The XII. pendent party had shut themselves, offered to submit CHAP. to Du Guesclin, as the king's lieutenant, on the condition that, should the Duke of Brittany return to the country, and consent to be a good Frenchman, they, the prelates, barons, gentlemen, and good towns, would agree to recognise him, and, in his name, receive a garrison of royal troops. In the midst of this truce the Earl of Salisbury appeared off the coast of Brittany, with 1000 men-at-arms and 2000 archers. With these he entered Brest, and despatched a messenger to Du Guesclin, to say that he had come to succour the towns which had entered into composition, and that to preserve them he was ready to fight at any appointed place or town, if the French would give him facilities. constable replied that he was ready to fight, but would give Lord Salisbury no facility for attacking him, and that he should consider the beleaguered places not relieved until that was accomplished by the actual approach and success of the English army. Brest being reinforced, Knollis, who commanded there, brought succours to the castle of Derval, which the French declared to be an infraction of the truce. Instead of sending all his disposable troops into Brittany, Edward again committed the fault of despatching a large army, under the Duke of Lancaster, from Calais, to march round through Burgundy to Guienne. The bootless cavalcade in the preceding year, under Knollis, ought to have taught the inutility of such expeditions,-"moult honorable," says the chronicler of St. Denis, "but moult domageux." For the present, however, it afforded some respite to Knollis, in Brittany, for Charles recalled the constable and all the force under his command, to watch, rather than oppose, the progress of Lancaster. The French king's order, as well as the constable's tactics, were not to risk a battle. Lancaster accordingly marched to Bourges, and through the Limousin, worn more by fatigue and by a СНАР. wet autumn than harassed by the enemy. They reached Guienne in a miserable plight, more in need of succour themselves than bringing any to the province. The consequence was that, in 1374, the French were able to attack the southern and maritime regions of Gascony, as well as to reduce several towns in the vicinity of Bordeaux. La Rochelle and Cognac had already surrendered; and the English possessions were confined to Bordeaux, Bayonne, and the few towns which Edward had held at his accession. In Brittany the truce had been broken by both parties beheading the hostages in their power. The Duc d'Anjou began the bloody work, and Knollis retaliated by flinging from his artillery the heads of the French in his power. The campaign of 1375 was the first that seemed to promise some success and retrieval to the English arms. The Earl of Cambridge, with some 2000 men-at-arms and 3000 archers, sailed to support the cause of the duke in Brittany. Between Calais and Boulogne, an engagement took place, much to the advantage of the English, in which the Count de St. Pol was taken prisoner. However, the Duke of Lancaster had come from Gascony, and passed into Flanders, for the purpose of meeting the Duke of Anjou, and entering into negotiations for a peace. Whilst these were proceeding, the Earl of Cambridge landed at St. Malo's, took St. Pol de Léon, and drove the French, with Clisson at their head, to shut themselves up in Quimperlé, where they were immediately besieged. As prolonged defence was impracticable, the French chiefs in Quimperlé promised to surrender, if not succoured. This succour was impossible without a battle, and the constable was little sure of victory. Moreover, Clisson, who, after Du Guesclin, was the first of French partisans, was one of those shut up in Quimperlé; and as he had beheaded every English soldier and knight that fell into his hands, he must himself in time have paid the forfeit. To save him, there fore, the King of France hurried the negotiations that were carried on for a truce at Bruges, where the English were ignorant of the advantageous state of the Duke of Brittany's affairs. The truce was thus con cluded, and the tidings of it conveyed, as fast as couriers could ride, to the besieged at Quimperlé. Thus Clisson was saved; and the truce concluded lasted during the two years that remained of Edward's reign. Efforts were made to convert it into a formal peace, but it was impossible to do more than prolong the cessation of arms, Charles aiming at nothing less than either expelling the English altogether from France, or leaving their monarch with but the relation of a vassal. To this Edward would never again submit. The liberation of the national territory, and the consequent suspension of hostility by continued truce, might be considered to have left the monarch leisure for the task of legislation and for regulating and perfecting his system of government. Charles did not wait for peace in order to accomplish this. Philip Augustus and St. Louis waited till they were free from the disturbances of war, in order to undertake domestic reforms. But Charles, who, instead of leading an army in person, preferred directing its manoeuvres from the retirement of the Hôtel de St. Pol, devised, even in the midst of dissensions and disorders, the best means of obviating and regulating them. Whilst St. Louis was guided in his great reforms by a strong sense of justice and of Christian humanity, Philip the Fair by greed and a love of absolute power, Charles the Fifth was impelled by the stronger motive of necessity, and by the imperative duty of renovating the strength and restoring the peace and prosperity of the nation. The reforms of St. Louis were directed against all that was disorderly, rude, and iniquitous in the feudal dispensing of justice and the oppression of the aristocracy, for which, unfortunately, CHAP. XII. XII. CHAP. he could find no substitute save the arbitrary authority of the crown, salutary in his hands, but certain to be abused by the weak and rash average of monarchs. But to deprive the nobles of judicial power and local authority, whilst they constituted almost the sole military force of the country, was a vain endeavour. And when Philip of Valois found himself engaged in a great national struggle with the King of England, he was almost as much compelled by necessity as induced from choice to favour the noblesse as his defenders. That noblesse, trusting too much to its exclusive prowess and its strong arm, was crushed in the fields of Crecy and Poitiers; and Charles, who, yet a youth, succeeded to the government of the kingdom, was free to fall back upon the civic classes, as alone capable, at the moment, of affording financial and military support. The middle classes assembled in the states took advantage of their superior resources and position to seize the government, and introduce those reforms which were, certainly, most necessary and just. But, as has always been the fate of the French bourgeoisie when they attain power, the class beneath it rose up, at first to share, and then to monopolise it. And thus the influence of civic notables gradually degenerated into that of the mob, or of the one or two leaders who knew how to acquire and keep ascendancy over it. The attempt of the non-noble classes to influence the government consequently failed, and Charles recovered the position of an absolute monarch. After such experience, and after passing the years of his regency in subjection to the popular and the civic leaders, it was not to be expected that Charles should favour liberal or municipal institutions. He did not favour them, but he was far from entertaining, like Philip of Valois, the idea of restoring feudalism. He had, indeed, but small respect for that chivalry, which formed the worship and dream of King John. And XII. the great changes which Charles aimed at and achieved, CHAP. indeed, the feudal and local force of the country had Such was the great creation of Charles the Fifth in the time of their power, had appointed also delegates to levy these taxes, in imitation of similar devices em The king to have twenty-four livres each bushel of salt. de Pisan. Christine |