narrowly escaped falling into the hands of the formidable Douglas. This campaign was closed by an inglorious treaty, by which the king resigned the claim to homage set up by Edward 1., acknowledged the independence of Scotland, and restored the regalia (1328). A marriage was agreed upon between Jane, the sister of Edward III., and David, the heir of Robert Bruce, who became king David II. of Scotland by his father's death in the same year, June 7, 1328. This eventful year witnessed also the death of Charles IV. of France, with mighty consequences to England, as will presently be seen.

Edward had already shown a spirit unlikely to submit to the tutelage of his mother and her paramour; and Mortimer soon gave him cause to assert his free will. Having treacherously got rid of his associates by obtaining the execution of Kent and the imprisonment of Lancaster on a charge of treason (1330), and having enriched himself by many forfeitures, he assumed the title of earl of March and all the state of a king. Edward took counsel with several of his nobles, and surprised the queen and Mortimer in the castle of Nottingham, to which his party gained entrance by an old subterranean passage. Mortimer was condemned, without trial, by the parliament, and hanged at Tyburn, Nov. 29, 1330. The queen remained in captivity at her own house of Risings for the rest of her life.

The first few years of the reign which Edward now really commenced were occupied in the restoration of internal order and in a war with Scotland. Several of the English nobility, complaining that they had not been restored to their estates in Scotland in accordance with the late treaty, set up Edward Baliol, son of the late John Baliol, as a claimant of the crown, and Edward III. espoused his cause (1332). David fled to France, and the regent Douglas was defeated and slain at Halidon Hill near Berwick, July 19, 1333. Balio was acknowledged as king by a parliament at Perth; but on the discovery that he had ceded the south of Scotland to Edward, he was obliged to flee to Berwick (1334). In the war which followed the Scots received large succours from the king of France, who thus furnished Edward with a provocation to urge the claim which he had already made to the crown of France.

Thus began those WARS WITH FRANCE which exhausted both countries for a century, and bequeathed to after generations the foolish and fatal legacy of a supposed "natural enmity."

The claim of Edward to the French crown was utterly untenable. It was founded on his descent from Philip III., from whom also the right of the reigning king, Philip VI., was derived. The

relation of both to their common ancestor is seen in the following

table :

The exclusion of celebrated "Salic But this law was

Thus it appears that, if the succession was to be traced through males alone, PHILIP VI. could have no rival. females had been clearly established by the Law," which confirmed the right of Philip V. recent, and the question had been raised whether a female, though herself incapable of reigning, might not transmit her right to a male heir. Even according to this view, the right would have been with the king of Navarre rather than with Edward. His only remaining plea was that, though the son of the younger daughter, he was a step nearer to the common ancestor; but, by a curious fatality, this very point had been decided the other way in the case of Baliol and Bruce. The accession of Philip VI. did not take place without a protest made by Isabella in Edward's favour; but Edward himself had done homage to Philip VI. for Guienne, 1329. In reviving the claim thus virtually abandoned, his first motive seems to have been resentment against Philip for offences given in Guienne as well as in Scotland; and when once the idea had been really entertained, it ripened in the bold and ambitious mind of Edward into a scheme of conquest. Let it, then, be distinctly recorded, as a turning-point in English history, that the claims of the Plantagenets to the crown of France were only a scheme of downright conquest. No true Englishman regrets their ultimate failure, however proud he may be of the glories of Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt. Their success would only have reduced England to a French province and destroyed the independence from which has sprung all our prosperity. The pride of our kings, however, did not suffer the last vestige of the claim to be obliterated till the reign of George III., when the French lilies, first quartered by Edward III., were finally removed from our royal coat of arms.

At first the enterprise seemed only to involve Edward in embarrassments, which led to new measures of constitutional improvement at home. He crossed over into Flanders in 1338, and invaded

ENG.

G

France in the following year, but only to retreat. In 1340 he sailed across, gained a great victory over the French fleet off Sluys, and, in the spirit of chivalry, challenged Philip to decide the dispute by single combat. This the French king declined, and a truce was made which lasted for two years. Returning to England, Edward found great disaffection, especially among the clergy and nobles, arising from his arbitrary measures in obtaining supplies for his French and Scottish wars. In the parliament which met in 1341 advantage was taken of his necessities to establish the great principle of the responsibility of the great officers of state to the parliament. The nobles also obtained the privilege of exemption from punishment except by the sentence of their peers assembled in parliament. Though the king procured the repeal of the statute soon after, its provisions were destined to endure.

In the same year a war of succession broke out in Brittany. Edward sent succours, under Sir Walter Manny, to the heroic countess of Montfort, who was defending, in the castle of Hennebonne, the cause of her husband, then a prisoner at Paris (1342). In the autumn - the truce with France having expired-Edward took the field in person, and the war went on in Brittany with no decisive issue.

At length, in 1346, Edward prepared for a campaign in Guienne, but he was compelled by adverse winds to land at Cape la Hogue in Normandy. His army consisted only of 4000 men-at-arms, 10,000 archers, 10,000 Welsh infantry, and 6000 Irish; but, besides the king, it had a chief who proved in himself a host, though then only 16 years of age, EDWARD prince of Wales, called, from the favourite colour of his armour, the BLACK PRINCE. The English ravaged the country on the left bank of the Seine almost up to the gates of Paris, and then retreated towards Flanders, pursued by the French king with an immense army. The delay caused in crossing the Somme enabled the French to come up with Edward, who turned to meet them at the village of CRECY, about fifteen miles to the east of Abbeville. His position was a gentle slope, on which he formed his army in three lines, with trenches to protect their flanks, and the baggage in the rear. He gave the post of honour at the head of the first line to his son, who had been knighted only a month before, and himself took the command of the reserve. In his front he placed some cannons, the first that had been used in any great battle; but so little value was yet attached to the invention that the French king had not waited to bring up his artillery. The host of France reached the field after a long day's march from Abbeville, already fatigued, and with their ranks disordered. They, also, were disposed in three lines. The

first consisted of Genoese crossbowmen, under Doria and Grimaldi; the second was intrusted to the king's brother, the count of Alençon; and Philip himself was with the third. Around him were all his nobility and great vassals, with the king of Bohemia and his son the king of the Romans. The total force of his army was 120,000 men, while that of Edward was only 30,000; but the French were over-confident and undisciplined, under leaders jealous of each other and blindly contemptuous of the little English army which discipline and a wise general made irresistible.

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It was about four o'clock in the afternoon, on Saturday the 26th of August (1346), when the Genoese advanced to attack the English army, who remained firm in their ranks. A thunder-shower had relaxed their bowstrings, and their arrows fell short of the mark, while the English archers, taking their bows out of their cases, poured in their cloth-yard shafts with unerring aim, and put the Genoese to flight. They were cut down by the men-at-arms of their own side; but these also were thrown into confusion by the steady fire of the archers. Then d'Alençon, leading a body of knights past the flank of the archers, closed with the main body of the English. The prince of Wales was hard beset; and a knight rode out of the battle to Edward, who watched the battle from a windmill-hill, and asked for help. "Is my son dead, or hurt, or felled to the ground?" said the king; and when the knight answered No," he bade him return and tell those who sent him to let the prince win his spurs that day, and to send for no help while he was alive. The like chivalrous devotion was shown by the aged king of Bohemia, who, being almost blind, caused his knights to tie their bridles together, placing him in the midst, and they all fell slain together. Their fate was shared by Alençon and the flower of the French nobility. In vain did Philip try to bring up the reserve; he was forced back by the tide of battle, and his routed army was pursued and slaughtered, for on that day no quarter was given, till the night fell. Then the field of victory was lighted up by torches; and Edward came down from the little hill to reward the prince, who knelt before him, with such words of praise as these: "Fair son, God give you good perseverance. You are my good son, that have acquitted yourself so nobly. You are worthy to keep a realm." This great battle, in which the French left between 30,000 and 40,000 dead upon the field, cost the English only three knights, one esquire, and a very few of inferior rank. In those days of complete armour the loss of life was not so much in the battle as in the pursuit.

In the following week Edward invested Calais, the siege of which lasted just a year. In this interval a great victory was gained over

the Scots at Neville's Cross, in Durham, and King David was taken prisoner, Oct. 12, 1346. He was released next year on the payment

of 100,000 marks.

The king of France made a vain attempt to relieve Calais at the Whitsuntide of 1347, and the governor, John de Vienne, was reduced to an unconditional surrender, Aug. 4. The beautiful story of the self-devotion of the six burgesses of Calais, who presented themselves before Edward, with halters round their necks, as victims in place of their fellow-citizens, and of their pardon on the intercession of queen Philippa, can hardly be surrendered to romance without regret. The acquisition of Calais secured an entrance for an army into France; and Edward hastened to people it with English and to make it an English town in all respects. In the following year Edward made a truce with the king of France, during which a treacherous attempt was made to take Calais; but Edward flew to its defence in person, and performed acts of chivalrous valour, followed by equally chivalrous courtesy to his captives. In the same year (1349) he founded the chief of the English orders of knighthood, that of the Garter.

This year was also marked by the first great visitation of that terrible disease the Plague, which was said to have originated in the north of Asia. Its victims in London alone were more than 50,000.

The truce with France expired in 1355. Meanwhile John had succeeded his father, Philip VI. (1350); but the kingdom was distracted by the rival pretensions of Charles king of Navarre. Edward invaded it from Calais, and, having gained great booty, returned to repel an invasion of the Scots, whom he drove back, and ravaged the country as far as Edinburgh. The Black Prince had at the same time invaded France from the south, and was returning to Guienne, laden with booty, when he was met at Maupertuis, near POITIERS, by king John, with 60,000 men. By prudence, as consummate as his valour, he gained a decisive victory, and John yielded himself a prisoner. The prince made a banquet for him, and himself waited upon the king at table (Sept. 19, 1356). Having made a truce with France for two years, he conducted his royal prisoner to London, which he entered in procession, riding on a little palfrey by the side of the king, who was mounted on a splendid white steed, and attired in royal apparel. Edward came to meet them, and vied with his son in courtesy to the prisoner. John signed an ignominious treaty, which the French estates refused to ratify; and the country was terribly wasted by a new invasion (1359). Peace was at last concluded at Bretigni, near Chartres (May 8, 1360). John regained his liberty for a great ransom.