"As the king was surrounded by Burgundy's creatures no favourable reply
was returned, and a formal challenge or declaration of war was, on the
18th of July, sent by the princes to the Duke of Burgundy, and both
parties began at once to make preparation for war.
"Now for my own view of this quarrel. King Henry sent for me a year since,
and asked for whom I should hold my castle if Orleans and Burgundy came to
blows, adding that Burgundy would be viewed by him with most favour.
"'My father and grandfather ever fought faithfully in the service of
England,' I said; 'but for years past now, the line betwixt your majesty's
possessions and those of France has been drawn in, and my estates and
Castle of Villeroy now lie beyond the line, and I am therefore a vassal of
France as well as of your majesty. It being known to all men that even
before I became Lord of Summerley, on my marriage with your majesty's
ward, Mistress Margaret, I, like my father, held myself to be the liege
man of the King of England. I am therefore viewed with much hostility by
my neighbours, and right gladly would they seize upon any excuse to lay
complaint against me before the king, in order that I might be deprived of
my fief and castle.
"'This I would fain hold always for your majesty; and, seeing how it is
situated but a few miles across the frontier, it is, I would humbly submit
to you, of importance to your majesty that it should be held by one
faithful to you--since its possession in the hands of an enemy would
greatly hinder any English army marching out from Calais to the invasion
of France.
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