Foucarmont, who contributed 200écusof gold.^164 Yet this was nothing
compared to the huge ransom that King Edward would require so as to
recoup what he had given to Sir Thomas Holland. Finally, Raoul agreed
to pay 60,000écus. He was given permission to cross to France to raise
the sum in October 1350,‘failing which, he promised to return as the
king’s prisoner...’^165
The shocking events of the next month are described in most detail by
Jean le Bel.
When [Raoul] arrived back in France, he went to see [John II, the new king of
France], expecting a fond welcome–[John] had loved the count well enough
before he had become king. The count bowed to him in humble greeting, and
expected to be warmly and joyfully received afterfive years as a prisoner in exile.
King John [then] led him into a chamber alone, and said:‘Look at this letter.
Familiar, is it?’They say that the constable was utterly dumbstruck when he saw
it, and, seeing his shock, the king cried out:‘Ah, wicked traitor! Death is what
you deserve, and you’ll have it, by my father’s soul!’And he ordered the guards
to seize him there and then, and imprisoned him in the tower of the Louvre in
Paris...everyone was distressed that the worthy constable was treated in this
way, for he was much loved, and no-one could understand the king’s motives.
And next day the king swore to all the constable’s friends, who were pleading on
his behalf, that before he slept again he would have him beheaded, and no-one
could persuade him otherwise. And, indeed, it was done that very night, in the
tower of the Louvre, without any trial or judgement, much to the grief and anger
of everyone, and it earned the king great reproach and cost him much love.^166
Seen from a Brienne perspective, John II’s soubriquet,‘the Good’, thus
reads particularly ironically.
There is a wide range of explanations for the new king’s precipitate
actions. For his part, Jean le Bel gives the most titillating reason: that
an affair might well have taken place, at an earlier stage, between Raoul
and John’s late wife, Bonne of Luxemburg.^167 Another possibility is
that Raoul was acting as an intermediary between the English and the
Savoyards, hoping to turn the latter away from their alliance with France.
By far the likeliest explanation, however, is that King John feared that
Raoul intended to obtain his liberty by selling the fortress of Guînes to
Edward III, which was so tremendously important in strategic terms.^168
In this context, it is worth noting that, only a couple of years later, Hugh
of Beauconroy was also executed, and his crime was trading the castle to
(^164) Chronique des comtes d’Eu, 447. (^165) The True Chronicles of Jean le Bel, ch. 87.
(^166) Mildly adapted fromThe True Chronicles of Jean le Bel, ch. 87. Raoul’s execution actually
took place in the Tour de Nesle, on the night of 18–19 November. See S. H. Cuttler,
167 The Law of Treason and Treason Trials in Later Medieval France(Cambridge, 1981), 154.
168 The True Chronicles of Jean le Bel, ch. 87.
Cuttler,The Law of Treason and Treason Trials in Later Medieval France, 154.
176 Hubris and Nemesis (c. 1311–1356)