COMINES, a town of France, in the department of Nord and the arrondissement of Lille, on the River Lys, which there divides Belgium from France. It is a thriving manufacturing town, with breweries, linen and tape factories, bleachfields, and oil-works. The principal building is the collegiate church of St Peter’s. It was in this place that Comines, the French chronicler, was born. Population in 1872, 4020 in the town, and 6353 in the commune.
COMINES, Philippe de (1445-1509), called the father of modern history, was born at the castle of Comines. He lost both father and mother in his earliest years. In 1463 his godfather, Philip of Burgundy, summoned him to court, and soon after transferred him to the household of his son, afterwards known as Charles the Bold. He speedily acquired considerable influence over the mind of Charles, and in 1468 was appointed chamberlain and councillor; consequently when in the same year Louis XL entrapped himself at Peronne, Comines was able both to soften the passion of the duke and to give useful advice to the king, whose life he did much to save. Three years later he was charged with an embassy to Louis, who gained him over to himself by many brilliant promises. In 1472 he left Burgundy for the court of France. He was at once made chamberlain and councillor; a pension of 6000 livres was bestowed on him; he received the principality of Talmont, the confiscated property of the family of La Tremville; and many other dignities and presents of land were conferred on him by the king. He was employed to carry out the intrigues of Louis in Burgundy, and spent several months as envoy in Italy. On his return he was received with the utmost favour, and in 1479 obtained a decree confirming him in possession of his principality....
On the death of Louis a suit was commenced against Comines by the family of La Tremville, and he was cast in heavy damages. He plotted against the regent, Anne de Beaujeu, and joined the party of Orleans. Having attempted to carry off the king, and so free him from the tutelage of his sister, he was arrested, and put in one of his old master’s iron cages at Loches. In 1489 he was banished to one of his own estates for ten years, and made to give bail to the amount of 10,000 crowns of gold for his good behaviour. Recalled to the council in 1492, he strenu ously opposed the Italian expedition of Charles VIII., in which, however, he took part, notably as representing the king in the negotiations which resulted in the treaty of Vercelli. During the rest of his life, notwithstanding the accession of Louis XII., whom he had served as duke of Orleans, he held no position of importance; and his last days were disturbed by law suits. He died at Argenton in 1509.
The Memoirs, to which Comines owes his reputation as a statesman and man of letters, were written during his latter years; the first six books are assigned to 1488-94, and the next two to 1497-1501. Hallam says of them that they “almost make an epoch in historical literature;” and Saint-Beuve, after speaking of Comines as being in date the first truly modern writer, and comparing him with Montaigne, says that his history remains the definitive history of his time, and that from it all political history took its rise. None of this applause is undeserved, for the pages of Comines abound with excellences. He analyzes motives and pictures manners; he delineates men and describes events; his reflections are pregnant with suggestiveness, his conclusions strong with the logic of facts.
The Memoirs remained in MS. till 1524, when part of them were printed by Galliot du Pré, the remainder first seeing light in 1525. Subsequent editions were put forth by Denys Sauvage in 1552, by Denys Godefroy in 1649, and by Lenglet Dufresnoy in 1747. That of Mademoiselle Dupont (1841-48) is the best. Various translations of Comines into English have appeared, from that of T. Danett in 1596 to that, based on the Dupont edition, which was printed in Bohn’s series in 1855.
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