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CHAP.
XII.

a great number of them, remained faithful to the last. Shut out from the coast by the defection of La Rochelle and the maritime towns, the remainder of the English partisans rallied in Thouars, where they at last made terms, promising to surrender and swear allegiance to France, if not succoured by a certain day. Such succour was impossible, for Thouars was inland, not far indeed from Saumur on the Loire; and even had the English landed, they could scarcely have rescued Thouars without a signal victory. Edward, however, was resolved to do his utmost. He had a force at Calais, ready to undertake one of those cavalcades which devastated the flat and open country of France without beneficial result of any kind, and which, if from the first directed exclusively in the defence of Poitou, might have saved it and the adjoining provinces. Edward, too late, in 1372, collected a force at Southampton, from which port he set sail, in 400 vessels, with 3000 lances and 10,000 archers. The English partisans on the Garonne, in expectation of the landing of the English king, mustered 12,000 combatants at Niort to support him. There was thus every prospect of a fresh and formidable struggle; but fortune and the wind were unfavourable to the English efforts to relieve their provinces in France. For nine weeks were Edward and his army on board, awaiting each day a wind to bear them to the shores of La Rochelle. Why Edward did not land at Cherbourg, as he did before, and march across France to Poitou, is not explained. He waited in vain for a favourable wind: it came not. The English fleet put back to their own coast, the army disbanding. The 900,000l. which it cost were spent in vain. The barons in Thouars did homage to King Charles, and Aquitaine was irretrievably lost. It was on witnessing the failure and dispersion of this army and expedition that Froissart put into the mouth of Edward the remark with regard to Charles "That never monarch mus

tered fewer soldiers, yet worked his enemies greater CHAP. harm."

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In the following year Edward, instead of devising some practical means of assisting his partisans in the south, despatched Sir Robert Knollis on one of his cavalcades through France. This expeditionary army harassed the country from north to south; but met with far greater resistance and difficulty than on former occasions. The French had gathered courage from success, and Knollis was not allowed to carry on his ravages with impunity. The result of the expedition was but an immense loss of men and horses, and the arrival of the expeditionary army into Gascony, so worn and dismounted as to bring more cause of despondency than of confidence to the English party. Du Guesclin had in the meantime pressed the siege of the two towns that still held out north of the Loire. Niort was one of these. Whilst Du Guesclin was laying siege to a castle within a short distance of that town, a fierce encounter took place between his troops, amounting to 1500 men, and the English partisans of Niort. It was a hand-tohand and desperate fight, in which the French had altogether the advantage: the consequence was the surrender of Niort, which was followed by that of Lusignan. The war thus died out between Garonne and Loire, although Cognac did not surrender for some time longer.

After the conquest of Poitou the French king and constable turned their efforts towards that of Brittany, of which the duke, son-in-law to Edward, was undoubtedly attached to England, to the support of which country, indeed, he owed his duchy; but his nobles were as warmly and decidedly French. Even such of them as had even been English partisans had ceased to be so. Charles spared neither honours, nor wealth, nor

* "Il n'y eut oncque roy, qui moins s'armast; et si n'y eut oncque roy, qui tant me donnast à faire."

XII.

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CHAP. cajolery to gain the Breton noblesse; and when these saw a simple gentleman of their duchy constable of France, and when Clisson, whose family had suffered so much from Charles's predecessor, was next in military authority to Du Guesclin, the Bretons saw no dignity or promotion beyond their reach, provided they followed the banner of the fleur de lis. But as in Poitou, so it happened in Brittany, it was not so much to the noblesse as to the townsfolk that the constable Du Guesclin owed the conquest of the provinces. The King of France had no doubt corrupted the citizens of one province as he had done those of the other, and when the constable appeared before Rennes, it instantly opened its gates. Dinant followed the example, as did Vannes. Du Guesclin stormed other towns, and slew all he found within; so that terror added to voluntary defection. Clisson, in the same manner, murdered all whom he took at Quimperlé, from whence the cruel renegade acquired the surname of Butcher. All French Brittany (Bretagne Gallot), as Froissart calls it, at once went over to Charles, the Bretagne Bretonnante still holding for the duke; yet Du Guesclin took Hennebon, the citizens refusing to aid the English garrison, so that the latter were all taken, and instantly slain by Du Guesclin. The French were then able to lay siege at once to all the remaining fortresses that the English held in Brittany. Brest, which had but a garrison of 200 English, under Robert Knollis, the constable besieged with 6000, sending, at the same time, to invest the castle of Derval, the private property of Knollis, while Clisson beleagured La Roche-sur-Yon. The English were so few, and the arms of the French so predominant, that the garrison of the château agreed to imitate the example of the Poitevins in Thouars, and surrender, if not succoured within two months. The important city of Nantes, in which many eminent persons of the inde

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. The 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

CHAP.
XIL

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

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