The Memoirs of Philip de Commines, Lord of Argenton (Complete)
9781465553560
418 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
The town of Commines, on the confines of France and Belgium, is situated on the River Lys, by which it is divided into two parts; the right bank belongs to France, and the left to Belgium. It possesses no great importance at the present day; but formerly, and until the end of the seventeenth century, it could boast of strong fortifications and a castle, which were destroyed by the French in 1672. The lordship of the town had been enjoyed by several noble families in succession; but for our present purpose it will be sufficient to state that about the year 1373, Jeanne de Waziers, Lady of Commines and Halewin, brought it in marriage to Nicholas, surnamed Colart de la Clite. The name of Commines, which had been honourably mentioned at the time of the first Crusades, was still so imposing that the new lord, or at least his descendants, did not hesitate to substitute it for that of their original race. This nobiliary lustre, however, would not have sufficed to have rescued it any more than other mediæval names, from the obscurity of genealogical archives, if a distinction of a higher character had not secured it immortal renown. In the Castle of Commines, in the year 1447, was born that celebrated historian whose works have saved from oblivion the meaner glories of his ancestral line. His father, the sovereign-bailiff of Flanders, had been dubbed a knight by the Duke of Burgundy on the day of the battle of St. Riquier, the 31st of August, 1421, on which day that prince had also received the honour of knighthood from the hands of John of Luxembourg; and perhaps this circumstance, adroitly called to mind by the father, induced Philip the Good to do the new-born babe the honour of holding him at the font, and presenting his god-son to baptism under the invocation of his own patron saint. A most hopeful future seemed thus to open before young Commines, who was placed, from his very birth, under the protection of a most powerful monarch; but he was ere long destined to suffer cruel losses. His mother, Marguerite d’Armuyden, died soon after giving him birth, and a few years later, the death of his father left him completely an orphan, with an estate greatly impoverished by bad management and reckless expenditure. The young orphan and his property were placed by the king under the guardianship of his cousin-german, Jean de la Clite, Lord of Commines, who succeeded, not without great difficulty, in preserving to his ward a small part of his patrimony—so small, indeed, that its value amounted only to the sum of 2424 livres 16 sols 6 deniers tournois. The development of the mind of young Commines was almost as utterly neglected as the management of his property; for his guardian was too much absorbed by more personal business to attend to either. His ward received the same education as, with but few exceptions, was then given to all the children of the nobility. Greek and Latin formed no part of his instruction, and bodily exercises were cultivated with far greater assiduity than mental discipline. Perhaps, however, we ought to congratulate ourselves that this was the case. Intellects like that of Commines form themselves, and advance all the faster and farther because they have no useless acquirements to forget, and no false instruction to unlearn. The sagacious and meditative mind of the future historian was likely to learn far more from the great book of the world than from all the writings of the schoolmen; and that book soon opened before him. The brilliant and splendid court of Philip the Good then rivalled those of more powerful monarchs in magnificence and lustre. Commines was summoned to this sphere of action by his godfather, who attached him to his person as one of his esquires, probably in the year 1463, and soon transferred him, in the same capacity, to the service of his son, the Count of Charolois.
