1405. For once Chandos has given a correct date. The battle was fought on Monday, 19th Sept.: ‘surveile de Seint Matheu,’ as the Black Prince calls it.1 Froissart and Jean le Bel are both wrong on this point: the former calling it the 20th, the latter saying it was the day after the festival of St. Lambert, which would make it the 18th. A letter from the French King’s Council to the Bishop of Albi on Sept, 27th gives accurate proof of the 19th.2
1441-2. Agrees with Jean le Bel and Froissart, who both recount the supper on the night of the battle and the departure the next day.3
1446. The Chronicle of the Monk of Malmesbury gives the itinerary of this return to Bordeaux.4 They stopped at Libourne, Oct. 2nd,while the King’s lodging was prepared at Bordeaux, in the Abbey of St. André.
1459. Feastings and rejoicings, says Froissart, went on till Lent of next year.5 They stayed in Bordeaux until Easter, leaving the Tuesday or Wednesday after, 11th or 12th April, according to the French Chronicles;6 this would seem to be fairly correct, since King John was dating an act from Bordeaux as late as April 7th.7
1493. They landed at Plymouth during May. The Grandes Chroniques say on the 4th:8 Walsingham says on the 15th.9
1501. Reached London 24th May, and rode over London Bridge at 3 in the afternoon.10
1516. War began again long before that. The truce made in 1357 expired Easter 1359, and Edward began fresh preparations for war.11
1517-21. Henry Duke of Lancaster was sent in advance, reached Calais 1st Oct., 1359, and ravaged Artois and Picardy.12 The King, Black Prince and many others reached Calais 30th Oct.,13 and met Lancaster shortly after.
1524-9. This agrees entirely with the more detailed account of the campaign given by Froissart,14 with the exception of the curious mention of ‘parmi Bayane’. There is a small town called Bayou (Meurthe-et-Moselle), but this is much further east than they seem to have gone. It is more likely the river Yonne, which they must have crossed.
1527. According to Froissart, Edward was stopped by a fearful storm at Gallardon, between Maintenon and Chartres, from which place he saw the spire of the Cathedral (it is true that it is visible from that place), and agreed to come to terms.15
1538. The conference to draw up terms of peace was held at Brétigny, five miles from 198 Chartres — 1st to 7th May, 1360: the Black Prince acting for his father and signing the provisional treaty with the Regent 8th May (line 1553). This had to be ratified by the two Kings, Edward and John, which was done in London on the 14th June. Finally the formal treaty was drawn up and signed at Calais, and dated 24th Oct. 1360.16
1543-4. John was not fully at liberty until after 24th Oct., 1360; the conditions being the immediate surrender of certain places, including La Rochelle, to the English, the payment of the first instalment of his ransom, and the delivery of hostages.17
1546. Besides Guienne the English King was to possess in full sovereignty Poitou, Saintonge, Agenais, Périgord, Limousin, Cahors, Tarbes, Bigorre, Gaure, Angoumois, Rouergue, Montreuil, Ponthieu, Guines and the town and environs of Calais.18
1555. King Edward had gone first. He landed at Rye on 18th May, 1360.19
1559. Date wrong as usual; it should be, as we have already seen, 24th Oct., 1360. The Prince of Wales and many others were witnesses.20
1585. The Black Prince married Joan, Countess of Kent, widow of Sir Thos. Holland, on 10th Oct., 1361.21
1590-5. The Prince of Wales was created Prince of Aquitaine 19th July, 1362.22 He set out in August of the same year, accompanied by his wife, and established his court at Bordeaux.
1599. Edward of Angoulême, born 1364 or 1365; died January, 1371. Richard of Bordeaux, born 6th Jan., 1367; afterwards Richard II.
1600-1. Scarcely as much as seven years. In 1368 appeals were made against him to the French King.23 In Jan. 1369 he was summoned to answer for his conduct before the Parlement of Paris:24 in the same month hostilities first began to break out in Rouergue.25
1602-5. The Gascon Lords did homage from 9th to 30th July, 1363, at Bordeaux; after which the Prince made a tour through Poitou, Saintonge, Angoumois and Périgord to receive his vassals from other parts of the country.26
1616. The Prince had a royal residence at Angoulême as well as at Bordeaux, Acts are dated from each.
1649-51. The Herald now enters on by far the most important part of his narrative concerning events of which he was an eyewitness. For the criticism of this portion of his poem we have fewer facilities than for the study of the French campaigns: most of the English chroniclers have dismissed the Spanish wars in a few words, and we possess no letters written on the spot, such as have been preserved for us for the years 1346 and 1356. Froissart was present in person at Bordeaux at the close of 1366, so that for the negotiations preceding the war we can compare the accounts of two eyewitnesses; but for the actual expedition and for the battle of Nájera he has so obviously drawn his materials from the Herald Chandos that his corroboration ceases to be of much value as evidence. The Spanish historian Ayala27 was present in the opposite camp and affords exceedingly useful information, but is naturally less well informed as to the proceedings of Pedro’s army than of that of his rival; while the work of another eyewitness, a Latin poem on the battle of Nájera by Walter of Peterborough, monk of Revesby,28 although interesting, is very much confused, and is coloured throughout by a desire to enhance excessively the glory of its hero, the Duke of Lancaster.
199The remaining authorities have to be studied with considerable discretion. The rhymed chronicle by Cuvelier on Bertrand du Guesclin29 and the anonymous prose Life30 published by Buchon mix so much romance with their statements that it is impossible to place much confidence in their accuracy.
The Grandes Chroniques de France31 are especially valuable for this period, since from 1340 to 1380 they are an original authority and the work of a contemporary; they give us apparently trustworthy information, and, which are rarer still, precise dates;32 but unluckily they are very brief upon the Spanish affairs and leave most of the details unnoticed.
1653. The battle of Auray, at which Charles de Blois was killed and B. du Guesclin taken prisoner, was fought on Sept, 29th, 136433; since the march of the Companies into Spain did not begin until October 1365, this statement as it stands is misleading; no doubt the Herald merely wishes to imply that, after the Breton succession was once settled, the next event of importance was the expedition into Castile.
1669-74. This happened in October 1365. Pedro the Cruel of Castile was engaged in war with his half-brother Henry of Trastamare, who claimed his throne, and who was supported by the King of Aragon. Charles V was enraged against Pedro on account of the suspicion that he had murdered his wife, Blanche of Bourbon, sister of his own wife Jeanne; and therefore on March 9, 1365, he had made a treaty with Henry and the King of Aragon, by which he promised to send an army to their assistance.
1675. The Pope was naturally hostile to Pedro, since the most constant charge made against him was his friendship with Jews and Saracens;34 he had also ill-treated the Papal envoys sent to treat with him, and, on refusing to comply with a summons to Rome, had been excommunicated.35
1679-83. The war between Castile and Aragon had not lasted fourteen years. Pedro’s father, Alfonso XI, died in 1350, at which time Ferdinand, the Infant of Aragon, was one of the claimants for the throne obtained by Pedro; but actual war did not break out between the two countries until 1356, from which time it had continued with intervals until the date at which we have arrived, not quite ten years later.36
1685. The French King, the Pope and Henry of Trastamare had clubbed together to release Bertrand after the Breton war, in order that he might lead the Companies.
1687. Jean de Bourbon, Comte de la Marche, son of Jacques — but himself called Jacques by various chroniclers (e.g. Thalamus Parvus, 370; Grandes Chroniques, 239). He had joined the expedition to avenge the death of his cousin, Pedro’s wife.37
1689. Arnoul, Sire d’Audrehem, Marshal of France.
1691. Eustace d’Aubréchicourt.
1693. Sir Hugh de Calverley, who had gone against the wishes of King Edward.38
1695. Sir Matthew de Gournay accompanied him.
Marshal Audrehem had long been engaged in efforts to check evils resulting from the ravages of the Companies;39 the rest are all well-known members of the Grand Company,40 and are all mentioned during the campaign by Froissart, Ayala, Cuvelier, &c.
1697-1705. As for the motives of the expedition, there is no doubt that Castile was the prime object, though Bertrand gave out that he was going to fight the infidels, in order not to 200 lose the help of the English, who had been forbidden to fight against Don Pedro.41 According to Cuvelier he informed the captains that he wanted to go against the Saracens in Granada and Cyprus, but that he would not mind doing some harm to Pedro on the way.42
1 Letter dated Oct. 23; Chronicle of London, 204.
2 Froissart, v, p. xv, note 3.
3 Jean le Bel, ii. 201-2; Froissart, v. 64, 65.
4 Eulogium Historiarum, iii. 226.
5 Froissart, v. 70.
6 Grandes Chroniques, vi. 58: Tuesday, April 11, 1357; Continuation of Lescot, 110: Wednesday after Easter.
7 Arch. Nat., K 47 b, No. 41.
8 Grandes Chroniques, vi. 58.
9 Walsingham, 281.
10 Nicolas, Chronicle of London, 63.
11 Rymer, iii, pt. i, pp. 185, 186, &c.
12 Froissart, v. 192.
13 Rymer, iii, pt. i, p. 188; Froissart, v, p. lviii, note 3.
14 Froissart, v. 199-234.
15 Froissart, vi. 5.
16 On all this see Lavisse, Histoire de France, iv. 153, 156; and Froissart, vi, p. v, note 1.
17 Lavisse, iv. 155; Rymer, iii, pt. ii, p. 22.
18 Lavisse, iv. 154; Rymer, iii, pt. ii, p. 1.
19 Rymer, iii, pt. i, p. 209.
20 Arch. Nat., J 639, Nos. 15; Rymer, iii, pt. ii.
21 Rymer, iii, pt. ii. p. 47.
22 Ibid., 66, 67.
23 Treaty between King Charles and the Counts of Armagnac, Périgord and the Sire d’Albret, June 30, 1365; Arch. Nat., J 293, No. 16.
24 Lacabane, Bibl. de l’École des Chartes, 3e série, tome 3.
25 Rouquette, Le Rouergue sous les Anglais (Millau, 1887), 72.
26 Froisssart, vi, p. xli, note 1 and xl, note 4.
27 Ayala, Cronicas de los Reyes de Castilla, vol, i, Madrid, 1779, 4to.
28 Wright, Political Songs (Rolls Series), 1859-61, i. 97.
29 Cuvelier, Chronique de B. du Guesclin, ed. Charrière (Documents inédits sur l’Histoire de France).
30 Cronique anonyme, Panthéon Littéraire.
31 Les Grandes Chroniques de France ou de St. Denis, ed. P. Paris, Paris, 1836, 6 vols in 8vo.
32 Lacabane, on Les Grandes Chroniques, Bibl, de l‘École des Chartes, tome 2.
33 Froissart, vi. 159, p. lxi, note 2.
34 Ayala and Cuvelier, passim.
35 Froissart, vi. 187.
36 Prosper Mérimée, Histoire de Don Pèdro, Paris, 1865, 8vo, 54, 203.
37 Froissart, vi. 188.
38 French Rolls, 39 ED. III, m. 3. No vassals of King Edward to fight for Pedro, Dec. 6, 1365.
39 Molinier, Arnoul d’Audrehem, Paris, 1883, 4to (Mémoires des Savants, série ii, t. 6).
40 Fréville, Des Grandes Compagnies au 14e siècle, Bibl. de l’École des Chartes, sèrie i, tomes 3 and 5.
41 Molinier, 171.
42 Cuvelier, i. 264.