The King and Queen returned to Paris in March. All the Queen’s ladies were dressed in white, and there was much feasting at the palaces of the King and Queen, and the hôtels of the nobles and chief burghers.[238]
In June the Princess Michelle was married to the eldest son of the Duke of Burgundy, Philippe, Comte de Charolais, and this marriage turned out very happily, for Michelle, then seventeen years old, was a charming character, like her sisters, and Philippe was in most respects unlike his fierce, unscrupulous father. Gay, kind-hearted, and affectionate, he was known as Philippe-le-Bon, and was adored by his subjects as no other duke had been since all Burgundy mourned for Philippe de Rouvre, the last of the beloved Capétienne house.
In August the Duke of Burgundy was hastily summoned by the King and Queen to come to Paris and bring a strong body of men-at-arms who might be wanted, as there was a serious quarrel going on with the Duc de Bretagne, husband of their second daughter Jeanne; who had not only brought over[239] a number of English and made war on the Comtesse de Penthièvre, but had quarrelled with his wife because she opposed his proceedings, and was even said to have struck her. Her father and mother were, of course, much incensed at this, so they resolved to send the Duke of Burgundy and some of the other princes to attack and subdue him. Jean Sans-peur was all the more willing as the Comte de Penthièvre had married one of his daughters, so he came at once with his troops, and preparations were going on vigorously for the invasion of Bretagne; but the Duke, hearing of the indignation of his mother-in-law, “_et de ceux qui gouvernoit le roi_,” became so frightened that he came to Paris and made his submission. All the princes were very angry, and the Duc d’Orléans, his brother-in-law, told him that the lion in his heart was not bigger than that of a child of a year old.[240] In fact, he seems to have been what some in these days would call “well hustled,” and it would appear that the quarrel between him and the Princess Jeanne was made up. One may imagine that at any rate he must have altered his conduct as we find years after, that the Penthièvres having taken him prisoner and threatened his life, she persuaded her brother, the Dauphin, to forbid them to do him any injury, and taking up arms herself she besieged and took their castles and forced them to set him at liberty.