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By Root 1687 0

was disputed as ever. Even when the French finally offered to pay the arrears on Jean’s ransom and guarantee peaceable possession if not sovereignty of Aquitaine, in return for the razing of Calais, the English held back. They were not sure they wanted peace. When Charles urged the cause of the crusade, they said, as so often before, that they had no powers to conclude definitive terms, but would report back to their King. One more of the countless peace parleys came to nothing. Once more the truce was extended for yet another year. How hard it was to end a war.

Whether from disappointment or natural causes, King Charles fell ill in the midst of the parley, suffering from high fever and transports of delirium. Removed from Amiens to the quiet surroundings of the episcopal palace at Beauvais, where he was carefully nursed, he soon recovered, and by June had resumed hunting and his other pleasures. No ill omens were attached to the sudden strange illness, although they might well have been.

32. Papal palace at Avignon as it would have appeared in the 14th century. Engraving by Israel Sylvestre, c. 1650.(illustration credit 23.1)

33. 14TH CENTURY COINS(illustration credit 23.2)

34. A Sienese army of 1363 depicted in the area where Coucy’s campaign took place twenty years later. Fresco by Lippo Vanni, 1373, in the Sala del Mappamondo, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena.(illustration credit 23.3)

THE SWISS CAMPAIGN

35. The Gügler enter Switzerland under the flags of Coucy and England.(illustration credit 23.4)

36. The fight at Fraubrunnen showing the flag of Bern (the Bear). Both from the Berner Chronik, c. 1400.(illustration credit 23.5)

37. Sir John Hawkwood.

Fresco by Paolo Uccello in the Cathedral of Florence.(illustration credit 23.6)

38. Pierre de Luxemburg, with a cardinal’s hat on the altar drapery. Portrait, c. 1400.(illustration credit 23.7)

39. Burning of the Jews. From Gilles li Muisis, Antiquitates Flandriae, 14th century.(illustration credit 23.8)

40. A Jew wearing the circular badge. Detail from a 14th century fresco of St. Helena’s discovery of the True Cross, in the Cathedral of Tarragona.(illustration credit 23.9)

41. Christine de Pisan composing her works. From the manuscript of her Oeuvres, vol. Poésies, c. 1405.(illustration credit 23.10)

42. Jean de Berry, statue in the Cathedral of Bourges.(illustration credit 23.11)

43. Philip of Burgundy, statue by Claus Sluter in the Champmol, Dijon.(illustration credit 23.12)

44. Charles V receiving the translation of Aristotle’s Ethics from Nicolas Oresme. From Les éthiques d’Aristote, 1372 version.(illustration credit 23.13)

45. Pope Urban VI. From a relief on the back of his sarcophagus in the Vatican Grotto, Rome, dated 1389.(illustration credit 23.14)

46. Clement VII. Fragment of effigy at Avignon.(illustration credit 23.15)

47. The siege of Mahdia. From Froissart’s Chronicles, Louis de Bruges copy, c. 1460.(illustration credit 23.16)

48. Louis d’Orléans. Portrait, c. 1420.(illustration credit 23.17)

49. The Visconti device: a viper swallowing a man,(illustration credit 23.18)

50. Gian Galeazzo Visconti. Pen drawing by Antonio Pisanello (1397–1455).(illustration credit 23.19)

51. Froissart offering his Chronicles to Charles VI. From Froissart’s Chronicles, c. 1450.(illustration credit 23.20)

52. Gerson preaching at the Church of St. Bernard in Paris. From Sermons sur la Passion, illustrated by Baudoin de Lannoy, c. 1480.(illustration credit 23.21)

53. Burean de la Rivière, statues from La Grange buttress, Cathedral of Amiens.(illustration credit 23.22)

54. Cardinal Jean de La Grange, statues from La Grange buttress, Cathedral of Amiens.(illustration credit 23.23)

55. Effigy of Guillaume de Harsigny at Laon.(illustration credit 23.24)

56. DANSE MACABRE

Fresco in the Abbey of Chaise-Dien at Riom, 15th century.(illustration credit 23.25)

57. Lamentation of the Virgin with St. John. From the Rohan Hours, c. 1420.(illustration credit 23.26)

58. Massacre of the prisoners at Nicopolis. From Froissart