e;
the betrothal was confirmed amid joyousness and the ceremony was
followed by tourneys and jousts, all at the expense of the duke.

What a series of pompous betrothals between infant parties the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries can show! Poor little puppets, in
whose persons national interests were supposed to be centred, were
made to lisp out their roles in international dramas whose final acts
rarely were consistent with the promise of the prologue.

Catherine did not live to become Duchess of Burgundy nor to temper the
duel between her husband and her brother Louis. The remainder of
her short existence was passed under the care of Duchess Isabella,
sometimes in one city of the Netherlands, sometimes in another.

La Marche[23] records one return of Philip to Brussels when his
arrival was greeted by Charles of Burgundy, honourably accompanied
by children of high birth about his age or less, some only eleven or
twelve years old. There were with him Jehan de la Tremoille, Philip
de Croy, Philip de Crevecoeur, Philip de Wavrin, and many others. All
were mounted on little horses harnessed like that of their governor, a
very honest and wise gentleman, named Messire Jehan, Seigneur et Ber
d'Auxy. This gentleman was a fine man, well known, of good lineage,
ready of speech and able to discuss matters of honour and of state.

He was both hunter and falconer, skilled in all exercise and sport.

"Never [asserts La Marche] have I met a gentleman better adapted
to supervise the education of a young prince than he.... Among his
pupils were also Anthony, Bastard of Burgundy,[24] son of Philip,
and the Marquis Hugues de Rottelin. These lads were older than the
first mentioned."

La Marche dilates on the pleasure the duke felt in this youthful band
of horse, and then tells how, within Brussels,

"he was received by the magistrates and conducted to his palace,
where the Duchess of Burgundy awaited him holding by the hand
Madame Catherine of France, Countess of Charolais. She was about
twelve and seemed a lady grown, for she was good and wise, and
well conditioned for her age."

At various state functions the Count and Countess of Charolais
appeared together in public, and witnessed certain of the gorgeous
and costly entertainments which were almost the daily food of the gay
Burgundian court. One of these occasions was calculated to make a deep
impression on the boy and to arouse his pr