DIFFICULTIES IN GASCONY AND FLANDERS 149 of the group, was a French fief governed by a count. In Flanders a number of cities had grown up, which Flanders. were among the chief industrial and commercial centers of Europe. The most important industry of the time was the manufacture of cloth, for which the Flemings needed English wool. Between these wealthy Flemish towns and the English kingdom there were consequently important economic bonds. Neither side could afford to offend the other, for the Englishman was as anxious to sell his wool as the Fleming was to purchase it.1 in Flanders. While drawn to England for economic reasons, the Flemings were chronically hostile to France for political reasons. The cities claimed a large measure of self-government, The English far more than their rightful but indiscreet ruler, wool trade the count of Flanders, was willing to grant. In his trouble with the rebellious merchants the count had the active support of his overlord, the king of France. In 1328 the new king induced the count to arrest all the English merchants in Flanders. It will be remembered that Edward IIÌ was at this time putting forward a hesitating claim to the French crown. Edward's reply to the count's attack on the merchants was to forbid the exportation of English wool. The result was economic distress in the Dutch towns and increased hostility to the French overlord, who had ruined their industry and their trade. The Flemish merchants wished to be loyal to the king of France, but not to Philip VI who was then on the throne. They approached Edward III with the proposition that he should claim the throne of France, and promised to accept and support him as the true king.2 In this way they fancied that their oaths and pledges of loyalty would remain unbroken. The plan was one that appealed mightily to the English king, for Edward III was a knight rather than a states- Personality of In many respects he resembled Richard I: Edward III. he was a strong, well-built, and handsome man of twenty-five 1 Innes, Industrial Development, 78. 2 Cheyney, 236-238. man. THE ENGLISH SEIZE CALAIS 151 years when this temptation came; he loved the battlefield and honored chivalry; he was kind and courteous to all who were of noble blood; but in the masses, the merchants, the artisans, and the villeins, he was interested only as they might contribute to his power. It was, indeed, a tremendous undertaking for the king of a nation that scarcely counted more than three or four million inhabitants to cross the sea and force his will upon a country that probably counted twenty millions. But the English statesmen assented to the plan, Edward claims and in 1337 Edward formally laid claim to the the French crown of France. But this claim must be regarded as a pretext merely: Edward was ambitious to rule his Gascon territories in full sovereignty and the English merchants were anxious to place the Gascon and Flemish trade on a more secure footing. These were the chief causes of the Hundred Years' War. crown. 1337. 133. The Battles of Sluys and Crécy. Hostilities began in a small way the next year; and two years later, 1340, the English won an important naval victory at Sluys Sluys. off the Dutch coast. But not before 1346 did the English make any serious attempt to invade France. The French king had been fairly successful in his attempt to conquer Gascony, and in that year he collected a vast army for a final effort. To draw the French away from the southwest, Edward crossed the Channel with a strong force and landed in Normandy. Failing in his attempt to reduce the Norman strongholds, he turned rapidly eastward in the direction of Flanders. When not far from Calais, he was confronted by a large French army and forced to make a stand. In the resulting battle of Crécy,1 Edward won a decisive victory, and for a time Gascony was secure from French invasion. Crécy. 1346. 134. The English Seize Calais.2 1347. From Crécy Edward proceeded to Calais, which he besieged and forced to 1 Cheyney, No. 138; Gardiner, 240-242; Innes, I, 166-173; Kendall, No. 30; Tuell and Hatch, No. 25. The selections in the source books are all from Froissart. 2 Innes, I, 173-178; Tuell and Hatch, No. 26. Siege of surrender the following year. The seizure of Calais was the most important event of. the earlier period of this long war. Calais was the nearest Continental port and was only a few miles distant from the friendly cities of Flanders: it, therefore, formed a most excellent base from which to direct further operations against France. King Edward at first threatened to take the lives of the stubborn citizens, but the prayers of Queen Philippa availed, and there were no executions. But all the inhabitants who refused to swear allegiance to the conqueror were driven from the city and English colonists took their places. In this way Calais became virtually an English city and remained an English outpost and a sore irritation to France for more than two hundred years. DRAWBRIDGE Fourteenth century. Efforts of the pope to secure peace. 135. Suspension of Hostilities; the Battle of Poitiers. For the following nine years there was an almost complete suspension of active hostilities, and strong efforts were made to reach an agreement and close the struggle. During the fourteenth century the popes, who were French, had left Rome and had taken up their abodes in the beautiful city of Avignon on the French frontier, though outside the French kingdom. The Avignonese popes were anxious to bring the belligerents to terms, as the war seriously interfered with the prosperity of the church, especially on the financial side; for the English disliked to send revenues to a French papal court, whose sympathies and blessings were presumably given to the side of the national enemy. Papal mediation availed nothing, however; especially did the claim of Edward to the throne of France prove a persistent difficulty. But what the pope was unable to accomplish, an awful THE TREATY OF BRETIGNY 153 visitation known as the Black Death succeeded in bringing about. With death in every household in western The Black Europe, the warring kings did not have the heart Death. to continue the conflict. France especially was sorely stricken: to the desolation caused by hostile armies were now added the terrors of the pestilence. King Edward was at last willing to resign his pretended claims to the French crown, if he might be permitted to retain Gascony, not as a vassal of the French king but as an independent sovereign. The French, however, would not consent to the complete surrender of these territories and insisted on homage. In 1356 the war was renewed. Edward III took practically no part in this war, as he was busy with the Scotch who, as allies of the French, had once more crossed the border. It was fought in The war in the southwest of France by Edward's oldest son, Aquitaine. Edward the Black Prince,1 as he was called from the color of his armor. The prince had been made governor of Aquitaine and on the renewal of hostilities he led a raid into central France. On the return to his capital Bordeaux, Poitiers. he was met by a large French force at Poitiers, where the results of Crécy were repeated. Nearly 5000 French knights lay dead on the battlefield or were taken prisoners by the victorious English. 1356. 136. The Treaty of Bretigny. At Poitiers the French king, John, and one of his sons fell into the hands of the English, and it was now possible to resume negotiations with more hope of a favorable outcome. The defeats of the war had resulted in the break-up of armies and the formation of lawless bands that preyed on the peasantry and threw the nation into complete anarchy. Immediate peace was necessary, and the war closed with the treaty of Bretigny on the terms that had been proposed earlier: Edward III gave up his claims to the French crown and King John released him from homage for Gascony, which now became an independent duchy wholly separate from France (1360). 1 Tuell and Hatch, No. 27. The treaty of Bretigny. 1360. |