Comet—Meeting of Parliament—Marriage of the Queen’s sister—The Louvre and its gardens—Christine de Pisan—The Dauphin—His christening—War—French victories—Prosperity of France—HÔtel St. Paul—Birth of Marie de France—Capture and liberation of the Queen’s mother—Bonne, Comtesse de Savoie—Birth of Louis and Isabelle de France—Louis, Duc de Bourbon.

A French historian assures us that in this, the year before the war began again, “the presage of it was seen in the heavens, that is to say in the Holy Week a comet between north and west with a long hairy tail stretching towards the east and red rays like a pyramid of fire.”52

The monks went preaching about in all the French provinces for the rights of Charles V.; in the English ones for Edward III.

“In this year the King and Queen sat in parliament on the vigil of the Ascension,” and Jeanne gave her advice and opinion, by special desire of the King, upon the important affairs then discussed. Whenever he was ill the secret despatches were all taken to her, and her seal carried the same authority as his own.53

He had detached Armand d’Albret from the English cause and married him to MarguÉrite, one of the Queen’s sisters, to the indignation of the Black Prince, who spoke “moult rudement” about it.54 As Armand d’Albret had before seized the castle of La Motte d’Epineul, it was made part of the dowry of the young princess, who often appears in descriptions of festivities at her sister’s court.

In 1371 she was godmother, with the Princess Jeanne, daughter of Philippe VI., to her niece, Marie de France. Her husband and son were killed at Azincourt, and, like her sister Bonne, Comtesse de Savoie, she undertook the guardianship of her grandson, Charles d’Albret, for whom in 1416 she obtained letters from Charles VI. admitting him to do homage for his lands though under fifteen years old.

Hitherto every King of France had held his court either in the palais de la CitÉ or the Louvre. Those who only know the Louvre as the magnificent Renaissance palace of FranÇois I. and Henri II., can perhaps hardly picture it as the most romantic royal castle that ever existed. The buildings formed an oblong court, with round towers at the angles and in the middle of the sides, while nearly in the centre of the court stood a massive round keep, and to the south and east were well defended gateways. All this was moated, and on the side towards the river were other walls and towers.55 It was outside Paris until Charles included it within the walls. He altered the internal arrangements, heightening the rooms and also the towers, so that it was more beautiful than ever. It was he who built the long line of towers all along the river. They were of all sizes and shapes, and each had a captain of its own. The names of many of them are known from the registers in the Chambre des Comptes. The Tour du Fer-de-cheval, Tour de l’Orgueil, du Bois, de l’Ecluse, Jean de l’Etang, de l’Armoirie, de la Taillerie, de la grande Chapelle, la petite Chapelle, Grosse Tour du Louvre, Tour de la Librairie, and many others. The Grosse Tour, built by Philippe Auguste, was enormously thick and strong, and had a dungeon. The great portal was on the river, flanked with towers; the second entrance was narrow, with two towers, on which were sculptured the figures of Charles V. and Jeanne de Bourbon.

The rooms were large, low, with panels of wood; the windows narrow, barred with iron and filled with glass, on which were painted the arms of the person to whom the apartment belonged—King, Queen, enfants de France, princes of the blood, &c.

The apartment of the Queen was below that of the King, and exactly the same in size and disposition. Sauval remarks that the view of the river from the windows was very beautiful. The apartments of the King, the Queen, and each of their children had a chapel and gallery attached to it. In the apartment afterwards given to the Dauphin there was a clock, doubtless made by Jean de Vic, who about that time made one for the King, which was placed in the Tour du Palais and has been supposed to be the only one in Paris under Charles V.56

The great garden of the Louvre was very old: it had treilles or trellised walks from one end to the other, hedges, arbours, and grass. It was planted with roses and other flowers, herbs and vegetables. There were two smaller ones, called the King’s and Queen’s garden.57

The great garden went up to what is now the Rue St. HonorÉ, and was bounded by the city walls. To any one who is fond of flowers and gardening, it is most interesting to read the old bills and accounts preserved in different registers, and to see something of what these ancient gardens were like.

“Compte 1362, of Pierre CuldÖË, lieutenant, and the noble Messire Jean de Damille, chevalier, chastelain of the castle of the Louvre, of the receipts, &c., for certain works which have been done in the gardens of the said Louvre, À la plaisance du Roy, nostre Seigneur, beginning in the month of May ‘362,’ and finishing in the month of March CCCLXIII.”

Then follow many interesting accounts, of which, however, it is impossible to give more than a few specimens. For instance, sums of money are paid to—

“Perin Durant, gardener, for having got many good herbs and planted the same in the said gardens of the Louvre in the month of March, 1362.”

“To Pierre Hubert, trellis-maker, for having fastened up the hedges round the said gardens in the month of February, and done up about half the said hedges which the wind had blown down; for wood, osier, and trouble.”58

“To Jean Baril, for having made a heap of earth (mound) with a summer-house of trellised wood on the top, with the arms of the King, Queen and nos seigneurs de France upon it, and having made a drawbridge to it in the month of March, 1362, for wood, osier, and trouble.”

“To Jean Caillon and Geffroy de Febon, gardeners, for their trouble in having planted sage, hyssop, lavender, strawberries, and several other herbs in the gardens of the said Louvre, for having dug the garden all round, put in herbs and seeds, renewed all the paths and grass plots (prÉaux) and taken away the weeds and rubbish.”

“To Jean Dudoy, gardener, for having ... taken away all the weeds, stones, and rubbish, and made several beds of sage, hyssop, lavender, balsam, strawberries, and violets, and planted bulbs of lilies, double red rose trees, and many other good herbs which he got.”

“To Sevestre Vallerin, the work of his arm (la peine de bras) for his trouble in having weeded the paths which go among the prÉaux (courts or grass plots), and the beds in which are the rose trees, strawberries, violets, sage, hyssop, lavender, balsam, parsley, and other good herbs: and also for having watered four summer-houses and a great square room to make the plants grow (pour faire venir les herbes).”

“To Etienne de la Groye, gardener, for having made in the said gardens certain trellises, arbours, and hedges all along the walls, inside.”59

We hear of some one being paid also for planting a pear tree, and lettuce is mentioned amongst the vegetables that mingled with the flowers growing in the quaint old garden. It must have been a strange place, with its stiff beds of roses, lavender, and sweet herbs, its formal paths and summer-houses, its long trellised walks under the huge, ancient walls, shadowed by a forest of frowning towers.

As the Queen’s apartments in the south wing of the chÂteau would not contain all the rooms required, some more were allotted to her looking west; and some to the King, who, out of consideration for the Queen, had given her the first floor and taken the second for himself. One of these was the bedroom of the King, and containing amongst other furniture one of two great beds, “pour le corps du Roy,” furnished by the courtepointier, Richard des Ourmes, at the price of twenty francs of gold each.

The King’s cabinet or study (estude) was lighted by one large window with painted glass, and four small ones, and hung with black drap de Caen. It had a high chair, a bench, a form (escabelle) and two bureaux. Green drapery was thrown over the furniture, and a high chimney with mantelpiece of stone warmed the room, which was most likely between his oratory and library. His chapel, or oratory, was vaulted, and heated by a stove in the winter.60

The furniture in the Louvre consisted of enormous cupboards, buffets, and heavy chairs or faudesteuils, all richly carved, illuminated, and sometimes decorated with gold and gems; benches, forms, settles, dossiers or seats with backs, covered with velvet, satin, or cloth of gold; an estendait, or kind of sofa is mentioned as being in one or two of the rooms; the walls were hung with tapestry, and there were plenty of carpets and cushions, some embroidered with pearls. Spanish leather was thrown on the floor in summer.61

The house linen seems to have been kept in chests in the bedrooms: a number of white silk sheets are described as being in a square box with two covers in the large window in the King’s room; and later in his palace called BeautÉ, in a gilded chest (coffre) in the room where the King slept, there were towels, tablecloths, and sheets of toile de Reims; also richly embroidered pillows, one of which had on it a knight, a lady, two fountains and two lions. There were couvertoers, or warm coverings for winter, and couvertures, or sheets of ornamental stuffs thrown over the beds in the day. One of these is mentioned as being of ermine, fastened to an old sheet of marramas, of which the King had caused a breadth to be cut off to make a chasuble.

The chimneys were of course high and open, with great fires on dogs (chenets) on the hearth. There exist bills for three chenets de fer for the Queen’s and other rooms, and for tongs, shovels, and tirtifeux. Also for bellows, “five new bellows carved and ornamented with gold.”

There are also bills from one Marie Lallemande, for blue and white stuff for the window curtains of the King’s and Queen’s bedchambers, and for eighteen feather beds with pillows; and from Jean de Verdelay and Colin de la Baste for six tables of walnut wood and a pair of trestles for the Queen’s rooms, and for the King’s large dining-room an oak bench with columns (un banc de chesne À coulombes) twenty feet long for the King’s larger table, with the daÏs of the same length and three feet wide, and a drÉÇoir with a step round it in the same room (sale),62 “et enfonsÉ le viez banc Sainct Louis, et une marche autour.”

The King was anxious to attract to his court any literary or talented persons that could be found, and being himself, like every one else of his day, a believer in astrology, he gladly welcomed a learned man and celebrated astrologer named Thomas de Pisan, a native of Bologna, who, delighted at his reception, sent for his wife and daughter and presented them at the Louvre, 1368. Charles took the whole family under his protection. He gave an income to the astrologer, and his daughter, the celebrated Christine de Pisan, was brought up at court as a demoiselle de qualitÉ. Her father, seeing her talents, bestowed much care on her education. She was taught Latin and French, and not allowed to forget her native Italian; she also studied science and literature. At fifteen she was married to Etienne du Chastel, a young man of good birth and education, but small fortune, who was made one of the King’s secretaries. She became a distinguished writer, and is best known for her life of Charles V., written, after his death, at the command of the Duke of Burgundy. Her style is exceedingly pompous and fulsome, but some interesting details can be gained from her writings, and if they were not crammed with tiresome, prosy moral sentiments, and absurd flattery of the King, they might have been much more interesting and valuable still. After the death of Charles V., the prosperity of the family waned: her father lost most of his pay and died old and poor; her husband died 1402, and one of her sons died young. Her daughter became a nun at Poissy.

On the 16th of April, 1368, Lionel, Duke of Clarence second son of the King of England, passed through Paris on his way to Italy to marry the daughter of Galeazzo Visconti. The Dukes of Berry and Burgundy went to meet him at St. Denis and conducted him to the Louvre, where his room was “moult bien parÉe et aournÉe.” He dined and supped that day with the King, and the next day dined with the Queen “en l’ostel du roy prÈs de Saint-Pol, lÀ oÙ elle estoit lors logiÉe et y fist-en trÈs grant feste.”63 After dinner when they had played and danced, the Princes returned to the Louvre, where Lionel stayed during the few days he was at Paris, being entertained by the different members of the French royal family. Lionel of England was a handsome and courageous Flemish giant, mild-tempered and amiable, possessing no great vigour of intellect.64 Through his daughter married to Edmund Mortimer the line of York derived their claim to the English crown.

The King had a painted barge like a floating house, richly decorated inside and outside, in which he used to go up and down the Seine from the Louvre to his new and favourite palace of St. Paul,65 which he had built chiefly while he was still regent.

Charles and Jeanne had now been married eighteen years, and had no children. They had never had a son, and their three daughters had all died, to their great grief. But on the 3rd of December, 1368, “on the first day of the Advent of our Lord, at the third hour after midnight, the Queen Jehanne, wife of King Charles, then King of France, had her first son in the ostel near St. Pol; and the moon was in the sign of the Virgin in the second phase of the said sign, and the moon was twenty-three days old. For the which birth the King and all the people in France had great joy, and not without cause, for until now the said King had had no male child. And the King gave thanks to God and the Virgin Mary. And that day he went to Notre Dame de Paris, and caused a beautiful mass to Our Lady to be sung before her image at the entrance of the choir; and the next day, Monday, he went to Saint Denis in France on pilgrimage, and he caused to be given away at Paris a great heap of florins, to the number of three thousand florins and more.”66

The child was christened on Wednesday, the 6th of December, and the chronicler thus describes the proceedings:—

“The Wednesday following, sixth day of December, in the year one thousand three hundred and sixty-eight aforesaid, the said son of the King was christened in the church of Saint-Pol of Paris, about the hour of prime, in the manner which follows. And the day before were made enclosures of wood in the street before the said church, and also inside the said church about the font, to take care that there should not be too great press of people.

“First: before the said child went two hundred varlÉs who carried two hundred torches, who all remained in the said street,67 holding the said burning torches, except twenty-six who went inside. And after was Messire Hue de Chasteillon, seigneur de Dampierre, master of the crossbowmen, who carried a candle in his hand, and the Comte de Tanquarville, who carried a cup in which was the salt, and had a towel at his neck with which the said salt was covered. And after was the Queen, Jehanne d’Evreux, who carried the said child in her arms, and Monseigneur Charles, seigneur de Montmorenci, et Monseigneur Charles, comte de Dampmartin, were beside her; and thus they issued from the said hostel of the King of Saint-Pol, by the door which is the nearest to the church. And immediately after the said child, were the Duc d’OrlÉans, the King’s uncle, the Duc de Berry, the Duc de Bourbon, the Queen’s brother, and many other great seigneurs and ladies; Queen Blanche, the Duchesse d’OrlÉans, the Comtesse de Harcourt and the Dame de Lebret,68 sisters of the Queen, who were well adorned with coronets and jewels.”69

The chronicler goes on to describe the christening, the cardinals, bishops, and abbots with mitres and crosiers, how the crowd was so great that the child had to be taken home by a back way and how the King gave away money in the coulture Ste. Katherine, where there was also such a crowd that several women were killed.

The Queen seems to have been ill a long time, for the chronicler says that there was a great fÊte when she recovered (releva de sa gÉsine) from her confinement, on the 4th February, and after the dinner a dance and other amusements, and the King gave his son the title of Dauphin du Viennois.

Charles had succeeded in getting rid of the Grande Compagnie led by the ArchiprÊtre, mentioned in the life of Jeanne de Boulogne, Bertrand du Guesclin having persuaded them to go with him to Spain, to fight against Pedro el Cruel, at the request of the King, who said: “If some one would lead ces gens-lÀ against the miscreant and tyrant Pedro, who has killed our sister, let him do so whatever it costs me.”70

The news of the defeat and death of Pedro was brought to Paris in the early summer, and the chronicler remarks, “and certainly many people thought that this had happened to the said Pierre because he was a very bad man and had wickedly and traitorously murdered his good, wedded wife, daughter of the Duc de Bourbon and sister of the Queen of France.” The inhabitants of Guyenne had revolted against the Black Prince, who had been taxing them too heavily; and the war with England had begun again, but this time it seemed to be going in favour of France. Fortress after fortress fell into French hands and on the 29th April, Abbeville surrendered to Hue de ChÂtillon.

This and the next year passed prosperously for the kingdom. Bertrand du Guesclin, created Constable of France, was everywhere winning back towns, castles, and fortresses; the gallant Sir John Chandos was killed in Poitou, and by the end of 1370, Ponthieu, PÉrigord, Rouergue, Saintonge, Poitou, part of Limousin, and nearly all Guyenne had been won back. The rapid restoration of the kingdom was a marvel to every one. The hero du Guesclin was the idol of the nation; the Duc de Bourbon especially loved him because he had avenged his sister the Queen of Spain. The wise and firm government of the King brought prosperity and order into everything. His Court was magnificent, not with the wild and warlike revelry of Philippe and Jean de Valois, but with the refined and artistic luxury of a prince more cultivated than his time.

All round about Paris he restored and rebuilt the royal chÂteaux that had been destroyed by the English and Navarrais, taking care to fortify them at the same time. Melun, Creil, Montargis, amongst others, and St. Germain, which had been burnt by the soldiers of King Edward. He gave Paris a new bridge, walls, gates, and the Bastille, of which the first stone was laid by Aubriot, provost of Paris, in April, 1370. He had built two new royal residences, BeautÉ, a most delightful chÂteau at the end of the forest of Vincennes, and the hÔtel de St. Paul at Paris, having taken a dislike to the Palais de la CitÉ, from the scenes of blood and terror that he had witnessed there. The Louvre was not large enough for the immense number of suites of apartments he wanted. Gradually it was used in his reign chiefly to entertain and lodge foreign princes. He bought several hÔtels, gardens, and meadows and turned the whole into one huge palace, which, with its pleasure grounds, covered nearly all the space between the river, the rue St. Antoine, the rue St. Paul, and the Bastille. The hÔtels de Sens, de Saint Maur, d’Etampes, hÔtel de la Reine, and others.

The whole were surrounded with a high wall, enclosing, besides all these great hÔtels which formed the palace, and were connected by twelve galleries, six meadows, eight gardens, and a number of courts. All the princes of the blood, great nobles and officers of the court had their apartments in this wonderful palace, which the King declared should for ever belong to the Crown, adding that he had there enjoyed many pleasures, endured and recovered from many illnesses, and therefore he regarded it with singular affection.

It was a curious mixture of luxury and simplicity, arm, feudal castle, and palace all in one.71 The King delighted in the gardens and orchards and used to work in them with his own hands. Both he and Jeanne were also very fond of animals, and seem to have had an immense number of pets, for which there were enclosures and aviaries in all their palaces, but especially at their two favourite abodes, St. Paul and BeautÉ. They had lions and wild boars amongst other creatures, and numbers of birds. Besides the great aviaries at the Palais, the Louvre, St. Paul, and the other palaces, there were in every apartment in St. Paul bird-cages of wire painted green, and there is an account of a large octagon cage made at that palace72 for the King’s parrot, which is called “la cage au pape-gaut du Roy.” There were numbers of fowls, pigeons, and peacocks, the wild boars were kept in a garden, the lions, of course, in dens, and there were rooms for the turtle doves and for the Queen’s dogs.

The description of the interior of this palace, or group of palaces, reads like a page out of the “Arabian Nights.” One large hÔtel (one of three houses the King gave the Queen) was used for her horses, coches, and the grooms and people belonging to her stables. The conciergerie, lingerie, tapisserie, pÂtisserie, pelleterie, fruiterie, lavandrie, saucisserie, panneterie, Épicerie, taillerie, maison du four, jeux de paumes, garde-manger, celliers, caves, cuisines charbonnerie fauconnerie, &c., must have formed a little town in themselves. Silk, velvet, tapestry, Spanish leather, and cloth of gold covered the walls, floors, and seats. The furniture, massive and picturesque in form, was ornamented with rich carving, illumination, gold or gems. The beams of the ceiling were decorated with gold fleurs-de-lis. The rooms were heated with stoves (Étuves) and huge fires on open hearths, with magnificent chimney pieces of stone sculptured often with colossal statues and figures of animals. The washing basins and all the dinner services, &c., used by the royal family were of gold or silver. All the numerous apartments of the different princes, princesses, and great personages had chapels, galleries, bath-rooms, &c., attached to them. The room of the King’s jewels was brilliant with gold, silver, and precious stones.

To say nothing of the art treasures of gold, jewels, and illuminations, what would not a lover of art and antiquity in our own day give for one of the long oak benches, for instance, ending in handles like those of baskets, carved all over with birds and animals, and mounted on many carved columns—especially for the one called “the old bench of St. Louis,” which stood in the King’s dining room at the Louvre.

It was in their favourite hÔtel de St. Paul, or as it is called in old writings, St. Pol, that Charles and Jeanne principally lived, and here were born the Dauphin and all their younger children.

The birth of the Princess Marie took place on the 27th of February, 1370, and her godmothers were Jeanne, daughter of Philippe VI. and Queen Blanche, and the Dame d’Albret, sister of the Queen.

With the exception of Blanche, whom she never met again after her disastrous marriage with the King of Spain, Jeanne saw a great deal of her family, especially of her three youngest sisters, the Comtesse de Harcourt, the Dame d’Albret, and the Prieure de Poissy. Bonne, Comtesse de Savoie, was farther away in her beautiful southern home, and being the wife of a greater prince, had more of the occupations and cares of a government upon her hands. Bonne was brave, clever, sensible, and universally admired. Things went prosperously enough with her until, after she had been married about thirty years, in 1385 her husband, the Green Count, died of plague in Italy, where he had gone on some warlike expedition. She governed Savoy for her son Amadeo VII., the Red Count, whom she married to a daughter of the Duc de Berry. But the Red Count was killed out hunting in 1391. He left the guardianship of his son and the regency of Savoy to his mother, in whom he might well have the greatest reliance, instead of to his young widow who had neither the talents nor experience to fit her for such a trust, and who, he was quite sure would marry again, as she did. In spite of her opposition the Countess Bonne assumed the guardianship of her grandson Amadeo VIII. and the State. After he came of age she could not get her dowry properly paid, so she sent for her brother Louis, Duc de Bourbon, who came at once with a troop of soldiers and threatened to make war upon the Savoyards. Thereupon the dowry was paid without any further trouble. Bonne died at the ChÂteau de MÂcon, 1402. In 1372 the Duchess-dowager de Bourbon, mother of the Queen, was at the castle of Belle Perche, in the Bourbonnais, when one night it was surprised by three captains of brigands or free companies, who got in by scaling the walls. Louis de Bourbon assembled his vassals and friends and laid siege to the place where his mother was a prisoner. The Duchess managed to let him know that she was afraid of the things the engines threw in and the damage they caused, and that she wished him to blockade the castle. He did so accordingly, but the Earls of Cambridge and Pembroke arrived with a large force and carried off the Duchess and her ladies to a chÂteau in Limousin. She was soon afterwards exchanged for Simon Burke, a favourite of the Black Prince. She went to Clermont, a hunting chÂteau of her son, and in the forest close by she met her daughters coming to see her.73 In a miniature representing their meeting the Queen advances wearing a dress covered with fleurs-de-lis and emblazoned with the arms of France and Bourbon, holding a bird, the sign of high rank and led by Jean de Bourbon, Comte de la Marche. Her little daughter Marie, bearing the same arms accompanies her, then come the young Duchess, wife of Louis, and the Queen’s sisters, Comtesses de Savoie and Harcourt, and Dame d’Albret. Each leads a dog with a long leash, two ladies follow, one carrying the train of the Duchesse de Bourbon. All the princesses have the arms of their husbands and of Bourbon emblazoned on their dresses, including the Duchess-dowager, Isabelle de Valois, who also wears a long widow’s veil.74

Parti-coloured dresses were much worn then. The Queen’s second son, Louis, was born March, 1371. Bertrand du Guesclin was his godfather, and put a sword into his hand, praying God and Our Lady to make him a good knight. In July, 1373, was born her daughter Isabelle. The little Dauphin was her godfather and held her at the font; her grandmother, the Duchess Isabelle, was her godmother.

Louis de Bourbon had married in 1371 Anne, daughter of the Comte de Clermont et d’Auvergne. He was a good soldier, just, generous, and religious; his court was as magnificent as those of the Dukes of Burgundy and OrlÉans. When he returned from being a hostage in England he instituted an order of chivalry called the Ecu d’or. During the fÊte, after the ceremony, his Procureur-GÉnÉral, Chavreau, presented to him a register of depredations committed on his lands during his captivity by divers lords, his vassals, most of whom were present, and were seized with consternation; but the Duke replied, “Chavreau, have you also the register of the services they have rendered me?” and without looking at it, threw it into the fire. It is said that when, after the capture of his mother, Anne, Duchesse de Bretagne, fell into his hands and exclaimed, “Ah, beau cousin! am I a prisoner?” he replied, “No, madame, we do not make war on ladies.” His subjects adored him, and when, many years afterwards, he died and his body was brought to Moulins to be buried, clergy and people thronged to accompany it wherever the funeral passed, with tears and lamentations.