t 71-17,048 PISTONO, Stephen Paul, 1935- THE REPUDIATION OF THE TWENTY-EIGHT-YEAR TRUCE: A STUDY OF ANGLO-FRENCH DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS, 1399-1404. [Portions of Text in French and Latin]. The University of Oklahoma, Ph.D., 1971 History, general University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan 0 1971 STEPHEN PAUL PISTONO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED THE UNIVERSITY OP OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE THE REPUDIATION OF THE TWENTY-EIGHT-YEAR TRUCE: A STUDY OF ANGLO-FRENCH DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS 1399-1404 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY STEPHEN PAUL PISTONO Norman, Oklahoma 1970 THE REPUDIATION OF THE TWENTY-EIGHT-YEAR TRUCE: A STUDY OF ANGLO-FRENCH DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS 1399-1404 APPROVED BY DISSERTATION COMMITTEE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many historians, archivists and librarians have assisted me in my work on Anglo-French diplomatic history at the beginning of the fifteenth century. Only a few can be mentioned here. The staffs of the libraries at the universities of Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Chicago have been most helpful. A note of thanks must especially be reserved for Miss Beulah Larson who is in charge of interlibrary-loan services at Wisconsin State University, Miss J. Gobeaux-Thonet of the library of the University of Liege who kindly obtained for me zerox copies of several works not available in this country, Mrs. Nadine Grain, librarian at the University of Lille, who sent me a microfilm copy of G. Kuhnast's thesis, "La guerre de course en Flandres, Artois et Picardie maritime," Mr. Rene Robinet, chief archivist of the Archives départementales du nord, who graciously had photocopied not only various unpublished documents but also annotated copies of several inventories of the archives at Lille, Mr. A. Schouteet, city-archivist at Bruges who allowed me the use of an important annotated inventory of the accounts of the Brugse Vrije (Franc of Bruges), Professor Walter Prevenier of the -iii- University of Ghent who answered many thorny questions about medieval Flanders, and Professor Richard Vaughan of the University of Hull who advised me of several matters related to the history of medieval England It is a particular pleasure to express my gratitude to two persons without whose assistance I could not have completed this work. I am deeply grateful for the guidance which Professor Leslie F. Smith has given me during the preparation of this study, a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the doctor's degree at the University of Oklahoma. I have benefited greatly from his many valuable and penetrating criticisms. He has maintained a keen interest in my research, displaying a patience which not many possess. To my wife Mary, I owe a special debt which cannot be easily described. Her cogent criticisms, her labors at the typewriter and her warm encouragement must be acknowledged. None of these people, however, bears responsibility for any errors which may appear in the final version. -IV- TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS....................................... iii Chapter I. INTRODUCTION................................... 1 II. THE CONFIRMATION OF THE TWENTY-EIGHT-YEAR TRUCE . 19 The Deposition of Richard II French Reaction to the English Revolution Impact of the English Revolution in Aquitaine The Revolt of the Earls and the Threat of Foreign Invasion The French Volte-Face: Charles VI Confirms the Truce III. THE RETURN OF ISABELLE TO FRANCE............... 67 Henry IV and the Scots Henry IV and the Flemings Anglo-French Negotiations and the Fate of Isabelle The Question of Isabelle's Dowry The Delay in Isabelle's Release: The Hostile French Reaction Isabelle Returns Home The Scots Repudiate the Twenty-Eight-Year Truce IV. THE QUESTION OF WAR OR PEACE WITH ENGLAND: PHILIPPE LE HARDI VERSUS LOUIS d'ORLEANS. .125 Anglo-French Negotiations (August-December, 1401) The Struggle for Supremacy in France The French Challenges Philippe le Hardi and the Decision for Peace V. ANGLO-FLEMISH RELATIONS (1402-1404).......... 161 Brugeois Complaints of English Privateering -V- The Flemish Diplomatic Mission at Westminster The Seizure of English Merchandise at Sluis The Vier Leden and the Quest for Neutrality VI. THE FRENCH REPUDIATION OF THE TWENTY-EIGHT- YEAR TRUCE................................... 193 The Last Confirmation of the Twenty-Eight- Year Truce The Collapse of Anglo-French Negotiations Philippe le Hardi and the Undeclared War Against England The Final Breach between Valois France and Lancastrian England VII. CONCLUSION........... 238 BIBLIOGRAPHY..................... 247 APPENDIX 1............................................. 263 -VI- THE REPUDIATION OF THE TWENTY-EIGHT-YEAR TRUCE; A STUDY OF ANGLO-FRENCH DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS 1399-1404 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION One view of European history, expressed recently, describes the period from 1300 to approximately 1450 as "the first decisive stage from medieval to modern forms. Rulers of territorial or national states gradually deprived feudal lords, church officials and urban communes of their independent jurisdiction. In France, the most thoroughly feudalized country of Europe, a weak feudal monarchy began to centralize power and authority in the king's person so that by the end of the period it had laid the foundations for absolute rule. In 1450, the French ruler possessed a standing army in place of the old feudal levy, the power to impose a direct tax on persons without any further authoriza­ tion from the nation, control over the Catholic Church within his realm, and patriotic subjects aware of their national identity. What made such gains possible for the ^Wallace K. Ferguson, Europe in Transition 1300-1520 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1962), p. 145. -1- -2- monarchy in France was the long disastrous struggle with England known as the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453). Con­ cessions were obtained for the crown because of the crisis which confronted the kingdom. The vested interest most threatened by the growth of royal power was the high nobility. Members of this class had been immeasurably strengthened by the crown's practice of bestowing large portions of the royal domain on younger sons. A group of practically autonomous territories within the realm emerged, some of which were headed by rich and powerful magnates of the royal blood, who naturally opposed monarchial centralization. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, France experienced an age of principalities, a development similar to what happened in Italy where a system of territorial states emerged without the rise of national p monarchy. If the Hundred Years' War had never been fought or, if it had been shortened considerably, France may very well have disintegrated into a series of autonomous principal­ ities independent in their relations with the king, each other, and foreign powers. French monarchs would not have been able to use the war emergency in bringing to life national senti­ ment, in establishing their right to levy taxes on their own 2s.A. Pocquet du Haut-Jusse, Les papes et les ducs de Bretagne, essai sur les rapports du Saxnt-Siege avec un état (2 vols., Paris: E. de Boccard, 1928), I, pp. xi-xiii and Ibid., "Deux féodaux: Bourgogne et Bretagne (1363-1491), i," Revue bimensuelle des cours et conferences, XXXV (1934), 481-493. See also E. Perroy, "Feudalism or Principalities in Fifteenth-Century France," Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, XX (1945), 181-185. -3- authority or in creating an effective royal army which ulti­ mately robbed the feudal nobility of their raison d'etre, namely their task of solely supplying the nation's military forces. How different the history of France would have been in the Later Middle ages had the conflict with England been terminated at an early date I Besides the probable evolution of a system of territorial states within the kingdom, which would have denied any real progress towards royal centraliza­ tion, France would have been spared the devastation and de­ population of the country at the hands of a ravenous soldiery indifferent to the troubles of either friend or foe. Both French and English armies and the bands of mercenary troops, which roamed the land, brought with them death, disease, famine, and destruction. Edouard Perroy, the leading authority on the protracted Anglo-French struggle, describes the results of their plundering in this way: "some districts were prac­ tically deserted; their inhabitants were either dead or had fled...villages once prosperous now counted only a few families. Farming was so diminished that it threatened to be insufficient for feeding the towns. The ravages of the soldiers everywhere contributed substantially to the serious economic decline which gripped France during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Only a conclusion of hostilities could have lessened the desolation of so many regions in the kingdom. 3e . Perroy, The Hundred Years War, trans. W.B. Wells (New York: Oxford University Press, 1951), p. 324. -4- On various occasions, both sides tried to end the Hundred Years' War through the use of either military force or diplomatic persuasion. Such attempts take on special significance when viewed against the background of the effects the war had on the people, the economy, and the political institutions of France. The two most spectacular efforts to bring the fighting to a close— the treaty of Bretigny-Calais in 1360 and the English invasion of France in 1415— failed because they demanded more concessions from the French than they were willing to accept, once their defeats were forgotten. One of the most statesmenlike bids for a permanent reconcilia­ tion between the two kingdoms, on the other hand, came at the end of the fourteenth century from the English king, Richard II, who has been accused of planning the establishment of royal absolutism with the aid of French arms.^ In 1396, he concluded a truce of record length with France, which should last twenty eight years, and sealed the agreement by marrying Isabelle, the seven-year-old daughter of the French king.