comfited at Vicenza by M. Cane della
Scala._

[Sidenote: Johannes de Virgilio. Carmen _v._ 28.]

[Sidenote: Par. xvii. 76-93.]

In the said year 1314, on the 18th day of September, the Paduans went
in full force to Vicenza, and took the suburbs, and besieged the city;
but M. Cane, lord of Verona, suddenly came to Vicenza, and with a few
followers fought against the Paduans; and they being in disorder,
trusting in themselves too much after having taken the suburbs, were
discomfited, and many of them were slain and taken prisoner.

Sec. 64.--_How the Florentines made peace with the Aretines._ Sec.
65.--_How a comet appeared in the heavens._

Sec. 66.--_Of the death of Philip, king of France, and of his sons._

[Sidenote: Par. xix. 118-120.]

[Sidenote: 1314 A.D.]

[Sidenote: Purg. vii. 109, 110.]

[Sidenote: Cf. Par. ix. 1.]

In the said year 1314, in the month of November, the King Philip, king
of France, which had reigned twenty-nine years, died by an
ill-adventure; for, being at a chase, a wild boar ran between the legs
of the horse whereupon he was riding, and caused him to fall, and
shortly after he died. He was one of the most comely men in the world,
and of the tallest in person, and well proportioned in every limb; he
was a wise man in himself, and good, after layman's fashion, but by
reason of pleasure-seeking, especially in the chase, he did not devote
his powers to ruling his realm, but rather allowed them to be played
upon by others, so that he was generally swayed by ill counsel, to
which he lent a too ready credence; whence many perils came to his
realm. He left three sons, Louis, king of Navarre; Philip, count of
Poitou; and Charles, Count de la Marche. All these sons one after
another in a short while became kings of France, one succeeding on the
death of another. And a little while before King Philip, their father,
died, there fell upon them great and shameful misfortune, for the
wives of all three were found to be faithless; and each one of the
husbands was among the most beauteous Christians in the world. The
wife of King Louis was daughter of the duke of Burgundy. Louis, when
he was king of France, caused her to be strangled with a towel, and
then took to wife Queen Clemence, daughter, that was, of Charles
Martel, the son of Charles II., king of Apulia. The wives of the
second and third sons were sisters, daughters of the count of
Burgundy, and heiresses of the countess of Artois. Phil