Litigations and Negotiations
One of these was the small village of Saint-Sardos. The village was within the jurisdiction of the Duke of Aquitaine, but it also contained a Benedictine priory and the priory's motherhouse, the Abbey of Sarlat, lay outside. In 1318, the abbot petitioned Parlement to declare Saint-Sardos exempt from the King-Duke's jurisdiction. He also offered to build a bastide there. The case proceeded slowly, but in December 1322, the Parlement ruled in the abbot's favour. In 15 October 1323, a royal sergeant arrived at Saint-Sardos and erected a stake bearing the Arms of the King of France.
Local landowners were not too pleased. They feared that the new bastide would attract settlers from their own estates and thus diminish their own incomes. The night after the sergeant's arrival, Raymond-Bernard, lord of Monpezat, raided Saint-Sardos. He burned the village to the ground and hanged the sergeant at his own stake.
Edward II had more than enough problems at home, and did not need a diplomatic crisis with France. As soon as the news reached him, he sent letters offering his apologies and proclaiming his innocence. He was not believed. Ralph Basset, the Seneschal of Gascony and highest English official in France, had met with Raymond-Bernard only two days before the raid. The French government accused him for authorising the crime. He was probably guilty.
The English employed what means they could to prolong the proceedings without making any great concessions. Basset was recalled in March 1324 and in April, an embassy was sent to France with instructions to negotiate a peaceful settlement, if possible. This embassy was led by Edmund of Woodstock, Earl of Kent and the Archbishop of Dublin Alexander de Bicknor. But time was quickly running out. King Charles IV of France had ordered his army to muster on the borders of Aquitaine in June.
The ambassadors received a chilly welcome when they arrived at Paris and first promised that Montpezat would be surrendered. They then travelled to Bordeaux to see to the fulfillment of the agreement. There they learned that Charles IV's conduct of the affair had caused much indignation among the local nobility. The Earl of Kent therefore changed his mind and decided to resist. The French officials were forced to return empty-handed. New ambassadors were sent, but too late; before they could arrive Charles IV declared the duchy forfeit.
Read more about this topic: War Of Saint-Sardos
Famous quotes containing the word negotiations:
“But always and sometimes questioning the old modes
And the new wondering, the poem, growing up through the floor,
Standing tall in tubers, invading and smashing the ritual
Parlor, demands to be met on its own terms now,
Now that the preliminary negotiations are at last over.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)