Free The King Without a Kingdom by Maurice Druon Page A

party reach him, he should show himself most haughty and give no support whatsoever, not even the semblance of support, to the Prevost of Paris and his undertakings.
    You have already understood me, Dom Calvo. The Cardinal Capocci is in Paris. He could well, impulsive as he is and never failing to blunder, think himself clever in hatching plots with this prevost … No, nothing specific has been reported to me; but my instinct tells me there is one of those twisted schemes afoot in which my fellow legate never fails to get involved.
    Secondly, I would like to invite the supreme pontiff to be informed in detail about the strange events that went on at the Estates-General of the Langue d’Oil 17 which ended in Paris at the beginning of the month, and to shed on them some light of his holy attention.
    Convocation of these Assemblies had been promised by King John to take place in December; but due to the turmoil, disorder and despondency the kingdom found itself in following the defeat at Poitiers, the Dauphin Charles thought himself to be acting wisely when he brought forward the meeting to October. In truth, he had no choice but to try to strengthen his authority, which had come to him in this misfortune, young as he was, with an army in tatters from military setbacks, and a Treasury in dire straits.
    But the eight hundred deputies of the Langue d’Oil, of which four hundred were bourgeois, didn’t deliberate on the issues they were invited to discuss.
    The Church has long experience of councils that elude the intentions of those who first set them up. I would like to tell the pope that this assembly looks exactly like a council that has lost its way and assumed the right to rule over everything, hurling itself recklessly into reform, taking advantage of the weakness of the supreme power.
    Instead of busying themselves with the release of the King of France, our people in Paris immediately showed more concern for the release of the King of Navarre, which clearly indicates which side their leaders are on.
    In addition, the eight hundred appointed an eighty-strong commission: this began to toil away in secret to produce a long list of remonstrances containing a little that is right, and a great deal that is wrong. Firstly, they demanded the dismissal and judicial trial of the principal advisors of the king, whom they accuse of misappropriating funds, and whom they hold responsible for the defeat …
    On that point, I must say, Calvo … this is not to go in the letter, but just to share my thoughts with you … the remonstrances are not totally unjustified. Amongst those appointed by King John to his government, I know there are some who are worthless, and even downright scoundrels. It is natural that a man should increase his own fortune when in high office, otherwise nobody would take on the burden or the risk. But one should be careful not to overstep the limits of dishonesty and look after one’s own affairs at the expense of public interest. And above all, one must be capable. And King John, not being that capable himself, wilfully chooses people who are not capable at all …
    But from that time on, armed with the remonstrances, the deputies increasingly made excessive demands. They demanded that the king, or for the time being the dauphin, govern only with advisors approved by the three estates: four prelates, twelve knights, twelve bourgeois. This council was to have the power to organize and carry through everything that the king had always done previously on his own authority; it would appoint all offices, would be entitled to reform the Court of Accounts 18 and any other of the kingdom’s legally appointed bodies, could decide on a prisoner’s ransom, and on many other things as well. In truth, its aim was nothing less than stripping the king of all the attributes of sovereignty.
    In this way the kingdom would no longer be governed by the one anointed and consecrated according to our Holy Religion; its helm would