A Distant Mirror_ The Calamitous 14th Century - Barbara W. Tuchman [418]
Chapter 27—Hung Be the Heavens with Black
Livre des faits … de Boucicaut (Godefroy ed., 104–14), Froissart, and Chron. C6, II, continue to be the main primary sources. It may be assumed that these and Delaville le Roux, chaps. 6–9, are the sources for material not otherwise cited.
1 MARCH OF THE PRISONERS: from the account of Geoffrey Maupoivre in Delaville, “Le Legs d’Enguerrand VII” (Bibliog. I, B).
2 COUCY’S MIRACLE: ibid.
3 “FORTUNATE TO BE IN A WORLD”: KL, XV, 334.
4 DESCHAMPS ON FUNERALS: Queux ed., VIII, 85–86.
5 DAME DE COUCY WRITES TO DOGE: XV, 426. ORLÉANS’ MESSENGERS:
6 Mangin, 45–46, 52–54; BN, Fonds fr., nouv. acq. 3638–9, nos. 268–9, 308, 456.
7 ManginGIFTS FOR BAJAZET: Barante, II, 201; Jarry, Orléans, 185–86.
8 DESCHAMPS, “MONEY!”: q. Gustave Masson, Story of Medieval France, 1888.
9 L’ALOUËTE: 182.
10 ANONYMOUS POEM ON TWELVE AGES: q. Mâle, 303–4.
11 NICHOLAS OF AENOS: Livre des faits, q. Atiya, Nicopolis, 105.
12 COUCY’S WILL: published in Testaments enregistrés au parlement de Paris sous le règne de Charles VI, ed. A. Tuetey, in Documents inédits, Mélanges historiques, nouv. série, Paris, Imp. nat., 1858, III, 39–44.
13 COUCY’S DEATH: The assumption made by some historians that he died alone, the Sultan having moved on, taking the prisoners with him and leaving Coucy behind because he was too ill to travel, cannot be reconciled with the eight signatures to his will. The Sultan and French prisoners did indeed move on to Mikalidsch, two days’ journey from Brusa, where Burgundy’s envoy Guillaume de l’Aigle met them, supposedly in January. Either that date is an error or the prisoners must have returned to Brusa—perhaps because of Coucy’s imminent death—in time to sign the will.
14 “REFINED AND BARBARIC”: Lefranc, Intro., x.
15 “SEIGNEUR OF MOST MERIT”: Livre des faits, Godefroy, 2nd ed., The Hague, 1711, 81.
16 RETURN OF COUCY’S REMAINS: Duplessis, 103. DAME DE COUCY: Godefroy, 1620, 106. FUNERAL: KL, XV, 357, 437; XVI, 31. TOMB: destroyed (presumably) in the destruction of Nogent-sous-Coucy; the plaque from Ste. Trinité is now in the museum of Soissons. DESCHAMPS’ DIRGE: Queux ed., Ballad 1366.
17 ff. RANSOM AND RETURN OF THE PRISONERS: In addition to the sources at the head of the chapter, Vaughan, 71–77. BURGUNDY’S GIFTS MISFIRED: Bavyn ms., Mémoires du voiage fait en Hongrie par Jean dit Sans-Peur, Comte de Nevers, q. Atiya, Nicopolis, 103. BURGUNDY’S BOOKS BOUGHT FROM DINO RAPONDI: Durrieu, Mss. de luxe, 163, and Putnam, 275.
18 TOURNAI EXPECTED A PARDON: Delaville, 320, n. 2.
19 Epistre Lamentable: Jorga, 500–503; also reprinted as anonymous in KL, XVI, 444–523. BONET’S SATIRE: q. Kilgour, 158–60, 172–73.
20Quatre Valois: Chron. 4 Valois, 187, 192.
21 BAJAZET IN WAGON WITH BARS: On this famously disputed question, Gibbon (VI, 370–84) cites French, Italian, Turkish, and Greek sources to refute the claim of Persian historians that the story is a fable reflecting “vulgar credulity.” Gibbon’s editors (Milman, Guizot, Wenck, and Smith) accept the explanation of Von Hammer that the so-called iron cage was a mistranslation of the Turkish word hafe meaning a covered litter, in this case covered by a latticework made of iron. See also F. Schevill, History of the Balkan Peninsula, New York, 1922, 190. COUCY’S “MANY FINE PONDS”: as described in the suit brought by Robert de Bar, q. Lacaille, “Vente,” 594. FAMILY LITIGATION: ibid.
22 PROPOSED MARRIAGE TO STEPHEN OF BAVARIA: originating in Chron. C6, II, 765, the erroneous statement that the marriage was concluded was repeated by Duchesne and Duplessis and others down the line until corrected by Thibault, 355. SALE OF THE PROPERTY TO ORLÉANS: Lacaille, “Vente,” 574–87; Jarry, Orléans, 239–42, 311.
Epilogue
1 ORLÉANIST MANIFESTO, SUNK IN CRIME AND SIN: q. Enid McLeod, Charles d’Orléans, New York, 1970, 63.
2 AGINCOURT: Wylie, II, 108–230. An eyewitness account of the battle from the Chronicle of Jehan de Wavrin is quoted in Allmand, 107–11.
3 HEAVY ARMOR AND HEART FAILURE: Oman, 377.
4 “FORESTS CAME BACK WITH THE ENGLISH”: