to be sealed." In 1343 Parliament itself revoked the statutes on the understanding that most of them were to be re-enacted. 6. A fresh dispute between Philip and Edward arose in 1341, upon the death of John, Duke of Brittany, whose duchy was claimed by his half-brother John, Earl of Montfort, and by Philip's nephew, Charles of Blois, husband of the dead duke's niece Joan. Charles was adjudged duke by the peers of France, but Montfort would not accept

THE SUCCESSION TO BRITTANY.
Mary m. (1) DUKE ARTHUR m. (2) Yoland, Countess
of Montfort.

their ruling, and crossing to England, claimed help of Edward. Soon after his return he was taken prisoner, but his wife, Joan of Flanders, held out in Hennebon against the French and Charles of Blois till she was relieved by Sir Walter Mauny, the gallant knight of Hainault, whom Edward sent to help her. This succour was followed by forces under Robert, Earl of Artois, who was made Earl of Richmond, and an army under Edward himself; but the French party were too strong to be driven out, and Pope Clement VI. obtained a truce, 1343, by which John of Montfort was to be freed. However, Philip kept him at Paris till he escaped in disguise to England, 1345, whence he came back to Hennebon, where he died, leaving Edward guardian to his son. It was clear that these truces would hardly lead to anything: the Normans were again privateering in the Channel, and the French

The campaigns

of 1345-1347. Auberoche,

king trying to seize Guienne, so Parliament begged Edward to begin open war again or make a good peace at once. An army was at once sent to Gascony under Henry Grismond, Earl of Derby, son of the Duke of Lancaster, while the king himself went to Flanders to try and win that earldom

Crecy, Neville's
Cross, Calais.

for his son, July 1345. But his friend James of Artaveldt was murdered in a town riot at Ghent, and he returned empty-handed. News now came that John, the French king's son (who had been sent to the south with a great host after the easy victory of Derby at Auberoche, June 1345, over the Earl of Lisle), was pressing the English hard in Guienne. Edward therefore sailed to his aid, but stopping on the way, by the counsel of Sir Geoffrey of Harcourt, a Norman outlaw, landed at La Hogue, intending to strike at the now defenceless north of France. Taking Caen and other cities on his way, from which he sent much spoil and many prisoners to England, he marched west to join the Flemings, who had already broken into Picardy. But Philip had destroyed all the bridges on the lower Seine, and Edward had to turn up the south bank in hopes of finding a crossing, the French king, with an army which grew bigger every day as Edward's dwindled with sickness and losses, following him on the other bank. At last by a feigned attack on Paris, Edward gained a few hours to repair the broken bridge at Poissy, crossed it safely, and made north again to the Somme, with Philip close at his heels. After seeking some time for a ford, he luckily found one at Blanketake, hard by Abbeville, and got his army across in the teeth of a French force before Philip could come up. He now halted in a strong position at Crecy and rested his weary men. Next day Philip's army came up from Abbeville, marching through a terrible thunderstorm, and preceded by a cloud of birds frightened by the weather or by an eclipse which took place that morning. The men were so tired and wet that the leaders begged Philip to halt and get his army into good order that day, and attack on the morrow. But when he saw the English all drawn up in order on the hillside, under the banner of his rival, "he hated them, and bade the Genoese crossbowmen begin the attack." Their strings were slack with the rain, and they told the Constable of France that they were not fit to fight that day. But he called them cowards and told them to fall on. The sun shone out in the Frenchmen's faces as the battle began at five o'clock. "When they drew near, the Genoese made a great leap and cry to abash the English, but they stood still and stirred not for all that. And a second time they made another leap and a dreadful cry, and stept forward a little, and the Englishmen removed not one foot. Again they leapt and cried, and went forward till they came within shot, then they shot fiercely with their crossbows. Then the English archers stept forward one pace and let fly their arrows so hotly

and so thick that it seemed snow. When the Genoese felt the arrows piercing through heads, arms, and breasts, many of them cast down their crossbows and cut their strings, and ran back discomfited. When the French king saw them flying, he said, 'Slay those rascals, for they will hinder us and block up our path for nothing.' Then you should have seen the men-at-arms dash in among them and kill a great number thereof, and still the Englishmen kept shooting wherever they saw the thickest press; and the sharp arrows ran into the men-at-arms and into their horses, and many fell among the Genoese, and when they were down they could not get up again, for the press was so thick that one overthrew the other. Also among the English soldiers were certain

Cornishmen and Welsh that went afoot with great knives, and they went in among the French and slew and murdered many as they lay on the ground, earls, barons, knights, and squires, whereat the King of England was afterward displeased, for he had rather they had been taken for their ransoms." Into this struggling mass the French knights

charged in vain, but some passing round it, pressed the two first English lines hard, so that the Prince's knights sent a message to the king on the windmill hill for help. "Is my son dead, or hurt, or felled to the ground?" asked Edward. 'No, sir, but hardly matched." "Then go back to them that sent you, and tell them to send to me no more whatever betide as long as my son is alive, and bid them let him win his spurs, for, please God, I wish this day and the honour thereof to be his, and those that are with him." And they that heard it were mightily encouraged by the king's words. Our men fought on steadily in good order, and the French, who were broken up into small parties, were completely defeated by sunset, having lost nearly all their commanders. The King of Bohemia, who wished to strike a blow at the English, and was led into the fight between two of his knights, for he was dim of sight, was killed in the forefront of the battle. There fell also the King of Majorca, the Duke of Lorraine, and the Constable, with 1200 knights and more than 20,000 commoners. Philip was wounded in the throat and thigh, and had a horse killed under him, but he would not turn away till the battle was clearly lost. The English lit fires where they stood, and waited for the day gladly enough. And the king came down to the field and said to his son, 'Sweet son, God grant you to go on as you have begun. You had quitted yourself well to-day, you are worthy to be a king." But the Prince bowed and gave all the honour to his father. On the next morning the English defeated a fresh body of troops who stumbled upon them in the fog, and when the mist cleared they were able to cut off the French stragglers who had lurked about the woods and fields, so that there fell more that day than on the Saturday. Edward's way was now clear, and he resolved to lay siege to Calais; for all was going on well in the south, now that John of Normandy had been forced to withdraw from the siege of Aiguillon and hasten to the help of his father.

66

While Edward lay in front of Calais the English had two more successes. David, King of Scotland, who had come back from France, was led by Philip's letters to invade England. The knights and yeomen of the northern counties mustered under the Archbishop of York and the Border Wardens, Lords Neville and Percy, and set themselves in array at a place afterwards known as Neville's Cross, October 17, 1346. The English archers completely foiled the attacks of the Scottish knights, and scattered them with great slaughter; King David was made prisoner by Squire

The

John of Copeland, and the invaders fled in haste. captive prince was sent to the Tower amid great rejoicing. Soon after this, June 20, 1347, Charles of Blois was taken prisoner by Sir Thomas Dagworth at la Roche d'Errein and lodged in the same stronghold. Meanwhile all the French attempts to victual or relieve Calais were vain, and the governor, John of Vienne, at last wrote to Philip :

The town suffereth great lack of corn and wine and meat, for know that there is nought but what hath been eaten, both dogs, cats, and horses, so that we cannot find anything else in the town to eat save we eat the flesh of men. Ye wrote us aforetime that I should hold the town as long as there was aught to eat, but now we are at the point of having no more to eat. Wherefore, my right dear and redoubted lord, provide such remedy as shall seem fittest to you; for if remedy and counsel be not shortly provided, ye will have no more letters from me, and the town will be lost and all we that are therein.

Philip led a great army to relieve it at Whitsuntide 1347, but he dared not attack Edward, and as Edward would not leave his quarters to fight in the open, he retreated, leaving the town to its fate. John of Vienne thereupon yielded at Edward's mercy. The English king treated his prisoners well, and suffered all those burgesses who would swear fealty to him to stay in the town, the others he replaced by Englishmen. He further gave the city great privileges as a market-town, and it rapidly grew and flourished under his rule. It was probably in remembrance of its capture that Edward made the Order of the Garter, a brotherhood of twenty-five knights. Calais was of the highest value to the English kings so long as the Hundred Years' War lasted, for it was one of the gates of the Channel and an open doorway into France. The French felt the loss heavily, and as early as December 31, 1348, tried to regain it in time of peace by bribing Edward's governor; but he was angry at seeing his honour doubted, and lured his tempters into the castle, when after a short but deadly struggle, in which King Edward himself took part, they were all taken or slain. As soon as Calais had surrendered, Pope Clement, who had done all he could to make peace, was able to get Philip and Edward to agree to a truce, 28th September, which save in Brittany held till 1355, the only exploit performed in the interval being the sea-fight off Winchelsea, August 29, 1350. A fleet of privateers from Biscay under the Earl of la Cerda had on their way to Flanders plundered English ships and murdered their crews. Edward put out in search of them, and came upon them as they were sailing back from