[MR] sad news from Burgundy

[Karen Setze]

Fellow citizens of Atlantia:

I, Lady Yseulte Trevelyn, of Bright Hills, sadly bring you terrible and tragic news: John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy was murdered on the 10th of this month in Montereau, France, by men under the direction of Charles, the crown prince of France, to whom they give the title dauphin.

	A friend in the court of Henry V of England tells me there has been bad blood in the past between Duke John and his nephew, the dauphin. The Duke had been invited to Montereau for a parley with the dauphin, to be held on the bridge over the confluence of the Seine and Yonne rivers.

Sadly, the report of the duke’s murder is no rumor. The news, delivered by swift messenger to Queen Isabel of France, holding court under Burgundian protection in Troyes; to the Duchess of Burgundy, Margaret of Bavaria, maintaining the duchy and county of Burgundy from Dijon; and to the duke's son and heir, Phillip, count of Charolais, in Ghent administering the counties of Flanders and Artois; is said to have included the final words from Archambaud de Foix, lord of Navailles, who was mortally wounded defending his lord:

Before he expired two days later, Lord Archambaud told the members of his household how Duke John, accompanied by a few of men, met the dauphin and some of his men on the far side of a barrier fixed across the bridge, near the gate leading from the bridge into the town. The duke had doffed his hat and was kneeling before the prince, when suddenly one of the dauphin’s men, Tanguy de Chastel, leapt forward, swinging an axe at Duke John’s head, but was stopped by Archambaud. Then another of the dauphin’s men, Guillaume, vicount of Narbonne, waved his axe, saying, “Don’t move, or you’re a dead man!”

When Archambaud grabbed the vicount’s axe, the cry “Kill! Kill!” went up and Tanguy struck Duke John on the head with his axe and then turned and whacked Archambaud in the head. As the duke and Archambaud lay on the bridge bleeding, more of the dauphin’s men, concealed in a mill, opened fire with crossbow and canon on those of the duke’s men who attempted to come to his rescue. When his body was finally retrieved, it was found that someone had also stabbed Duke John with a sword.

Not surprisingly, Count Phillip, soon to be affirmed the new Duke of Burgundy, is not currently seeing ambassadors, nor even, according to my friend's report, attending to the business of the duchy, as he is said to be "suffering extreme grief and distress."

King Henry and his ministers are naturally grieved to hear of the shocking end of a man reknowned for his prowess in battle and love of literature, but also feel some apprehension to know the mind of the new duke, and whether he will continue his father's policy as an ally of England. 

Of perhaps greater concern to us in Atlantia, is whether this news will dissuade Martelle von Charlottenburg, baroness of Bright Hills, of her plans to visit her manor at Troyes in the coming year, and hold a feast and offer members of the French and Burgundian courts a taste of the skills of the barony's famed cooks, a vision of the cleverness of her artisans, and a sight of the prowess of her fearsome men at arms and mighty archers.

By my hand on the Vigil of St. Matthew the Apostle,