Paix-De-Arras Manus
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Armorial de la Paix d'Arras A roll of arms of the participants of the Peace Conference at Arras 1435 Introduction and edition by Steen Clemmensen from (a) London, British Library Add. 11542 fo.94r-106r (b) Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France Ms.fr. 8199 fo.12r-46v Heraldiske Studier 4 Societas Heraldica Scandinavica Copenhagen 2006 Armorial de la Paix d'Arras Edited by Steen Clemmensen Introduction 3 The conference of 1435 3 The two manuscripts 5 Construction of a combined manuscript 7 The participants and the armorial 8 The extraneous material 12 Postscript 13 The APA proper - combined manuscripts and partly read by 'long lines' 1. Mediators 14 2. French embassy 16 3. English embassy 19 4. Burgundians 22 Figure 60 Appendix A: Schematic representation of the 3 bifolios in the Burgundian segment 61 Appendix B: Concordance of APA/a:b, overlap, Burgundians, as per page 62 Appendix C: Concordance of APA/b:a, overlap, Burgundians, as per page 64 Appendix D: London, BL, Add.11452, APA/a, Burgundians, as in the manuscript 67 Appendix E: Paris, BnF, fr.8199, APA/b, Burgundians, as in the manuscript 73 Appendix F: Concordance of the English of ETO in BL Add.11452 and BA ms.4790 83 Notes 84 References 85 Index of names 92 Ordinary of arms 96 - 2 - Introduction The Armorial de la Paix d'Arras of the participants at the peace conference at Arras in 1435, alternatively named the Arras Roll of Arms or Armorial du héraut Saint-Remy and by various siglas, APA, AR or SR, is known in 2 versions. APA/a, London, British Library, Add. 11542, is contemporary with the event, while APA/b, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms. fr. 8199, is a 17th century copy by Philippe d'Aumale dit le marquis d'Haucourt. Both versions are mixed with extraneous material. The present edition will only consider the 4 parties to the conference, i.e. the Burgundians, who hosted the talks, their present allies, the English, their future allies, the French and the mediators. As with all occasional armorials, heraldry and history with its traditional sources step side by side. Both are needed for a full understanding and may enlighten each other. The extraneous material will be discussed in a separate chapter, but not reviewed in detail. The 'APA proper' is a construction of an 'occasional' armorial, as the primary copy, APA/a, only have 203 items, incl. 175 Burgundians, 12 Mediators and 16 French, with the notable absence of any English, and is numbered as in the actual sequence of the manuscript. The late copy, APA/b, has members of all four parties, and a considerably larger segment of Burgundians. This edition is based on APA/a with the supplementary material from APA/b inserted as explained below. The manuscripts are discussed in separate chapters. The items are presented with blazons in dictionary format as explained in the notes. The conference The Congress of Arras in 1435 might be called the first internationally mediated peace conference, and though it did not end the Hundred Years’ War between France and England, it brought an armistice and later formal reconciliation between France and Burgundy. And this really was the beginning of the end game, which in the course of 20 years left only Calais of the former large continental possessions of the English crown and made the fleurs-de-lis of the English royal arms an empty pretence. The conference had its background in the long period of military campaigns and armistices known as the Hundred Years’ War, which was a conglomerate of wars between France and England, civil wars in both England and France, and territorial strife among the principalities around the borders of current France. The overall conflict has been the theme of many books, so only a few pertinent features will be reviewed. The interested reader might find more on the politics, actions and personalities in e.g. Vaughan PB, Dickinson CA, Sumption HY, Schnerb B and the chronicles of Saint-Rémy and Monstrelet. By the end of the 14th century both England and France were war weary and, much simplified, the English claim to the French throne was the major obstacle to peace. Consequently, a 20 year armistice was negotiated and sealed with the marriage between Richard II of England and a French child princess. The English segment of the Toison d'or is one relict of this (Clemmensen RW, Clemmensen RH). At the time the French royal government was weak, the King, Charles VI, had frequent bouts of mental illness, and competition for power in the governing council was violent and personal. The two major parties were: On one side the House of the Valois dukes of Burgundy, - 3 - led by the King's uncle Philippe dit 'le hardi' or the Bold (d.1404) and his successors, Jean dit 'sans peur' or the Fearless (d.1419) and Philippe dit 'le bon' or the Good (d.1467). They were princes with the ambition of creating their own sovereign state and who also had a blood claim to be principal players for power in France. On the other side was the 'traditional' court party, variously known as the orleanist, armagnac, dauphinist or royal party according to its current leader. On the war side, campaigning recommenced with the invasion of Henry IV of England in 1415 and his decisive victory at Agincourt. A few years later the war was formally ended, but in fact continued despite the acknowledgement of Henry V as future King of France when Charles VI died and his marriage to a daughter of the French king. On the death of both in 1422, the infant Henry VI (1421-1471) was crowned King of England and France, but was opposed by the disinherited dauphin, later Charles VII. The English, lead by the Regent in France, John Duke of Bedford, uncle of Henry VI, and their Burgundian allies proceeded to consolidate their territorial gains and destroy their opponents. The table turned with the campaigns of Jeanne d'Arc in 1428-1430 and the reestablishment of dauphinist or, from the coronation of Charles VII in 1429, French royal control of much of Northern France, which brought the French and the Burgundians face to face. On the personal side, Jean 'sans peur' had the leader of the opposition, Louis duc d'Orleans, murdered in Paris in 1407. The power of government shifted between Jean 'sans peur' and the new leader, Bernard (VII) d'Armagnac, with many purges and massacres. Bernard himself was killed during one of these in 1418 and Charles, the youngest son of Charles VI and now dauphin, became leader of the orleanist-armagnac party. Weary, both sides accepted a reconciliation meeting between dauphin Charles and duc Jean. But as Jean 'sans peur' was murdered at the meeting on the bridge of Montereau in 1419, his son and heir, Philippe 'le bon', agreed to an alliance with the English, lasting until the Congress of Arras in 1435. Concurrently, the Turks increased the pressure on the western borders of Christendom, and pleas for assistance and resurrection of the Crusades movement increased (in vain). By 1430 there was also armed conflict in the Baltic area between the Teutonic Order and the Polish-Lithuanian princes and their German allies, as well as local wars on nearly all fringes of European principalities. On top of it all, the Pope, Eugenius IV, had to call a Council of the Church according to the Sacrosanta decree of 1417. The Council convened at Basle in 1431, and though the Pope tried in vain to dissolve it at the end of the year, it continued for almost 10 years discussing the precedence of the various delegates, hearing disputes and electing a counter-pope, Felix V (Amadeus, retired comte de Savoie). Among the Council's endeavours was the dispatch of an embassy of mediators led by two high-ranking dignitaries, the veteran Italian church diplomat, Niccolo Albergati cardinal de Ste.Croix representing the Pope, and the Archbishop of Nicosia or Chypres, Hugues de Lusignan, brother of the King of Chypres, representing the Council of Basle, with a competent multinational staff, including a Polish cleric and author, Stefan Lasocki, and Aneas Silvio di Piccolomini, later Pope Pius II (1458-1464). But as in modern diplomacy, it is not the dispatch of mediators by an international body that makes the conference succeed, but the secret negotiations before and during the conference - and there were many between the French and the Burgundians, seconded by the emissaries of the often pro- Burgundian pope. A few large bribes were also used, 10.000 gold saluts (approx. 35 kg gold, equal to 5.000 nobles or 10.000 florins) to each of the 5 principal Burgundian nobles, and half of that to the next 5. The layout of the conference also supported this not wholly impartial mediation. - 4 - The official Congress opened on July 15th, and the first meeting of the parties took place on August 10th. As neither party would meet his opponent in public, each meeting took place in the great Benedictine Abbey of St.Vaast in the suburbs, and here each delegate expressed his view to the mediators alone. The English were quartered within the walls of the cité, nicely segregated, while the Burgundians were at the Duke's Court in the suburbs of the ville, with the mediators in Abbaye de St.Vaast, a few paces away, and the French close by around the Market Place. The sessions continued during August, interspersed with a little entertainment in the form of jousts, until agreement was reached at a couple of secret meetings between the mediators, French and Burgundians on September 1st.