n as to
the probable attitude of the great nobles in regard to this platform
of centralisation. Very timid were the comments on Charles of
Burgundy. Would he not perhaps be an excellent mediator between the
lesser dukes and the king? Would it not be better to suspend action
until his opinion was known, etc? But at large there was less reserve.
The statements were emphatic. Naught but mischief had ever come to
France from Burgundy. The present duke's father and grandfather had
wrought all the ill that lay in their power. As for Charles, his
illimitable greed was notorious. Let him rest content with his
paternal heritage. Ghent and Bruges were his. Did he want Paris too?
Let the king recover the towns on the Somme. Rightfully they were
French. Louis made no scruple in pleading the invalidity of the treaty
of Conflans, because it had been wrested from him by undue influence.
And this royal sentiment was repeated here and there with growing
conviction of its justice.

While Charles was occupied with the preparation for his wedding, Louis
was engaged in levying troops and mobilising his forces, and these
preparations continued throughout the summer of 1468. Naturally, news
of this zeal directed against the dukes of Normandy and of Brittany
followed the traveller in Holland.

Charles was in high dudgeon and wrote at once to the king, reminding
him that these seigneurs were his allies, and demanding that nothing
should be wrought to their detriment. Conscious that his remonstrance
might be futile, and urged on by appeals from the dukes, Charles
hastened to cut short his stay in Holland so that he might move nearer
to the scene of Louis's activities. His purpose in going to the north
had been twofold--to receive homage as Count of Holland and Zealand,
and to use his new dignity to obtain large sums of money for which he
saw immediate need if he were to hold Louis to the terms wrested from
him.

In early July, Charles had crossed from Sluis in Flanders to
Middelburg, and thence made his progress through the cities of
Zealand, receiving homage as he went. Next he passed to The Hague,
where the nobles and civic deputies of Holland met him and gave
him their oaths of fealty on July 21st. Fifty-six towns[4] were
represented and there were also deputies from eight bailiwicks and the
islands of Texel and Wieringen. "It is noteworthy," comments a Dutch
historian, "that the people's oath was given first. The older custom
was that t