DUKE LOUIS OF BAVARIA IS DRIVEN OUT OF PARIS BY THE PARISIANS, AND HIS PEOPLE ROBBED.—OF THE CARDINAL DE CAMBRAY, AND THE PROHIBITION OF THE KING OF ENGLAND.
ABOUT this time, duke Louis of Bavaria, brother to the queen of France, and residing at Paris, was much suspected by the Parisians of having in secret spoken favourably to the king and queen of the dukes of Berry and Orleans; and fearing it might be prejudicial to them, knowing how much they were hated by these dukes, they assembled one day in great numbers, and sent to tell duke Louis, that they were much displeased with him, for that he was of the Orleans-party; and since he was so well inclined to them, he must go and join them.
Duke Louis sent for answer, that he was not of any party, but of that of the king. The matter, therefore, rested in this state for the present; but as he perceived they were dissatisfied with him, and apprehending some insult, he went away with very few attendants to the castle of Marcoussy. Before his departure, he had a waggon laden with his plate and other most valuable effects, which he sent off under the escort of three gentlemen of his household,—one of whom was a young nobleman of about fifteen years old, of high rank in Germany,—and some servants, to the town of Valenciennes, intending to follow them speedily.
They had not proceeded far on their journey when some of the burgundian party, incited by avarice and cruelty, namely, the bailiff de Foquesolle, his brother Jacotin, Jacques de Bracquencourt, and others of their companions, the greater part from Picardy, having learnt the value of this convoy, by the treachery of sir Morlet de Betencourt, followed and overtook it between the rivers Seine and Oise. They made a sudden attack, which was no way resisted, putting to death most of the attendants, and seizing the waggon, which they carried off, with the young esquire above mentioned, and lodged themselves at a nunnery called Premy, near to the city of Cambray.
When they had tarried there two or three days, they led the young man out of the nunnery by night, and most inhumanly murdered him, and threw him into a ditch full of water.—When he was dead, they drove a stake through his body, to fix it at the bottom of the ditch; and in this state was it found, some days after, by the servants and workmen of the nunnery.
He was carried thence and interred in the consecrated ground of the church, where, afterward, was performed a most solemn service for the salvation of his soul, at the expense of his friends, who made great clamours and lamentations when they heard of his fatal end.
The Burgundians, having well secured their prize, lodged it in the house of an inhabitant of their acquaintance in Cambray, and set off from the Cambresis to other parts where they had business. On duke Louis receiving information of this exploit, he was in the utmost rage and grief, especially for the death of the young esquire, as well as for the loss of his other servants, and his effects, and made heavy complaints of it to the king, the duke of Acquitaine, and particularly to the duke of Burgundy, whose vassals the perpetrators said they were. The duke of Burgundy promised him the restitution of his valuables, and the punishment of the offenders; but, a few days after, duke Louis set out from the castle of Marcoussy, and was, by orders of the duke of Burgundy, escorted by the vidame of Amiens, with a considerable force, as far as the town of Valenciennes, where he staid a long time. At the end of six weeks, he learnt that the greater part of his effects were deposited in the town of Cambray: he therefore wrote to the magistrates, and caused letters also to be sent to duke William of Hainault, to whom he was related: in short, he made so much stir that his effects were restored to him,—that is to say, all that had been deposited in Cambray.
The then bishop of Cambray was master Peter d'Ailly, an excellent doctor of divinity: he was created cardinal by pope John XXIII. and took the title of Cardinal of Cambray. John de Gaures, son to the lord de Liquerque, master of arts, who was at that time with the court of Rome, succeeded to this bishoprick.
At this period, Henry king of England caused it to be proclaimed by sound of trumpet in Calais, and in all the places bordering on France, that none of his subjects, of whatever rank, should any way interfere between the two factions in France, nor go into France to serve either of them by arms or otherwise, under pain of death and confiscation of fortune.