1346, Philip toiled with his soldiers on to Crecy, where the army of Edward, refreshed with food and sleep, awaited his approach. The English army, of 30,000 men, was drawn up in three lines; the Prince of Wales commanded the first, the Earl of Arundel the second, and Edward the third line. Its flanks were guarded by trenches. The falling back of his vanguard, when it came within view of the English, disordered Philip's array; but he contrived hastily to throw his force of 120,000 men into three lines. The first consisted of Genoese cross-bowmen, the second was led by the Count of Alençon, and the third by Philip in person. The sky grew dark as the armies faced each other; rain and thunder came on. Aug. 26, 1346 6. When the sun shone again at five o'clock in the afternoon, the Genoese, armed with cross-bows, advanced to the attack in a huge mass of 15,000 men. They were tired with eighteen miles of a heavy march. The sun dazzled their eyes, and destroyed their aim. All at once a shower of arrows began to pour on them with a force A.D. which neither shield nor armour could withstand. They fled. Vainly the cavalry of Alençon strove to stem the flight; but the Count managed to lead them past the archers, who stood arrayed in the form of a portcullis or harrow, and fell with fury on the foremost battalion, led by the Prince of Wales. 7. An Englishman who fought by the Prince sent for aid to the King, who stayed with the reserve by a wind-mill on a hill; but Edward refused, saying, "Let the boy win his spurs: his shall be the glory of the day." In vain the French King tried to pierce the phalanx of archers which stood between him and his routed horsemen; his bravest knights fell fast around him; the horse he rode was killed;-there was no hope but in flight. Eleven princes, twelve hundred knights, and thirty thousand common soldiers are said to have fallen in the battle, and in the carnage of the next day. John, the blind King of Bohemia, was among the slain. He was led into the battle by attendant knights, whose bridles were interlaced with his. His crest and motto-three ostrich feathers with the words Ich dien, "I serve"-have ever since been borne by the Princes of Wales. Cannon of a rude sort were first used at Crecy. Oct. 17, 8. In the same year, but two months later, was fought the Battle of Nevil's Cross. David of Scotland, having regained his throne, invaded England as the ally of France; but he was defeated and made prisoner by Philippa of Hainault, a Queen worthy of her warlike 1346 A.D. husband. 9. The victor of Crecy at once invested Calais. He raised no mounds, directed no engines against the walls, but for almost twelve months he ground the garrison with the slow torture of famine, and thus forced them to open their gates. He placed a colony of his own subjects in the town, which, for more than two centuries afterwards, continued to be a flourishing mart for the exports of England. Aug. 4, 1347 A.D. 10. A terrible sickness called the Black Plague, which had swept over Asia and the south of Europe, now broke 1348 out in France and England. The London church-yards A.D. were soon filled; the lower classes fell by hundreds in the day; wailing and desolation filled every city. Many evils followed the pestilence. Nearly all the labourers who had escaped the plague left the country. Labour was so expensive that the crops were often allowed to moulder away, and the price of food rose fourfold. To check this evil, Parliament in 1351 passed a Statute of Labourers, compelling workmen to accept of the wages in use before the plague. It was supplemented by a second statute in 1353, forbidding labourers to quit the parish in which they worked. Thus was villanage restored. 11. Philip of France had died, and his son John ruled. The war was renewed in 1355, chiefly under the conduct of the Prince of Wales. The first campaign was occupied in wasting the provinces around Bordeaux; the second was signalized by the Battle of Poitiers.1 Sept. 19, 1356 12. The Prince had pierced too far into the centre of France, and on his return he found an army, seven times as large as his own, between him and Bordeaux. To fight his way back was his only resource. Fortunately for him the battle-ground was among vineyards, which impeded the French cavalry. As at Creçy, the English archers won the A.D. 1 Poitiers.-See Map, p. 169. day. Protected by the hedges, they poured into the French ranks shafts which no armour could resist. The first and second divisions of the French fell back; the King on foot led on the third, but was thrown to the ground and made prisoner with his young son. Father and son were led to England by the triumphant Edward. A.D. 13. There were thus two royal captives in England, David of Scotland, and John of France. The former was ransomed in 1357, the eleventh year of his imprisonment. 1360 The latter was freed by the Treaty of Bretigny, called "The great peace," by which Edward renounced all claim to the French crown, retaining, instead of his ancestral dominions, only Poitou, Guienne, and the town of Calais. Three millions of golden crowns were to be paid as the ransom of John; but, failing to raise this sum, he returned to his captivity, and died at the Savoy, a palace in the Strand, then a suburb of London. 14. The Black Prince ruled in Guienne; but an expedition into Spain, in support of Pedro the Cruel, loaded him with debt and shattered his health. Meeting Du Guesclin, the greatest soldier of France, in battle at Navarrete near the Ebro (1367 A.D.), he won a glorious but thankless victory. His French subjects' objected to the heavy taxation with which he oppressed them, and appealed to the King of France. Charles V. summoned the Black Prince to his court to answer an appeal from the lords of Gascony. The Prince declared war. Though his health was so broken that he had to be carried in a litter, he invaded France, and cruelly sacked Limoges; but he was soon obliged by illness to return to England. From that time the English cause in France grew weak. One by one the provinces were lost, until, in 1374, there remained to Edward only the towns of Calais, Bordeaux, and Bayonne. QUESTIONS.-1. What was the great aim of the policy of Edward III.? Who were rivals for the French crown? What were the claims of each? Why did France declare war against England? 2. How did Edward obtain money for the war? What naval victory did the English gain? 3. In what year of the war did Edward resolve on a new invasion? What was the first destination of his fleet? When did he alter it? Where did he land? What took place at La Hogue? 4. What direction did the army take? How far eastward did it go? In what trap was it caught? How did it escape? What course was Philip forced to take? 5. On what day was the Battle of Crecy fought? Describe the array of the English army, and of the French. 6. Who began the attack? Under what disadvantages did they labour? What caused them to flee? Who attacked the division of the Prince of Wales? 7. What message was sent to Edward? What did he reply? What was the result of the battle? How many are said to have fallen? Who was among the slain? What did the Prince of Wales adopt from him? 8. What battle was fought two months later? What was the issue? 9. By what was the victory of Calais followed? 10. By what were France and England visited in 1348? How did it increase the price of food? How did Parliament try to check the evil? When was a second Statute of Labourers passed? What was thus restored? 11. When was the French War renewed? What battle signalized the second campaign? 12. Why was the Black Prince forced to fight it? How did the ground favour the English? Who won the day? Who were captured? 13. When was David of Scotland released? When was the King of France freed? Why did he return to captivity? Where did he die? 14. Why did the Black Prince go to Spain? What victory did he gain? What led to his quarrel with his French subjects? To whom did they appeal? What followed? What compelled the Prince to return to England? What was the effect of his departure? To what were the English possessions in France reduced in 1374? CONTEMPORARY FOREIGN EVENTS. 1. 1347.-In the midst of the confusion which prevailed at Rome during the absence of the Papal Government, Rienzi, a wild enthusiast, seized the supreme power, and was made Tribune; an office which he held for seven months. He formed the design of uniting all Italy in one powerful republic. But he was suspected of aspiring to regal honours, and was forced to flee. He returned in 1354, and was made Senator by Pope Innocent VI. But within four months he was stabbed in the Capitol. 2. 1356. The mode of election and the number of electors in the German Empire were settled by the Golden Bull (so called from its seal) promulgated at Nürnberg in Bavaria. The College of Electors consisted of seven members: -the Archbishops of Mainz, Treves, and Cologne; the King of Bohemia; the Count-Palatine of the Rhine; the Duke of Saxony; and the Margrave of Brandenburg. 3. 1362.-The Sultan penetrated into Thrace, and took Adrianople, where he fixed his capital. In 1373 he made a treaty with the Emperor of the East, by which the territories of the latter were greatly curtailed. About this time the Sultan instituted the Janissaries, a bodyguard composed of young Christian slaves trained as Mohammedans. Subsequently they became an order of infantry in the Turkish army. In the seventeenth century they became very powerful, and on several occasions deposed the Sultans, and even put them to death. They were not finally abolished till 1826. 4. The Quarrel of the Barons with the 10. Death of Wyclif. Clergy. 5. John Wyclif and Church Abuses. 6. Richard II.-Reform Resumed. 11. Border Wars. 12. The Wonderful Parliament. 1. In the later years of his reign, Edward III. became enfeebled in body and in mind, and suffered himself to be ruled by Alice Perrers, a woman of wit and beauty, but of bad character. During that time the government was managed almost entirely by the Barons of the Royal Council. This usurpation, which it really was, displeased the Commons' section of the Parliament, which had begun to claim a more active and independent share than formerly in the work of legislation. It appears to have been about this time that the Parliament was divided into two Houses,1 each occupying a separate chamber. The prelates and the greater barons formed the House of Lords. The knights of the shire (representatives of the lesser barons) and the burgesses formed the House of Commons. A:D. 2. A crisis came in the Parliament of 1376-sometimes called the Good Parliament-when the Commons protested against the abuse of power by the Barons of the King's 1376 Council. They embodied their grievances in one hundred and sixty petitions. Their demands were supported by the Black Prince; but they were opposed by his brother, John of Lancaster, who made himself the champion of the 1 Two Houses.-The division is sup- | finding, in some of the towns in which posed to have been made, in the first the Parliament met, a room sufficiently instance, because of the difficulty of large to accommodate the whole body. (528) 10 |