Return of Charles and Jeanne to Paris—Marriage of Catherine de Bourbon to the Comte de Harcourt—The CÉlÉstins—The Treaty of Bretigny—Marriage of Isabelle de France to Giovanni Visconti—Return of the King—Death of the children of the Dauphine—The plague—The Duchy of Burgundy.

The Duchess of Normandy and her friends were now free, after the horrible experience of the last few days. The enemy was destroyed, the revolt quelled, and the town, at which they could hardly have looked without shuddering, was half burnt down and deserted; for the inhabitants, who had so lately been raging and clamouring for their blood, were either slain or carried away prisoners. The Duchesse d’OrlÉans, after this second narrow escape within a few days, set off on her journey towards Paris, which was still in a disturbed state, and in the neighbourhood of which her mother, Queen Jeanne d’Evreux, was busy trying, as she repeatedly did, to patch up a peace between the Duke of Normandy and the King of Navarre, who, although he hated and put down the Jacquerie, was a friend and ally of Etienne Marcel and had a powerful party at Paris.

The Duchess of Normandy stayed on for a short time in the fortress of Meaux, waiting for her husband to join her.

On the 19th of July peace was concluded by the efforts of Queen Jeanne d’Evreux, assisted by the young Queen of Navarre, sister of the Duke of Normandy, the Archbishop of Beauvais, and two or three others. The interview took place at Charenton on the Seine, where the Dauphin caused a bridge of boats to be constructed for the occasion.

He then joined the Dauphine at Meaux. The danger in which Jeanne had been and the insult involved in the attack upon her had naturally enraged him against every one in any way connected with the revolt; but various letters of remission to those concerned in it, on several occasions granted to persons forced against their will to take part in it, were signed by him about this time. Meanwhile, reports of the diminishing strength of Etienne Marcel and his party kept arriving from Paris; with invitations to Charles to return and take possession of the capital.

At last came tidings of the death of the prÉvÔt, struck down at night as he was in the act of changing the guard and placing the keys of Paris in the hands of the King of Navarre. His adherents were immediately scattered, imprisoned, or slain, and the royalists sent urgent entreaties to the Duke of Normandy, who lost no time in setting off for Paris, which he entered on the evening of Thursday, August 2nd, amidst the acclamations of the people and the illuminations and rejoicings prepared to welcome him.

The next day he sent a messenger to Jeanne with the news of this successful state of affairs, directing her to join him at Paris with the ladies of her court. When she arrived there she found the Duc de Normandie waiting for her at the Louvre, where they took up their abode and where for some time they lived in peace. The King was still a prisoner, and the Regent, freed from the constant enmity of Etienne Marcel, endeavoured to repair the misfortunes that had happened and to get the affairs of the State somewhat into order. The truce with England was soon to expire, but he made another treaty of peace with the King of Navarre, and contrived to win to his side the young Comte de Harcourt, Jean III., who, since the execution of his father by the King of France in the affair of Rouen, had been fighting against that country in the ranks of England and Navarre.

The Dauphin, however, succeeded in making friends with him, and although the precedent of Charles of Navarre was not very encouraging, he tried to attach the Comte de Harcourt to his interests by marrying him to Catherine, one of the Dauphine’s sisters. The wedding took place in October, at the Louvre.27

The favourite monastic order of Charles and Jeanne appears to have been that of the CÉlÉstins. It will be remembered that Saint Louis brought from the Holy Land some Carmelites, sometimes called BarrÉs because of the striped robes or mantles they used at first to wear; and that in the reign of Philippe-le-Long they sold their monastery, or rather the ground on which it stood, to one Jacques Marcel, a citizen of Paris, reserving to themselves all building materials, carved stones, columns, woodwork, and tombs, with the bones of those buried therein; all to be transported by midsummer day to the new place which had been chosen for the larger and more convenient monastery which they now required.

But before they left their old home, the Carmelites, assisted by an agent of the Bishop, carefully pointed out to the new owner those parts which were consecrated ground, and Jacques Marcel, “who was a good man, and feared God,” built two chapels upon them, just at the entrance to the garden, and appointed and endowed two chaplains to serve them.

Jacques Marcel was buried in a tomb of black marble in one of these chapels, and the place went to his son, Garnier Marcel, in 1320.

Now there was a young man named Robert de Jussi, who had been a novice in the CÉlÉstin monastery of St. Pierre, in the forest of Cuisse, not far from CompiÈgne. But after he had been there a year, his parents by their entreaties and importunity persuaded him to renounce the monastic life and return to the world. Philippe de Valois, who was then king, took a fancy to him, attracted by his talents, good sense, and piety. He chose him, while still very young, to be one of his secretaries; and so well did he serve the King and so great was the reputation he acquired at court for his judgment and conduct, that he remained Secretary of State and one of the most distinguished members of Council under Philippe de Valois, Jean, and Charles V., Dauphin. But his worldly success and prosperity did not make him forget the convent in the forest, the holy lessons and examples of the good fathers, and the peaceful days he had spent with them. He spoke of them to the Dauphin, who sent for some of them to come from their monastery to Paris in 1352, when Garnier Marcel presented them with the site of the old Carmelite monastery which had been bought by his father; where they established themselves. Charles both as Dauphin and King showed unvarying kindness and affection to this brotherhood, visiting the convent frequently, and conversing familiarly with the brethren. In this year (1358), seeing that they were in need of help, he granted them a purse of money from the Chancery of France, to be given yearly, and as a proof of his friendship carried the first to them himself, and distributed its contents with his own hands. He afterwards built them a church, and conferred upon them many other benefits.

A curious law made at this time, which in our own days many of us would gladly see re-established, was, that if a tailor or dressmaker spoilt a dress, either by cutting the material badly or by ignorance, so that by their fault it did not fit, they should pay to the owner of the said garment whatever was the value of it, and besides that should pay a fine of five solz, of which three should go to the King and two to the confraternity.28

Also that if any one made a doublet to sell, and made it of bad or common thread or stuff, the doublet should be burnt, and the maker should pay six solz to the King and four to the confraternity.29

“On Sunday, the nineteenth day of May,” says the chronicler, “was made a convocation at Paris of the church, the nobles, and the fortified towns,30 by letters of monseigneur the regent, to hear a certain treaty of peace which had been proposed in England between the Kings of France and of England. Which treaty had been brought to the regent by Monseigneur Guillaume de Meleun, Archbishop of Sens, by the Comte de Tanquarville, brother of the said Archbishop, by the Comte de Dampmartin, and by Messire Arnoul d’Odenham, Marshal of France, all prisoners of the English. On which day came few people, partly because they had not been told soon enough of the said convocation, and also because the roads were infested by the English and Navarrais, who held fortresses on every road by which one could go to Paris; and also because of the robbers who held French fortresses and were not much better than the English. And the whole kingdom was covered (semÉ) with them, so that one could not go about the country. The said English and Navarrais held the castle of Meleun, the island and all the town on the side towards BiÈvre; and the part towards Brie was French. Item, they held la FertÉ-Soubs-Juerre, Oysseri, Nogent-l’Artaut, and at least five or six fortresses on the river Marne; in Brie they held Becoisel and La Houssoie. In Mucien they held Juilly, Creil, and several other places on the river Oyse; on and about the Seine, Poissy, Meullent, Mante, Rais; and more than a hundred others in different parts, as well in Picardie as elsewhere. Which day of the nineteenth was continually put off in the expectation of more people until the following Saturday, the twenty-fifth day of the said month.

“On the which Saturday the said regent was at the palace on the marble staircase in the court; and there, in presence of all the people, he caused the treaty to be read by Maistre Guillaume des Dormares, advocate of the King in parliament, by the which treaty it appeared that the King of England asked for the duchy of Normandy, the duchy of Guienne, the city and castle of Saintes, with all the diocese and country; the cities of Agen, Tarbes, Pierregort, Limoges, Caours, with all the diocese and country; the counties of Bigorre, Poitiers, Anjou, and Maine; the city and castle of Tours, and all the diocese and country of Touraine; the counties of Boulogne, Guines, and Pontieu; the town of Monstrueil-sur-Mer and all the chastellenies; the town of Calais and all the land of Merq, without the King of England being, on account of the said lands, in any way subject either to the present King of France or to his successors, but only a neighbour. And besides, the said King of England desired to have the homage and sovereignty of the duchy of Brittany for ever, the same as the other lands before mentioned.

“Besides this he asked for four millions of escus de Philippe, with all the lands that he held in the kingdom of France, upon such condition that the King of France should make recompense of other lands to all those who had anything on the said lands, by alienation made by the Kings of France, or by those who claimed any rights transmitted by them, since the said lands and countries belonged to the Kings of France.

“And also required the said English to be put into possession of the towns and castles of Rouen, Caen, Vernon, Pont-de-l’Arche, Goulet, Gisors, Moliniaux, Arques, Gaillart, Vire, Boulogne, Monstrueil-sur-Mer, and la Rochelle; a hundred thousand pounds sterling and ten seigneurs for hostages on the first of August following. And this done, he would return the King of France to his kingdom and power, but in all manner a loyal prisoner until the above-named things were accomplished.

“Which treaty was very displeasing to the people of France (fu moult deplaisant). And after they had deliberated, they replied to the said regent that the said treaty was neither bearable nor possible (n’estoit passable nÉ faisable); and therefore they ordered good war to be made upon the English.

“Item. Sunday, the second day of June following, it was granted to the regent that the nobles should serve him for a month at their own expense, each according to his estate, without counting coming nor going. And that the impositions ordered should be paid by the fortified towns. The clergy offered to pay the said impositions; the town of Paris offered six hundred swords, three hundred archers, and a thousand brigands. And it was ordered that all those who were there should return to their towns, because they could not grant anything without speaking to their towns, and that they should send their answers on the Monday after Trinity. And afterwards several towns sent their answer: but because the flat country was all spoiled by the English and Navarrais enemies, and also by the garrisons of the French fortresses, the said fortified towns (bonnes villes) could not fulfil the number of twelve thousand swords (glaives) which had been granted him by the Langue d’oc.”31

The Duke and Duchess of Normandy had still no son, but another daughter, the Princess Bonne, had been born to them.

The war with England had gone on all the winter, but in the spring of 1360 new proposals of peace were made, and this time accepted. By the treaty signed at Bretigny, May 8, 1360, King Edward renounced his claim to the crown of France, and also to the duchy of Normandy and all the inheritance of the Plantagenets north of the Loire. But the King of France ceded to him, no longer as fiefs, but in absolute sovereignty, Poitou, Aquitaine, with all the arriÈre-fiefs appertaining to it from the Loire to the Pyrenees, and a ransom of three millions of Écus d’or, to be paid in sums of four hundred thousand Écus annually.

Six English knights were sent to Paris by King Edward, in presence of whom the Dauphin was to swear to the treaty in the most solemn manner. Therefore, when Mass was sung, after the Agnus Dei, Charles, who was then in the HÔtel de Sens, came out of his oratory and took the oath before the altar. Then, from a window of the HÔtel de Sens, peace was proclaimed by a sergeant-at-arms, “the regent went to Notre-Dame de Paris to return thanks for the said peace, and then they chanted the Te Deum, and rang the bells very solemnly.”32

King Edward is said to have been induced to make peace by a frightful storm which overtook his army near Chartres, killing six thousand horses and a thousand cavaliers, amongst whom were the heirs of Warwick and Morley. Thinking that the anger of God was roused against him because of the misery and devastation he was causing, he vowed to put an end to the war.

All over the country the news spread that peace was signed, and in spite of the hard conditions there was a general burst of rejoicing. In the villages and towns church bells rang, thanksgivings were offered, and festivities of all kinds went on everywhere; except in some of the towns and provinces transferred to England, who declared that they might yield homage to the English with their lips, but in their hearts never.

To the Princess Isabelle de France the return of the King can have been no subject of congratulation. She was his third daughter, her sisters being the Queen of Navarre and Marie, afterwards Duchesse de Bar. The fourth sister had taken the veil at Poissy, and died the year after in early childhood (1352).

In the deplorable state of the country, it was most difficult to obtain the money required to pay the first instalment of the King’s ransom. Galeazzo Visconti, Vicomte et Prince de Milan,33 offered to give 600,000 florins in exchange for the Princess Isabelle, whom he was anxious to marry to his son, Giovanni. The Visconti were amongst the richest and most powerful of the princes of Italy. They ruled over Milan and the greater part of Lombardy. The two brothers, Galeazzo and Bernabo, chiefs of the family, were stained with countless crimes and cruelties. Of Giovanni nothing could be said, as he was only ten years old. The Princess Isabelle was not quite twelve, but she seems to have had her own ideas, and she hated this Italian marriage. It was no use. The Visconti were eager for the alliance of the King of France, and willing to pay for the honour. King Jean wanted the money, and had been ready to sign the utterly ruinous treaty at first proposed and sacrifice France to gain his own liberty; so that he was not likely to hesitate. The French people did not like the marriage, and there was a murmuring all over the country against the King for selling his own blood. But the preparations were hurried on, and the Princess was sent to Italy before the end of that summer, with a splendid cortÈge.

Villani gives an account of the magnificence of the entertainments given in her honour at the palaces of Galeazzo and Bernabo in Milan. He says she arrived in regal state, splendidly dressed, and received the homage of all before her marriage, but after that, notwithstanding her royal blood, she did reverence to Galeazzo and Bernabo and their wives,34 the former of whom was a Princess of Savoy.35

The splendid fÊtes went on for three days and nights in the stately beautiful Italian palaces, which so far surpass those of other lands. Every day there were banquets, where at the chief table dined a thousand guests, princes, ambassadors, nobles and representatives of the citizens. There were jousts in the cortile or courtyard of the palace of Galeazzo, ladies looking on from the windows and loggie.36 The last fÊte was given by Bernabo.

Meanwhile the King of France, whose freedom had been bought in exchange for his daughter, had been conducted by the Black Prince to Calais, in the castle of which a great supper was given in his honour by King Edward, whose sons, with the Duke of Lancaster and the chief barons of England, served bareheaded at the table, and after two days spent at Boulogne in religious ceremonies and festivities King Edward embarked for England, and Jean prepared to return to Paris.

Besides the public misfortunes of this time, a great sorrow befel the Duke and Duchess of Normandy in the death of their two little daughters, Jeanne and Bonne, whom their mother had dedicated to God if the King returned. The historian says God apparently accepted the gift.37 The eldest was about three years old. The former died October 21st at the abbey of St. Antoine des Champs, at Paris, where she had been placed in order to be dedicated to religion, and her little sister rather less than three weeks after her. They were both buried in the church of that abbey, where their effigies in white marble were placed, lying upon their black marble tomb. This grief was all the more bitter to Charles and Jeanne as these were their only children. The chronicler remarks of this event: “Item, on Thursday, the 11th November, were buried the two daughters of the Duke of Normandy, at St. Antoine, near Paris, and was present the said Duke at the funeral, very troubled, for he had no more children.”38 Among those chosen to go to England with King Edward were Louis Duc d’Anjou and Jean Duc de Berry, second and third sons of the King, to whom their father had given these two duchies by way of compensation; Philippe, Duc d’OrlÉans, the King’s brother; Louis, Duc de Bourbon; Pierre d’AlenÇon and Jean, brother to the Comte d’Etampes, “tous des fleurs-de-lis,” says the monk of St. Denis.

And in December, Jean made his entry into Paris with a pomp and parade rather unsuitable to the occasion and the manner of his return, and again began the usual succession of court festivities and amusements that formed the occupation of the Valois princes and those who surrounded them. As to the peasants, as soon as the peace of Bretigny was signed, they began to take courage and to work in the fields again. After a long cold winter the weather seemed to have cleared up, and they hoped for a good harvest, though the destruction of most of the barns and farm buildings had made it difficult to find places to store it in. The plague, too, was again increasing, not spreading regularly from south to north as it had done in 1348, but appearing irregularly here and there in places which had escaped before, especially in hilly and mountainous districts where the inhabitants had hoped they were safe from it. It attacked first the people who were already weakened from bad food and other hardships; next those who had been suffering, as so many were, from agitation, anxiety or sorrow; and then it began to attack those who were free from any such disadvantages. It spread all about, with the same symptoms as before and attended with the same disastrous consequences. Every one was, of course, dreadfully afraid of catching it, so that people shut themselves up, refusing to have communication with each other; there was no one to keep order or to do any work, and the great companies of brigands and disbanded soldiers were all over the country. There were fifteen thousand of them near Lyon alone. The King of England sent orders to those under his allegiance to desist from their depredations, but they would not obey him. The plague was very bad all the spring; seventeen thousand people died of it at Avignon, it was raging in London and was also at Paris, although not quite so violent there.

The Queen and her daughter, the Princess of Burgundy, had died of it in 1360, and now her son Philippe, the last CapÉtien Duke, fell a victim to the same scourge.

On hearing of the death of his stepson, Jean at once claimed the duchy. As has been already shown, the heirs male of Duke Robert II. were now extinct; the Comtesse de Savoie, his eldest daughter, had no heirs either; of the Duchess de Bar there could be no question, as she had not only renounced her claims on her marriage, but was the youngest daughter. It rested between the King of France, son of the third daughter, Jeanne, and the King of Navarre, grandson of the second daughter, MarguÉrite. To most people the claim of Charles of Navarre must appear incontestably the right one; but it is true that instances in favour of Jean’s pretensions were not uncommon in these days. At any rate he seized the duchy, and on the 23rd of December entered Dijon; took the oath, before the high altar of Saint BÉnigne in presence of the chief officials of Burgundy, to observe the constitution and privileges of that state; and was careful to rest his claim to the succession, not on its having lapsed to the crown, but on the right of his mother, Jeanne de Bourgogne, speaking much of his grandfather, Duke Robert, whose heir he declared himself to be and whose laws and system of government he promised to follow.

The great inheritance of Burgundy was now broken up, for Artois and the County Palatine went to MarguÉrite, Countess dowager of Flanders, second daughter of Philippe-le-Long, Boulogne and Auvergne to the next heir of Guillaume XIII., while Flanders and Hainault remained the inheritance of the child MarguÉrite, widow of Philippe de Rouvre.