When the king of Sicily and the duke of Berry, with the lords of the council, were returned to Paris, and had made their report to the king and princes, relating at length the answers which the duke of Burgundy had made, and that he had asserted the king ought to requite him in various ways for having caused the death and murder of the duke of Orleans, they were much disgusted and astonished at the great presumption and audacity of the duke of Burgundy.
It was talked of differently according to the bias of each party. Those of Orleans were much angered, and declared, that the king ought to assemble all his forces to subdue the duke of Burgundy, and punish him as his conduct deserved. While others, attached to the Burgundy-party, held a contrary opinion, thinking the duke had done a praise-worthy act toward the king and his family; and this was the opinion of the greater part of the Parisians, by whom the duke of Burgundy was much beloved. The cause of his popularity in Paris were the hopes they entertained, that through his means the heavy taxes with which they and all France were oppressed would be taken off,—which the duke of Orleans, when alive, had been so instrumental in imposing, because he had had a great share in them.
The duke of Burgundy went shortly after to Flanders, and summoned a great number of his nobles, gentry and men at arms, to prepare themselves to accompany him to Paris,—notwithstanding the king of Sicily and the duke of Berry had forbidden him, in the king’s name, to come thither until further orders. He did not, however, pay any attention to this command, but advanced, by short journeys to St Denis, whither the king of Sicily, and the dukes of Berry and Brittany, and several of the king’s council, came to visit him,—and again forbade him, in the king’s name, to enter Paris, if accompanied by more than two hundred men.
The duke of Burgundy, on this, quitted St Denis, in company with his brother the count de Nevers, his brother-in-law the count de Cleves, and the duke of Lorraine, with a very large body of men well armed, and entered Paris, with the intent of justifying his act and his quarrel with the late duke of Orleans, as well before the king as before all who might think proper to demand it of him.