Clement attitudes

In June 1305 the cardinals at Rome finally agreed to the election of Cardinal Bertand de Got as Pope Clement V. The conclave had been torn apart (again) by rows between French and Italians, Black Guelphs and White, Colonna and Caetani, so the election of Bertrand was a necessary compromise. As a Gascon, he stood aloof from Italian quarrels, and his French sympathies were neatly divided: he was both a subject of Edward I, in the latter’s capacity as Duke of Gascony, and on very friendly terms with Philip le Bel. A mild, clubbable, tea-with-vicar sort of chap.

His first act as pope was to visit his old see at Bordeaux, the capital of Gascony. The seneschal, John de Havering, who had only just crushed a private war in the duchy, tore off his helmet and quickly donned the hat marked ‘diplomacy’ instead. He decided to send a team of envoys to meet Clement at the frontier, presumably to stall him while the English scrambled to make Bordeaux fit for a pope. His expenses included four pieces of rich cloth, two of “cameline’” and two striped, and two lengths of green “sindon” for linings. These were to make robes for himself, his escort of eight knights, and the mayor of Bordeaux.

When the English met the new pope at Saintes, it became clear an even larger armed guard was necessary. Among Clement’s retinue were several French nobles. These included Charles of Valois, who had conquered much of Gascony for the French in 1294 and was hated by the people of Bordeaux for the cruelties he had inflicted on them - the old story of conquerors and oppressed. To save these men from having their throats cut, Havering had to guard them all the way from Saintes to Bordeaux, “benignly, honourably and in quiet”. Throughout their stay at the capital the streets were policed day and night, in case the Bordelais rose up and tried to kill Havering’s French guests. Then word arrived that another private war had erupted in southern Gascony.

Charles of Valois