XXX THE MASTER OF GAME

French King nor the English King, much less the Kings of A
neighbours, were as great as h a aoe eee
e u g as he, or as brave, or as courteous, or as rich, or as learned. His C
as one id i i ae
Nee 4 oe most splendid in Europe—and Froissart had, of course, seen many—his Castl =
ee Z ae ronicler pronounced one of the finest royal residences in Christendom. In i : ;
ne G20 ; Mi
‘ oO is ie be kept a treasure-chest containing ‘one hundred thousand florin ee
mes over’”—the word ‘“‘million” had not b i i ea
een invented in those days— i
ees ays—a store of ready coin no
Western Europe could match.! Gaston’s hunting establishment ae
quality all others; his horses, of which he had six hundred a hi ee ae
ee ! red in his train on the famous occasio
ting at Tarbes the Black Prince and his Princess, were among the fi i fo
beaux palefrors mounted by his “plated” knights, the e/é ss oe
: i j ; ‘
greyhounds were the lightest of foot, his ey eee ee ee
: or the stag, buck, for the gre
Pyrenees (to the chase of which, one hot August day i I i ere
swiftest, surest, and most valiant of any in ro 1k l : ie a fo ee
: yal kennels, and they numbered i
epee ; y ered, as we are told, sixte
; ver keen to improve the breeds of E i | 2
sent him from all parts of the on Froissart him if ae co ee
h n i i
quoted devriers called Tristan, Hector, Brun i R eae a ae nun  S
é ; , olland. is devoti
ee ase ‘ on to art, letters, and
ourt a famous rendezvous for bi i
ing. ards, artists, and f sci
ca eee ; , and men of science, and th
ed by this great feudal 1 ‘
g ord was world-famous and made hi
eee made his Court the refuge of
ugitive nobles. When the amba
: sadors of France, Engl
Castile met for the i ‘ en tele a
conclusion of a treaty of peace
the : i
ee y i ; y selected Orthéz as the most suitable
Of alm i
as = ete splendour must have been the festivities held on such occasions in the
castle, particularly when royalty favoured it with i
ed it with its presence. Th
oe ee ty fa p e. us when the Duke of
; ing’s uncle, laid siege to the “pearl of Orthéz,”
ihe 5 rthéz, eanne of B
eee young cousin and ward, the entertainments at Orthéz pel in ee
marke tr igali ivi a
et y nese prodigality. Equally so were the festivities at the betrothal of Gaston’s
and heir to Beatrice the Gay, the beauti
; utiful daughter of Count J f i
ee fogs g ean of Armagnac, in
we ee . union it ie hoped would be ended the interminable wars between eo of
of Armagnac, the two leading d i d
gnac, g dynasties of the Langue d’Oc, but the in’
ou
tragic death a year or so later frustrated this. a.
But it is time we c
ast a glance at our author's earlier hi it gi
2 istory, for x
character of this remarkable man. in sep eae
,
. cae fiery temper showed itself from his early youth. In his ‘“‘ Prayers,” which he sent to
is fav 1 1 ;
a ae friend the Duke of Burgundy, to which he also dedicated his hunting-book, Gaston
o & 1 ig
sn . own youth : I was wayward and frivolous so that I shamed my parents, and all the
Ww : 1
4 ieee this one can never be worth anything; unhappy country of which he will be the
Wee. : :
ruler is father, Gaston u., and particularly his mother, Eleanor de Comminge, who had the
re . . :
eee of being one of the wisest and most perfect women of the fourteenth century, succeeded
i eee for the time, the violence of his character.2 They gave him as governor tne good and
oya 1 H
; y ; rae Corbeyran de Rabat, who kept from him all adulation and surrounded ie with
ome y selected youths of gentle birth. The striking personal beauty of young Gaston, and the
- ie ane of golden hair, acquired for him the name ‘‘ Phoebus.” He wore it always toode and
is
ee Hs ever uncovered. Some authors have asserted that it was owing to his taking the sun
Re : c S <
is emblem that he was called Phoebus, others, again, say that he was so called on aera of

1M. Ra in his Ré }

ie ean in Be Roles de V Armée de Gaston Phoebus, states that the intrinsic value of a florin of Gaston’s
he Serre eRe niet fs fee aula the respective purchasing values as only ten times as great
some illi illi
eee ing over 400 million francs, or over 16 million sterling of our modern

2 Gaston’s i i
begs eet pcgnue of Artois, wife of Gaston 1., left a reputation strangely in contrast to that of his
a a one a ee eae was her conduct that her son, Gaston 11., had to lock her up in 1331
; eath, ilip of Valois claimed he: ee ,
Te ae r and undertook to keep her in prison “tant que vie auratt.’’

  

 

 

   

XXXI

OIX AND HIS BOOK

h he cultivated the muses, for he deserved to be cited “‘as a remarkable writer
Dante, Chaucer, Boccaccio and Froissart.” He was
brother and King Philip of

GASTON DE F

the success with whic
in which lived Petrarch,

even in a century
ly twelve when war cut short the career of his father, who with his a ae
oe d Alphonso the Avenger's crusade, from which so many failed to return.

ve devoted her life to the task and to

Navarre had joine
widow was left guar
the good governme

Gaston, and is said to ha
With war he made his first acquaintance at the Se ot

i against the Earl of Derby’s invasion. When he was
eee a ot ae ie fe Langue d’Oc, the beginning of his administration
ee asics by the fearful ravages of ence of eee ae

“ty it is said, left alive after eight months’ duration but a sixth of the population ©

Beye dOc In 1349, at the age of eighteen, he married Agnes, daughter of Philip tbe
= oe a f Nevenre and Jane of France, the marriage being celebrated in Paris, the Hong
Pe ae ensation by which, in spite of his youth, he was enabled to assume the reins of
a a which Comt¢d he held as a fief from the French Crown, while Bearn was
Instead of this union, which united him with two powerful cypas ee) being a
source of good, it proved to be the cause of endless wars and unhappiness. His wife’s brother was
Charles the Bad, King of Navarre, the instigator of one of the most dastardly plots known in
history, who, by a train of Machiavellian intrigues, managed to SOW discord between as and
wife and father and son, as well as between Gaston and his overlord King lon As e result a2
fell into disgrace with the latter, and lay for some time as prisoner 1n the Chatelet, his Par a
red while he was on French territory. His confinement, notwithstanding that Charles 0

ad in the meanwhile joined England in the fighting in Normandy, did not last long, for
rous defeats of French arms, no less than the efforts of his powerful friends,

him from his prison.

dian of young
nt of his heritage.

the most unsparing pestil

giving him h
government
his own principality.

secu
Navarre h
one of the most disast
soon combined to release
Among those that came to his assistance was
and Castillon, another very remarkable medizeval personality.
nationality he occupied such a high place in Edward .’s regard, tha a
Captal de Buch, as he was usually called, as one of the first twenty-six origina
most noble Order of the Garter, his name occupying the fifth place in the list at the first “ Feast of
the Order” held on April 23, 1344 (Belt Memorials of the Order of the Garter,” p. exl.). pire
Captals de Buch were lords of lands, which do not appear to have been very extensive, near
Bordeaux (they are now known as “La Téte de Buch ”), and the family had from an early period
of England’s dominion in France espoused the English cause. Froissart mentions the name
ders of Edward’s army at Bordeaux, and at the battle of Poitiers
1 distinguished himself not a little, making an immensely rich haul by
capturing James de Bourbon, for whom the ransom was fixed at the then vast sum of 25,000
It was this great defeat of his over-lord’s armies that opened the doors of the Chatelet to
About his next movement we only know that he returned home, while
his cousin Captal? embarked with the victorious Black Prince for England in April 1357, and
participated at the triumphal entry into London with the French King and the flower of French
chivalry as prisoners. Captal could not have remained there long, however, for we know that in
the early part of the summer he had joined Gaston de Foix, and, accompanied by a retinue of only

his cousin Captal de Buch, Viconte de Benanges
Notwithstanding his French
t we find John de Grailly,* or
1 founders of the

as among the comman
(September 19, 1356), Capta

florins.
the imprisoned Gaston.

Christian name of this Captal de Buch. In the records of the

foundation of the Order of the Garter “ John” is given as the name, put on the plate bearing the arms and name
of each knight on the stalls at Windsor, it appears, according to the above cited authority (who was Lancaster
Herald, that Piers (Peter) is the name on the plate. Piers of Bordeaux was John’s maternal uncle, from whom he
inherited his estates; and as neither he nor any other member of the de Grailly family became a Knight of the
Garter, a mistake must have been made, as was often done by careless scribes in those illiterate days. Curiously
enough, Henry of Derby, afterwards King Henry 1v., was the immediate successor to this French noble’s
stall.

2 Captal de Buch subsequently became the founder of the second line o
de Castelbon, the cousin-german and only surviving relation of Gaston de Foix.

1 There exists some confusion concerning the

£ the Foix dynasty, for he married Isabelle

 

A EE

     

 

 

 

a