A KING OF FRANCE 
 UNNAMED IN HISTORY 
 
' 
 
raj- y 
 
 1 % zi 4 
 
 ft II 3 
 
 cT 
 
 li'i SsLliSI*' 
 
 ca ^ 
 
 f i ^ J <i « 
 
 ^ 3 1 r » j- f - > 
 
 "1 '- IV c- 
 
 
 4>3 
 
 
 3 (5 
 
 2 4 i 
 
 
 ^C» 
 
 fcMjfe 
 
 ^? 
 
 
 
 
 ■feg 
 
 :x« 
 
 
 5 ^ftJ^C 
 
 12 
 
 
 f II Is 
 
 -ft*- 
 
 Bo -^ 
 
 '* ft '2 c§ j? <$ 
 
 
 t m \ ■ 
 
 
 fe 
 
 1 
 
 ^2. SIC3 
 
 f l 
 
 «s 
 
 r^> 
 
 f C 
 
 '<& 
 
 *-4& 
 
 : %>%i 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 w^fUfel flip 1 otf- 
 
 1 (Us s \| v v S^f -Pi \r(M 
 
 
 $14 
 
 6-2 
 
 £ 
 
 ■* 
 
 
 1 ri 
 
 g r 
 
 f * j 
 
 i 
 
 § ill 
 
 ti 13 i <^>s^ 1^ h vl t- to g (gv 
 
 ^to -S? I Lis i W ^i_ 
 
 I C8 
 
 s ^« ^ OS 
 
 r l||j||f 
 
 I44-4 ii^i ij-r 
 
 *^2 
 
 f HI '. 
 
 IW 
 
 s 
 
 3 lg 
 
 >^ 1 
 
 
 S" 3 ; °s 
 
 MU.Utttili 
 
 1 Zi|- •■ '"" 
 
 <s-cr, 
 
 §<_3 
 
 fr 
 
 Itff, 
 
 ITRllItt 
 
 'It 
 
 t-TH^ 
 
 
 tfc 
 

A KING OF FRANCE 
 
 UNNAMED IN 
 HISTORY 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES EDWARD CHENEY 
 
 CHICAGO LITERARY CLUB 
 1902 
 
n 
 
 THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 CONGRESS, 
 
 Two Copies Received 
 
 FEB 2 1903 
 
 Copyngnt Entry 
 CLASS Oi, XXfc. No. 
 CO 
 
 PY B. ] 
 
 ■ i urn Bi i— rrr 
 
 L/ ^ 
 
 Copyright, 1902 
 CHARLES EDWARD CHENEY 
 
The following pages are the result of 
 researches outside of the beaten paths of 
 mediaeval history. The mysterious career 
 of Giannino of Siena, who claimed to be 
 John I. of France, has stimulated the cu- 
 riosity of European scholars, and elicited 
 several monographs in both French and 
 Italian, If, however, it has hitherto been 
 narrated in English, the fact has escaped 
 the investigations of the present writer. 
 His grateful acknowledgments are due to 
 friends in Rome and Paris for valuable 
 assistance, to the Rev. William Fairley, 
 D.D., Ph.D., for translations from mediae- 
 val Latin, and especially to Mr. Frederick 
 W. Gookin, secretary of the Chicago Lit- 
 erary Club, for helpful suggestions and un- 
 wearying care in passing the work through 
 the press. 
 
 C. E. C. 
 
A KING OF FRANCE 
 UNNAMED IN HISTORY 
 
 HE glory of the old Tuscan 
 city of Siena is the cam- 
 panile which bears the 
 name of the Mangia. Tow- 
 ering skyward with needle- 
 like slenderness, it seems 
 as it nears its full height 
 J to expand as the tulip blos- 
 
 soms on its graceful stem, and bears aloft, 
 like the stamen of the flower, the sacred bell 
 of the republic. For more than five hun- 
 dred years has that brazen voice pealed on 
 the ears of the Siennese. In mediaeval 
 times its sonorous notes were associated 
 with every phase and mood of the turbulent 
 town. It was the great bell which sum- 
 moned the citizens to war, rang out their joy 
 in victory, and tolled forth their mourning 
 in disaster. 
 
But when at high noon on the eighteenth 
 day of October, in the year of grace 1359, 
 the echoes of Siena were awakened by 
 twelve strokes of the bell of the Mangia, 
 there was none so ignorant as to mistake 
 the meaning of the summons. It was the 
 signal that the Seignory,* the supreme 
 legislature of the republic, was about to 
 meet in solemn session. The legal title of 
 the body bespoke what place the great bell, 
 at the call of which it assembled, held in 
 the hearts of the people — for this Siennese 
 Senate was known as "The Council of the 
 Bell." f 
 
 That assembly was the resultant product 
 of innumerable revolutions — the final gov- 
 ernmental structure in which the Siennese 
 had taken refuge when the storms of their 
 own fury had swept away its many prede- 
 cessors. For singularly capricious and 
 fickle as was the populace of all the Italian 
 cities of the Middle Ages, no other of 
 them had known such changes and incon- 
 sistencies as marked the story of Siena.;); 
 It is difficult to draw one thread of definite 
 historic truth out of the confused tangle of 
 dissension and bloodshed, when in less than 
 half a year five revolutions convulsed the 
 city. We only know that when the Coun- 
 
 * Chroniques Siennoises: Introduction par le Due 
 de Dino, p. 9. 
 
 j" See Appendix V. 
 
 J Siena, art. Encyc. Brit., Cesare Paoli. 
 8 
 
cil of the Bell assembled on that October 
 day, it was equally independent of the 
 nobility and of the common people.* In 
 the mysterious crucible of political evolu- 
 tion there had been produced a supreme 
 governing body to which no noble could 
 belong, yet which the people did not choose. 
 Composed exclusively of the class engaged 
 in trade, its members were vested with the 
 choice of their successors, and the body 
 was thus self-perpetuating. We are not 
 dependent wholly upon that seductive artist, 
 the imagination, for a picture which shall 
 set before our mental vision the appearance 
 of the rulers of Siena. So many and so 
 striking are the paintings of mediaeval 
 times, transmitting to modern days the 
 portraiture of similar assemblies, that it 
 becomes easy to reconstruct the scene 
 when the all-powerful Twelve responded 
 with their presence to the summons of the 
 great bell. 
 
 Commerce was the secret of the great- 
 ness of Siena; f and the wealth which had 
 made her craftsmen and merchants famous 
 through southern Europe appeared in the 
 dress and decoration of these lords in the 
 realm of trade. Velvet robes were bordered 
 with costly fur, delicate laces half covered 
 the hands, massive gold chains encircled 
 
 * Chroniques Siennoises: Introduction par le Due 
 de Dino, pp. 9, 23. 
 t Ibid., p. 24. 
 
the neck, and jeweled buckles held to the 
 broad hat the shadowing plumes which 
 made darker still the swarthy Tuscan faces. 
 The place of meeting was fitting such an 
 assembly. The vast Palazzo Pubblico was 
 not then the time-worn relic of an age long 
 past. Just half a century before, in the 
 year 1309, all Siena had gone wild with 
 enthusiasm over the completion of the noble 
 pile which still attests the genius of its 
 architect. While as yet it had not lost the 
 freshness of youth, it had already acquired 
 some of the artistic treasures that have 
 made the municipal palace the pride of the 
 Siennese. As the Twelve gathered for de- 
 liberation in the Hall of the Grand Council, 
 the same frescoes by Simone Martini * 
 looked down on them as upon the modern 
 visitor. 
 
 A letter of the poet Petrarch has been 
 preserved, which records the circumstance 
 that in that very October of I359.,f the 
 winter came early to the plains of Lom- 
 bardy, and drove the luxurious singer from 
 his country home to the shelter of the city 
 of Milan. We need not doubt, however, 
 that mild autumn winds stirred the yet 
 unfallen leaves of the chestnut woods which 
 then covered the now naked hills about 
 
 * Guide to Siena and San Gimignano, London, 
 1885, p. 23. 
 
 •fMemoires de Francois Petrarque, Amsterdam, 
 1767, Vol. III., p. 522. 
 
 10 
 
Siena, and that the warm Tuscan sun, mak- 
 ing its way through the pointed windows of 
 the Hall of the Grand Council, took some- 
 thing from the chilly vastness of that great 
 apartment. 
 
 It was grave business which the rulers of 
 Siena had met to transact. Two months 
 was their brief term of office,* and now 
 they were to choose the twelve burghers 
 who, in succession to themselves, should 
 hold sovereign power for November and 
 December. Human nature was, then as 
 now, tenacious of power once grasped, and 
 the modern reader familiar with the muni- 
 cipal politics of our American cities can 
 hardly stifle the suspicion that the Council 
 of the Bell may each alternate month have 
 re-elected itself. Yet the quaint language 
 of the archives of Siena seems to hint that 
 this election was by lot. Thus runs the 
 ancient chronicle: 
 
 There were drawn out of the chest and the 
 box existing in the chest, in which are de- 
 scribed those who ought in the time to come 
 to hold the office of the twelve lords adminis- 
 trators and governors of the commonwealth 
 and people of the State of Siena, for the said 
 office of the twelve lords, and for the two 
 months, namely, for November and December, 
 next approaching, a ball of wax, on which was 
 folded a small sheet of parchment; and on 
 
 * Chroniques Siennoises, p. 140, makes the term 
 but fifteen days. 
 
 11 
 
this were found written, as I the Notary of 
 the Reformation subscribed, read, twelve 
 names.* 
 
 The list which follows bears striking wit- 
 ness to the complete exclusion of the ancient 
 nobility from the government of Siena. 
 Among the twelve one is specified as a 
 shopkeeper, another as a dealer in linen, 
 a third as a silk merchant, a fourth as 
 a baker. The title to power in the Sien- 
 nese republic lay, not in gentle blood or 
 soldierly achievement, but in bourgeois line- 
 age and success in the fields of commerce. 
 Even the list proposed on that October 
 afternoon was not to be accepted without 
 challenge. For the notary adds that when 
 he reached in his reading the name of 
 "Janninus, or Gianni Guccio, the wool 
 merchant of the section of Camollia," grave 
 protest sprang to the lips of more than one 
 member of the Seignory: not because of 
 moral delinquency, intellectual incapacity or 
 political turpitude, but because it had 
 been clearly shown that Guccio was not a 
 burgher born, but of blood royal, and heir 
 apparent to the throne of France.f Upon 
 that entry in the ancient minutes of the 
 Council of the Bell hangs a tale that ranks 
 among the strangest to be found in the 
 annals of mediaeval Europe. Our story 
 carries us nearly half a century backward 
 
 * See Appendix V. | Ibid - 
 
 12 
 
in point of time, and changes the scene 
 from Central Italy to the capital of France. 
 It is the 15th of November, 13 16. Paris 
 is tumultuous with joy. Crowds throng the 
 narrow streets. Houses are illuminated. 
 Te Deum is sung at Notre Dame. His- 
 tory does not record it, but we may hazard 
 the guess that at the solemn services in 
 which the church gave expression to the 
 universal gladness of the people, the arch- 
 bishop may have preached in the great 
 cathedral from the text, "For unto us a 
 child is born, to us a son is given, and the 
 government shall be upon his shoulders." 
 
 Five months earlier, on the 5 th of June,* 
 Louis X., surnamed Le Hutin, or the 
 Quarreler, had reached the end of his brief 
 and stormy reign. His accession to the 
 throne had brought the elder line of de- 
 scent from Hugh Capet to its last gener- 
 ation, and his death threatened France 
 with the horrors of civil war. While Louis 
 was yet a boy, his crafty father, Philip the 
 Fair, to cement his own power, had negoti- 
 ated the marriage of the young prince with 
 the heiress of the ducal house of Burgundy. 
 Similar splendid alliances had been made 
 by Philip for his two younger sons. It 
 casts a lurid light upon the morals of the 
 great in that period of history, that each of 
 the three princesses thus introduced into 
 
 *Memoires relatifs a PHistoire de France. Paris, 
 1825. 
 
 13 
 
the royal family of France was accused — 
 whether justly or unjustly, who can tell? — 
 of unfaithfulness to her marriage vows, 
 and condemned to a fearful doom.* The 
 American tourist whose wanderings in 
 France have led him to Les Andelys, on the 
 right bank of the Seine, will long remem- 
 ber the imposing ruins of the Chateau 
 Gaillard, built by Richard Cceur de Lion 
 in the twelfth century. In one of the 
 horrible dungeons still to be explored in the 
 remnant of the old Norman fortress, Mar- 
 garet of Burgundy was strangled by order 
 of her husband. 
 
 The ill-fated young queen left a daughter 
 who bore the name of Jeanne, and who was 
 destined at a later period to act a conspicu- 
 ous part in the tragedy of French and 
 Burgundian history. 
 
 Some of the chroniclers do not hesitate 
 to assert that Louis' mad passion for 
 Clemence, or Clementine, the sister of the 
 King of Hungary, was the real source from 
 which sprang the indictment of Queen 
 Margaret, and her cruel execution.f Cer- 
 tain it is that crowding close upon Marga- 
 ret's death came the marriage of her hus- 
 band to the Hungarian princess. 
 
 In the case of Louis le Hutin "the mills 
 
 *Milman's Latin Christianity, Vol. VI., p. 533. 
 Dareste's Histoire de France, Vol. II., p. 378. 
 
 |Martin, Histoire de France, Vol. IV., p. 523. 
 Sismondi, Histoire des Francais, Vol. XL, p. 309. 
 
 14 
 
of the gods" did not ' 'grind slow." Less 
 than a year from his second marriage,* and 
 only eighteen months from the unhappy 
 day on which he became King of France, 
 he sickened and died. So insignificant was 
 the personality of the man, and so inglori- 
 ous the career of the monarch, that even 
 the more elaborate histories of France dis- 
 miss the reign of Louis X. with little more 
 than the mention of his name. 
 
 Not infrequently the actual experience of 
 disaster is more easily endured than the 
 suspense which precedes it. The French 
 people groped like a ship in a fog, through 
 the awful uncertainty which followed the 
 death of Louis X. For once the populace 
 of Paris could not shout, "The King is 
 dead. Long live the King!" For Louis 
 had no successor. From the days of Hugh 
 Capet, through more than three hundred 
 years, each monarch at his death had 
 handed down the scepter to his son.f 
 
 But when the bells of Notre Dame an- 
 nounced the death of Louis the Quarreler, 
 there was none to claim parentage from 
 him — save the little girl Jeanne — pitiful 
 offspring of a father utterly contemptible, 
 and a mother whose savage murder had not 
 obliterated the stains upon her memory. 
 The child was not without a champion of 
 her claims to be Queen of France. The 
 
 *Duruy, Histoire de France, Vol. I., p. 411. 
 |Dareste, Hist, de France, Vol. II., p. 387. 
 
 15 
 
potent Duke of Burgundy,* her mother's 
 brother, demanded that there should be no 
 departure from the immemorial precedent 
 by which the crown descended from the 
 parent to the child. 
 
 But closer to the seat of power was Philip, 
 Count of Poitou, brother of the dead king. 
 As the nearest male relative of Louis, this 
 prince had been immediately proclaimed 
 regent of the realm till the question of suc- 
 cession should be settled. But his vaulting 
 ambition was not satisfied with any tempo- 
 rary possession of sovereignty. Out from 
 the musty archives of Carlovingian tradition 
 the cunning plotter dragged an almost for- 
 gotten statute that certain territories known 
 as "Salic" lands could not be inherited by 
 a woman.f With the convincing logic which 
 has rarely failed to make the despot irre- 
 sistible in argument, Philip insisted upon 
 the application of this ancient custom to the 
 title to the throne of France. With the 
 ruthless exclusion of the young Jeanne 
 began the so-called "Salic Law," which 
 bound France to a line of male rulers — 
 however hateful — so long as the nation was 
 ruled by monarchical authority .J 
 
 But for Philip, shrewd schemer though 
 he was, the voyage to the royal "haven 
 
 * Monmerque, p. 13; Dareste, Vol. II., p. 388. 
 tDareste, Vol. II., p. 388. 
 
 $ Sismondi, Histoire des Francais, Vol. IX., p. 
 352. 
 
 16 
 
where he would be" was not yet "plain 
 sailing." There was another and more 
 perplexing contingency to be reckoned with. 
 The widowed Queen Clemence was expect- 
 ing the birth of a posthumous child and heir 
 of Louis X. All authorities concur in as- 
 cribing to the noblesse at this critical junc- 
 ture an intense suspicion of Philip, and 
 perhaps still more of Mathilde, Countess of 
 Artois,* whose daughter was the regent's 
 wife. This haughty woman had not scru- 
 pled to express in the most public way her 
 chagrin that her son-in-law had not been 
 seated on the throne when the death of his 
 brother made it vacant. The great heredi- 
 tary lords saw with keen apprehension that 
 the selfish ambition of Philip was tempted 
 by an opportunity which placed the prize of 
 regal power just within his grasp. Him- 
 self already king except in name, and with 
 his unscrupulous mother-in-law in constant 
 attendance upon Queen Clemence, nothing 
 was easier than to compass the early death 
 of the child with whose fate the future of 
 France was bound up. Against so perilous 
 a contingency the great barons of France 
 proceeded to make provision. The exact 
 date and the precise place of the meeting 
 vary slightly in the different chronicles, but 
 certain it is that while the posthumous child 
 of Louis le Hutin was yet unborn, an 
 
 *Gigli, Diario Sanese, quoted by Monmerque, 
 Dissertation Historique, p. 73. 
 
 i7 
 
assembly of the princes and highest nobility- 
 was held, at which an agreement was 
 reached, to which Philip himself, however 
 reluctantly, assented. The Duke of Bur- 
 gundy withdrew the claim of his little niece 
 Jeanne, to whom was flung the sop of a possi- 
 ble inheritance of the kingdom of Navarre.* 
 Relieved of this peril to his claim, Philip 
 entered into a solemn covenant with the 
 barons and lords of France, that should the 
 child of Louis and Clemence prove to be a 
 son, he should be proclaimed king immedi- 
 ately on his birth, but Philip should be 
 guardian of the baby-monarch and regent 
 of the realm until the young prince should 
 attain the age of eighteen years.f But if 
 the child had the misfortune to be a girl, 
 Philip should become king not only in fact, 
 but by public acknowledgment and conse- 
 cration. Hated and feared as Philip was, 
 little wonder that the thoughts and prayers 
 of France, from the peasant to the peer, 
 were centered on that chamber in the fort- 
 ress of the Louvre, where from the time of 
 Philip Augustus the heirs to the crown of 
 France had first seen the light of day. 
 Little wonder that when, on the 15th of 
 November, 1316,^: the gorgeously arrayed 
 
 * Chronique de St. Victor. See foot-note in 
 Monmerque, pp. 10, II. 
 
 I Sismondi, Vol. IX., p. 338. Others say twenty- 
 four years. Monmerque, Dissert. Histor., p. 8. 
 
 J Sismondi, Vol. IX., p. 344. 
 
heralds proclaimed that a young prince had 
 that day been born to the late King Louis 
 of blessed memory and to the gracious 
 Queen Clemence, the bells rang till the 
 steeples rocked, joyous crowds thronged 
 the streets, and bonfires blazed in every 
 public place. When, a little later, in accord 
 with a vow which the queen had made to 
 St. John the Baptist,* the young prince was 
 christened John, the people hailed as an 
 omen of good the relinquishment of the 
 names Philip and Louis which their mon- 
 archs had borne through so many genera- 
 tions, and to this day the hapless babe is 
 counted in the history of France as "John 
 
 I."t 
 
 Short-lived was the popular jubilation. 
 The chroniclers of that period relate that 
 when but eight days old the royal infant, 
 inheriting feebleness of constitution from 
 both its parents, suddenly died, and all 
 France was plunged in mourning. The 
 brief sunshine which had broken through 
 the clouds of misrule shadowing the nation, 
 was turned to midnight when John I. was 
 laid at the feet of his father in the tombs 
 of his ancestors at St. Denis,;); and Philip, 
 fifth of the name, was proclaimed King of 
 France and Navarre. 
 
 * Gigli's Diario Sanese, quoted by Monmerqu£, 
 P. 73- 
 
 t Sismondi, Histoire des Francais, Vol. IX., p. 344. 
 X Martin, Hist, de France, Vol. IV., p. 533. 
 
 19 
 
Thus far we have traveled a road known 
 to scholars. Every student of French his- 
 tory may verify the pathetic tale of the 
 little king whose birth was welcomed as 
 the advent of a deliverer, and whose life 
 and reign were bounded by the horizon of 
 a single week. But he whose curiosity 
 prompts him to search amidst the dust of 
 mediaeval archives for truth stranger than 
 fiction will find an account of the only son 
 of Louis X. of France widely variant from 
 the narratives of Sismondi, or Guizot, or 
 Martin. While there is no lack of corrobo- 
 rative testimony in other documents, the 
 principal source of information is contained 
 in an unpublished manuscript in the Chigi 
 Library in Rome. The work of a Domini- 
 can monk, Sigismund Titius (or Tiziano),* it 
 is the fullest and most elaborate history of 
 the republic of Siena which has been pre- 
 served to modern times. The remainder 
 of this paper will follow closely the record 
 of this mediaeval chronicle. 
 
 The suspicion and fear with which Philip 
 of Poitou and his ally, the Countess of 
 Artois, had inspired the great lords at the 
 court of France, had taken form in an un- 
 usual precaution. Some weeks before the 
 birth of the royal child, two barons of 
 ancient lineage and distinguished services 
 to France were appointed, together with 
 their wives, to be a personal guard to 
 
 * Article Siena, Encyclop. Brit., Vol. XXII., p. 43. 
 
 20 
 
Queen Clemence.* Knowing that Philip's 
 succession to his dead brother's throne 
 hung upon the question whether the queen 
 should give birth to a son or a daughter, 
 these guardians were solemnly sworn to 
 forestall any injury to the mother or the 
 infant, and to detect and prevent any 
 fraudulent attempt to misrepresent the sex 
 of the child. Their watchful anxiety was 
 not allayed when, after the birth of the 
 young prince, the Countess of Artois de- 
 manded the privilege of holding him in her 
 arms on the occasion of his public presenta- 
 tion to the people of Paris. f The barons 
 were well aware that this unscrupulous 
 woman and her crafty son-in-law, maddened 
 with the disappointment of their hope, and 
 reckless as to the means to be used to gain 
 their end, might seize the opportunity to 
 compass the death of the new-born king 
 when he should be shown to a loyal popu- 
 lace. Suspicion of their purpose grew as it 
 was discovered that the Countess of Artois 
 had set afloat through Paris the rumor J 
 that the babe was a feeble and puny infant, 
 and was liable to die at any moment. 
 With a spirit characteristic of the Middle 
 Ages, the protectors of the royal child re- 
 
 * Rienzi's Charte, Monmerque, Dissertation His- 
 torique, p. 41. Vide Appendix IV. 
 
 I Chifflet, Lumina Salica, Antwerp, 1660, Vol. I., 
 p. 278. Rienzi's Charte, Appendix IV. 
 
 J Chifflet, quoted by Monmarque, Dissert. Hist., 
 P. 57- 
 
 21 
 
solved to "fight fire with fire." They, too, 
 could resort to stratagem, and if Philip and 
 his fellow-plotter were mining in the dark, 
 their opponents with equal secrecy could 
 countermine. 
 
 Our story leads us from the abode of 
 royalty to the seat of a power which in 
 mediaeval times rivaled and often eclipsed 
 that of kings. In one of the numerous 
 nunneries in the outskirts of Paris a young 
 mother, over whom scarcely fifteen sum- 
 mers had passed, was half the guest and 
 half the prisoner of her relative, the Lady 
 Abbess. Born of the noble stock of the 
 Sieur de Picard,* a household famous in the 
 region about Crecy, where a generation 
 later Edward the Black Prince crushed the 
 power of the House of Valois, the girl, left 
 fatherless in her infancy, had been reared 
 by her widowed mother and two elder 
 brothers. Into the neighborhood of Crecy, 
 some time in 13 15, a young Tuscan mer- 
 chant had found his way. The great pa- 
 trician family of the Tolomei, the most 
 aristocratic in Siena,f did not feel itself 
 degraded in adding to its vast wealth by 
 traffic in the woolen fabrics which to this 
 day constitute the principal factor in Sien- 
 nese commerce. Guccio di Mino di Gieri 
 Baglioni was a nephew of Spinello di To- 
 lomei, and became the representative of 
 
 *Papencordt's Rienzi, p. 320. 
 I Siena, Cesare Paoli, p. 42. 
 22 
 
the great nobleman's extended trade with 
 France. 
 
 How a youth engaged in commercial 
 pursuits — even though connected with a 
 noble house — should have overcome the 
 prejudice with which the warlike French 
 noblesse looked down upon the Italian 
 tendency to traffic, it would be difficult to 
 explain. Certain it is, however, that Pierre 
 and Jean de Picard welcomed Guccio to 
 their hunting and fowling excursions, and 
 made him a frequent guest at their ancestral 
 chateau. 
 
 Quick and terrible was their revulsion of 
 feeling when one day the discovery was 
 made that the handsome young Tuscan had 
 not only won the affection of their little 
 sister Marie, but had betrayed their hospi- 
 tality by a secret marriage. The furious 
 brothers drove Guccio out of France, and 
 warned him that if he ever again crossed 
 the Italian border, his life would pay the 
 forfeit.* In vain the poor Marie pleaded, 
 and showed her wedding-ring. They would 
 acknowledge no marriage which should 
 commingle the blood of the Picards with 
 that of a base Italian trader. They tried 
 to hide their disgraced sister by placing her 
 in the care of her aunt, the Abbess of the 
 Convent of the Filles Dieu at Paris, where 
 her child was born a fortnight earlier than 
 the baby king. 
 
 * Chifflet, quoted by Monmerque, p. 56. 
 2 3 
 
But the story spread, and reaching the 
 ears of the barons appointed to watch over 
 the queen and the heir apparent, they sum- 
 moned Marie de Picard to be the royal 
 infant's nurse. 
 
 One chronicler asserts that the barons 
 assured the young mother that no harm to 
 her babe could follow her permission to 
 have him dressed in robes spangled with 
 fleurs de lis, and to allow his exhibition to 
 the populace as the new-born king. They 
 urged that in some vague and unexplained 
 way she would thus show her patriotism 
 and her loyalty to the infant sovereign.* 
 Nor is it unreasonable to suppose that in 
 such an age of history the pride of her 
 mother-heart was flattered with the thought 
 of her son appearing, even for a brief 
 moment, in the guise of a monarch. 
 
 The day arrived on which the people of 
 Paris were to see the child whose advent 
 had filled all France with joy. At one of 
 the great windows of the palace appeared 
 Mathilde, Countess of Artois. In her arms 
 she bore a babe, whose tiny figure seemed 
 strangely disproportioned to the jeweled 
 robes of ermine-fringed velvet which pro- 
 claimed his rank, and on whose drooping 
 head was fastened a crown flashing with 
 diamonds. f Unconscious that, despite her 
 shrewdness, a clever trick had been played 
 
 * Gigli, quoted by Monmerque\ p. 76. 
 •fRienzi's Charte. See Appendix IV. 
 24 
 
upon her, Mathilde, when the eager crowd 
 had satisfied their enthusiastic loyalty, with- 
 drew from the balcony, but not till she had 
 wrought the evil deed to accomplish which 
 she had asked the honor of displaying the 
 young king to his future subjects. Authori- 
 ties differ as to the mode in which the 
 murder was committed. Some assert that 
 poison concealed in a finger-ring was in- 
 jected through the child's tender skin. 
 Others relate that in a more brutal way the 
 Countess crushed the infant in her strong 
 grasp till some internal injury assured its 
 death. Still others hint that a slender 
 needle was used to pierce the skull and 
 reach the brain.* However the deed may 
 have been done, we know that on the en- 
 suing day a black cloud lowered over 
 France, and a mourning people were told 
 that their young king was dead. Only to 
 two or three great lords and ladies, and to 
 a broken-hearted young mother who went 
 back to her convent-cell carrying a babe 
 not her own, was it known that the mur- 
 dered child was that of a Tuscan trader, 
 and that the survivor of the tragedy was the 
 son of Louis X., and heir to the throne of 
 France. The chroniclers tell us that when 
 the barons announced to the young woman 
 they had so cruelly deceived that her child 
 was dead, they were terrified by her piteous 
 wailing. But while they tried to quiet her 
 
 * Gigli, quoted by Monmerque, p. 76. 
 
 25 
 
cries of grief by pointing out the peril be- 
 trayal of their common secret would bring 
 to her as to them, they also pictured to her 
 imagination the rank and wealth which 
 would be her reward when her foster-child 
 should attain his rightful crown.* Through 
 the Louvre they caused the report to run 
 that the nurse of the dead prince showed 
 the loyalty and affectionateness of her 
 nature by a sorrow as bitter as if the royal 
 infant had been her own offspring. 
 
 That the secret would be guarded well 
 may be easily believed. For Philip of 
 Poitou became by the supposed death of 
 his nephew unquestioned king of France. 
 Had Marie de Picard revealed the royal 
 lineage of the babe which she had adopted 
 as her own, or had the lords of the court 
 told how they had contrived and executed 
 the exchange of the children, it would have 
 had no result but to bring down on their 
 own heads the certain and terrible ven- 
 geance of the king. 
 
 So passed nearly ten years. The young 
 foster-mother of an unknown prince was 
 once more reconciled to her family, and 
 restored to the ancestral castle at Crecy. 
 Meantime her husband ventured again into 
 France, and from Paris wrote pleading 
 letters to the wife from whom he had so 
 long been parted, entreating her that he 
 might be permitted to see his son. It is 
 
 *Rienzi's Charte. See Appendix IV. 
 26 
 
easy to understand that the bereaved mother 
 should have shrunk from weaving further 
 the tangled web of deception, and that she 
 hesitated long before granting a request 
 which involved the false hypothesis that 
 the boy was the child of Guccio. At last, 
 however, the appeal became too urgent to 
 be longer resisted, and the young Jean, or 
 Gianni, was sent to Paris to meet his sup- 
 posed father. But the wily Tuscan never 
 sent back the borrowed boy. Taking him 
 to Siena, Guccio educated the child in the 
 schools where the young Siennese burghers 
 were fitted for trade. At the proper age 
 he was launched on the tide of business as 
 a member of the wool-weavers' corpora- 
 tion,* and when, in 1 340, the elder Guccio 
 died, his supposed son had become a con- 
 spicuous figure in Siena. A prosperous 
 merchant, repeatedly holding the highest 
 municipal offices, and finally intrusted with 
 the great responsibilities of administrator of 
 the hospital of Santa Maria della Miseri- 
 cordia, Gianni di Guccio lived an unambi- 
 tious life, contented with his lot, and enjoy- 
 ing the boundless confidence of his fellow- 
 burghers of Siena. 
 
 Once more the scene shifts to France. 
 It is the month of June, 1345-f To the 
 castle of the Picards at Crecy, a Spanish 
 monk of the neighboring Augustinian con- 
 
 * Chroniques Siennoises, p. 24. 
 "j" Papencordt's Rienzi, p. 322. 
 
 27 
 
vent, has been summoned in hot haste. 
 Marie de Picard, conscious that her end is 
 near, has sent for the holy father to hear 
 her last confession. On the ear of the 
 astonished priest falls a story which fear 
 had locked in this woman's breast for nearly 
 thirty years. She tells him that the true 
 King of France is in a foreign country, 
 living a tradesman's life, not only unknown 
 to his subjects, but himself unconscious of 
 the high dignity of his birth. Nor does the 
 dying woman allow her confessor to leave 
 her, till, under every solemn sanction of his 
 religion, he has sworn that he will seek the 
 son of Louis X., and lay before him the 
 proofs of his royalty, and urge him to claim 
 his own. 
 
 It was a critical hour in the history of 
 France. Philip the Long had died after a 
 brief reign. Charles IV. had speedily fol- 
 lowed his brothers, and now, so far as 
 France knew, no male heir in the elder line 
 from Hugh Capet existed to claim the 
 crown. Philip of Valois, representing the 
 younger branch of the Capetian dynasty, 
 had been for seventeen years upon the 
 throne. Meantime Edward III. of Eng- 
 land had pressed his title to the sovereignty 
 of France by crushing victories over the 
 house of Valois. The French people were 
 rent by intestine dissensions. Earthquakes 
 had desolated the land. Fearful pesti- 
 lences had sent mourning into palaces and 
 
 28 
 
hovels.* To Father Jordan, the Augus- 
 tinian confessor of Marie Picard, the secret 
 significance *of these scourges of God was 
 revealed as by a light from heaven. They 
 could only mean that Divine judgment 
 would not be withdrawn from unhappy 
 France until the true king, hidden alike 
 from his people and himself, was brought 
 back to his just inheritance. But while the 
 monk's conscience led him to resolve to 
 spend his days in seeking out the lost prince, 
 he could not conquer his fear of Philip of 
 Valois.f Nine years appear to have passed 
 without action. But in 1354, Jordan con- 
 fided the last testament of Marie Picard 
 to a French Augustinian monk, Father 
 Antoine, whose repeated visits to Italy had 
 fitted him for his delicate responsibility. 
 Landing near Genoa, Antoine was stricken 
 with sudden and severe illness.^ He had 
 heard, before leaving France, the romantic 
 history of Cola di Rienzi, with which all 
 Europe was ringing, and knew that for a 
 second time, and with the full approval of 
 the Pope, the once banished Tribune was 
 reigning in supreme and splendid power in 
 Rome. In Rienzi, Antoine recognized a 
 God-elected man, whose mission on earth 
 was to right every wrong. To him, there- 
 
 * Rienzi's Charte, Appendix IV. 
 t Letter of Antoine, Appendix I. Also Rienzi's 
 Charte, Appendix IV. 
 J Ibid. 
 
 29 
 
fore, the monk sent not only the full account 
 of the concealed King of France, but the 
 documents and other evidences which Marie 
 de Picard had intrusted to the monk 
 Jordan. 
 
 It should be said that this letter of 
 Antoine to Rienzi is differentiated from all 
 the other versions of the story of Giannino 
 by a marked variation in one particular.* 
 It does not mention the Countess of 
 Artois, nor even hint at the terrible iniquity 
 with which she is charged by the other 
 writers. On the contrary, the monk makes 
 the barons who sought a nurse for the 
 new-born prince to have intrusted the 
 royal babe to the Lady Marie de Picard, 
 while that youthful mother was still an in- 
 mate of the monastery. Her own child 
 was cared for by a nurse, and the two 
 women with the infants occupied the same 
 apartment. At dead of night they discov- 
 ered that the child of Guccio and Marie 
 was lying lifeless beside the woman charged 
 with its care. For some reason which 
 Antoine does not explain, the Lady Marie 
 is represented as taking the dead Giannino 
 and placing him beside herself, consigning 
 the living son of King Louis to the serving- 
 woman, and thus deceiving the attendants 
 whom her cries attracted to the chamber. 
 Antoine therefore lays the responsibility of 
 the exchange of the royal child for another 
 
 * See the full text of Antoine's letter in Appendix I. 
 30 
 
to the Lady Marie herself, instead of the 
 barons who watched over the safety of the 
 young prince. What renders this dis- 
 crepant narrative the more perplexing is 
 the fact that the "Charte," or elaborate 
 statement made by Rienzi to attest the 
 claims of Giannino, although evoked by the 
 letter of Antoine, repeats the story as re- 
 lated by the other writers. In that remark- 
 able document, written but a few days 
 before the death of the Tribune, he dis- 
 tinctly records that the lords of the court 
 planned and executed the scheme by which 
 the prince was saved from the murderess 
 who plotted his destruction. Rienzi un- 
 hesitatingly attributes the death of the child 
 of the Lady Marie to Mathilde of Artois. 
 With this statement agree no less than four 
 independent contemporary documents. 
 
 It is well to remember, however, that 
 this discrepancy affects only the method, 
 not the fact, of the exchange of the child of 
 Guccio for the son of Louis X. of France. 
 It is a principle of all sound historic criti- 
 cism that when the chroniclers differ in 
 subordinate particulars, but agree in the 
 main incident which they relate, it invests 
 that incident with the stronger probability. 
 It should not be forgotten that the monk 
 Antoine was a subject of the King of 
 France.* The journey into Italy was un- 
 dertaken for a definite purpose, having ac- 
 
 * Rienzi's Charte, Appendix IV. 
 3i 
 
complished which, he expected to return 
 again to his native land. Compelled by 
 his serious illness to substitute a written 
 for an oral communication of his story to 
 Rienzi, whom he knew only by reputation, 
 Antoine might well hesitate to prefer a 
 written indictment of an attempt at regicide 
 against so powerful and so revengeful a 
 woman as the Countess of Artois. Nor 
 would it be inconsistent with the ecclesi- 
 astical conscience of that age so to sup- 
 press or alter a mere detail of the revelation 
 he unfolded as to avoid making an humble 
 monk the accuser of one so closely allied 
 to royalty. 
 
 Startling as a lightning-flash out of the 
 cloudless heaven it must have been when, 
 one September day in 1354,* a messenger, 
 booted and spurred, rode his jaded horse 
 into the courtyard of Gianni Guccio's house 
 at Siena, and announced himself as an 
 envoy of Rienzi. Wasting no words, and 
 giving no explanation of his master's pur- 
 pose, he simply conveyed the oral mandate 
 of the great ruler of Rome, that Guccio 
 should present himself at the capitol with- 
 out delay. It would be interesting if we 
 knew what conjectures may have filled the 
 mind of the Siennese wool-merchant as to 
 the possible reason that one who then was 
 counted among the very greatest and most 
 powerful of mankind should desire a con- 
 
 *Papencordt's Rienzi, p. 323. 
 32 
 
ference with an humble burgher of Tuscany. 
 Most probable it is that his commercial 
 instincts and training led Guccio to dream 
 of profits to be made in some rich contract 
 for supplies to Rienzi's armies, then warring 
 against the revolting barons of Rome. 
 Certain it is that farthest from the dreams 
 of his fancy was the thought that the in- 
 vitation had a political significance. The 
 proverbial caution of the man of affairs was 
 exhibited in Guccio' s refusal to take the 
 journey to Rome until he should receive a 
 written summons in Rienzi's own hand, and 
 sealed with his own signet. It speaks vol- 
 umes for Rienzi's profound conviction that 
 in Guccio he had found the true heir to the 
 French crown, that in compliance with the 
 wool-trader's stipulation a second messen- 
 ger was dispatched to Siena, bearing an 
 autograph letter of the Dictator of Rome — 
 a letter which has been preserved to the 
 present day.* 
 
 On the second day of October, 1354, a 
 dusty cavalcade entered Rome by the gate 
 now known as the Porta del Popolo, and 
 drew up before a little hostelry which then 
 fronted on the Campo di Fiore. Leaving 
 his servants at the inn, and without more 
 delay than was demanded by the arranging 
 of his dress, disordered by his long ride, 
 Guccio hastened to the capitol. Admitted 
 without delay to the presence of Rienzi, 
 
 * See Appendix II. 
 
 33 
 
and welcomed with that singular charm of 
 manner which drew all men to the ill-fated 
 Tribune, Guccio was ushered by his host 
 into a private cabinet, where they could be 
 alone.* Closing the door, Rienzi flung 
 himself upon his knees, and saluted the 
 wool-merchant of Siena as the rightful King 
 of France. Bewildered by this amazing 
 reception, and perhaps with the thought 
 that Rienzi' s intellect had given way under 
 the strain of his cares and responsibilities, 
 Guccio refused to let the great ruler of 
 Rome humble himself to kiss the hand of a 
 simple burgher of Siena. But before his 
 eyes were spread the documents which had 
 been transmitted by Marie de Picard as she 
 lay upon her death-bed. The sworn state- 
 ment of Father Jordan, and the marvelous 
 circumstantial proofs which had been 
 placed in Rienzi's hands, became irresist- 
 ible. Reluctantly, and doubtless with many 
 a yearning for the happy days of honorable 
 and honored bourgeois life which he must 
 leave behind him, Guccio accepted his high 
 destiny as heir of an historic crown, and 
 God-appointed deliverer of unhappy France. 
 Six days after Guccio had learned the 
 secret of his royal lineage, the mob of Rome 
 tore Rienzi to pieces at the gate of the 
 capitol.f Guccio went back to Siena with 
 a prisoner locked in his breast who was 
 
 * Papencordt's Rienzi, p. 323. 
 t Ibid., p. 325. 
 
 34 
 
perpetually knocking for release. True, he 
 once more took up his old life. Business 
 thrived. His family was growing up about 
 him. But Gianni Guccio could never again 
 be to himself just what he had been before 
 the fateful hour in which he met Cola 
 di Rienzi. As was natural to mediaeval J 
 piety, the burden on his mind was lifted! 
 at the confessional. Father Bartolomeo 
 Mino, whose name would suggest his be- 
 ing a relative of Guccio, was a priest who 
 bore a deserved reputation for piety and 
 sound judgment. When the astonishing 
 revelation was poured into his ear, the con- 
 fessor counseled that it should remain a 
 secret till God in his own good time should 
 send such a conjunction of events as should 
 make it clear that the hour for speech and 
 action had arrived. Two years later, on 
 the 9th of October, 1356,* God's bell 
 seemed to sound its warning on the ears 
 of Guccio and Fra Bartolomeo. On that 
 day the tidings reached Siena that the vast 
 armies of France had been crushed at 
 Poitiers, that the great lords and princes of 
 the realm had been slain or made prison- 
 ers, and that King John of the House of 
 Valois had been carried captive into Eng- 
 land. So deeply did the miseries of France 
 touch the people of Siena, that for the 
 moment the traditional feud of the aristoc- 
 
 *Gigli, quoted in Dissert. Hist, p. 81. Also 
 Papencordt, p. 326. 
 
 35 
 
racy and the bourgeois was forgotten, and 
 all classes met in a great assembly to ex- 
 press their commiseration.* Suddenly the 
 Fra Bartolomeo rose. He declared that 
 the hour had struck for the only legitimate 
 King of France to claim his own. That 
 king had long dwelt among his fellow-citi- 
 zens at Siena unrecognized and unhonored. 
 Before the astonished multitude the elo- 
 quent priest set forth the salient points of 
 Guccio's birth and early life, and finally 
 produced the last will and testament of 
 Marie de Picard, with its solemn declara- 
 tion that her babe had been substituted for 
 the royal child, and that thus the heir ap- 
 parent had escaped the murderous hands 
 of the Countess of Artois. A wild enthu- 
 siasm seized upon Siena. Municipal pride 
 was stimulated by the knowledge that 
 within the walls of the ancient town a king 
 of France had been reared from his child- 
 hood. The story of Guccio spread like fire 
 in the dry grass of autumn. All Tuscany 
 was aroused. Fuel was added to the flame 
 when the two monks, Jordan and Antoine, 
 who were on a pilgrimage to the Holy 
 Sepulchre, wrote letters from Palermo to 
 the Grand Council and to the bishop of 
 Siena, confirming all that Fra Bartolomeo 
 had already revealed. f Guccio's friends 
 were organized into a propaganda to push 
 
 * Papencordt's Rienzi, p. 326. 
 t Ibid., p. 327. 
 
 36 
 
his interests in every European court. Fra 
 Bartolomeo was sent on an embassy to 
 Rome, and swayed the senators and coun- 
 cil of the Eternal City with so profound a 
 conviction that they in their turn sent out 
 their envoys to the other states of Italy, 
 pleading for recognition and support of 
 Guccio. 
 
 Louis, King of Hungary, nephew to 
 Queen Clemence, eagerly embraced the 
 cause of his royal cousin, and addressed 
 a letter to all the princes, prelates, and 
 governments of Europe, declaring his full 
 belief in the validity of Guccio's title. * 
 
 Louis also asserted that he had personally 
 set on foot thorough historical investiga- 
 tions, which had confirmed, in the minutest 
 particulars, the narrative which Marie de 
 Picard had related to her confessor. 
 
 The kingdom of Navarre, at this time 
 governed by a regent, entered into open 
 alliance with Guccio. City after city in 
 his native France proclaimed him king. 
 Some of the great French nobility offered 
 him allegiance. In the papal court at 
 Avignon he gained the adhesion of car- 
 dinals and prelates nearest to the Pope. 
 Nor was Guccio lacking the most essential 
 element of success. Enormously wealthy 
 through prosperous trade, his exchequer was 
 swollen by fifty thousand gold florins con- 
 tributed by the persecuted Jews of Hun- 
 
 * Papencordt's Rienzi, p. 329. 
 
 37 
 
gary, Carinthia, and Austria, who promised 
 even greater gifts in response to his pledge 
 that when King of France he would protect 
 them from their enemies.* Furnished with 
 an amount of ready money such as few 
 monarchs of that day could boast, Guccio 
 had already entered upon negotiations with 
 one of those bands of mercenaries who 
 constituted the main reliance in the military 
 operations of the Middle Ages. Suddenly 
 a combination of adverse events fell like a 
 blighting frost upon the springing growths 
 of his ambition. At Avignon the Pope was 
 the creature of the King of France. At 
 first not ill disposed to listen to those who 
 told Guccio 's romantic story, the pontiff 
 suddenly awoke to the peril which the new 
 movement had created. For one of Guc- 
 cio's lieutenants with an armed force had 
 seized on the fortress of Codolet, only a 
 few miles from Pope Innocent's gorgeous 
 palace at Avignon. The letter in which 
 His Holiness relates this incident to Louis, 
 King of Sicily, is still extant.f The enor- 
 mous power of the church was interposed 
 to block the plans of Guccio. The French 
 monarch, who had but lately been released 
 from captivity in England, J set a price 
 upon the head of his rival. Conscious that 
 
 * Papencordt's Rienzi, p. 329. 
 |See Dissert. Historique, p. 25. Full text of 
 letter. 
 
 X Martin, Hist, de France, Vol. V., p. 229. 
 
 38 
 
their trade with France would be injured 
 by their active participation in Guccio' s 
 schemes, his fellow-tradesmen of Siena 
 grew indifferent and finally hostile. But 
 strong conviction of his royal origin spurred 
 Guccio on to restless wandering over 
 Europe. He pleads his cause again with 
 his kinsman, the King of Hungary. He 
 appears at the Court of Austria. Then 
 we find him at Milan. At the head of a 
 band of mercenaries, he crossf 3 the borders 
 of France and gains success, which strikes 
 terror to the luxurious sycophants of the 
 papal court at Avignon. In a luckless 
 hour, when perhaps unattended by his fol- 
 lowers, Guccio was seized, on the 7th of 
 January, 1 36 1, and imprisoned in the fort- 
 ress of St. Etienne, near Nice, by Matteo 
 di Gesualdo, Seneschal of Provence. 
 
 Chifnet's narrative, hereafter to be re- 
 ferred to, supplies an otherwise missing link 
 in the chain of events.* From St. Etienne 
 Guccio was transferred to Marseilles, where 
 his wealth enabled him to bribe his guards, 
 and to make his way to the Mediterranean. 
 But the ship-captains turned a deaf ear to 
 the fugitive's appeals. Then, desperate as 
 a hunted deer, he sought sanctuary in the 
 churches. But from their altars he was 
 sternly driven. Had not Pope Innocent 
 denounced him? Betrayed for the second 
 time into the hands of Gesualdo, the Sene- 
 
 * Monmerque, Dissert. Historique, pp. 62, 63. 
 39 
 
schal resolved to place his prisoner where 
 escape would be impossible. Over Pro- 
 vence, that land of poetry, romance, and 
 chivalry, Louis of Tarento, King of Naples, 
 held the scepter of suzerainty. Bound by 
 every tie of politics and consanguinity to 
 the House of Valois, Louis would find in 
 the possession of this captive an opportu- 
 nity to prove his loyalty to his ally at Paris. 
 To Naples, therefore, Gesualdo brought his 
 captive, and over the picturesque career of 
 Guccio falls the impenetrable shadow of 
 the Castel del Ovo,* an island fortress in 
 the Bay of Naples. 
 
 Few are the phenomena of nature which 
 possess more attractiveness, or more com- 
 pletely absorb the interest of the beholder, 
 than the unreal creations of a mirage. But 
 even when they most nearly approach real- 
 ity, the mind is always conscious that they 
 are after all the effects of a mere optical 
 illusion. Has the strange story of this 
 mediaeval claimant of a throne no better 
 basis than a fairy tale? Shall we remand 
 it to the same category with the legends of 
 King Arthur, or the earlier tradition of the 
 Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, because most 
 of the great historians of France, if they 
 knew of the tale, only treated it with silent 
 contempt? 
 
 One modern French writer, profoundly 
 
 * Gigli, quoted by Monmerque, p. 85. 
 4° 
 
interested in the discovery of the docu- 
 mentary proofs on which the story of 
 Guccio rests, refuses to accept the evidence 
 he had laboriously gathered, because, as he 
 frankly says, such acceptance would invali- 
 date the royal title of the long dynasties of 
 the Valois and the Bourbons from 1328 to 
 1789.* His statement suggests that it is 
 at least possible that a like motive may 
 account for the unbroken silence regarding 
 this episode of the Middle Ages, which 
 broods over all the voluminous histories of 
 France — written as most of them were 
 when princes of the Bourbon race sat upon 
 the throne. Few are the attested facts of 
 mediaeval chronicles which are based on 
 firmer foundations than the existence of 
 Gianni Guccio, the fact that he claimed 
 heirship to Louis X. of France, and that 
 thousands of his contemporaries held his 
 title to be valid. 
 
 The minutes of the Council of the Bell,f 
 with the declaration that this member of 
 the Siennese legislature was ineligible to 
 re-election because of his royal blood, are 
 to be found in the archives of Siena. 
 That record embraces a full transcript of 
 the letter which King Louis of Hungary 
 addressed to all the sovereignties of Europe 
 asking the recognition of Guccio as the 
 lawful King of France. This letter con- 
 
 * Monmerque\ p. 33. 
 "j" Appendix V. 
 
 4 1 
 
tains the account, as already given in this 
 paper, of the exchange by which another 
 child became the vicarious sacrifice for the 
 infant prince. 
 
 To precisely the same effect is the ac- 
 count given in the manuscript history of 
 Sigismund Tiziano.** That chronicle is a 
 quarry which has furnished modern writers 
 with material for their histories, much as 
 the Coliseum and the Forum supplied the 
 builders of Roman palaces in the Middle 
 Ages. Tiziano asserts that all through the 
 stormy period when France was the prey 
 of internal disorder and foreign invasion, 
 the belief was never wholly extinguished 
 that the son of Louis le Hutin still lived. 
 He tells us that Rienzi declared that he had 
 found the story floating in the ecclesiastical 
 atmosphere of the papal court at Avignon. 
 The letter just referred to, written by Pope 
 Innocent, is of unquestioned authenticity 
 and genuineness. 
 
 Matteo Villani, the Florentine historian, 
 who was a contemporary of Guccio, while 
 blundering with regard to many minor 
 details, records the invasion of southern 
 France by the armed forces under Guccio's 
 command. 
 
 Jean Jacques Chifflet, a French physician 
 and antiquarian, published in 1660 a volu- 
 minous work called "Lumina Salica," 
 
 * Encyc. Brit., art. Siena. 
 42 
 
which contains an elaborate history of 
 Guccio,* varying in no essential particular 
 from that which this paper has outlined. 
 He declares that his narrative is an accu- 
 rate reproduction of an autobiography of 
 Guccio, partly written during his imprison- 
 ment in Naples, and continued after his 
 death by Solomon Piccolomini and Thomas 
 Agazzano, who was a relative of Guccio by 
 marriage. Chifflet relates that at the 
 period when he wrote there were at least 
 two copies of this biography in Italy, and 
 that the one to which he had access was in 
 the Barberini Library. 
 
 In 1723 Girolamo Gigli, one of the most 
 erudite historical scholars of Italy, published 
 his "Diario Sanese," or Sienese Journal. 
 It is a work of marvelous learning and 
 accuracy of information. His account of 
 the birth of Guccio, his having been ex- 
 changed for another child, and his subse- 
 quent career is almost identical with that 
 of Chifflet, but is drawn from different 
 sources While the French historian had 
 unearthed the romantic story as told in the 
 autobiography contained in the Barberini 
 Library at Rome, Gigli had discovered the 
 same facts related in Tiziano's History of 
 Siena in the Chigi Library. But his prin- 
 cipal authority was the entirely independent 
 testimony of the municipal archives of 
 
 * Monmerque, p. 29. 
 
 43 
 
Siena, to which during his long residence in 
 that city Gigli had free access.* 
 
 In 1843 there was discovered in the vast 
 antiquarian collection in Paris, known as the 
 Cabinet des Chartes, three most valuable 
 documents. These consisted of the letter 
 in which the monk Antoine revealed to 
 Rienzi the secret of Guccio's birth,f the 
 invitation sent by Rienzi urgently summon- 
 ing the Siennese burgher to come secretly 
 to Rome,;}: and lastly, one which the Tribune 
 wrote to Guccio, pathetic in its historic 
 interest, as bearing date the 7th of October, 
 1354, the day preceding that which saw 
 Rienzi perish at the hands of the Roman 
 rabble.§ 
 
 In 1844 M. Monmerque, a counselor of 
 the court royal of Paris, and member of the 
 Royal Academy of Inscriptions and Belles 
 Lettres, published in Paris a most valuable 
 work, entitled "Dissertation Historique Sur 
 Jean Ier, Roi de France et de Navarre." [| 
 
 In this volume, which is now rare, M. 
 Monmerque has embodied such portions of 
 Chififlet's "Lumina Salica" as relate the 
 career of Giannino, and also that part of 
 the "Diario Sanese" of Girolamo Gigli, 
 containing the results of his researches in 
 
 * Dissertation Historique, p. 30. 
 
 t Appendix I. 
 
 % Appendix II. 
 
 § Appendix III. 
 
 || Paris, Chez Tabary, Bouquiniste Editeur, 1844. 
 
 44 
 
the archives of Siena. The present essay 
 owes whatever it has taken upon the testi- 
 mony of these two authors to the laborious 
 investigations of M. Monmerque, whose 
 '■ Historic Dissertation" cannot be charged 
 with any bias in favor of Guccio's claim to 
 royalty, since the author carefully points 
 out whatever discrepancies can be discov- 
 ered in the various chronicles relating the 
 romantic story. In the -' Dissertation His- 
 torique" will also be found the full text of 
 the three letters to which reference has just 
 been made. Most remarkable of all is the 
 preservation of the famous "Charte," or 
 parchment of Rienzi.* Written in the 
 Gothic Italian chirography of the fourteenth 
 century, but couched in mediaeval Latin, 
 this document, which originally formed 
 part of the archives of Siena, was redis- 
 covered about 1843, in a collection of 
 ancient manuscripts gathered by a distin- 
 guished French antiquarian, M. Lamberty 
 of Aix.f In a dignified statement Rienzi 
 tells with minute detail the strange story 
 which this essay has related, declares that 
 he has examined the documents which were 
 submitted to him by the monk Antoine, and 
 that he is firmly convinced that Guccio's 
 title is irrefragable. He closes with the 
 prophetic suggestion that death may 
 
 * See Appendix IV. 
 
 t Monmerque, Dissertation Historique, p. 32, 
 foot-note. 
 
 45 
 
speedily overtake himself, and that there- 
 fore he has sealed this document with his 
 official signet, and placed it in the hands of 
 Guccio. 
 
 Singular documentary confirmation was 
 supplied quite recently by Professor Carlo 
 Mazzi, a distinguished archaeologist of 
 Rome.* He relates that he found in the 
 Barberini Library a manuscript "having 
 the form of an autobiography" of Guccio. 
 Thus a scholar of our own period corrobo- 
 rates the statement of Jean Jacques Chifflet, 
 made more than two hundred years ago, 
 that this account of Guccio was based upon 
 an autobiography contained in the Barberini 
 Library. 
 
 In the course of this research Professor 
 Mazzi unearthed a curious document, en- 
 titled "The Treasure of a King." f It is 
 prefaced with this explanatory title: li An 
 accurate inventory of the money and 
 articles which Gianni lost in Vignone, 
 which were in the custody of a certain 
 Daniel, and which Matteo of Gesualdo ap- 
 propriated to himself in January, ij6o." 
 The list is bewildering in its crowns of 
 gold, embroidered robes, splendid gonfalons, 
 rich armor, costly jewels, and chests of 
 golden ducats. The aggregate of wealth 
 represented staggers the imagination. The 
 
 *Nozze Gorrini-Cazzola, Curzio Mazzi, Rome, 
 1892. 
 
 "(" II Tesoro di un Re. 
 
 46 
 
annotations of Professor Mazzi indicate 
 that before the final collapse of Guccio' s 
 plans, he had accumulated these enormous 
 treasures and trappings of royalty, and 
 intrusted them to one Daniel, a member of 
 that Jewish race to whom the would-be 
 monarch had pledged immunity from per- 
 secution. But before Guccio himself had 
 been arrested, his wealth had been seized 
 by the rapacious Seneschal of Provence, 
 and the faithful Daniel had preceded his 
 master to a prison. 
 
 Loyal to the memory of the prince who 
 had honored Siena by a lifelong sojourn, 
 the people of that city for two hundred 
 years, till the last scion of the line died in 
 I530>* bestowed upon the descendants of 
 Guccio the distinguishing title "The chil- 
 dren of King Gianni." While they lived 
 they bore the three lilies of France in the 
 midst of the arms of the Baglioni family, 
 and in death Siena gave them the high 
 honor of burial in the Church of San Dom- 
 enico.f 
 
 Thus did Gianni Guccio vanish into the 
 darkness of his Neapolitan dungeon. As 
 the iron door closed behind him, and the 
 jailor's key grated in the rusty lock, they 
 
 *Papencordt's Rienzi, p. 331. Monmerqu6, p. 35. 
 
 tChifflet, Opera, Vol. I., p. 278-282, quoted in 
 foot-note by Monmerque, p. 64. Also Papencordt's 
 Rienzi, p. 331, 
 
 47 
 
wrote "Finis" to this strange, pitiful story. 
 Was Guccio the descendant of Hugh Capet, 
 and of right the King of France? That 
 will be known in the dazzling light of the 
 day when all secrets shall be revealed. 
 
 4 8 
 
APPENDICES 
 
APPENDIX I 
 
 LETTER OF BROTHER ANTOINE 
 
 OF THE ORDER OF THE HERMITS OF ST. 
 AUGUSTINE. 
 
 (From the "Dissertation upon John First, King of 
 France and Navarre." By M. Monmarque, Paris, 
 1845. 
 
 M. Monmarque, in a prefatory note, after certify- 
 ing that these documents which were found in the 
 Cabinet des Chartes, and subsequently included in 
 the Bibliotheque de Roi, have been compared with 
 scrupulous care with the originals in the libraries of 
 Italy, points out the peculiar arrangement of Brother 
 Antoine's letter to Rienzi. Antoine begins the epis- 
 tle, then embodies in it the statement of Brother 
 Jordan, his superior, which includes the testament 
 of the Lady Marie de Picard, or rather her declara- 
 tions made upon her dying bed. Then Brother An- 
 toine resumes his narrative, and the document is 
 finished by Nicholas de Rienzi, who certifies to the 
 exactitude of the copy delivered by him to Guccio.) 
 
 To Nicholas Di Rienzi, Tribune of the Roman 
 People. Followed by Two Letters of Rienzi, 
 Addressed to Giannino of Siena. 
 
 Brother Antoine begins: 
 
 At Porto- Venere, August 25, 1354. Hav- 
 ing long known your great renown and the 
 excellent fame which you enjoy, and having 
 just learned of the latest favor which God has 
 accorded you in calling you to the government 
 of Rome, an honor due mainly to your wis- 
 dom and merit, I have resolved to reveal to 
 
 5i 
 
you a secret which I have long kept. Now 
 that it hath pleased our Lord Jesus Christ to 
 raise you to the honor of the command of the 
 Romans, it appears to me that it is right to 
 inform you, before any other, of the great 
 miracle which Jesus Christ is about to mani- 
 fest to the world, in causing the discovery of 
 one hidden for long years, who is still deprived 
 of the insignia of his royal dignity, and to 
 whom, nevertheless, it has been reserved to 
 restore to Christendom universal peace, and 
 to reconquer the Holy Land of Jerusalem. It 
 will be easier for you than for any other, as it 
 appears to me, to discover the prince whom 
 we seek. I write you upon this subject, and 
 would gladly wait upon you, were it not for 
 the heavy sickness with which it hath pleased 
 God that I should be attacked, and under 
 which I am near succumbing. Be pleased to 
 excuse me, and graciously receive my request 
 that you will listen patiently to the statement 
 of the purpose of my mission, which I should 
 have personally executed had not my illness 
 prevented me. I adjure you in the name of 
 God that as soon as the object of my embassy 
 shall be known to you, you will put in execu- 
 tion the commission contained in the following 
 letter, which I have taken pains to have trans- 
 lated from the vulgar tongue of the French into 
 the Tuscan language; and if you shall succeed 
 in accomplishing what is asked of you, I have 
 this confidence in God that you will never have 
 performed an act more pleasing to our Lord, 
 more useful to the world, and to the benefit, 
 honor, and maintenance of your own sover- 
 eignty. Behold the purpose of my mission. 
 
 52 
 
The Statement of Brother J or dan , a Hermit 
 of the Order of St. Augustine. 
 
 There was in the kingdom of France, not 
 far from Paris, in the castle of Crecy (Carsi), 
 a noble young woman named Marie. She 
 was the daughter of the Chevalier Picard, and 
 the name of her mother was Eliabel. The 
 Lady Marie, who had early lost her father, 
 clandestinely married, without informing her 
 mother and her brothers, Guccio di Mino, a 
 young Tuscan who was living in the vicinity of 
 Cr^cy, in a castle known as Neauphle-le-Vieux. 
 Guccio represented Spinello Tolomei, his kins- 
 man. Having come to Cr^cy in order to enjoy 
 the recreation of the chase with the brothers 
 of the Lady Marie, Guccio remained several 
 days at their chateau, and as he was of a rare 
 personal beauty, the Lady Marie became capti- 
 vated with him, and having caused him to be 
 secretly conducted to her chamber by one of 
 the servants, she took him for her husband 
 without a word told to any. Guccio pledged 
 her his faith, promised her the most profound 
 secrecy, and they lived together in such man- 
 ner that the Lady Marie became enceinte. No 
 sooner had her brothers become cognizant of 
 this, than they compelled their sister to give a 
 full account of what had occurred. Terrified 
 by them, the Lady Marie told how the thing 
 had happened. Filled with indignation, the 
 brothers of the Lady Marie, as became gentle- 
 men, sent a challenge to Guccio, and notified 
 him to quit France without delay, threatening 
 him with death if he disobeyed their command. 
 They were maddened by the thought that 
 their sister should have become the spouse of 
 
 53 
 
a simple citizen of Tuscany. Apprised of all 
 this, Guccio, disguised as a pilgrim, came to 
 Cre*cy, and having made himself known to a 
 female servant, was introduced to the chamber 
 of the Lady Marie. Here he was concealed 
 for some days, and on leaving he said to his 
 young wife: "I am returning to my own land. 
 I shall remain there some time, but I shall 
 come back to thee." He begged her to have 
 the child which she should bring into the world 
 secretly put out to nurse, but urged her to 
 keep a watchful eye upon the child, adding 
 that he himself would act in such a way that 
 she and her brothers should have no reason to 
 blush for the alliance with him. Departing 
 then, he returned to his own country, where 
 he dwelt for a long season. 
 
 Meantime the brothers of the Lady Marie, in 
 order to protect their honor and to avoid the 
 publicity of the affair, conveyed their sister to 
 a monastery near Paris, of which the abbess 
 was one of their near relatives. To her they 
 recounted what had happened, begging her to 
 hide their sister in the convent till after her 
 confinement, and then to dispose, as she might 
 deem best, of the child of the Lady Marie, 
 whether it should prove a boy or a girl. They 
 took this method because they were upon the 
 point of giving their sister in marriage to a 
 gentleman of their own neighborhood. 
 
 Whilst the Lady Marie was in this monastery 
 it pleased God that she should give birth to a 
 son, to whom she gave the name of Giannino. 
 
 The abbess sent the infant to a nurse in the 
 vicinity of Cre^cy, named Amalech, giving out 
 that the child was one of her nephews. Fate 
 
 54 
 
decreed that the nurse had hardly left the 
 monastery when the Queen of France brought 
 forth a male infant, whose birth caused the 
 greatest rejoicing in Paris. In accord with the 
 custom, the princes of the royal house and the 
 lords specially charged with watching over 
 the king started inquiries for some noble 
 ladies who could act as wet-nurses to the royal 
 child, and the result of their search was, that 
 information reached them that in a monastery, 
 which was indicated, a noble lady, young and 
 beautiful, had recently given birth to a babe. 
 The Lady Marie was not able to tell me how 
 this fact became known to the court. Then 
 the gentlemen of the royal guard, accompanied 
 by the physicians, as was the usage, came to 
 the monastery. The abbess declared that the 
 person whom they were seeking was not in the 
 convent, but as they had been positively assured 
 that a lady but lately delivered of a child was 
 in that house, they searched everywhere, and 
 having found the Lady Marie, they compelled 
 the abbess upon oath to declare whether this 
 young lady fulfilled the requirements. The 
 abbess, who was aware that the truth would 
 finally come out, told them, weeping, the con- 
 dition and circumstances of the Lady Marie, 
 pleading with them to leave her in the convent, 
 and fix their choice upon some other person, 
 because such an exposure could not but occa- 
 sion prejudice against both the Lady Marie 
 and the monastery. Forced by the necessities 
 of the royal infant, the lords, after having con- 
 sulted the physicians, decided that the son of 
 the king should be nursed at the breast of the 
 Lady Marie, and therefore the young king was 
 
 55 
 
confided to her. Meanwhile the woman who 
 was nursing Giannino, the child of the Lady 
 Marie, occupied a couch in the same chamber, 
 and it happened during the night that Gian- 
 nino was found dead at the side of his nurse. 
 The two women were then alone; the Lady 
 Marie caused her own dead child to be placed 
 beside herself, while she consigned to Amalech 
 the living son of the king, and by promises 
 and threats she obliged the woman to become 
 her accomplice in this deception. As soon as 
 day appeared the Lady Marie manifested the 
 deepest sorrow that ever woman experienced, 
 for she had an intense love for her child. 
 Nevertheless, by her cries and lamentations 
 she made it to be understood that it was for 
 the son of the king that she wept. The lords 
 of the royal guard, the knights and ladies of 
 the palace, hurried to respond to the cries of 
 the Lady Marie, and finding her holding a 
 dead infant in her arms, they never doubted 
 that this was the king's son, and they, too, 
 were dissolved in tears. The dead infant was 
 buried, and Marie had the son of the king 
 nursed, as though he had been her own, by the 
 woman Amalech. She did this not so much 
 through affection for the child as on account 
 of her love for Guccio. "For," she said, "if 
 Guccio ever returns from his own country and 
 finds that his son is dead, he will have no love 
 for me, and I shall have lost at the same time 
 honor, my son, and my husband." 
 
 Several years passed, and Guccio returned to 
 his own country. The brothers of the Lady 
 Marie, in the service of the king, and intrusted 
 by him with the ward of certain crown-lands, 
 
 56 
 
had gone by his orders to a distant province 
 removed by many days' journey from Paris. 
 Guccio, having learned this, came secretly to 
 Cr^cy. There he found the Lady Marie, and 
 with her the son of the king, who was very 
 beautiful and now of the age of six years. 
 "Who is this child?" asked Guccio. "He is 
 thy son," was the reply of the Lady Marie. 
 With this Guccio was delighted. He remained 
 some days at Cr^cy, and said to Marie when 
 he was departing, "Have this child sent to me 
 at Paris." Marie waited a while to have the 
 boy taken to Guccio; and at once on his 
 arrival, Guccio had him taken to Italy, and 
 Marie never again saw Giannino. 
 
 A long time after, in accord with God's 
 will, the Lady Marie died, but before her 
 death she sent for me, Brother Jordan, hermit 
 of the convent situated near Cre*cy. She 
 made to me her general confession, and after 
 having recounted the events above given, she 
 laid upon me the obligation to seek the child, 
 and if I should find him still living, immedi- 
 ately to inform the Pope of it, as well as the 
 sacred college, and whatever king of France 
 should be upon the throne, and to give all the 
 facts calculated to re-establish the prince in 
 his royal dignity. 
 
 After the death of the Lady Marie, not 
 knowing what I should do, I made inquiry as 
 to the fate of Guccio, and learned that he was 
 no longer living, but I was unable to push my 
 investigations further. For several years I 
 remained plunged in deep melancholy, which 
 nothing seemed to overcome. I did not like 
 to carry such news to the Pope, nor to the 
 
 57 
 
king, and besides, I did not know where in the 
 world I could find the son of King Louis X. 
 Remembering that the majority of men die 
 before they reach eight and forty, it seemed 
 to me likely that the prince was dead. For 
 many nights I was buried in these painful re- 
 flections, when at last I had a vision, in which 
 I seemed to see the son of the king on his 
 knees at the feet of his father, and thought 
 that I heard him say, "Father, give me thy 
 blessing, for I long to march to the conquest 
 of the Holy Sepulchre of Jesus Christ." 
 Whenever I fell asleep I at once saw the 
 young prince before his father in an attitude 
 of respect. Every night this vision came to 
 me, and I knew not what to decide. I set 
 myself to praying, and pleaded with our Lord 
 Jesus Christ to reveal to me the way to dis- 
 cover the son of the king. I passed many days 
 in continual orisons, accompanied with fast- 
 ings and abundant tears. At length, being on 
 my knees at the foot of my altar, I yielded to 
 sleep, and this same son of the king appeared 
 to me in a dream. He held in his hand an 
 ensign with the arms of the church, and he 
 seemed to me to say, "I shall never stop 
 short of placing this banner on the gates of 
 Jerusalem. The sepulchre of Jesus Christ 
 must be rescued and delivered from the yoke 
 of the Saracens, so that every faithful Christian 
 can visit the holy places without danger." 
 Waking from this vision, I rose, believing that 
 I should find the prince in the neighboring 
 region, but failing to find him there, I was 
 again overwhelmed with sadness. I sought 
 advice of some of the friends of God, and they 
 
 58 
 
counseled, "Thou art old and can only walk 
 with difficulty; send some one from country to 
 country, even to Rome. Put in his hands the 
 confession of the Lady Marie, and the account 
 of the revelation made to thee long since, in 
 order that thy messenger, thoroughly informed 
 of the whole matter, may present himself to 
 the bishops and lords of the country, to learn 
 from them if the prince is still living, and if he 
 be yet living, to beg the bishop or the lord of 
 the land where he dwells to report the fact at 
 once to the Pope, his cardinals, and the king 
 of France now reigning, as well as his barons. 
 If it be impossible to discover the prince, thou 
 wilt have freed thy conscience toward God, 
 and thou shalt speak of all this to no one, lest 
 some trouble be caused to thyself in having 
 kept so long so important a secret." 
 
 The Brother Jordan addresses himself di- 
 rectly to the Brother Antoine, 
 
 So, my dear Brother Antoine, I pray thee, 
 in the name of God, to repair to Rome, and 
 to inform thyself what has become of Guccio 
 di Mino. Thou canst not fail to secure some 
 tidings of him through Spinello Tolomei. 
 This investigation will be the easier for thee, 
 because having been several times in Rome, 
 thou knowest all the countries to be traversed. 
 Thus have I confidence that by Divine inter- 
 vention thou shalt find the prince who is to 
 establish universal peace in Christendom, and 
 to reconquer the Holy Land. I beseech thee — 
 nay, I command thee, in virtue of the oath of 
 obedience — to go from country to country, 
 even to Rome, to seek the lost prince, and to 
 
 59 
 
do all to find him again. Happy the country 
 in which shall have been reared this sacred son 
 of our king! Make every effort that he shall 
 speedily return. Would that I might receive 
 the news before I die ! Haste then to return 
 to me, and urge, as from God himself, the 
 bishop or the lord of the land where the prince 
 lives, that the Pope be immediately informed 
 of him, in order that the son of the king may 
 be established in his royal dignity, and that 
 the will of God may be accomplished in the 
 matters which I have explained to thee. Thou 
 knowest that the son of the king is called 
 Giannino, after the name of the son of the 
 Lady Marie. I do not know the name actu- 
 ally given to the son of the king, the Lady 
 Marie not having been able to tell me. So 
 he, to search for whom I send thee, is known 
 as Giannino di Guccio, and he doubtless re- 
 gards himself as the son of Guccio. 
 
 The Brother Antoine continues: 
 
 Such is the mission confided to me by Brother 
 Jordan. Be pleased, in the name of God, to 
 accomplish it without delay! It was imposed 
 upon the Brother Jordan himself in confession 
 by the Lady Marie in the year one thousand 
 three hundred and forty-five, and she told him 
 that the son of the king should then be about 
 twenty-six or twenty-five years of age. 
 Antoine, 
 Her7iiit and disciple of the afore- 
 said Brother Jorda?i. 
 
 P. S. — I bear you witness that the Brother 
 Jordan is one of the holiest men in the world. 
 It is more than eighty years since he was con- 
 
 60 
 
secrated to the service of God in our monastery. 
 Hardly was he twelve years old when he began 
 to do penance. Hence I believe, and I have 
 confidence in God that through his prayers, you 
 will accomplish the mission with which I charge 
 you in his behalf. I pray the Lord that thus 
 it may be ! 
 
 Given at Porto-Venere, where I am de- 
 tained by sickness, Monday, the twenty-fifth 
 day of the month of August, 1354, the fete of 
 St. Louis, King of France, who several times 
 made the voyage beyond seas. He whom I 
 seek is one of his descendants, and he will 
 follow his example. 
 
 Nicolas di Rienzi continues: 
 
 We, Nicolas, Knight of the Roman people 
 by the authority of the apostolic Holy Seat, 
 Illustrious Senator, Syndic, Captain, and 
 Defender of the Holy City, have had the pre- 
 ceding letter transcribed, which was sent and 
 was placed in our hands on the sixth day of 
 September, in the year 1354, for the manifesta- 
 tion of the glory of the son of the king. This 
 prince is in fact truly the legitimate King of 
 France, as is witnessed not only by the confes- 
 sion of the lady contained in the aforesaid 
 letter, but by the age that the prince should 
 be of at the present date, and also by what we 
 were informed of when we were in the city of 
 Avignon, near our lord the Pope. It is thus 
 demonstrated that he is certainly the son of 
 King Louis, the first-born of King Philip the 
 Fair, who had for his wife Clemence, daughter 
 of Charles Martel, king of Hungary, who was 
 the mother of the aforesaid prince. So when 
 
 61 
 
the aforesaid letter was presented to us, 
 we reflected, and are convinced that Divine 
 Providence alone has brought this to pass. 
 Therefore we have taken great pains to have 
 the prince sought out, and God has given us 
 the favor to make the discovery. We have 
 learned that he was reared in the city of Siena; 
 and before making him acquainted with the 
 foregoing facts we called him before us, and 
 he appeared in our presence on Thursday, 
 the second of October of the aforesaid year. 
 And, because we are aware that our estate is 
 menaced by a great danger, in order that this 
 prince, king and son of a king, may not perish, 
 and that he may be able to be re-established in 
 his royal dignity, we have caused the above- 
 mentioned letter to be transcribed, and a copy 
 of it, sealed with the seal bearing our arms, to 
 be placed in his hands, to serve him as an 
 authority, and to enlighten any one who may 
 desire to assist in his great enterprise; for 
 which cause we pray our gracious Lord Jesus 
 Christ that he will accord us the grace to live 
 long enough to behold this great justice ren- 
 dered to the world! 
 
 62 
 
APPENDIX II 
 
 A LETTER OF NICOLAS DI RIENZI 
 TO GIANNINO 
 
 (From the "Historic Dissertation upon John I., 
 King of France and Navarre." By M. Monmerque, 
 Paris, 1845.) 
 
 At the Capitol, the 1 8th of September, 1354. 
 
 To the noble and wise Jannino di Guccio di 
 Mini, our very dear friend, citizen of Siena. 
 
 We have charged our envoys to discover the 
 place where you are, and to ask, on our behalf, 
 that it may not be displeasing to you to appear 
 at Rome and in our presence. It was reported 
 to us by our servitor that having met you in 
 Siena, he discharged our commission, but 
 being the bearer of no writing emanating from 
 us, you did not put confidence in his words. 
 In our ignorance of the place and the time at 
 which you could be found, we did not intrust 
 him with letters. Now that we know where 
 you are, we ask that it may please you, on 
 seeing these presents, to come to us at Rome 
 without delay and in the most secret manner. 
 We have written this letter, to which we have 
 caused our seal to be affixed, in order that it 
 may inspire you with faith in all that our mes- 
 senger shall say on our behalf. 
 
 63 
 
Given at the Capitol, the eighteenth day of 
 September, 1354. 
 
 Nicolas, 
 Knight of the Roman people, by 
 the authority of the apostolic 
 Holy Seat, Illustrious Senator, 
 Syndic, Captain, and Defender 
 of the Holy City. 
 
 64 
 
APPENDIX III 
 
 A LETTER OF NICOLAS DI RIENZI 
 TO GIANNINO 
 
 (From the "Historic Dissertation upon John I., 
 King of France and Navarre." By M. Monmarque, 
 Paris, 1845.) 
 
 At the Capitol, the 7th of October, 1354. 
 
 To Gianni di Guccio, of the city of Siena, an 
 officer of our house, being at present at 
 Montefiascone, at Orvieto, or at Arezzo, 
 very noble Prince, King of high excel- 
 lency, superior to all the other kings of 
 Christendom, known of God alone, and un- 
 known to the world on account of evil 
 practices committed against you at the 
 moment of your birth by those who would 
 have been dependent upon you for honor 
 and even for existence, had they been 
 given the knowledge of the truth. 
 
 Noble Prince, we sent you to the legate, our 
 friend, that while remaining unknown, you 
 might be able to assist us by asking him to 
 send his army against those rebelling against 
 the Holy Church, the Roman people, and the 
 authority which God has placed in our hands, 
 against the enemies of the Holy Church of the 
 people of Rome, and of the dignity which we 
 hold from the hand of God. We address this 
 
 65 
 
letter to you as to a person of our house, in 
 order that none may know that you are dealing 
 with the legate in relation to the succor we 
 have asked ; for we are well aware that numer- 
 ous plots are being woven in Rome against the 
 Holy Church, the Roman people, and our own 
 authority. We have sent you letters contain- 
 ing the details of these, that you may lay them 
 before the legate, and that we may thus know 
 what you have been able to secure from him. 
 We learn just now that intrigues are formed 
 against us, so daring, even in Rome itself, that 
 it appears that there is no safety for us to be 
 hoped for, should the aid of the Holy Church 
 be delayed. Nevertheless, we beseech you 
 that for the present you will in no way try to 
 come to us; but on the contrary, that you 
 withdraw yourself into some safe place until 
 you have received from us a notice enabling 
 you to decide upon your course. We pray 
 you to abide in peace, and not to be appalled 
 by anything which may happen, for, with the 
 permission of God, you will soon be re-estab- 
 lished in your royal dignity, and we have firm 
 confidence that God will send before you some 
 one who will replace you in your seignory. If 
 in the superscription of this letter we do not 
 use such titles of honor as become you, pardon 
 us. The circumstances which do not allow 
 you to be known will be our excuse, for our 
 main purpose is to assure your tranquillity, and 
 seeing that we are not able to hope to save our 
 own person, we write what we had hoped later 
 to reveal to you ourselves, namely, that you 
 are the veritable King of France, and the 
 legitimate son of Philip the Fair, and that 
 
 66 
 
your mother was the Queen Clemence, daugh- 
 ter of Charles Martel; that you received with 
 the water of baptism the name of John. Do 
 not lose courage, for in a little while you will 
 be lord and King of France, and we affirm, 
 every dweller in that kingdom will become 
 your subject. 
 
 Given at the Capitol, the seventh day of 
 October, thirteen hundred and fifty- four. 
 Nicolas, 
 Knight of the Roman people, by 
 the authority of the apostolic 
 Holy Seat, Illustrious Senator, 
 Syndic, and Captain of the Holy 
 City. 
 
 67 
 
APPENDIX IV 
 
 TRANSLATION OF RIENZPS CHARTE 
 
 Testimony of Cola di Rienzo as to the preten- 
 sions of Gianni de Guccio of Siena to the 
 crown of France. History of Sigismund 
 Titius of Siena, T. II. , fol. 218. 
 
 In the name of Christ, Amen. This is the 
 mode and tenor of the declaration compiled 
 from all sources as to the fact that at the time 
 of his birth the son of King Louis and Queen 
 Clementia was secretly exchanged for another. 
 The said King Louis was the son of King 
 Philip, called El bello, who had three sons and 
 one daughter. This daughter was named Isa- 
 bella, and was the wife of the King of England 
 and mother of that King Edward who has 
 made and still makes such war against the 
 French. The names of the sons were these: 
 first was Louis, the second Philip the Long, 
 the third was called Charles. Each one of 
 these was in turn crowned King of France (the 
 crown descending from the one to the other), 
 and died without leaving male issue, unless it 
 be that changeling son of King Louis, of whom 
 you are to hear. And afterwards Lord Philip 
 of Valois was crowned King of the French, 
 because it was believed that that son of the 
 king so changed had died. The aforesaid 
 King Louis had two wives. The first was 
 
 6S 
 
daughter of the Duke of Burgundy, and had a 
 daughter who became wife of the King of 
 Navarre. She had three sons, the first called 
 Charles, the second Philip, the third Louis. 
 The second wife of the said King Louis of the 
 French was the aforesaid dementia, a descend- 
 ant of Charles, called Martel, who was 
 descended from the royal house of Apulia. 
 On the death of King Louis his widow, the 
 Queen Clement, was left pregnant by him. 
 Then it was arranged that the aforesaid Lord 
 Philip the Long, brother of the deceased King 
 Louis, should wear the crown of the King of 
 France until the Queen should be delivered. 
 And if she should bear a son, he should hold 
 the kingdom for him until he should come of 
 such age as to know how to rule and govern. 
 And if it were a daughter, the aforesaid Philip 
 should be crowned lawful King of France, 
 because a woman could not succeed to the 
 throne. 
 
 At that time this Lord Philip had for a wife 
 the daughter of the Countess of Artois, who 
 then was a greater lady than any other in all 
 France. Moreover, when King Louis died his 
 Queen, Clementia, was left pregnant by him. 
 
 Then it was arranged, with the consent of 
 Lord Philip the Long, and Lord Charles, and 
 the other barons, that two barons, men ancient, 
 wise, honorable, and more faithful to the 
 crown of France than any others in the king- 
 dom, should be chosen for this purpose, that 
 they with their wives might always be near 
 Queen Clement, and might have a special care 
 of her and of the boy who should be born; 
 with this end in view, that no deception might 
 
 69 
 
be possible with regard to the crown, and that 
 no one might be able to say, if it were a boy, 
 that it was a girl, and vice versa, and that if 
 he were living he might not be declared dead, 
 and vice versa, so that in no way could any 
 fraud be worked, and that the crown might be 
 his whose it rightly was. 
 
 With matters so arranged, the Queen Cle- 
 ment, a widow and pregnant, vowed to St. 
 John Baptist that if she should bear a son she 
 would name him John in honor of him. And 
 as it pleased God, she bore a son, whom she 
 called John. The aforesaid Countess of Artois 
 held him at the time of his baptism, and she, 
 being jealous of the child, desired his death, 
 and for this reason, that the aforesaid Lord 
 Philip the Long might be crowned lawful 
 King of France. And a rumor was set in 
 motion by the countess that the boy was not 
 vigorous, and would survive but a few days. 
 And she did this with the intention that the 
 boy might be slain secretly; and that when he 
 died after the propagation of such a rumor, 
 she might be clear of his death. 
 
 At that time those two barons who were in 
 charge of the queen and the boy who had been 
 born made inquiry for noble ladies by whom he 
 might be nursed. And among other noble 
 ladies who were found for nursing the said 
 young king there was a certain lady found in a 
 monastery. Her name was Lady Mary, and 
 she was the daughter of a certain Lord Picard 
 of Carsi (Cr£cy). And at the time when 
 Queen Clement bore her son Lady Mary bore 
 a son also. His father was a certain Tuscan 
 who was called Guccio Mini, a youth of about 
 
 70 
 
twenty. He was transacting business at a 
 certain castle called Nefolle de Vecchio, near 
 to the castle of Carsi. And he was stationed 
 there on behalf of a relative who was called 
 Spinellus de Tolomeis. Guccio was intimate 
 with the two brothers of the aforesaid Lady 
 Mary, one of whom was called Peter, the other 
 Jannoctus. And they often hunted and fowled 
 together, and were so familiar that they kept 
 no watch on Guccio, whom they looked upon 
 as a brother. And while things were in this 
 condition, so far as the two brothers were con- 
 cerned, Guccio fell in love with the sister, and 
 she with him. She was about fifteen years of 
 age. And through the connivance of a maid- 
 servant, and without the knowledge of her 
 mother, who was called Lady Eliabel, and of 
 her brothers (her father was dead), he brought 
 it about that she accepted him in marriage, 
 and he gave her a ring, and had intercourse 
 with her so that she became pregnant. And 
 when the time came that her pregnancy could 
 no longer be hidden, her mother and brothers 
 tried to learn from her how it came about. 
 Then the lady, in fear of them, and with great 
 shame, told the whole affair. But they being 
 incensed at Guccio, caused him to be told to 
 leave the country, and in order to conceal their 
 disgrace they sent the Lady Mary to Paris to 
 a monastery of noble ladies, whose abbess was 
 a connection of theirs. Here they asked to 
 retain their sister until she should be delivered, 
 and to hold such a course with regard to the 
 child, boy or girl, as should seem best to her 
 in order that no mention might be made of it. 
 This they did because they considered her 
 
 7i 
 
promised to a certain nobleman of their own 
 country. The said lady, remaining in the 
 convent, bore a son whom she called Janninus. 
 When her son was born, as we have said, 
 those barons who had been assigned to the 
 charge of the new-born child of Queen 
 Clement, arranged that secretly by night the 
 Lady Mary should be brought from the con- 
 vent and conducted to the royal palace and the 
 chamber of the queen. There the said Lady 
 Mary remained and cared for the son of the 
 king, himself king. 
 
 The barons and soldiers of France were 
 greatly elated at the birth of their sovereign. 
 And then it was ordered that after ten or 
 twelve days the boy should be shown to his 
 barons and the other noble soldiers of the king- 
 dom, in order that they might do him such 
 reverence as befitted their lord king. The 
 Countess of Artois sought as a special favor 
 from Queen Clement that she might be 
 allowed to hold him in her arms. And this was 
 granted her. The aforesaid barons who had 
 been put in charge of the boy, fearing that the 
 Countess of Artois, while holding the child, 
 would find some way of killing him, because 
 they knew and weighed well her evil dispo- 
 sition toward the boy, made arrangements that 
 on that day on which the boy was to be 
 shown, the son of Guccio and the Lady Mary 
 should be dressed in the proper royal robes, 
 and with the crown placed on his head should 
 be shown instead of the king. All this was 
 done so if any evil were perpetrated it might 
 be wrought upon him, and not upon the royal 
 child; and so it came to pass. Whence it 
 
 72 
 
happened that on the night following the day 
 of his exhibition, the son of Guccio died. 
 Then some said that the Countess of Artois 
 was the cause of it by squeezing him when he 
 was showed to the people. Others said that 
 she placed poison upon his tongue. What- 
 ever way it was done, at any rate the boy died. 
 The barons, who were anxious to see what 
 became of the child, when they saw that he 
 was dead, said to each other, Now we see 
 clearly and plainly the evil purpose of the 
 Countess of Artois and of the Lord Philip, 
 because they think that they have certainly 
 killed our sovereign. But by the grace of 
 God they accomplished their design not in the 
 least. Therefore, let us find a way by which 
 the boy king may escape. And they went to 
 the Lady Mary, telling her how her son was 
 dead, giving her an account of the manner of 
 it, and the reason why they did as they did. 
 Whereupon the lady began to weep and lament 
 bitterly, thinking that her son was dead. But 
 the barons comforted her concerning him, say- 
 ing to her, You are a youthful lady, and will be 
 able hereafter to have many sons. We wish 
 you to declare that it is the true son of the 
 king who is dead, and not yours, in order that 
 this one, your lord and ours, may escape the 
 peril of death; and we wish you to conceal 
 him as secretly as possible, as if he were your 
 own child, until such time as we tell you he is 
 to be manifested. And by reason of all this 
 you will be able to become a greater lady than 
 any in the land, and to place in fine condition 
 all your relatives and the ancestral estate. 
 And if it should happen that this boy, our 
 
 73 
 
lord, should die as your boy has done, you will 
 have lost both your own son and your and our 
 lord, and we shall all be in peril of our lives. 
 The lady, hearing their words, and not wishing 
 to do otherwise, consented to their will, and 
 pretended that her weeping was for the dead 
 child of the king. The barons and the whole 
 court, hearing of the death of the king, were in 
 universal grief. They did not, however, in- 
 quire too closely into the cause of his death. 
 Because those who ought to have inquired 
 were the ones who desired his death, and so 
 they were believed to have brought it about — 
 the Lord Philip and the countess. The Queen 
 was still in bed, weak from her parturition, and 
 was not able to learn any more concerning the 
 matter than was told her. For she believed 
 truly that it was her son who had died. And 
 she is said to have lived a long time after this 
 event in great state. But not on that account 
 did the Lady Mary and those barons ever tell 
 either to her or to any other person what had 
 occurred, because of their fear of those who 
 were reigning and who had ruled since the 
 changing had been accomplished. Finally the 
 son of Guccio was buried in the place of 
 the king's son with great honors, and a statue 
 was placed over him as king. Afterwards 
 those two barons, for the sake of the advan- 
 tage and the preservation of the life of the boy 
 king, introduced the Lady Mary again into the 
 convent by the same means as they had 
 brought her out, with the son of the king, she 
 saying that he was her own child. After this 
 she withdrew from the convent and returned 
 to Carsi with the boy, and settled down with 
 
 74 
 
her brothers. She did not marry again, and 
 Guccio took no other wife. And when the 
 boy was nine or ten years of age, Guccio, who 
 was in Paris, sent for him, believing him to 
 be his own son, and wishing to keep him in 
 Paris a few days. The Lady Mary, not sup- 
 posing that Guccio would remove him to other 
 regions, sent him. After this Guccio sent 
 him to his own country, Wherefore the Lady 
 Mary never saw him again, and always was in 
 great fear on his account. And by reason of 
 her fear of those who were reigning, she said 
 nothing to any one until she came to her death, 
 the said Lady Mary remaining in great fear 
 lest the boy should die or be sent to parts 
 where he could not be found. And having 
 lived a holy and honorable life, she died, as it 
 pleased God. Before she died she sent for 
 me, Father Jordanus, of Spain, of the order 
 of the hermits of St. Augustine. I had been 
 sent into a place of our order close to Carsi. 
 And to me the Lady Mary made her general 
 confession, and in it she declared the whole 
 matter in order, in the month of June, 1345, 
 in which month and year she died, and was 
 buried at the aforesaid our house. Before her 
 death she had desired of me that I would 
 make inquiry about the boy who, she said, was 
 then about twenty-six or twenty-eight years 
 old. And if I found him I was to declare the 
 whole thing to him, that he might know what 
 he was, and how the crown of a kingdom was 
 rightfully his. After the death of the afore- 
 said lady I sought to find out what I could 
 about that Guccio: I thought if I could find 
 him I should be able easily to find him whom 
 
 75 
 
he called his son. Then I found that the 
 aforesaid Guccio had died at Celone in Cam- 
 pania in the year 1340. 
 
 But because I feared Lord Philip of Valois, 
 who was then reigning, I remained quiet for 
 several years, filled with many melancholy re- 
 flections about those matters which I had in 
 charge. Conscience accused me, because I 
 did not search for the boy; fear of those in 
 power terrified me, and so I allowed that 
 which I ought to make inquiry into to pass 
 along, for I greatly feared lest some scandal or 
 harm should come to our order, however little 
 I cared for my own person, since I am come 
 to such years that I expect to live but a short 
 time. Matters being in such a state, I dis- 
 missed my imaginings, and determined in my 
 own mind rather to put myself and my order 
 in peril than that so great and so deserving a 
 prince should perish, and the royal house of 
 France be in perpetual servitude and be de- 
 prived of its legitimate and natural lord through 
 so great a deception practiced upon him; all 
 which had been possible because those who 
 committed the fraud held such high position. 
 Nevertheless, all these things were connived 
 at, and he went forth poor and destitute, and 
 deprived of all his nobility so far as external ap- 
 pearance is concerned. Since this, the kingdom 
 of France, after he had been surreptitiously 
 changed, never has been free from great pesti- 
 lence, and has been troubled by wars, divisions, 
 and contentions between fellow-countrymen. 
 To this end, therefore, that God may put an 
 end to so many heavy miseries of the French 
 and to the poverty and calamitous state of such, 
 
 76 
 
and so great a prince as is the natural and 
 true King of France, so that the world also 
 may be set in order and disposed in the way 
 of God; I set and determined myself to search 
 for him on account of whom I am certain that 
 at such a time God has not hidden him unless 
 it may be in order to manifest him in His own 
 time so that he may establish universal order 
 and peace in the world, and that the sacred 
 land of Jerusalem beyond sea may by him be 
 recovered; and so I believe that it will be. 
 But because, while I still live, I am neverthe- 
 less very old, and it is a very severe task for 
 me to travel about, I have commissioned 
 Brother Antonius, of France, of our order, a 
 man of great sanctity, who had often been at 
 Rome, to go forth and to inquire concerning 
 that king and to declare to him the whole 
 matter. To this Brother Antonius I gave a 
 copy of the testament of the above Lady 
 Mary, in so far as that copy pertains to the 
 matter in hand. The aforesaid father departed 
 from our house at Carsi in July, 1354. He 
 went forth, and in the prosecution of his 
 search as wisely and skilfully as possible he 
 betook himself to Italy, to a port which is 
 called Venere. And there it pleased God that 
 he should become very sick, and believing that 
 he was to die, he was afflicted with great grief 
 because he had not yet found out the truth, 
 and did not know to whom he could transfer 
 this charge, who would be earnest about it and 
 willing to execute it. And because he feared 
 that he would die before the truth should be 
 discovered, and because he knew that Lord 
 Nicholas, Tribune of the Romans, had newly 
 
 77 LofC. 
 
entered Rome, and he had heard that he was of 
 great sense and spirit, he determined to notify 
 him, and to set the whole matter forth in order 
 in writing, which thing he did. 
 
 And we, Nicholas, Knight of the Roman 
 people, through the apostolic chair, Senator of 
 the Holy State, Illustrious Syndic, Captain 
 and Defender, after we had possession of the 
 aforesaid letter, which we received on the 6th 
 of September, 1354, and had made answer to 
 Brother Antonius, and had understood all 
 things which were contained in that letter, and 
 had given credence to the aforesaid statements, 
 and because we have so heard by report that 
 by the judgment of God, as it appears, there 
 have been for a long time in France great 
 wars, and many other distresses, which we 
 believe God has sent on account of the deceit 
 practiced toward and against Him, and on 
 account of the sending forth of this one to live 
 in so great lowliness and poverty; therefore 
 we have given our earnest endeavor to search- 
 ing him out as secretly and subtlely as we 
 were able, and have found that there had been 
 reared in Siena one who had been called 
 Janninus Guccio. And he really believed that 
 he was the son of Guccio. This Janninus pre- 
 sented himself to us on the fifth Feria on the 
 second of October, 1354. And before we 
 said anything to him about this business we 
 examined him concerning himself, his con- 
 dition, and his name; whose son he was; 
 where he was born; and with regard to all 
 things which relate to the aforesaid matter. 
 Then we discovered that in his narration he 
 rightly declared in accordance with the contents 
 
 78 
 
of the letter. When this was manifest we 
 with great reverence declared to him the whole 
 matter. But because we perceived that a dis- 
 turbance hostile to us was made in Rome, and 
 fearing that we might perish before we could 
 give care and attention to the recovery of his 
 kingdom, we have caused the whole letter to 
 be copied, which we have given under our 
 hand on the Sabbath, the 4th of October, in 
 the year 1354, sealed with our seal of the 
 great star with the eight small stars surround- 
 ing it (in this seal in the midst is a certain 
 rotundity in which are the arms of the Holy 
 Church and of the Roman people), for the sake 
 of the greater security of its truth. 
 
 And may this become known to all the 
 faithful. 
 
 Asking our most holy and gracious Lord 
 Jesus Christ to give us grace that we may live 
 to such time that we may see this great act of 
 justice accomplished in the world, Amen. 
 
 (That this parchment was secured by the 
 seal, the perforations in the still existing end 
 of the leaf show, so that no one ought to 
 doubt that it is the same which the Senator 
 caused to be written and secured with the seal, 
 since it smacks of antiquity, and the credence 
 that has been given to writing of this sort in 
 general.) 
 
 79 
 
APPENDIX V 
 
 DOCUMENTS RELATIVE TO GIANNI, 
 
 AND HIS PRETENSIONS TO 
 
 THE CROWN OF FRANCE 
 
 (Archives of the Reformation of Siena. Tome 
 199 of the Council of the Campana for the years 
 1357-1385, P. 41.) 
 
 In the name of the Lord, Amen. In the 
 year of our Lord, the 1359th from his incar- 
 nation, the ninth indiction, the 22d day of 
 October. 
 
 Whereas, on the 1 8th day of October, on 
 which, according to the form of the statutes 
 and ordinances of the Siennese and the mode 
 heretofore observed by our noble Lord Dilianus 
 de Panciatichis de Pistorio, the present honor- 
 able chief of the Commonwealth of Siena, we 
 were in the General Council of the Bell of the 
 said commonwealth of Siena, there had been 
 drawn out of the chest and the box existing in 
 the chest, in which are described those who 
 ought in the time to come to hold the office of 
 the twelve lords administrators and governors 
 of the commonwealth and people of the State 
 of Siena, for the said office of the twelve 
 lords and for the two months, namely, Novem- 
 ber and December, next approaching, a ball of 
 wax, on which was folded a small sheet of 
 parchment; and on this were found written, 
 
 80 
 
as I, the Notary of the Reformation, sub- 
 scribed, read, twelve names, which are these, 
 viz.: Dynus Syni, shoemaker, Macza Ducci, 
 shopkeeper, Franciscus Nicolai Nini and 
 Guidoccius Francisci Guidarelli, of the state 
 section, Fatius Chesis, silk merchant, Jacobus 
 Cecchi Nannis, campsor,* Joannes Bracci, 
 linen merchant, and Riccius Pericciuoli, baker, 
 of the section of St. Martin, Master Domini- 
 chus Vannis, Janninus Gucci, wool dealer, 
 Lippus Vannus Sellaius, Jacopus Marcovaldi, 
 of the section of Camollia; and whereas, 
 among these twelve names so drawn forth for 
 the said office of the twelve lords and for the 
 aforesaid two months, was found, as is plainly 
 shown, the name of Janninus, the wool mer- 
 chant, of the section of Camollia; and 
 whereas, it was asserted by several at the time 
 in the aforesaid Council that that Janninus 
 was exempt from the above-mentioned office 
 because it is alleged and reported that that 
 Janninus of right succeeds and ought to be the 
 King of France, being born of the royal stock; 
 and because it so appears to be true by the 
 narration, declaration, and assertion, which is 
 made and appears in certain letters written 
 upon parchment with a round seal pendent 
 therefrom (in circumference about the size, 
 perhaps, of a golden florin) — this seal being 
 of white wax, and red within, and in that red 
 portion marked with the arms of Hungary, 
 lilies and rods crossed upon a shield with a 
 crest, and letters around the white wax border 
 reading, S. SERE. LODOVICI. REG, which 
 
 *A corrupt Latin word signifying a money- 
 changer. 
 
 81 
 
document was presented to the board of the 
 twelve lords, and to the captain of the people, 
 and to the banner-bearer of justice of the state 
 of Siena, and on the part of the most serene 
 prince and lord, the King of Hungary, seemed 
 to be directed to all kings, prelates, princes, 
 dukes, counts, barons, and estates and powers, 
 to whom or which it may come, and whose 
 tenor is below described; and whereas, more- 
 over, to-day, in the said General Council of 
 the Bell of the Commonwealth of Siena, 
 assembled in the usual palace of the said com- 
 monwealth, at the sound of the bell and the 
 voice of the herald, as is the custom, in accord- 
 ance with the mandate of the lord chief, and in 
 sufficient numbers according to the form of 
 the statutes; in which council there were 
 present two hundred and seven counselors, in 
 the presence of the said lord chief, and of the 
 twelve lords, and of the captain of the people, 
 and of the banner-bearer of justice of the said 
 Commonwealth of Siena, in behalf of those 
 presiding in office, and of the whole council 
 aforesaid, this document was by me the below- 
 signed notary of the Reformation, read and 
 declared publicy, openly, and in a loud voice 
 in the vulgar tongue so as to be understood; 
 and moreover, when in the said council it has 
 to-day been made perfectly clear by one of the 
 said twelve lords presiding in office in behalf 
 of the others of the twelve lords in the said 
 council of the aforesaid, that in the presence 
 of these same twelve lords and the captain of 
 the people presiding in office after the above- 
 mentioned drawing of the above-named twelve 
 lords was made, it has been said, asserted, and 
 
 82 
 
affirmed by the same Janninus to-day called 
 Lord John, that although he has in times past 
 been reputed, held, and considered to be Janni- 
 nus Guccio of Siena, nevertheless in truth he 
 is Lord John, the son of the most serene prince 
 and lord, Louis, formerly King of France, and 
 of the most noble Queen Clementia, and so of 
 the royal stock, and of right succeeding to the 
 said kingdom of France, and that he was sub- 
 stituted by another and was transferred to the 
 parts of Tuscany, as is contained in the tenor 
 of the below -written letter: Therefore, since 
 the said Janninus, now called Lord Johannes, 
 was unwilling, as was asserted and declared, 
 to say that he was Janninus Guccio, the wool 
 merchant of Siena, and as such Janninus to 
 hold the office aforesaid, although in time past 
 he had been held and reputed to be such Janni- 
 nus Guccio of Siena, but that he was in truth 
 the son of the said former King of France, 
 and in consequence of the royal stock, and of 
 right succeeding, as soldier and civilian, to the 
 kingdom of France by reason of his own and 
 his paternal origin, and so in accordance with 
 the form of the statutes of Siena could not 
 be one of the twelve lords, as the aforesaid 
 lord chief declared the aforesaid exemption, in 
 accordance with the said laws, he drew forth 
 from the box containing the names of those of 
 the section of Camollia, separated from the 
 others, in the place of the said Janninus 
 Guccio, now called Lord Johannes, another 
 sheet on which was found written the name, 
 to wit, of Janninus Guccio; and this sheet, in 
 accordance with laws above named, and by 
 order of the said twelve lords and the captain 
 
 83 
 
of the people and the said lord chief, was torn 
 into pieces. And he drew out another on 
 which was written, to wit, Grifus Locti. 
 
 The tenor of the said letters, of which men- 
 tion is made above, is as follows, to wit: 
 
 To all Kings, Prelates, Princes, Dukes and 
 Counts, Barons, States and Rulers of the same, 
 all of whom are appointed of God, greeting 
 and sincere affection. Since now the sun has 
 shone upon us which was formerly in cloud, 
 and there has been kindled a fire of wonderful 
 clearness and truth, therefore it is determined 
 that it is worthy and agreeable to right reason, 
 that where we know how to lend aid there also 
 we render effective service. Hence it is that 
 Lord Johanninus, called the son of Guccio, 
 reared in the state of Siena, a man noble and 
 of the royal race of our own progenitors, being 
 the son of the most serene prince, Lord Louis, 
 King of the French, and of Queen dementia 
 of blessed memory, after due consideration 
 turned his steps to the regions of our kingdom 
 of Hungary, and, coming to us, proved by 
 many authentic instruments and writings that 
 the crown of France is his by right; and in 
 these writings we see it clearly set forth that 
 the noble lady, the Countess to wit, of Artois, 
 and Lord Philip the Long, her son-in-law, 
 uncle of the said Lord Johannes, in order that 
 he (Lord Philip) might the more easily reign 
 in the kingdom of France, a few days after the 
 birth of the said Lord Johannes, purposed 
 murder and death against him; but by Divine 
 Providence, and by the aid and counsel of his 
 nurse, he was exchanged for another through 
 certain deceptions, and another boy being ex- 
 
 84 
 
hibited in his stead, she, fleeing after the 
 manner of the secret sojourn of the Virgin 
 Mary in Egypt, concealing him, and pretend- 
 ing that the boy had been taken away by the 
 will of the Highest, carefully preserved his 
 life, for which another perished. And also 
 noble Seigniors, to wit, greater barons and 
 baronnesses of our kingdom, who after the 
 death of the said Lord Louis, King of France, 
 had been sent by the Most Serene Lord 
 Charles of pious memory, our father, to visit 
 the aforesaid Queen, Lady Clementia, his 
 sister, bear their testimony to the truth of this 
 thing, also seeing the said Lord Johannes and 
 causing a comparison to be made before us of 
 him with Lord Louis, the king, and Queen 
 Clementia, his aforesaid parents, in every- 
 thing declared; and those same barons also 
 joined their evidence who had been barons at 
 such time as Lord Johannes, then a boy in the 
 kingdom of France, had been substituted and 
 changed for another, and thence transferred 
 to the parts of Tuscany, to wit, to the State 
 of Siena. For making more precise investi- 
 gation into the truth of this matter, while the 
 said Lord Johannes was living in our king- 
 dom, I secretly sent discreet and prudent men 
 as messengers to the kingdom of France, who 
 being at length returned, were most carefully 
 examined by us, on their allegiance due to God 
 and to our crown, and they positively report- 
 ed and affirmed the aforesaid facts to be as 
 the said Lord Johannes had asserted them. 
 Wherefore, as urgently as possible, we be- 
 speak your friendship, that you may consider 
 the aforesaid Lord John accredited in the con- 
 
 85 
 
duct of his affairs, knowing of a certainty that 
 whatsoever you shall do for him we shall con- 
 sider to have been done for our own crown 
 and for our dearest brother. 
 
 May your dear friendship long flourish. 
 
 Given at Buda, May 15, A.D. 1359. 
 
 86 
 
THIS MONOGRAPH WAS WRIT- 
 TEN FOR THE CHICAGO 
 LITERARY CLUB, AND WAS READ 
 BEFORE THE CLUB ON THE 
 EVENING OF MONDAY, MARCH 
 THE THIRD, NINETEEN HUN- 
 DRED AND TWO. THIS EDITION 
 CONSISTS OF SEVEN HUNDRED 
 AND FIVE COPIES, PRIVATELY 
 PRINTED FOR MEMBERS OF THE 
 CLUB, IN THE MONTH OF JUNE, 
 NINETEEN HUNDRED AND TWO 
 
FEB 2 1903 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 c\ 
 
 030 241 953 A