her and establishing
Mahaut's right to Artois, and ordering that "the said parties (Mahaut
and Robert) should desist from all hate and all felonious acts,... and
that the said Robert should love the said Countess as his dear aunt, and
the said Countess the said Robert as her dear nephew" which both swore
to do.

While Mahaut was forced to contend in the courts for her authority over
Artois, the rebellion of the nobles on the death of Philippe le Bel had
not been without serious results in Artois, where she had found it no
easy task to maintain any sort of hold upon her vassals. Her chief
counsellor, and a faithful servitor he proved, was Thierry d'Hirecon,
whom the vassals of Artois hated as a parvenu foreigner he was from the
Bourbonnais. In 1314 her vassals began complaining to Mahaut of abuses
in the government; but they soon passed from peaceful and legitimate
remonstrance to active outrages upon the servants and the property of
their countess. In all this Robert d'Artois was no doubt the hidden
instigator. One of Mahaut's officers, Cornillot, bailli of Hesdin, who
had incurred the enmity of the Sire de Crequi by interfering with his
hunting over field and forest without regard for the rights of others,
was set upon by a mob of villains who hanged him to a tree; when the
weight of his body broke the limb and brought the poor wretch to the
ground, they buried him in the earth up to his neck, cut off his head,
and carried it as a trophy to the Sire de Crequi. Mahaut despatched her
son with a considerable force to arrest two of the rebel vassals in the
act of going to war; they were taken to prison, but unwisely released by
the intervention of the king, and on the very steps of the prison
proclaimed their intention of going over to Mahaut's enemy, Robert. Some
of the nobles came upon the young count and his sister, Jeanne, in a
country house, insulted them grossly, and even threw mud in the face of
the defenceless Jeanne and her brother, who had with them but three
knights. Jeanne fled to Hesdin, where Mahaut was at the time, and on the
road her carriage was surrounded by a mob of knights, who terrified her
by their insults and their threats. At last both she and Mahaut were
forced to abandon Artois till quieter days should come, leaving the
officers and armies of the king to restore order, a task not completed
until July, 1319.

The rebels committed so many outrages, and the public peace was so
frequently disturbed