F RANGE. 
hopelefs of from fubmiffion. He fought refuge in France ; 
and by the advice of Charley and du Guefclin, he deter¬ 
mined to employ the band»o‘f Knights Companions againft 
the tyrant. The abilities of du Guefclin were the means 
of fecuring thefe adventurers; they confented to inlift 
under his ftandard, with the ftipnlation that they ftiould 
not be led againft the prince of Wales. The blent acquief- 
cence of the Black Prince was obtained ; and Charles 
contributed what he could fpare from his coffers to haften 
the preparations. 
The inhabitants of Caftile, in 1366, joined the ftandard 
of Henry of Tranftatnare ; and the tyrant, joftly odious 
and generally deferted, fought refuge in Guienne. The 
feotiments of the prince of Wales now appeared to be 
changed ; he regarded the fallen monarch with compaf- 
fion, and dreaded the powerful confederate that France 
might acquire in the new king of Caftile. He therefore 
determined to reftore Peter; and after levying a numerous 
army, he recalled the Companions from the fupport of 
Henry. Molt of them obeyed a voice they were accuf- 
torned to reverence ; yet Henry, leinforced by the king of 
Arragon, beheld bimfelf at the head of 100,000 men. 
Du Guefclin endeavoured to dilfuade him from baz trcling 
an adlion with the Black Prince, whofe former fuccefs 
had infpired his troops with confidence, and his enemies 
with terror. But Henry trufted to his numbers, which 
trebled thofe of his adverfary ; and he ventured to en¬ 
counter the Engli (h prince at Najarra. The hoft of Henry 
was routed, with the lofs of 20,000 men; du Guefclin 
himfelf was taken prifoner ; while only four knights and 
forty privates perifiied on the part of the prince of Wales. 
Caftile fubmTtted to the victor, and Peter the Cruel 
was once more feated on the throne. But the fatisfadfion 
which the prince of Wales experienced in the fuccefs of 
this perilous enterprife was foon alloyed by the ingratitude 
of the tyrant, who refufed the pay which he had ftipu- 
lated to the Englifh forces; and the Black Prince returned 
to Guienne with his army diminifhed, and his conftitution 
fatally impaired by the noxious climate. The ferocious 
temper of Peter in the mean time led him to confider 
and treat his fubjeCts as van'qnifhed rebels. Henry of 
Tranftamare, again availing himfelf of the general dif- 
content, entered the territories of Caftile with an army 
levied in France, and which was fwelled to a numerous 
hoft by the indignation of the natives. Henry foon re¬ 
covered the throne which he had fo lately quitted ; his 
juftice, or his policy, extinguifhed the life of JPeter; but 
whole claims (till Survived in his eldeft daughter, who 
had married the duke of Lancafter brother of the prince 
of Wales. 
But a more profitable harveft prefented itfelf to the 
vigilance of Charles the Wife. In his late expedition, 
the Black Prince, had involved himfelf in debts, which 
compelled him to impofe a new tax on his principality. 
The people complained that their privilegeswere violated ; 
their national hatred to the Englifh, which had been af- 
fuaged by the amiable qualities of the prince of Wales, 
was revived ; and their inclinations were directed to 
Charles, whofe good government had reftored the credit 
of his kingdom, and attached to him the confidence of 
the neighbouring princes. The king of France, by the 
treaty of Bretigny, had renounced all claim of fealty 
over thofe provinces which were appropriated fo the 
crown of England : but reaties feldom bind princes lon¬ 
ger than they find it convenient. Charles affedfed to 
liften to the complaints of the deputies of Guienne, and, 
in 136S, fummoned the Black Prince to come before him 
at Paris, and juftify his proceedings againft his vaflals. 
The anfwer of the prince of Wales was fuggefted by the 
memory of his former victories : “ I will come indeed to 
Paris,” replied the prince ; “ but it fball be at the head 
of 60,000 men.” 
The king of France, in the mean while, commenced 
hoftilities, in the county of Ponthieu. Thecitiescf Abbe¬ 
ville, St. Valori, Rue, and Crotoy, in a fhort timeacknow- 
f)SS 
iedged his authority. The fori then) provinces were invad¬ 
ed by thedukesof Berri and Anjou, brothers of Charles, 
aftifted by du Guefclin. The progrefs of the French be¬ 
came every day more confiderable ; lord Chapdos, an 
Englifh general of the higheft military reputation, fell 
in a fkirmifti ; he was fucceeded in command by the Capi¬ 
tal of Bnche, who was foon after taken prifoner. Sir 
Robert Knolles had indeed ravaged Champagne, and ad¬ 
vanced with a body of JEnglifh forces into the neighbour-' 
hood of Paris ; but his progrefs was checked by the /kill 
of du Guefclin ; while the king of Navarre, fenfible of 
the prudence of Charles, reconciled himfelf, and con¬ 
cluded a treaty with his royal kinfman ; and Henry of 
Caftile repaid the friendfhip which had placed him on the 
throne, by the aid of a fleet, which defeated that of 
England, and intercepted the deftined fuccours in fight 
of Rochelle. 
The prince of Wales, debilitated by the rapid advances 
of difeafe, made only fume ineffectual attempts to ftem 
the torrent. After recovering Limoges, and chaftiling 
the treachery of the inhabitants, he returned feeble and 
deprefled to England, and left the war to the conduit of 
his generals. Poiirtiers, St. John d’Angeli, Taillebourg, 
and Angonleme, the efteCts of the viftory of Crecy, opened 
their gates to the conftibledu Guefclin; and Rochelle 
was reftored to Charles by a ftratagem of the mayor, who 
availed himfelf of the ignorance of the captain who com¬ 
manded the Englifh gat rifon. The king of England had 
himfelf embarked with a gallant army to fuccour his • 
forces inverted in Thouars, which engaged to furrender, 
unlefs relieved within a certain time ; bitt the elements 
themfelves warred againft the Englifh ; and Edward was 
detained by contrary winds till the term had expired. 
With difficulty, in a tempeftitous fea, he re-gained the 
Englifh coaft, and thus, in 1372, abandoned the brave 
companions of his former toils to their fate. 
The duke of Brittany had, in a fecond marriage, efpoufed 
the daughter of the king of England, and amidft this ftorm 
of adverfity maintained inviolate his connections with that 
crown. He was now fummoned by the king of France to 
attend him as his vaflal. With du Guefclin and Oliver 
Cliffon, Charles had already allured to his fervice the 
Bretons whofe abilities he had mod reafon to dread ; and 
the duke, on this emergency, beheld himfelf deftitute of 
generals or minifters in whom he could confide. On one 
fide, the conftable ; on the other, Oliver Clifton, invaded 
the country; and Mountforr, after diftributing the Englifh 
forces in the moft important towns, retired to the court of 
London. The pride of the Englifh monarch wasfenfibly 
wounded, and lie enabled the duke to crofs the feas with 
an army of 25,000 men, commanded by his fon the duke 
of Lancafter. That prince, impatient to rival the fame 
of his elder brother, traverfed France, from Calais to 
Bourdeaux. But Charles was not to be provoked to rife 
his fate on a decifive aCtion ; and the duke of Lancafter, 
continually handled by flying parties, and the enmity of 
the inhabitants, found his forces diminifhed above one 
half before he reached the gates of Bourdeaux. Pope 
Innocent VI. now offered his mediation to reconcile the 
contending monarchs ; and their mutual diftrefs in 1374, 
induced them to confent to a truce for two years. Thefe 
intervals were affiduouily employed by the king of 
France to reftore order and tranquillity to the provinces 
from which they had been fo long banifhed ; at the fame 
time, by an edidt, which he caufed to be regiftcred in par¬ 
liament, he fixed the majority of the kings of France at 
their entrance into their fourteenth year, contrary to the 
regulation of Philip the llardy, which continued their 
minority til! they had attained fourteen complete. In 
1376, Edward the Black Prince, fo long the lccitrge of 
the race of Valois, expiied of a lingering diforder. 
Within the fpace of a year, his father Edward III. alfo 
breathed his laft. The minority of his grand fon, 
Richard II. only eleven years old, left Charles the Wife 
to purfue an almoft undisputed conqueft j and the feat” 
tered 
