le Rayne, near Amboise. “The Dauphin,” says a contemporary letter, “left the Castle of Amboise, dressed in a robe of crimson satin, lined with black velvet, and mounted on a hackney, and attended by thirty archers. At the bridge he dismounted, after having saluted the ladies, and changed his dress and put on a long robe of cloth of gold.... Presently the Dauphiness arrived, and descended from her litter; and immediately they were betrothed by the prothonotary, nephew of the Grand Seneschal of Normandy, who demanded of the Dauphin in a loud voice, so that all could hear him, If he would have Margaret of Austria in marriage? and he answered, Yes; and a similar question was put to the Dauphiness, who gave the same answer. Upon which, they joined hands, and the Dauphin kissed the Dauphiness twice; and then they returned to their lodgings. And the streets of Amboise were hung with cloth, and in the market place was a figure of a Siren, who spouted forth white wine and red from her breasts.” The next day, the young couple went through the ceremony of marriage in the chapel of the castle.—DUPONT, iii. 345, 352.

[116] King Edward IV. died on the 9th of April, and the Dauphin’s marriage did not take place until the 22nd of June, more than two months later; so that the supposition of Commines that he died of grief at the disappointment of his own daughter, who had long been contracted to the Dauphin, is evidently erroneous. His dissolute mode of life renders it exceedingly probable that he died of a surfeit, according to the popular report. “He was a prince,” says Hume, “more splendid and showy than either prudent or virtuous; brave, though cruel; addicted to pleasure, though capable of activity in great emergencies, and less fitted to prevent ills by wise precautions, than to remedy them after they took place, by his vigour and enterprise.”

[117] Richard III. did not assume the title of King until the 26th of June, 1483, after the death of his nephew Edward V.

[118] Molinet (ii. 402.) gives the following account of the murder of the princes: “The eldest was simple and very melancholy, aware of the wickedness of his uncle, but the youngest was joyous and witty, nimble, and ever ready for dances and games; and he said to his brother, who wore the order of the garter, ‘My brother, learn to dance;’ and his brother answered, ‘It would be better for us to learn to die, for I think we shall not long remain in the world!’ They were prisoners for about five weeks; and Duke Richard had them secretly slain by the captain of the Tower. And when the executioners came, the eldest was asleep, but the youngest was awake, and he perceived their intention, and began to say, ‘Ha! my brother, awake, for they have come to kill you.’ Then he said to the executioners, ‘Why do you kill my brother? kill me, and let him live.’ But they were both killed; and their bodies cast into a secret place.”

[119] See notes, vol. i. pp. 395, 396.

[120] Arthur, born on the 20th of September, 1486, and Margaret, born in 1488.