Medieval Sourcebook:
Philippe de Commynes: Portrait Of Louis XI (c. 1498)
Louis XI (reigned 1461-1483) was a successful promoter of the
French monarchy. One of his officials -Philippe de Commynes (c.
1447-1511 ) wrote memoirs which are amount to a lively and valuable
account of late fifteenth century France. Commynes had been raised
at the court of Burgundy and served Charles the Bold, Louis' great
enemy, until ithe found it useful to change sides. Commynes had
a gift for detailed political and personal analysis. Here is his
account o Louis XI, portrayed as a tyrannical, but in some respects,
brilliant King.
The King bad ordered several cruel prisons to be made; some were
cages of iron, and some of wood, but all were covered with iron
plates both within and without, with terrible locks, about eight
feet wide and seven high; the first contriver of them was the
Bishop of Verdun, who was immediately put in the first of them
that was made, where he continued fourteen years. Many bitter
curses he has had since for his invention, and some from me as
I lay in one of them eight months together in the minority of
our present King. He also ordered heavy and terrible fetters
to be made in Germany, and particularly a certain ring for the
feet, which was extremely hard to be opened, and fitted like an
iron collar, with a thick weighty chain, and a great globe of
iron at the end of it, most unreasonably heavy, which engines
were called the King's Nets. However, I have seen many eminent
and deserving persons in these prisons, with these nets about
their legs, who afterwards came forth with great joy and honour,
and received great rewards from the King. Among the rest, a son
of the Lord de la Crutuse, in Flanders (who was taken in battle),
whom the king married very honourably afterwards, made him his
chamberlain, and seneschal of Anjou, and gave him the command
of a hundred lances. The Lord de Piennes, and the Lord de Vergy,
both prisoners of war, also bad commands given them in his army,
were made his or his son's chamberlains and bad great estates
bestowed on them. Monsieur de Richebourg, the constable's brother,
bad the same good fortune, as did also one Roquebertin, a Catalonian,
likewise prisoner of war; besides others of various countries,
too numerous to be mentioned in this place.
This by way of digression. But to return to my principal design.
As in his time this barbarous variety of prisons was invented,
so before be died he himself was in greater torment, and more
terrible apprehension than those whom he had imprisoned; which
I look upon as a great mercy towards him, and as part of his purgatory;
and I have mentioned it here to show that there is no person,
of what station or dignity soever, but suffers some time or other,
either publicly or privately, especially if he has caused other
people to suffer. The king, towards the latter end of his days,
caused his castle of Plessis-les-Tours to be encompassed with
great bars of iron in the form of thick grating, and at the four
corners of the house four sparrow-nests of iron, strong, massy,
and thick, were built. The grates were without the wall on the
other side of the ditch, and sank to the bottom. Several spikes
of iron were fastened into the wall, set as thick by one another
as was possible, and each furnished with three or four points.
He likewise placed ten bow-men in the ditches, to shoot at any
man that durst approach the castle before the opening of the gates;
and he ordered they should lie in the ditches, but retire to the
sparrow-nests upon occasion. He was sensible enough that this
fortification was too weak to keep out an army, or any great body
of men, but he had no fear of such an attack; his great apprehension
was, that some of the nobility of his kingdom, having intelligence
within, might attempt to make themselves masters of the castle
by night, and having possessed themselves partly of it by favour,
and partly by force, might deprive him of the regal authority,
and take upon themselves the administration of public affairs;
upon pretence he was incapable of business, and no longer fit
to govern.
The gate of the Plessis was never opened, nor the drawbridge let
down, before eight o'clock in the morning, at which time the officers
were let in; and the captains ordered their guards to their several
posts, with pickets of archers in the middle of the court, as
in a town upon the frontiers that is closely guarded: nor was
any person admitted to enter except by the wicket and with the
king's knowledge, unless it were the steward of his household,
and such persons as were not admitted into the royal presence.
Is it possible then to keep a prince (with any regard to his quality)
in a closer prison than he kept himself? The cages which were
made for other people were about eight feet square; and be (though
so great a monarch) bad but a small court of the castle to walk
in, and seldom made use of that, but generally kept himself in
the gallery, out of which he went into the chambers on his way
to mass, but never passed through the court. Who can deny that
he was a sufferer as well as his neighbours, considering bow be
was locked up and guarded, afraid of his own children and relations,
and changing every day those very servants whom he had brought
up and advanced; and though they owed all their preferment to
him, yet he durst not trust any of them, but shut himself up in
those strange chains and enclosures. If the place where he confined
himself was larger than a common prison, he also was much greater
than common prisoners.
It may be urged that other princes have been more given to suspicion
than he, but it was not in our time; and, perhaps, their wisdom
was not so eminent, nor were their subjects so good. They might
too, probably, have been tyrants, and bloody-minded; but our king
never did any person a mischief who had not offended him first,
though I do not say all who offended him deserved death. I have
not recorded these things merely to represent our master as a
suspicious and mistrustful prince; but to show, that by the patience
which be expressed in his sufferings (like those which he inflicted
on other people), they may be looked upon, in my judgment, as
a punishment which our Lord inflicted upon him in this world,
in order to deal more mercifully with him in the next, as well
in regard to those things before-mentioned, as to the distempers
of his body, which were great and painful, and much dreaded by
him before they came upon him; and, likewise, that those princes
who may be his successors, may learn by his example to be more
tender and indulgent to their subjects, and less severe in their
punishments than our master bad been: although I will not censure
him, or say I ever saw a better prince; for though he oppressed
his subjects himself, he would never see them injured by anybody
else.
After so many fears, sorrows, and suspicions, God, by a kind of
miracle, restored him both in body and mind, as is His divine
method in such kind of wonders; for He took him out of this miserable
world in perfect health of mind, and understanding, and memory;
after having received the sacraments himself, discoursing without
the least twinge or expression of pain, and repeating his paternosters
to the very last moment of his life. He gave directions for his
own burial, appointed who should attend his corpse to the grave,
and declared that he desired to die on a Saturday of all days
in the week; and that he hoped Our Lady would procure him that
favour, for in her he had always placed great trust, and served
her very devoutly. And so it happened; for he died on Saturday,
the 3otb of August, 1483, at about eight in the evening, in the
Castle of Plessis, where his illness seized him on the Monday
before. May Our Lord receive his soul, and admit it unto His
kingdom of Paradise!
Small hopes and comfort ought poor and inferior people to have
in this world, considering what so great a king suffered and underwent,
and how he was at last forced to leave all, and could not, with
all his care and diligence, protract his life one single hour.
I knew him, and was entertained in his service in the flower
of his age, and at the height of his prosperity, yet I never saw
him free from labour and care. Of all diversions be loved hunting
and hawking in their seasons; but his chief delight was in dogs.
As for ladies, he never meddled with any in my time; for about
the time of my coming to his court he lost a son, at whose death
be was extremely afflicted, and he made a vow to God in my presence
never to have intercourse with any other woman but the queen;
and though this was no more than what be was bound to do by the
canons of the church, vet it was much that his self-command should
be so great, that he should be able to persevere in his resolution
so firmly, considering that the queen (though an excellent princess
in other respects) was not a person in whom a man could take any
great delight.
In hunting, his eagerness and pain were equal to his pleasure,
for his chase was the stag, which he always ran down. He rose
very early in the morning, rode sometimes a great distance, and
would not leave his sport, let the weather be never so bad; and
when he came home at night he was often very weary, and generally
in a violent passion with some of his courtiers or huntsmen; for
hunting is a sport not always to be managed according to the master's
direction; yet, in the opinion of most people, he understood it
as well as any prince of his time. He was continually at these
sports, lodging in the country villages to which his recreations
led him, till he A,as interrupted by business; for during the
most part of the summer there was constantly war between him and
Charles Duke of Burgundv, and in the winter they made truces.
He was also involved in some trouble about the county of Roussillon,
with John, King of Aragon, father of Peter of Castile, who at
present is King of Spain; for though both of them were poor, and
already at variance with their subjects in Barcelona and elsewhere,
and though the son had nothing but the expectation of succeeding
to the throne of Don Henry of Castile, his wife's brother (which
fell to him afterwards), yet they made considerable resistance;
for that province being entirely devoted to their interest, and
they being universally beloved by the people, they gave our king
abundance of trouble, and the war lasted till his death, and many
brave men lost their lives in it, and his treasury was exhausted
by it; so that he bad but a little time during the whole year
to spend in pleasure, and even then the fatigues he underwent
were excessive. When his body was at rest his mind was at work,
for he had affairs in several places at once, and would concern
himself as much in those of his neighbours as in his own, putting
officers of his own over all the great families, and endeavouring
to divide their authority as much as possible. When he was at
war he laboured for a peace or a truce, and when be had obtained
it, he was impatient for war again. He troubled himself with
many trifles in his government, which be bad better have let alone:
but it was his temper, and he could not help it; besides, he had
a prodigious memory, and be forgot nothing, but knew everybody,
as well in other countries as in his own.
From The Memoirs of Philip de Commines, trans. and annotated
by A. R. Scoble (London: G. Bell & Sons Ltd., 1884), II, 75-81
This text is part of the Internet Medieval Source Book. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts related to medieval and Byzantine history.
Unless otherwise indicated the specific electronic form of the document is copyright. Permission is granted for electronic copying, distribution in print form for educational purposes and personal use. If you do reduplicate the document, indicate the source. No permission is granted for commercial use.
(c)Paul Halsall Mar 1996
halsall@murray.fordham.edu
The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is located at the History Department of Fordham University, New York. The Internet
Medieval Sourcebook, and other medieval components of the project, are located at
the Fordham University Center
for Medieval Studies.The IHSP recognizes the contribution of Fordham University, the
Fordham University History Department, and the Fordham Center for Medieval Studies in
providing web space and server support for the project. The IHSP is a project independent of Fordham University. Although the IHSP seeks to follow all applicable copyright law, Fordham University is not
the institutional owner, and is not liable as the result of any legal action.
© Site Concept and Design: Paul Halsall created 26 Jan 1996: latest revision 15 November 2024 [CV]
|
