CHARLES VIII. Document signed "Charles",... - Lot 26 - Osenat

CHARLES VIII. Document signed "Charles", addressed to the generals of Finance of France, countersigned by the king's secretary Jean Robineau. Blainville [now Blanville-Crevon, near Rouen, in the Seine-Maritime department], May 30, 1485. 3/4 p. oblong folio on parchment leaf; seal missing, soiling. EXEMPTION FROM TAXES IN FAVOR OF THE PORT CITY OF HARFLEUR, TO REWARD IT FOR ITS LOYALTY AND TO HELP IT MEET THE EXPENSES OF ITS DEFENSE. The royal power was then caught up in the "Guerre folle", a revolt against the tax pressure and the influence of Anne de Beaujeu, led by the duke of Orleans with the support of the duke of Brittany, the French princes and several foreign powers. " ... Knowing that, we incline liberally to the supplication and request of our dear and well liked manans and inhabitants of the city of Harfleu, in favor of the good loyalty that they have always shown towards our predecessors kings, us and the Crown of France, to them for these causes, and so that they may be more curious and inclined to continue to do good and have the means to support the charges and expenses that are appropriate to them for the guarding of the said place which is situated on the sea shore in a frontier country, and other considerations to this we move, have given and quitted, give and quictons of especial grace[e] by these present, the sum of two hundred livres tournois, in which they were imposed for their pork of the grant made to us in this present month of May in our city of Rouen by the people of the three estates of our country and duchy of Normandy to provide for any of our affairs... The Duke of Lorraine, the Count of Clermont, the Sire of Graville, Sir Estienne de Vest, Knight Bailiff of Meaulx and others present..." Traveling in Normandy, Charles VIII and his mother, the regent Anne of Brittany, stayed on May 30 and 31, 1485 in Blainville at the home of Jean d'Estouteville, a nobleman who distinguished himself by his unfailing loyalty to the kings of France since the Hundred Years War.