MARTIN

See also:

• GOUGE (adopted from the Fr. gouge, derived from the Late Lat. gubia or gulbia, in Ducange gulbium, an implement ad hortum excolendum; and also instrumentum ferreum in usu fabrorum; according to the New English Dictionary the word is probably of Celtic ori
• MARTIN GOUGE (c. 1360–1444)

GOUGE (c. 1360–1444)  , surnamed DE CHARPAIGNE, French chancellor, was born at Bourges about 136o . A canon of Bourges, in 1402 he became treasurer to John, duke of Berri, and in 1406 bishop of Chartres . He was arrested by John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy, with the hapless Jean de Montaigu (1349–1409) in 1409, but was soon released and then banished . Attaching himself to the dauphin Louis, duke of Guienne, he became his chancellor, the king's ambassador in Brittany, and a member of the grand council; and on the 13th of May 1415, he was transferred from the see of Chartres to that of Clermont-Ferrand . In May 1418, when the Burgundians re-entered Paris, he only escaped death at their hands by taking refuge in the Bastille . He then left Paris, but only to fall into the hands of his enemy, the duke de la Tremoille, who imprisoned him in the castle of Sully . Rescued by the dauphin Charles, he was appointed chancellor of France on the 3rd of February 1422 . He endeavoured to reconcile Burgundy and France, was a party to the selection of Arthur, earl of Richmond, as constable, but had to resign his chancellorship in favour of Regnault of Chartres; first from March 25th to August 6th 1425, and again when La Tremoille had supplanted Richmond . After the fall of La Tremoille in 1433 he returned to court, and exercised a powerful influence over affairs of state almost till his death, which took place at the castle of Beaulieu (Puy-de-D6me) on the 25th or 26th of November 1444 . See Hiver's account in the Memoires de la Societe des Antiquaires du Centre, p . 267 (1869); and the Nouvelle Biographie generale, vol. xxi .