Illness of the King—Execution of sorcerers—Birth of Jean de France—Death of Queen Blanche de Navarre—Household of Isabeau—Ludwig of Bavaria—Ancient Paris—The Queen’s chÂteaux—Burgundy and OrlÉans—Henry of Lancaster—The plague—Revolution in England—The Dauphin Charles.

In 1398 things did not improve. The King had fewer lucid intervals, during one of which, however, he went to Reims and entertained with lavish hospitality the Emperor Wenceslas. The two monks were still at the Bastille occupied with their necromancy, but as it had no effect upon the King, who had more attacks than ever this year, the terror they inspired began to diminish, while the horror excited by their supposed dealings with the powers of darkness remained. Seeing the danger of their position they tried to propitiate the Duke of Burgundy by laying the blame of their failure on the Duc d’OrlÉans, saying that the diabolic arts he employed against the King were too strong for them to counteract. But by this outrageous accusation against the King’s brother, they had gone too far. The Duc d’OrlÉans complained, the monks were arrested and given over to the clergy, who delivered them to the provost of Paris, and they were soon afterwards beheaded.

In August another son was born to the King and Queen and named Jean.171

In October died Queen Blanche de Navarre, alike beloved and honoured by the royal family, the court, and the people. The adventures of her brilliant youth when she shared the throne of Philippe de Valois, or the fortunes of her brothers, the gallant Princes of Navarre, have been related in a former volume. She had always been rich and powerful, but never through oppressing her subjects or vassals, so that they loved and venerated her as a mother. She was the providence of the poor and suffering, and a good friend to the religious houses. With every earthly gift and advantage, brilliant beauty, an irresistible fascination, distinguished talents, high rank and great riches, living in the midst of the most dissipated court in Europe, no taint of dishonour ever sullied her name; she seemed, in the midst of all the cruelty, violence, and corruption with which she was surrounded, like a bright star in a dark and stormy sky. For fifty years she had been Queen-dowager, and she had been present certainly at the marriage of the eldest, and almost certainly at the marriage of the second, and the consecration of the third of the great-great-granddaughters of her husband. Her dowry reverted to the crown, her personal property, which was large, she divided between her favourite nephew, Pierre de Navarre, and certain charities. But as to the relic she left to the Carmelite Church, the worthy monk of St. Denis earnestly declares that she “was deceived by vain and lying tongues of those who brought it from Constantinople, for the only true and undoubted nail which pierced our Lord belongs to St. Denis and nowhere else, as is proved by the history of Charlemagne and by continued miracles which for five hundred years have been done by contact of that relic.”172

The officers of her household went to ask the Dukes of Burgundy, Berry, and OrlÉans whether, not having been crowned Queen, her funeral was to be at St. Denis with royal pomp. To which (the King being probably ill then) they replied at once that it was undoubtedly to be so, and it was attended by all the royal family and court.173

The health of the King gradually grew worse. The attacks came oftener and lasted longer. But whenever they subsided, as they often did quite suddenly, he became sane again, resumed the government, went out hunting and hawking, and took part in everything, whether amusement or business, as usual. During his intervals of insanity, the Queen ought of course to have been a most important part of the government, but she cared nothing about that or any rational thing; what interested her were only the dissipations of the court, her dress, the sums of money and treasure she could collect, eating and drinking, and the constant society of Louis d’OrlÉans. The only praiseworthy or harmless tastes she had were a sort of natural affection for her children and a fondness for animals of which she had a good many for pets. She was also fond of music. Amongst the accounts of the period we find sums paid to the “varlet de chambre” of Madame Michelle de France for having, during her absence at Poissy (probably to attend the consecration of her little sister) mended her gold cup which the monkey had broken; to Guillaume Juvel “varlet de chambre de la royne,” for money lent the Queen to give a poor man who had given her a goldfinch that would eat out of her hand; also for a milch cow for Monseigneur Jehan de France and for a tent for him with tapestries with histories on them; for the harpist of the Queen and the minstrels of the Dauphin; and for a large box of wood and iron with holes in it to burn a candle by night in the room of Madame Jehanne de France. Among the same accounts come splendid clothes for the Queen’s relevailles on getting up after her confinement; baths of oak; sums for putting iron on two large cupboards in the Queen’s stables at St. Paul to keep the harness of pearls and embroidery of her horses; for two pair of wheels for her “char”; for mending some tapestries bearing the histories of nine heroes, that is to say, Joshua, David, Judas Maccabeus, Hector, Alexander, CÆsar, Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godefroi de Bouillon; histories of the seven deadly sins, of the seven ages of man; of Godefroi de Bouillon, of the Dukes of Aquitaine; and the history of stags.

And for making a chair of red Cordova leather fringed with silk, gilt nails, and two gold chains, decorated and painted with choice colours.

Isabeau had much more idea of comfort than had hitherto been usual even in the palaces of the Kings of France. Mingled with the splendour that had been more or less customary for some generations we see various attempts at convenience not yet introduced. She is said to have been the first to use a “suspended carriage,” and those she had were luxurious and commodious to a degree never seen before, and drawn by very swift horses. She had one chariot on purpose for thunderstorms, “pour le tonnerre,” but in what the safety of it consisted is not stated.174

She had calorifÈres like little iron chariots filled with red-hot ashes wheeled about the cold galleries of the palaces, and hollow balls of gold and silver full of red-hot cinders to hold in the hand as chaufferettes. In hot weather she caused herself to be fanned by huge fans to keep her cool and drive away the flies; her rooms were hung with costly tapestry and stuffs which were taken down and went with her from one palace to another. She had one room entirely hung with white satin, another with green satin, and her plate was almost always of gold. She used an Eastern talisman against poison, fastened with a silver gilt chain to her goblet and salt-cellar, and an officer of her household tried every dish before she tasted it. She had a cupboard painted and decorated by a skilful artist, in which she kept her relics and perfumes. For the latter she had a mania. She always kept damask rose water about her, and used also a great quantity of what were called “oiselets de Chypre.” These were little bottles something the shape of birds, filled with different Oriental perfumes. She and her ladies were constantly eating all sorts of sweetmeats, of which there seem to have been innumerable kinds.175

Carpets were sometimes, but not generally used, the floors were still strewn with rushes and fresh boughs, especially the great halls and banqueting rooms. It was, however, usual to lay them on the steps going up to the great beds, and the floors of many of the rooms in the palaces were of wood, often inlaid.

They must have looked both magnificent and comfortable, those great bedrooms in the palaces and hÔtels of the nobles. The huge bed in an alcove or corner, steps covered with rich carpets going up to it, and curtains of silk or some costly material, carved cupboards, chests and seats, beams of the ceilings painted or gilded, walls hung with tapestry, windows protected by trellises of iron and filled with stained glass, a huge chimney-place, sculptured all over with figures and armorial bearings, on the hearth of which blazed great logs, while by it at right angles a tall carved settle kept away the draught.

The Queen’s bath was of carved oak, furnished or lined with bath sheets or towels. Over it was a canopy with curtains, which drew all round.176

One thing appears to be certain, and that is that, although at this time houses were insanitary and the streets narrow and dirty, with open sewers in them, people were personally far cleaner than at a later day.177 All through the Valois times, down to 1600, there were plenty of Étuves, or public bath-houses, to which every one who had not baths in their own houses used often to go. There were hot and vapour baths, and some of these establishments were extremely luxurious and elegant, and were used for other purposes besides bathing. People who were starting on a journey often slept at them the night before, setting off from them in the morning; they were often much resorted to as rendezvous, and many were the scenes of license and revelry which took place in them when the young nobles and courtiers, led often by Louis d’OrlÉans, adjourned there after some supper or banquet.178

The priests were very angry with them, and often preached against them, and so, later on, did the Huguenot ministers. By 1600 they had much diminished in number and importance, and soon after they disappeared,179 which was a great pity, for of course it did no good at all; people were just as immoral as before, and not nearly so clean. But this is another instance of the mischief done by the misplaced activity of those busy, fanatical folks, who, with the most excellent intentions in their attempts to reform either religion or morals, direct their attacks upon something which is in itself perfectly harmless, or even valuable to the majority of people, doing all they can to deprive them of it, simply because they see some persons make an improper use of it. The early Christians were always preaching against those magnificent Roman baths, the destruction of which was such an irreparable loss to the people.180 The Puritans, thinking that the morals of many plays and the lives of many actors left much to be desired, would, even in the last generation, have done away with all theatres if they had been allowed. And in our own days have we not many instances of the same kind?

In spite of all the suffering she caused and the harm she did, we do not gather that Isabeau was at all actively harsh, cruel, or disagreeable. She seems to have been liked by the companions of her follies, the servants of her household, and her ladies, of whom she had four dames, four demoiselles de corps, and two others. Her vices, faults, and deficiencies were just the worst she could have had in the present crisis, for they made her not only useless, but mischievous. If she had had brains, decision of character, courage, and common sense, she might also have been proud, passionate, vindictive, or ambitious, to any extent, and yet have been a great queen, and perhaps the salvation of France.

But Isabeau’s faults were not those of a great character. She was selfish, lazy, frivolous, vain, and avaricious. She let the reins of government remain without an effort or complaint in the hands of the Duke of Burgundy, she allowed the overbearing interference of the Duchess until it became perfectly insupportable. She now occupied herself in amassing for herself an enormous private fortune, considering that the health of the King gave every cause for fear, and that she had had no dowry on her marriage. She had certainly secured to herself by letters of the King, 1394, a revenue of 25,000 livres, representing at that time an enormous sum;181 but besides this she was constantly collecting and storing away in chests, gold, jewels, plate, unset diamonds, and other precious stones, title deeds of lands, everything she could lay her hands upon, in which she was assisted by her brother, Ludwig of Bavaria, who was constantly in France, getting a large share of the spoils, wrung by taxation from the people. Isabeau seems to have had more affection for him than for any one else, and never appears to have changed towards him. From what little can be known about him he must have been very much like her, he was generally with her and Louis d’OrlÉans, and the people hated him, perhaps, most of all. Isabeau caused him to be grand maÎtre d’hÔtel to the King for some years, and married him first to Anne de Bourbon, Comtesse de Montpensier, and then to Catherine d’AlenÇon, widow of Pierre de Navarre, both princesses of the blood. He was apparently corrupt, dissipated, greedy after money, shallow, and useless.

Though the streets of Paris were narrow and winding, yet both city and faubourgs had many large gardens and enclosures, or clos, as they were called, which belonged to the abbeys, convents, palaces, and hotels of the King and nobles. First, there was the famous PrÈ aux clercs, renowned in romance, mentioned several times in this and a former volume, which was so large that De Sauval says: “Il se va perdu bien loin dans la campagne,” and which only began to be built upon in 1630. The clos des Jacobins was nine acres, where now are the streets of la Madeleine, St. Thomas, St. Dominique, &c., and it was said that before part of it was cut through to make the moats and fortifications in the reign of Jean, it went up to the walls of the university.182 The clos des Cordeliers was also enormous, and in fact the great enclosures, gardens, vineyards, meadows, and even preserves for rabbits and other game, were so numerous as to form an important feature in the ancient capital.

For those who care for the history of Paris there still remain in the byeways antique houses, picturesque corners, and old streets, around which cling the historic memories dear to their hearts, but to the great majority to whom it appears as nothing but an endless succession of broad streets and boulevards lined with trees, superb, monotonous, uninteresting houses copied from the Italian, and splendid shops; it would be impossible to picture to themselves mediÆval Paris as it existed at the time of which this book treats.

Mr. Harrison, in an interesting essay on the transformation of Paris, says: “The modern streets, to which our tourists confine their walks, form after all only a gigantic screen, behind which much of old Paris still remains untouched.”

Until 1789 Paris remained a mediÆval city. It would, of course, be out of the question in a work like this to attempt to give any real account of it, but it is possible to catch just a glimpse of what the aspect and life of the city must then have been by careful researches into the many splendid works in the BibliothÈque Nationale, the British Museum, and other places, which are filled with pictures and descriptions of it.

With its lofty walls, towers, gates, and moats, old Paris looked, as it was, a fortress. Inside it was a dense, tangled network of dark lanes, narrow, crooked streets, huge palaces, mediÆval fortresses and conventual enclosures. Here and there came a tower or Gothic portal, churches, bridges, and quays crowded with confused piles of lofty wooden houses, walled gardens with terraces, courts, and colonnades; while those great royal and feudal castles, the ChÂtelet, the Bastille, the Temple, and the Louvre, frowned over the city.

The sanitary state of Paris was such that it is difficult to understand why any one was left alive. Narrow, unpaved streets, with open sewers running down the middle of them, cemeteries and charnel houses in the heart of the city, drinking water taken direct from the Seine, it is no wonder that there were such numbers of deaths of children and young people, and that so few attained to old age. Of all the children of Philippe de Valois only two lived to grow up; out of the numerous family of Charles V. only two survived their childhood. Charles VI. had twelve children, and though only four died in childhood, scarcely one reached forty-five years. The sons and daughters of King Jean must have been exceptionally strong, for all except one grew up, and one or two lived to be quite old. And if this were the case with the royal family, it was not likely to be better with those who lived under much less favourable conditions.

Not only within the walls, but for many miles outside them stood a profusion of churches, convents, abbeys, chapels, oratories of all sizes, from the mighty St. Germain des PrÈs to the smallest chantry on the pier of a bridge. Rich in works of art, gorgeous in colour, paintings, frescoes, mosaics, stained glass, carved statues, coloured marbles, gold and silver plate, bronzes, ivories, silks, velvets, tapestries, embroideries, illuminated books, bells, clocks, perfumes, organs, instruments of music, choirs of singers, every beautiful and delightful thing was crowded together with the relics of saints and tombs of great men, miraculous images, lamps, candles on thousands of altars, offerings dedicated to countless saints and martyrs. The Church was school, art museum, place of instruction, prayer, confession of sin, preaching, and civilising. The great convents and monasteries were the schools, colleges, hospitals and poorhouses. They existed in design for the poor, diseased, and wretched. Christ loved the weak and suffering, and the doors of His house stood ever open to the weak, the suffering, the halt, the blind, and the lame. The poorest, the weakest, the most abject, were welcome there. The priest, the monk, and the nun taught, clothed, and nursed the suffering poor and their children; there was consolation in heaven for those who had found earth a hell.183

Strange and characteristic were the names of many of the streets and houses, such as Cherche-midi, Trois-morts-et-trois-vifs, L’Ymage-de-Saint Nicolas, Quatre-fils-Aymon, Ami-du-coeur, Panier-vert, Hospice des Quinze-Vingts,184 beside the Croissant, Lyon d’or, Gerbe d’or, Croix blanche, Homme sauvage, Couronne, Cheval blanc, and many others still in use. Isabeau had several hÔtels of her own amongst this tangled labyrinth of streets, buildings, and gardens. First, the hÔtel de la Reine, which was one of the group of hÔtels connected by galleries and colonnades, surrounded by gardens, built by Charles V., and called St. Paul. Then she had one in the faubourg St. Marcel, given her by the Duc de Berry, and another out in the country near Pouilly, called Val-la-Reine. Some years later she bought another, called Bagnolet, with a good deal of land and a windmill, besides all other accessories; it had also about six thousand elms and many other trees. And in this year she bought the hÔtel Barbette, in the vieille rue du Temple. This she enlarged, bought all the ground about it to turn into gardens, and used it as a place of diversion.185

During this year one Salmon, a gentleman of the household of the Queen of England, who had gone with her to that country on her marriage, arrived with letters from King Richard, who wished to send the King and Queen of France news of the welfare and happiness of their daughter. Charles and Isabeau, delighted to hear about her, received the messenger with great honour. Richard appears to have felt some uneasiness at the friendship between Henry, son of the Duke of Lancaster, and the Duc d’OrlÉans. For Henry of Lancaster was already his secret enemy and dangerous rival, and the Duc d’OrlÉans was extremely powerful and ambitious; the Venetians sent ambassadors to him, and European princes appealed to him as to an independent sovereign. Year after year the dissension grew deeper between him and his uncle of Burgundy, who persisted in retaining the regency, which Louis declared ought to be his, during the King’s frequent attacks of insanity.

The year 1399 was an unfortunate one in every way. Troubles and dangers were beginning to gather in England, threatening the safety of Richard and Isabelle, and causing the greatest anxiety to the King and Queen of France. In March and April there were great floods. The Seine overflowed the whole country and destroyed the seeds, so that the crops were ruined and the country made so unhealthy that the plague began again. For eight days a dreadful comet flamed in the sky, which every one said foreboded evil.186

Henry of Lancaster, Earl of Hereford and Derby, had become Duke of Lancaster through his father’s death, and having been exiled for treasonable practices by King Richard was spending some months at the French court. Richard seized the duchy of Lancaster and wrote to the King of France, complaining of the disloyalty of Henry and begging him not to consent to his marriage with Marie, daughter of the Duc de Berry, who, though only twenty-three, was a widow for the second time, and would have brought him great riches and powerful alliances.187 The Duc de Berry was quite willing to agree to the marriage, but Charles spoke to the Duke of Burgundy, who, when Henry, still called Earl of Derby, took occasion, the King, princes, and court being assembled, to speak of the matter, said in the name of the King: “Cousin, we cannot give our cousin to a traitor.” Henry replied indignantly that he was no traitor, and defied any one who should call him so; whereupon Charles, who really liked him, and besides was weak and confused with illness, softened the refusal by assuring him that the words of his uncle of Burgundy were inspired by England, and that no one in France doubted his honour. That as to the marriage, it could be spoken of another time, but first it was necessary that he should be invested with his duchy of Lancaster. After which wine and dessert (Épices) were served and the subject dropped.188 Henry of Lancaster, who was crafty enough, succeeded in deluding and making friends with the King and princes, even gaining over the Duke of Burgundy; and then returned to England.

The plague grew worse and worse; so fatal was the epidemic that it was forbidden at Paris to publish the lists of the dead. The court moved for a time into Normandy, there were litanies, sermons, and processions, but as the monk of St. Denis says, “many abbeys were nearly depopulated, though the abbey of St. Denis only lost one brother, who passed without doubt to the abode of the blessed.” The plague was about in the country for two years.

Disquieting reports were brought from England to the French coast by some merchants of Bruges.189 It was rumoured that a revolution had taken place, that King Richard had been deposed, and that both he and the young queen were in captivity. The King and Queen of France were in the deepest anxiety about their daughter and nobody could tell what had happened (which is a strange reflection, in this, the five-hundredth year after these events). The court returned to the capital, and suddenly all Paris was thrown into excitement by the news that the Dame de Coucy, grande-maitresse to the Queen of England, had arrived unexpectedly at her family hÔtel. Directly Charles heard of it he rushed to the hÔtel de Coucy to see her. He found her in great alarm and dismay, having been banished from England, and all that she told him of the dethronement, imprisonment, and danger of his son-in-law and the captivity of his daughter so distressed and incensed him that although he had been rather unusually well for some little time, he fell into a frenzy of madness which for the present rendered him incapable of doing anything.190

The astonishment and anger of all the French princes at these events knew no bounds. They cursed the insolent London burghers who had dared to rebel against their King, were furious with Henry of Lancaster, of whose resistance to Richard they had never contemplated such a result; and tried to stir up against him the inhabitants of the remaining English possessions in France, but without success; for although attached to Richard, who was born at Bordeaux, the inhabitants of Bordeaux, Bayonne, &c., were so much better governed, less taxed, and more prosperous than their French neighbours that they declined to exchange the English for the French rule.

The people of Paris, discontented and uneasy at the King’s illness and the various misfortunes that kept happening, bethought themselves that they never saw anything of the Dauphin, who was delicate and did not appear much in public. They therefore insisted on his being shown to them, and his uncles, in consequence, made him ride through Paris to St. Denis, attended by a cortÈge of nobles. There was a state banquet there, and the people, delighted with the Dauphin and the splendid pageant, thronged the whole way, singing hymns and litanies, and praying for the little lad who rode in state for the first and last time as the heir of France.191