The Royal Succession by Maurice Druon Read Free Book Online Page A

like a log, in no state to speculate what might be the cause of all the panic.
    For the last hour Messire Varay, Consul of Lyons, an d three of his colleagues, who had come to ask for an explanation in the name of the City Council, had been kept waiting in the Count of Poitiers' antechamber.
    The Count was sitting in camera with the members of his entourage and the great officers who were part of his delegation.
    At last the hangings parted and the Count of Poitiers appeared, followed by his councillors. They all wore the grave expressions of men who had just reached an important political decision.
    'Ah, Messire Varay, you have come at the right moment, and you too, Messires Consuls,' said the Count of Poitiers. `We can give you at once the message we were about to send you. Messire Mille, will you be so good as to read it?'
    Mille de Noyers, a jurist, a Councillor of Parliament and Marshal of the East under Philip the Fair, unrolled the parchment and read as follows:
    `To all the bailiffs, seneschals, and councils of loyal towns. We would have you know the great sorrow that has befallen us by the death of our well-beloved brother, the King, our Lord Louis X, whom God has removed from the affection of his subjects. But human nature is such that no one may outlive the term assigned him. Thus we have decided to dry our tears, to pray with you to Christ for his soul, and to show ourselves assiduous for the government of the Kingdom of France and the Kingdom of Navarre that their rights may not perish, and that the subjects of these two kingdoms may, live happily beneath the buckler of justice and of peace.
    `The Regent of the two kingdoms, by the Grace of God.
    PHILIPPE'
    When they had recovered from their astonishment, Messire Varay immediately came forward and kissed the Count of Poiters' hand; then the other consuls unhesitatingly followed suit.
    The King was dead. The news was so surprising in itself that no one thought, for several minutes at least, of questioning it. In the absence of an heir who was of age, it seemed perfectly normal that the elder of the Sovereign's brothers should assume power. The consuls did not for a moment doubt that the decision had been taken in Paris by the Chamber of Peers.
    'Have this message cried in the town,' Philippe of Poitiers ordered; `which done, the gates will be immediately opened.'
    Then he added: 'Messire Varay, you hold a great position in the cloth trade; I should be glad if you would furnish me with twenty black cloaks which may be, placed in the antechamber to clothe those who come to condole with me.'
    He then dismissed the consuls.
    The two first acts of his seizure of power had been accomplished. He had been proclaimed Regent by his entourage, who became thereby his Council of Government. He would be recognized by the city of Lyons in which he was staying. He was now in a hurry to extend this recognition over the whole king dom and thus place the accomplished fact before Paris. It was a question of speed.
    Already the copyists were reproducing his proclamation in considerable quantities, and the couriers were saddling their horses to ride with it into every province.
    As soon as the gates of Lyons were opened, they hastily set out, passing three couriers who had been kept on the other side of the Saone since morning. The first of them carried a letter from the Count of Valois, announcing himself as the Regent appointed by the Council of the Crown, and asking Philippe to agree, so that the appointment might become effective. `I am sure that you will wish to help me in my task for the good of the kingdom, and will give me your agreement as soon as possible, like the good and well-beloved nephew you are.'
    The second message came from the Duke of Burgundy, who also claimed the Regency in the name of his niece, the little Jeanne of Navarre.
    Finally, the Count of Evreux informed Philippe of Poitiers that the peers had not sat in accordance with custom and precedent, and that