Chapter II: Introduction (2)

Thus were destroyed the only deeds which could establish the right of the La Tremoilles to protest against the spoliation of which they were the victims. This was done in October, 1476; but it was not until many months later that the king determined to avail himself of the advantage he had thus iniquitously obtained. On the 21st of July, 1479, a decree was issued, terminating the suit in favour of the king and his servant Commines. This decree, however, as it often happens in such cases, satisfied none of the parties, and least of all, the Lord of Argenton. He certainly found himself maintained in the possession of Talmont, Chateau-Gaultier, and Berrye; but Olonne, Curzon, and La Chaume, which Louis d’Amboise had given to his daughter as her dowry, were adjudged to the La Tremoille family, as appertaining to their maternal inheritance. By this sentence of the parliament, therefore, Commines found all his plans frustrated. “That sort of maritime sovereignty,” says M. de Vaudoré, “which he was anxious to create for himself in Lower Poitou, and which he had delighted in representing to his master as likely to prove a second Flanders, as far as commerce and productiveness were concerned, was now greatly diminished. To lose Olonne and La Chaume was to be deprived of a port to which he expected to attract the ships of all countries, and whither, in fact, they afterwards came by hundreds: to give up Bran and Brandois was to renounce the drainage of fertile marshes: to restore Curzon was to resign a position which combined both these advantages.” And yet, how was he to avoid compliance with the orders of justice? His genius, ever fertile in expedients, suggested to him the means of doing so. At his instigation, Louis XI. offered to Louis de la Tremoille certain other lands and lordships in exchange for those of which the parliament had acknowledged his children to be proprietors. This offer was indignantly rejected as an insult to misfortune; for of the estates thus offered, two only did not proceed from the spoils of the house of Amboise. But Commines was not discouraged by this refusal. What the father had rejected might probably, he thought, be accepted by the children. These young persons, though still minors, were drawing near the age when the young nobility usually aspired to rank among men of war; and their forced idleness was irksome to them. Louis XI. would not admit them into his service, notwithstanding the urgent solicitations of their brother-in-law, the Bastard of Maine; but it was intimated to them that they might overcome the monarch’s resistance, and even obtain his favour, by condescension to his wishes. This implied acquiescence in all the past, as they well understood; but they resigned themselves to their fate, in appearance at least. At the same time that they consented to the transfer, they executed, in the presence of a notary, a deed claiming the rights which they were about to renounce, in which they stated that, being compelled to yield to the moral violence exercised over them, they protested beforehand against anything they might be forced to do. A few days after the estates had thus passed once more into the hands of the king, he renewed his gift of them to Commines, by letters patent, which, thanks to the show of legality by which the agreement between the two parties was surrounded, were registered without obstacle by both the parliament and the Cour des Comptes.

Commines’ high favour had now reached its climax; it seemed impossible for it to increase. A terrible accident however, which threatened to deprive him of his royal protector, served to make it still more evident. In the month of March, 1481, Louis XI. was attacked by a fit of apoplexy, which temporarily deprived him of speech, memory, and sense. As soon as he came to himself, he sent for his confessor and for Commines, who was at the time at Argenton. Commines hastened to rejoin the king, and by his order (expressed by signs, for he had not yet sufficiently recovered his speech), he slept in his room, and served him at table and in other respects, for fifteen days, as a valet de chambre. After two or three days, Louis XI. recovered sense and speech, but not so perfectly as to render Commines’ constant attentions unnecessary: for he alone was able accurately to understand him. He was even obliged to act as his interpreter to the official of Tours, and to acquaint him with the state of mind of his royal penitent, “for otherwise they would not have understood each other.” Public affairs remained for a time in suspense, although Commines read most of the despatches which arrived to the king, who either by word or sign indicated the answer he wished to have made; but no one was willing to execute these doubtful orders. “We did little business,” says Commines, “awaiting the termination of his illness; for he was not a master to be trifled with.”

Towards the middle of the year, the king became sufficiently convalescent to be able to inspect the troops which had been collected by his orders near Pont-de-l’Arche. Thence he proceeded to Tours, where he had a relapse; “again he lost his speech, and for two hours we thought he was dead; he lay in a gallery, on a mattrass.” The servants who attended him, Du Bouchage, Commines and others, vowed him to St. Claude; “immediately his speech returned to him, and within the hour he went about the house again.” He soon resumed his old habits, and made an excursion to one of the estates he had given to Commines. He remained for a month at the Chateau of Argenton; a longer time, probably, than he had intended, but he was detained by illness. Such royal visits are usually an expensive honour to those who receive them; but the chamberlain of Louis XI. did not suffer by his hospitality, for his master contributed handsomely to the embellishment of his residence. From Argenton the king went to Thouars, where he made some stay, on account of ill-health; and on leaving that town, he repaired to St. Claude, doubtless to perform the vow made by his faithful servants. Before he left Thouars, he confided to the Lord of Argenton a difficult and delicate mission, of which Commines gives us only a confused idea; we will, therefore, briefly state its object.

Yolande of France, Duchess of Savoy, had died on the 29th of August, 1478, leaving as her successor a son under thirteen years of age. The appointment of a regent devolved on Louis XI., the uncle of the young duke, who conferred that office on the Count de la Chambre, who, he believed, would prove a pliant instrument in his hands. In this expectation he was deceived, and the object of Commines’ mission was to assist the Count of Bresse, one of the paternal uncles of the Duke of Savoy, in deposing the obnoxious regent, and taking possession of the government.

In the meanwhile, Louis XI. daily grew more infirm; his moral energy alone sustained him, and, as in past times, he continued to travel about the country. Commines, on his return from his embassy, joined him at Beaujeu: and he was struck by the ravages which disease had wrought in the person of the prince, whose last hour, he felt, was at hand. We shall not attempt to describe the final scene; in his Memoirs, Commines has given a wonderful picture of the dying agonies of his sovereign. Louis XI. breathed his last on the 30th of August, 1483, and from that moment, a new era began in the life of Commines, as fatal to his honour and fortune, as the preceding period had been propitious to his ambition and interests.

No sooner had the deceased monarch been laid in his grave than, in virtue of letters patent granted by the new king, at the solicitation of the La Tremoille family, Jean Douhalle, lieutenant-general of the Governor of Touraine, proceeded to make inquiries to substantiate the fact that, in his last moments, Louis XI., stung by remorse, had declared to the Bailiff of Meaux that he had wrongfully and illegally seized on the inheritance of La Tremoille, and had enjoined the bailiff to request the dauphin to restore Talmont to its legitimate owners, and to compensate Commines for its loss by the gift of a pension of 2000 livres. Ten witnesses deposed unanimously to the truth of this statement: and in consequence, on the 29th of September, 1483, Charles VIII. directed his chancellor to reinstate the family of La Tremoille in the possession of the property of which they had been so unjustly deprived.

Commines resisted this order on the ground that there were no title-deeds to justify the restitution of the estates. But though these documents had been destroyed, they had once existed; and numerous witnesses were ready to reveal the manner in which they had been made away with. Inquiries were instituted as to the result of the examination of the papers in the Chateau de Thouars, and Commines himself was interrogated. At first he could remember nothing, but on being compelled to speak, he strove hard to make no confession which his enemies might afterwards turn against him: but though his answers were carefully weighed, and coupled with endless restrictions and explanations, he was unable to invalidate the testimony of the other witnesses. Fully conscious of the weakness of his cause, his only object was to gain time, and to this end, he put in requisition all the thousand subtleties of legal chicanery. At length, on the 9th of March, 1486, the parliament pronounced sentence against him. Commines appealed, but in vain; and he was finally condemned to restore to the La Tremoille family the estates of which they had been unjustly deprived, to disgorge the revenues he had derived from them during his unlawful possession, and to pay the expenses of the suit, amounting altogether to 7811 livres 4 sous parisis. Thus, after having lasted nineteen years, this affair was terminated, and Commines was enabled to satisfy the demands of his opponents by means of an indemnity of 30,000 livres granted him by Charles VIII.

We must now take up our history at the death of Louis XI. One of the first acts of Madame de Beaujeu, the eldest sister of Charles VIII., was to confirm in their governments, positions and offices, all those who had held them at the accession of the new king. This was a wise measure, and Louis XI. had more than once repented that he had acted otherwise towards the servants of his father. Commines was maintained on the list of royal councillors, and continued in the office of Seneschal of Poitou. Shortly afterwards, he was sent on an embassy to the Duke of Bretagne, with the Lords of Châtillon and Richebourg. Finally, he had the honour to be one of the fifteen notable persons whom the princess suggested to the States-general for admission into the council of the young king. In that council, at which the most important affairs of the realm were decided, Commines one day had to defend the rights of Charles VIII. over the county of Provence against the pretensions of a prince, Duke René II. of Lorraine, whom all the courtiers treated with the greatest consideration. He maintained the interests of the crown with so much heat that the duke, in anger, addressed him “in rough and foolish words;” and even succeeded in obtaining his banishment from court. The disgraced courtier easily found a refuge with one of those princes who, dissatisfied with the narrow share allotted to their ambition by the States-general of the kingdom, held themselves aloof from Madame de Beaujeu, and openly fomented rebellion against her administration. It was to Moulins, where the Duke of Bourbon then resided, that the Lord of Argenton betook himself. He met with a gracious reception, and his counsels were listened to with favour: but the duke was a man of notoriously feeble character, and Commines had to employ all his ingenuity to keep him faithful to the opposition party. In this he so far succeeded as to induce the duke to go to the king for the purpose of complaining of the evil administration of his government; but one of the consequences of this interview between Charles VIII. and his uncle was, that Commines was dismissed from the Duke of Bourbon’s service. Upon this, he transferred his allegiance to the Duke of Orleans, whose intrigues were secretly favoured by the king himself, who, as he grew in years, became impatient of the wise, but imperious control of Madame de Beaujeu. In concert with some other nobles, Commines made an attempt to carry off the young king, and place him under the care of the Duke of Orleans; but although Charles was a party to their design, they failed, and he punished them for their failure. Commines was arrested at Amboise, and conducted to Loches, where he was confined for eight months in an iron cage, which had been constructed by order of Louis XI. By decree of the Parliament of Paris, his property was confiscated, and on the 17th of July, 1487, he was brought to Paris, and imprisoned in the Conciergerie. There he remained for twenty months, until, on the 24th of March, 1489, he was condemned to be banished for ten years to one of his estates, and to give bail to the amount of 10,000 golden crowns for his good behaviour.

Long before the expiration of this sentence, in December, 1492, Commines had been recalled to his seat in the council of Charles VIII. He now gave most evident proof of his sagacity and devotedness by joining, with other enlightened servants of the crown, in a vain attempt to dissuade the young monarch from engaging in an expedition into Italy. Interested advice, however, prevailed over their wise counsels, and the conquest of Naples was undertaken without funds, and almost without an army. Notwithstanding his opposition to the projected expedition, Commines was one of the first on horseback. He attended his master as far as Asti, whence he was despatched on a mission to Venice, for the purpose of aiding by diplomacy the progress of the king’s arms. He remained in Venice for eight months, using every effort to prevent the formation of a league of the States of Italy against Charles VIII. In this he might have succeeded, had not the affairs of France and the position of the invading army been so unfavourable as to frustrate all his efforts. The league was formed, and when Commines received orders to rejoin the king at Sienna, the French army was in retreat. He at once advised the king to hasten his return to France; but his prudent counsel, far from being favourably received, was greeted with incredulous laughter and boastful jeers. Much precious time was wasted in frivolous amusements; and when at length, Charles VIII. began his homeward march, he foolishly left garrisons in many of the towns through which he passed, thus seriously diminishing his own army without opposing any effectual barrier to the progress of his enemies.

The presentiments of Commines were soon realised. On the 5th of July, 1495, the French king, on arriving at the village of Fornova, found 40,000 Italians drawn up in an excellent position, to bar his further advance. The chances of success were not on the side of the French, and at the suggestion of Commines, it was resolved to parley with the enemy. The negotiation was entrusted to our historian, but before it could be commenced, the two armies came to blows. Victory at first seemed to incline to the Italians, but French impetuosity and discipline eventually carried the day. Notwithstanding this unexpected victory, however, Commines received orders to continue his negotiations; and mainly by his exertions, the treaty of Verceil was signed, which restored the Duke of Orleans to liberty, by raising the siege of Novara, and enabled Charles VIII. and his army to return into France with all the honours of war.

Commines was next sent to Venice to obtain the ratification of this treaty by the senate of that powerful republic. But after a fortnight’s deliberation, the signiory refused to accede to the treaty, and offered, in its stead, propositions which Commines undertook to submit to the king. From Venice, he proceeded to Milan, to require the duke to execute certain clauses in the treaty which he had signed. But that prince evaded giving a categorical answer, and forced the envoy to take his leave before he had obtained anything more than a false promise that the duke would speedily fulfil all his engagements.

This was the end of Commines’ active career. On his return to France, he continued his attendance on Charles VIII., but took no part in the management of affairs beyond speaking and voting in the council. During a temporary visit to his Chateau of Argenton, he received the news of the king’s unhappy death. He hastened with all speed to Amboise, and passed five or six hours in prayer by the body of his deceased sovereign. On the following day, he went to pay his homage to the new king, from whom he anticipated a favourable reception. But on ascending the throne, the Duke of Orleans had forgotten past services as well as past injuries; and Commines merely remained a member of the grand council, as during the previous reign. He soon ceased even to attend the meetings of this body, for his name appears on its registers for the last time on the 26th of July, 1498. After this date he seems to have retired into private life, and although he made a great effort in 1505 to obtain public employment, through the influence of the queen, he was obliged to remain, for the rest of his days, a mere spectator of the scenes and conflicts of political life.

His activity meanwhile displayed itself in the conduct of his private affairs. On the 13th of August, 1504, his daughter Jeanne de Commines was contracted in marriage to René de Brosse, Count of Penthièvre, and heir to the duchy of Bretagne; by which union the blood of Commines has passed into the veins of more than one sovereign of the royal lines of France, Spain, Portugal, and Savoy.

The last years of Commines were occupied and embittered by vexatious lawsuits relating to the property of his wife, and to other matters, into which it would be tedious to enter. He died at his Chateau of Argenton on the 18th of October, 1511, at the age of about 64 years. In other times, his death would have constituted almost a political event; but times had changed. It was, however, sufficiently noticed to induce one writer, whose name is unknown to us, to compose a sort of poem, deploring his decease.

The mortal remains of Commines were conveyed to Paris, and interred in the chapel which he had built in the Convent des Grands Augustins. Those of the Countess de Penthièvre were soon laid by his side; and ere long Helène de Chambes joined her husband and daughter in their last resting-place. A splendid monument was erected by René de Bretagne to the memory of his wife’s parents. The chapel has long since been destroyed, but the statues of its founder and his wife, which formed part of their monument, are still preserved in the Gallery of the Louvre.

To conclude this sketch in the words of his old biographer, Sleidan: “Commines was tall, fair, well shaped, and of a comely personage. He spoke Italian, Dutch, and Spanish incomparably well; but his excellence consisted chiefly in the French, and he had read all the histories that were extant in that language, especially that of the Romans. As he grew in years, he extremely lamented his deficiency in the Latin tongue, and complained of the little care that had been taken of his education in that respect. He had a prodigious memory, and such a wonderful facility in expressing his thoughts, that he would at the same time dictate to four secretaries different things, all of them of great importance, and with the same ease and dexterity as if there had been but one. His conversation was chiefly among foreigners, as he was desirous to inform himself of all things and places, and very careful of employing his time well; so that he was never known to be idle.”

CONTENTS.

Page

Introduction v.

Life of Commines xi.

Table of Contents xxxviii.

Dedication xlv.