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

Charles of Valois' haste to seize the reins of government was supported by no legal document or assembly.
    The Count of Poitiers had immediately gone into Council again with his entourage. It was composed of men who were hostile to the policies pursued by the Hutin and the Count of Valois during the last eighteen months. In the first place, there was the Constable of Fr ance, Gaucher de Chatillon, Com mander of the Armies since 1302, who could not forgive the ridiculous campaign of the `Muddy Army' which he had been compelled to conduct in Flanders the preceding summer. Then there was his brother-in-law, Mille de Noyers, who shared his feelings. Then, the jurist Raoul de Presles who, after rendering so many services to the Iron King, had had his goods confiscated, while his friend Enguerrand de Marigny had been hanged and he himself had been put to the question by water though no confession had been extracted from him; as a result, he suffered from permanent stomach pains and bore the ex-Emperor of Constantinople a considerable grudge. He owed his safety and his return to favour to the Count of Poitiers.
    Thus a sort of opposition party, which included the survivors among the great councillors of Philip the Fair, had formed about the Count of Poitiers. No one looked kindly on the ambitions of the Count of Valois or indeed wanted the Duke of Burgundy to meddle in the affairs of the Crown. They admired the speed with which the young Prince had acted and they placed their hopes on him.
    Poitiers wrote to Eudes of Burgundy and to Charles of Valois, without mentioning their letters, indeed as if he had not received them, to inform them that he considered himself Regent by natural right, and that he would summon the Assembly of Peers to give him its sanction as soon as possible.
    In the meantime he appointed commissaries to go to the principal cities oPS the kingdom and assume authority in his name. Thus that day saw the departure of several of his knights - who were later to become his `Knights Pursuivant' 8 - such as Regnault de Lor. Thomas de Marfontaine and Guillaume Courteheuse. He kept with him Anseau de Joinville, the son of the great Joinville, and Henry de Sully.
    While the knell tolled from all the steeples, Philippe of Poitiers conferred for a long time with Gaucher de Chatillon. The Constable of France sat by right on every Government assembly, the Chamber of Peers, the Grand Council and the Small Council. Philippe, therefore, asked Gaucher to go to Paris to represent him and oppose Charles of Valois' usurpation until his own arrival; moreover, the Constable would make sure that all the troops in the capital, particularly the Corps of Crossbowmen, were under his control.
    For the new Regent, at first to the surprise, but then to the approbation, of his councillors, had determined to remain temporarily in Lyons.
    `We cannot leave the tasks we have in hand,' he had declared; `the most important thing for the kingdom is to have a pope, and we shall be all the stronger when we have made him.'
    He hurried on the signature of the contract of betrothal between his daughter and the Dauphiniet. At first sight this seemed to have no connexion with the pontifical election, yet in Philippe's mind they were linked. The alliance with the Dauphin of Viennois, who ruled over all the territories south of Lyons and controlled the road to Italy, was a move in his game. If the cardinals took it into their heads to slip through his fingers, they would not be able to take refuge in that direction. Furthermore, the betrothal consolidated his position as Regent; the Dauphin would be in his camp and would have sound reasons for not abandoning him.
    Because of mourning the contract was signed during the following days without festivities.
    At the same time Philippe of Poitiers negotiated with the most powerful baron of the region, the Count de Forez, who was also a brother-in-law of the Dauphin, and held the right bank of the Rhone.
    Jean de