de Paris par les
Bourguignons en Mai_, 1418, in _Bulletin de la Societe de l'Histoire
de Paris_, 1877, p. 51.]
A tragic fidelity, an inherited loyalty to the Armagnacs recommended
my Lord Regnault to the Dauphin, who entrusted him with important
missions to various parts of Christendom, Languedoc, Scotland,
Brittany, and Burgundy.[616] The Archbishop of Reims acquitted himself
with rare skill and indefatigable zeal. In December he prayed the Holy
Father to dispense him from the fulfilment of the vow taken in the
Butchers' prison,[617] on the grounds of his feeble health and his
services rendered to the Dauphin, who required him to undertake
frequent journeys and arduous embassies.
[Footnote 616: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, pp.
268, 276, 339. P. Champion, _Guillaume de Flavy_, p. 4, and proofs and
illustrations, lxxj.]
[Footnote 617: Le P. Denifle, _La desolation des eglises_, _loc. cit._
According to a "legitimist" fiction he pleads the service he had
rendered to King Charles VI, and his son the Dauphin "_... tam propter
sue persone debililitatem, quam etiam propter assidua viagia et
ambassiatas, que ipse serviendo Carolo Francorum regi et Carolo,
ejusdem regis unigenito filio, dalphino Viennensi...._"]
In 1425, when the King and the kingdom were governed by President
Louvet,[618] a learned lawyer, who may well have been a rogue, my Lord
Regnault was appointed Chancellor of France in the place of my Lord
Martin Gouges of Charpaigne, Bishop of Clermont.[619] But shortly
afterwards, when the Constable of France, Arthur of Brittany, had
dismissed Louvet, Regnault sold his appointment to Martin Gouges for a
pension of two thousand five hundred _livres tournois_.[620]
[Footnote 618: Vallet de Viriville, _Nouvelle biographie generale_. De
Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, pp. 64 _et seq._]
[Footnote 619: F. Duchesne, _Histoire des chanceliers et gardes des
sceaux de France_, 1680, in fol., p. 483.]
[Footnote 620: The _livre_ of Tours was worth ten pence, while that of
Paris was worth one shilling (W.S.). National Archives, p. 2298.]
The Reverend Father in God, my Lord the Archbishop of Reims, was not
as rich, far from it, as my Lord de la Tremouille; but he made the
best of what he had. Like the Sire de la Tremouille he lent money to
the King.[621] But in those days who did not lend the King money?
Charles VII gave him the town and castle of Vierzon in payment of a
debt of si
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