CHARLES II OF NAVARRE, KNOWN AS "THE BAD" (1332-1387).... Lot 2

CHARLES II OF NAVARRE, KNOWN AS "THE BAD" (1332-1387). Closed letters to the "burghers and inhabitants of Reins", concerning the assassination of the French constable Charles de la Cerda. Data "in Evreux, the XIth day of January" [1354]. 1 page (180 x 300 mm). Brown ink on vellum skin. Countersigned by "Maistre P. Blanchet, secrétaire du Roy" and "Maistre Macé Guchery, secrétaire de mons. d'emprès les Jacobins". Provenance: on the front of the manuscript, in brown ink by a 17th century hand: "Reasons for which he made Charles Connestable of France die" -- on the back, in black ink by a later hand: "Charles of Navarre, son of Jean d'Aragon and Blanche de Navarre, his wife" -- in 1865, when the text was published in the Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire de France, this manuscript was said to be "part of the cabinet of Mr. Monmerqué". Charles le Mauvais claimed the assassination of the Constable of France, a major episode of the Hundred Years' War. On January 8, 1354, at the "Truie-qui-File" inn in L'Aigle, Normandy, French Constable Charles de la Cerda was molested before being pierced with swords. At the origin of this assassination is none other than Charles II of Navarre, known as "the Evil One". A few months earlier, King Edward III of England was about to seal an alliance with the Duchy of Brittany. However, a Franco-English peace would be disastrous for the interests of Charles the Evil, who decided to seize the constable, very close to the King of France who had agreed to the alliance, with the aim of putting pressure on the negotiations. Charles of Navarre and his brother Philip leave at the head of a small troop for the inn where the constable spends the night, get rid of his followers but the constable is killed in the brawl. A few days after the assassination, Charles of Navarre took full responsibility, writing these closed letters addressed to the city of Rheims. He indicates there that the constable "spoke badly all plainly o