heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

366 HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
furniture, to the palace of the Savoy as the place of his imprisonment and
;
Edward III. with Queen Philippa visited him there, entertained him sumptuously,
and also, as Froissart quaintly says,
" consoled him all in their
" power." The ransom demanded for his release three millions of crowns
and the cession of Aquitaine savour of terms proposed to a now prostrate
enemy by a triumphant foe. One does not wonder that the French people
were roused to the highest pitch of indignation when the Dauphin Regent
received at Paris the text of the treaty which the captive king had
concluded in London the cession of the western half of France from
Calais to Bayonne, with the immediate payment of four millions of golden
crowns and that the States-General should have rejected
it. But Edward
with a numerous army landed at Calais, and ravaging France to the very
walls of Paris, demanded of the Dauphin, ensconced therein, the confirmation
of his demands. But alas for the failure of royal expectations
! He would
neither fight nor sign, but having burned the suburban villages, compelled
Edward, from fear of famine to his army, to agree to a compromise, May 3rd,
1360, by the treaty of Bretigny, by which Aquitaine ceased to be a French
fief, with its surrounding provinces, but Edward renounced his claim to the
crown of France, and gave up Normandy, Maine, Tourraine, and Anjou.
But all prospect of peace soon melted away. John the Good returned
to France, only to come back to the Savoy on the inability to pay his
ransom, and die there. Charles V., his son, smarting under the treaty, soon
found an opportunity for war, by helping the Gascons and Aquitainians,
irritated by the taxes which the Black Prince had laid on them to pay for
his expenses against Bertrand du Guescelin and Henry Transtamara.
Once
again, June 3rd, 1369, Edward assumed the title of King of France, but
his army failed to support his cause there. Charles recovered the greater
part of the provinces which the English held, through Du Guescelin, now
Constable of France. The Black Prince, after the ruthless destruction of
Limoges, returned, stricken with death, to expire at Berkhamstead Castle
June 8th, 1376. On June 2ist the year following, Edward died, and the
remainder of English territory simply melted away.
In 1415 Henry V. invaded France for the purpose of claiming the
execution of the treaty of Bretigny, and defeated the French at Agincourt,
October 25th. All seemed conceded to Henry at the peace of
Charles that
Troyes, May 2ist, 1420, by which it was agreed by
" immediately after our death, and from that time forward, the Crown
" and kingdom of France, with all their rights and appurtenances,
" shall belong perpetually and be continued to our son King Henry
" and his heirs," but nothing practical came of it except the marriage
of Henry with Catherine of France. On the death of Charles, two months
after Henry V., the Duke of Bedford, Regent of France, caused a herald