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too negligent in executing justice. I could not have come, as you know, without great expense; yet out of my liberality, I restore you your land quiet and pacified, and I forgive you the expense. But another time take care. Let me not be obliged to return by your over-clemency, for if I do, it shall be for my own profit."

Thus exhorted, adds the chronicler, Count Louis so exerted himself that, within three months, he had put 10,000 persons to various kinds of death. In this manner was signalised the triumph of the French noblesse over the citizens of West Flanders.

Edward the Third cannot be considered to have undertaken the government of England until the death of Mortimer and the imprisonment of the Queen Mother in October, 1330. In the first years after Philip's accession, Isabella seemed inclined to dispute his title, and steps were taken to conclude alliances against France. But the success of Philip in the Flemish war, and the hostile attitude of the English barons, as well as the discontent of the English people with the concessions made to Scotland, precluded the idea of prosecuting the quarrel with France. Edward, therefore, at his mother's bidding, proceeded to Amiens in the spring of 1329, and did homage to Philip, maintaining his rights to those portions of his possessions in the south of France which the French king still retained. But this act of submission led to disputes, one monarch pretending that it was homage simple, the other that it was homage liege. Philip thought the opportunity favourable for invading Guienne, the power of Isabella and Mortimer being paralysed by their many enemies. The king levied an aide upon his barons for the expedition. So far had these hostile intentions proceeded, that the Count of Alençon, Philip's brother, attacked the English in Xaintonge, and took and burned the castle of Saintes. On the death of Mortimer, however,

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and the assumption of full power by Edward, Philip CHAP. returned to more amicable sentiments, and promised to make amends for the affair of Saintes, as well as for other griefs. The monarchs seemed on most friendly terms; they spoke of proceeding to the Holy Land together, and of contracting a marriage between their children.

The subsequent coolness and enmity between them is universally, and apparently with justice, attributed to the malice of Robert of Artois, who fled to England from France, and became the inseparable companion and counsellor of Edward. Robert had undoubtedly been wronged in the judgment which took Artois from him, the direct heir, and gave it to a female and a collateral, merely because she was more closely allied to the reigning King of France. When Robert asserted his rights in arms, Philip the Long was unable to reduce him; and if Robert submitted, and even constituted himself a prisoner, it was on the understanding that the unjust sentence against him should be revoked, and the county restored to him. On this understanding, Robert married the daughter of Charles of Valois. Neverthe

less Philip the Long and Charles the Fair evaded the demands and expectations of Robert, who reckoned on having his rights at last from his brother-in-law, Philip of Valois. Robert accordingly served the crown with zeal, and was one of the principal supporters of this prince's claims to the throne. "Thus, on Philip's accession, Robert became every thing in France," says Froissart. There having been two sentences of the Court of Parliaments against Robert's claim, it was difficult to rescind them, at least without some new plea, some yet unproduced documents, in his favour. Such, probably, was the remark with which Philip and his law officers met the demands of Robert.

If a document existed likely to prove favourable for his claim, it must have fallen into the hands of those

CHAP. who had robbed him of the county.

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The Countess Mahaut, to whom Philip the Fair had adjudged Artois, died soon after the accession of Philip of Valois. Her chief counsellor and confidant had been the Bishop of Arras. He also dying, left voluminous papers, some of which had been secreted and carried off from Arras by a woman named Divion, mistress of the prelate. The Countess lived long enough to endeavour, by law or vengeance, to get back the papers from Divion. Aware of these circumstances, Jeanne, the Countess of Artois, set to work and procured from this woman, or caused to be forged by her, certain documents. One was a letter from the Bishop of Arras to Robert d'Artois, craving pardon for having purloined the documents. Another was a charter of Robert Count d'Artois, the grandfather, settling Artois upon his son, the father of Robert. M. Michelet, long attached to the office of the archives of France, and skilled in all concerning them, declares the documents, which still exist, to be forgeries. Robert d'Artois boldly produced them, claimed by virtue of them to be restored to the possession of his county: and, as a proof of what value was men's testimony in those days, he brought upwards of fifty witnesses in support of his false documents. Had the king been prosecutor, these, no doubt, would have been found authentic enough for the parliament. But Robert d'Artois was no friend of the legists, and parliament remained firm to its first decision. The king's procureur objected to the documents, and Robert, summoned to say whether he would stand by them, hesitated. The woman, Divion, was seized, put to the torture, and acknowledged her forgery. The parliament ordered her to be burned. Robert

d'Artois being proved so far culpable as to have plotted with her, was accused, moreover, of aiding her to poison the Countess Mahaut of Artois. Robert fled to Brabant. The king caused him to be condemned for forgery, and deprived of his estates and honours. His wife, his sons,

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and relatives were imprisoned, and, the legists accusing CHAP. him of attempting to murder and to kill the king by sorcery, drove Robert altogether from the continent, and compelled him to take refuge in England.

The fugitive was well received by Edward, appointed of his council, and endowed with ample domains. He accompanied the king in his expedition to Scotland, and was one of those, says Froissart, who induced Edward to give good terms to the Scotch garrison of Berwick, Robert being desirous that "the English would leave Scotland, and undertake a war with France." Edward at first would not listen to such suggestions. He even bore with patience the interference of the French king in favour of the Scotch, and was continually issuing safe conducts for French negotiators to communicate with Scotland.

Neither did Philip himself meditate a war with England. In 1332 he assumed the cross, and counted upon having Edward as a fellow crusader. On the occasion of the marriage of his eldest son, John, with the daughter of John of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia, he induced those present to assume the cross with him. These were the King of Bohemia, the King of Navarre, the Dukes of Burgundy, of Brittany, of Brabant, and of Bourbon, with a multitude of nobles of scarcely less rank. It was the desire of Philip to gratify the noble class, which, for the first time, thronged exclusively the court of a king of France.

The names of legists or financiers do not appear. Henceforth the councillors of parliament laboured in their vocation without any of their body being prominent. The nobles secured themselves, as each could, against the encroachments of these their natural foes. The Duke of Brittany obtained that his subjects should not be compelled to answer any appeals. When a war subsidy was ordained, the barons, who had haute justice, were empowered to levy it on their own domains.

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CHAP. royal decree of 1330, lopped off one-fourth of all debts to Lombards, which must have been a considerable relief to the borrowing nobles, and, on a difference arising as to the nature or amount of the debt, the debtor of good reputation was to be believed upon his oath. The right of private war was at the same time allowed to the Aquitains.

Very different was Philip's treatment of his townsfolk. He at first, indeed, promised not to adulterate the coin, but bring it back to the same fineness and value as in the reign of St. Louis. But even this was converted into a peculation and abuse, and either caused much wrong or was abandoned as impracticable. Municipalties he suppressed whenever an opportunity occurred; and he destroyed the beffroi and took down the bells of Laon, just as he had treated the towns of Flanders. An ordinance of Philip respecting Toulouse, shows that Philip the Fair had neutralized municipal liberty by keeping the election of the capitouls in the hands of his officers. Though Philip relaxed the rigour of this rule, he not the less maintained the principle.

A more difficult task was to remedy those grievances which the nobles and the legists complained of on the part of the clergy, without, at the same time, offending the Church on the eve of a crusade. Since the death of Philip the Fair and the resuscitation of the power of the seignorial courts, the clergy had renewed their exertions to bring the greater number of causes within the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical tribunals. Not only were all cases of testament and usury to be tried by the clergy, but all claims of debt in which there was a breach of promise or faith. Any wrong, in fact, that could be styled a sin, was evoked by the clergy, who, at the same time, were powerless to enforce their sentence except by excommunication. The abuse of this had been monstrous persons were excommunicated and deprived of the consolations of religion, because they had not paid,

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