68 THE BURGUNDIAN LANDS. [INTROD. of the French to the Dauphin, whose manners and disposition, as well as his lawful claim to the throne of France and the popular hatred of the English usurpers, had rendered him a favourite with the majority of the French nation; and as a counterpoise to his influence, the Regent Bedford drew closer his connections both with the Dukes of Burgundy and Brittany. It does not belong to our subject to detail the wars which followed, and the romantic story of Joan of Arc, which will be found related in the histories of England as well as of France. The great abilities of Bedford secured during his lifetime the predominance of the English in France, and the young King Henry VI. was crowned in Paris December 17th, 1431. But this predominance was soon to be undermined; first by the defection of the Duke of Burgundy from the English alliance, and then by the death of Bedford, and the disputes and divisions which ensued in the English government. The Imperial and French principalities ruled by the Duke of Burgundy made him, perhaps, a mightier Prince than the King of the French; and it will be fit, therefore, to look back a little, and shortly trace the progress of his power. The Capetian line of Burgundy, which had ruled upwards of three centuries, died out with the young Duke Philip in 1361; and a year or two afterwards, King John of France bestowed the Burgundian Duchy as an hereditary fief on his youngest and favourite son, Philip the Bold, the first Burgundian Duke of the House of Valois. By this impolitic gift John founded the second House of Burgundy, who were destined to be such dangerous rivals to his successors on the throne of France. The last Capetian Duke, who was only sixteen when he was carried off by the peste noire, or black death, had married Margaret, heiress of Flanders, Artois, Antwerp, Mechlin, Nevers, Rethel, and Franche-Comté, or, as it was then called, the County of Burgundy; and Philip the Bold espoused his predecessor's widow. Three sons, the issue of this marriage (John the Fearless, Antony, and Philip), divided among them the Burgundian dominions; and each extended his share by marriage, or by re-annexations. 1 Some recent French historians have dwelt upon and magnified the exploits of the Pucelle d'Orléans with an unction bordering on the profane as well as the ridiculous. M. Michelet does not scruple to say: "L'Imitation de Jésus-Christ, sa Passion, reproduite dans la Pucelle, telle fut la rédemption de la France!"-Hist. de France, liv. x. ch. i. See the same But all these portions, with author, ib. ch. iv.; and Martin, Hist. de Fr. liv. xxxv. and xxxvi. The mystery into which these writers would convert the story is easily solved by the ignorance and superstition of the age. It should be remembered that, in the words of Lord Mahon," the worst wrongs of Joan were dealt upon her by the hands of her own countrymen."-Hist. Essays, p. 47. INTROD.] THE BURGUNDIAN LANDS. 69 their augmentations, fell ultimately to Philip, called "the Good," son of John, whose accession has been already mentioned. Philip ruled from 1419 to 1467, and was consequently in possession of the Burgundian lands at the time when this history opens. Philip also obtained large additions to his dominions, chiefly by the deaths, without issue, of his relations; so that in 1440 he possessed, besides the lands already mentioned, Brabant, Limburg, Hainault, Holland, Zealand, Friesland, and Namur. To these in 1444 he added Luxemburg. Thus Philip was in fact at the head of a vast dominion, though nominally but a vassal of the Emperor and the French King. Philip also took advantage of his connection with the English, and of the crippled state of France which it produced, to augment still further his dominions at the French King's expense. The Regent Bedford had married Philip's sister, Anne of Burgundy; but her death without issue in November, 1432, severed all family ties between the two Princes; and soon afterwards Bedford incurred the displeasure of the Duke of Burgundy by his marriage with Jaquette of Luxemburg. Philip had now forgotten the resentment which had dictated the treaty of Troyes; he was desirous of putting an end to the war which had so long desolated France, but, at the same time, of deriving advantage from it; and he opened negotiations with the party of Charles VII. The terms stipulated by Philip in favour of his English allies became gradually weaker and weaker; at length he abandoned that connection altogether, and immediately after the death of Bedford, which removed all his scruples, he concluded with Charles VII. the treaty of Arras (September 21st, 1435), in which only his own interests were considered. By this treaty he obtained possession of the counties of Mâcon, Auxerre, and Ponthieu; of the lordships or baronies of Péronne, Roye, Montdidier, St. Quentin, Corbie, Amiens, Abbeville, Dourdon; and of the towns of Dourlens, St. Riquier, Crèvecœur, Arleux, and Mortagne, with a condition, however, that the towns of Picardy might be re-purchased by the French King for the sum of 400,000 crowns. Thus the territory of the Duke was extended to the neighbourhood of Paris, and he became one of the most powerful Princes of Europe. By the same treaty Charles VII. absolved the Duke for his lifetime only, with regard to such of his territories as were under the French King's suzerainty, of the vassalage which he owed to France; and Philip now styled himself "Duc par la grace de Dieu,"-a formula signifying that the person using it owned no 70 THE BURGUNDIAN COURT. [INTROD. feudal superior. In fact, Philip had for some time harboured the design of erecting his lands into an independent Kingdom, and of obtaining the vicarship of all the countries under suzerainty of the Emperor on the left bank of the Rhine; and he had, in 1442, paid Frederick III. a sum of money to renounce his suzerainty of the Duchies of Brabant and Limburg, the Counties of Holland, Zealand, and Hainault, and the Lordship of Friesland. Philip's Belgian provinces were at that time in a condition of great prosperity. Of this prosperity the woollen manufacture was the chief foundation, in commemoration of which had been. instituted the Order of the Toison d'Or, or Golden Fleece.1 Some of the Flemish cities, and especially Ghent and Bruges, were among the richest and most populous of Europe. They enjoyed a considerable share of independence; they claimed great municipal privileges; and they were frequently involved in disputes with Philip, whose exactions they resisted. The Duke's Court, one of the most magnificent in Europe, was distinguished by a pompous etiquette, and by a constant round of banquets, tournaments, and fêtes. The historians of the time particularly dwell on the splendour of the three months' fêtes by which Philip the Good's third marriage, in 1430, with Isabel of Portugal, was celebrated. On that occasion the streets of Bruges were spread with Flemish carpets; wine of the finest quality flowed eight days and nights-Rhenish from a stone lion, Beaune from a stag; while, during the banquets, jets of rosewater and malmsey spurted from a unicorn. The arms, the dresses, the furniture of that period could not be surpassed; the superbly wrought armour and iron work then manufactured have obtained for it the name of the Siècle de fer. The pictures and the rich Arras tapestry of the time may still convey to us an idea of its magnificence. Nor was the Court of Philip the Good distinguished by sumptuousness alone. He was also a patron of literature and art; many literary men, some of considerable repute, were attracted to his Court; and he formed a magnificent library, manuscripts from which still enrich the chief collections of Europe. A brilliant school of musicians, which lasted several generations, had its origin in his chapel. The painters of Bruges, whose pictures are still as fresh as on the 1 This order was instituted by Philip the Good on the occasion of his marriage with Isabel of Portugal in 1430. See Reiffenberg, Hist. de la Toison d'Or. INTROD.] DEATH OF BEDFORD. 71 day they were finished, became illustrious, and especially through John van Eyck, who had been the valet, and afterwards, like Rubens, the counsellor of his Sovereign. Italy in some respects had as yet produced nothing equal to the paintings of John van Eyck and his brother Hubert, which were sought with avidity by Italian Princes and amateurs. This, however, must be attributed to the merit of their technical execution, and more especially, perhaps, to their being painted in oil,-a method which originated with the Flemings, from whom it was borrowed by the Italians. For in inventive genius and the higher qualities of art the Florentine school under Giotto and his successors had already reached a height which had not been, and indeed never was, attained by the Flemings. The sister art of architecture also flourished; and it is to this period we are indebted for most of those splendid town halls with which Belgium is adorned, particularly those of Brussels and Louvain. All this refinement, however, was alloyed with a good deal of grossness and sensuality. Intemperance in the pleasures of the table, which still in some degree marks those countries, was carried to excess, and the relations with the female sex were characterized by an unbounded profligacy, of which the Sovereign himself set the example.1 The death of Bedford proved a fatal blow to English power in France. We shall not dwell on the contest which ensued between the Duke of Gloucester and Cardinal Beaufort for the disposal of the French Regency. Suffice it to say that Richard, Duke of York, the nominee of Gloucester, at length obtained it, but after a delay which occasioned the loss of Paris. The English dominion there had long been the subject of much discontent to the citizens, who, taking advantage of the neglect of the English Government during the abeyance of the Regency, opened their gates to the troops of Charles VII. The English garrison, which numbered only 1500 men, under Lord Willoughby, were compelled, after a short resistance, to capitulate, and were allowed to evacuate Paris unmolested, carrying away with them what property they could (April 17th, 1436). Philip the Good, besides three wives, had had twenty-four mistresses, by whom he left sixteen natural children; a moderate quantity, however, when compared with the illegitimate progeny of some of the grandees of the period. A Count of Cleves had sixty-three natural children; and John of Burgundy, Bishop of Cam See bray, was served at the altar by thirtysix illegitimate sons and grandsons. In fact, the name of "Bastard" became almost a title of honour in that age. Reiffenberg, Hist. de la Toison d'Or, Introd. p. xxiv.; Michelet, Hist. de France, t. vii. p. 24. 72 ENGLISH EXPELLED FROM FRANCE. [INTROD. The war, however, dragged on for several years after the surrender of Paris, but without vigour on either side. Henry VI.'s consort, Margaret of Anjou, and her favourite the Earl of Suffolk, and his party, who ruled in England, neglected to put the English possessions in France in a good posture of defence. Somerset and Talbot, who commanded in Normandy, receiving no succours either of men or money, and being pressed on one side by the Constable Richemont, on another by Charles VII. in person, and Count Dunois, were forced to evacuate Normandy in 1450. In the autumn of the same year, a division of the French army, which appeared in Guienne, made some conquests there; and in the spring of 1451 the whole French force, under Dunois, entered that duchy, and partly by arms, partly by negotiations with the inhabitants, effected its reduction. Guienne, indeed, again revolted in 1452; Bordeaux sent ambassadors to Talbot in London to invoke his aid; and that veteran commander, then upwards of eighty years of age, quickly recovered that valuable possession. But in July of the following year, Charles VII. entered Guienne with a large army; Talbot was slain before the town of Castillon, and his fate decided that of the duchy. Bordeaux, the last town which held out, submitted to Charles in October, 1453; and thus, with the exception of Calais, the English were expelled from all their possessions in France. The civil dissensions in England and the wars of the two Roses, which shortly afterwards broke out, prevented any attempt to recover them, and for a long period almost entirely annihilated the influence of England in continental affairs. Before Henry's conquests, it had been usual to consider Europe as divided into the four great nations of Italy, Germany, France, and Spain, and England as a lesser Kingdom, attached, nominally at least, to Germany. The case was formally argued at the Council of Constance, where the French deputies endeavoured to exclude the English from an independent vote; and the decision by which they were admitted as a fifth nation seems to have been considerably influenced by the success of Henry's arms.1 The wars with the English, and the civil distractions by which France had been so long harassed, had prevented her from assuming that place among European nations to which she was entitled by her position, her internal resources, and the genius of her people. It was many years before she recovered from the effects of these pernicious influences. She had suffered as much 1 See Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. lxx.'note 75. |