table terins of peace, which was at last concluded upon condition that king John fhould be reftored to liberty, upon paying a ranfom of about a million and a half of our money. It was ftipulated, that Edward fhould for ever renounce all claim to the kingdom of France; and fhould only remain poffeffed of the territories of Poitou, Xaintonge, Agenois, Perigord, the Limoufin, Quercy, Rouvergne, l'Angoumois, and other districts in that quarter, together with Calais, Guifnes, Montreuil, and the country of Ponthieu, on the other fide of France. Some other ftipulations were made in favour of the allies of England, and forty hoftages were fent to England, as a fecurity for the execution of all thefe conditions.

Upon John's return to his dominions, he found himfelf very ill able to ratify thofe terms of peace that had been juft concluded. He was without finances at the head of an exhausted state; his foldiers without difcipline, and his peasants without fubordination. These had rifen in great numbers; and one of the chiefs of their banditti affumed the title of the Friend of God and the Terror of Man. A citizen of Sens, named John Gouge, alfo got himself, by means of his robbe ries, to be acknowledged king; and he foon caused as many calamities by his devaftations, as the real king had brought on by his misfortunes. Such was the state of that wretched kingdom, upon the return of its captive monarch; and yet, fuch was his abfurdity, that he immediately prepared for a crufade into the Holy Land, before he was well replaced on the throne. Had his exhausted fubjects been able to equip him for this chimerical project, it is probable, he would have gone through with it; but their miferies were fuch, that they were even too poor to pay his ranfom. This was a breach of treaty that John would not submit to;

and

and he was heard to exprefs himself in a very noble manner upon the occafion." Though, fays he, "good faith fhould be banished from the reft of "the earth, yet the ought ftill to retain her habi"tation in the breaft of kings." In confequence of this declaration, he actually returned to England once more, and yielded himself a prifoner, fince he could not be honourably free. It is faid by fome that his paffion for the countefs of Salisbury was the real cause of his journey; but we want at this time the foundations for fuch an injurious report. He was lodged in the Savoy, the palace where he had refided during his captivity; and foon after he clofed a long and unfortu

nate reign, by his death, which happen- A D... ed in about the fifty-fixth year of his age. 1.364.

Charles, furnamed the Wife, fucceeded his fa ther on the throne of France; and this monarch, merely by the force of a finely conducted policy, and even though fuffering fome defeats, reftored his country once more to tranquillity and power. He quelled and diffipated a fet of banditti, who had affociated themselves under the name of Com panions, and who had long been a terror to the peaceable inhabitants. He had them enrolled into a body, and led them into the kingdom of Caftile against Peter, furnamed the Cruel, whom his fubjects had dethroned; and who, by means of an alliance with the English, endeavoured to get himself reinstated upon the throne. In conlequence of thefe alliances, the English and French again came to an engagement; their armies on the one fide commanded by the Black Prince; on the other by Henry of Tranftamarre, and Bertrand du Guefclin, one of the most confummate generals, and accomplished characters of the age in which he lived. However, the ufual good for

tune

A. D. tune of the English prince prevailed; the French loft above twenty thousand 1367. men, while only four knights, and fortyApril 3. private men on the fide of the English

were flain.

Nevertheless thefe victories were attended with very few good effects. The English, by their frequent fupplies, had been quite exhaufted, and were unable to continue an army in the field. Charles, on the other hand, cautiously forbore.. coming to any decifive engagement; but was con-tented to let his enemies waste their ftrength in attempts to plunder a fortified country. When they were retired, he then was fure to fally forth, and poffefs himself of fuch places as they were not ftrong enough to defend. He first fell upon Ponthieu; the citizens of Abbeville opened their gates to him; thofe of St. Valois, Rue, and Crotoy, imitated the example; and the whole country. was, in a little time, reduced to a total fubmiffion. The fouthern provinces were, in the fame manner, invaded by his generals with equal fuccefs; while the Black Prince, deftitute of fupplies from England, and wafted by a cruel and confumptive diforder, was obliged to return to his native country, leaving the affairs of the fouth of France in a most defperate condition.

In this exigence the refentment of the king of England was exalted to the utmost pitch; and he feemed refolved to take fignal, vengeance on his enemies of the continent. But the fortunate occafion feemed now elapfed; and all his defigns were marked with ill fuccefs. The earl of Pembroke, and his whole army, were intercepted at fea, and taken prifoner by Henry, king of Caftile. This nobleman in perfon attempted to embark with an army for Bourdeaux, but was.. detained by contrary winds, and obliged to lay

afide the expedition. Sir Robert Knolles, one of his generals on the continent, at the head of thirty thousand men, was defeated by Bertrand dú Guefclin; while the duke of Lancaster, at the head of twenty-five thousand men, had the mortification of feeing his troops diminished one half by flying parties, without ever coming to a battle. Such was the picture that prefented itself to this victorious monarch in the decline of life; and this might well serve as a leffon to the princes of the age, that more permanent advantages are obtained by wisdom than by valour. Added to this other uneafinefs, he had the mortification to fee his authority despised at home. It was in vain that he fought refuge, in his age, from the complaints of his fubjects, in the arms of a favourite miftrefs, whose name was Alice Pierce; this only ferved to exasperate his people the more against him, and to turn their indignation into contempt. But what of all other things ferved to gloom the latter part of this fplendid reign, was the approaching death of the Black Prince, whofe conftitution fhewed but too manifeftly the fymptoms of a speedy diffolution. This valiant and accomplished prince died in the forty-fixth year of his age, leaving behind him a character without a single blemish; and a degree of forrow among the people, that time could scarcely alleviate. His affability, clemency, and liberal difpofition, have been celebrated by different hiftorians., Though born in an age, in which military virtues alone were held in esteem, he cultivated the arts of peace, and feemed ever more happy in deferving praife, than in obtaining it.

A

The king was moft fenfibly affected with the lofs of his fon; and tried every art to remove.his uneafinefs; he had banished his concubine fome time before from his prefence, but took her again,

in hopes of finding fome confolation in her company. He removed himself entirely from the du ties and burdens of the ftate, and left his kingdom to be plundered by a fet of rapacious minifters. He did not long furvive the confequences of his bad conduct; but died about a year after the prince, at Shene, in Surry, deferted by all the courtiers, even by those who had grown rich by his bounty. He expired in the fixty-fifth year of his age, and the fifty-first of his reign; a prince more admired than loved by his fubjects, and more an object of their applaufe than their forrow.

The reign of Edward was rather brilliant than A. D. truly ferviceable, to his fubjects. If England, during thefe shining triumphs 1377. on the continent, gained any real ad vantage, it was only that of having a spirit of elegance and honour diffused among the higher ranks of the people. In all conquefts, fomething is gained in civil life from the people fubdued; and as France was at that time evidently more civilizu ed than England, thofe imitative iflanders, as they were then called, adopted the arts of the people they overcame. The meaneft foldier in the English army now began to follow the leader from love, and not compulfion; he was brave from fena timent alone; and had the honour of his country! beating in his breaft, even though in the humbleft ftation. This was the time when chivalry was at it's highest pitch; and many of the fucceffes of Engul land were owing to that romantic fpirit, which the king endeavoured to diffufe, and of which he was the moft fhining example. It was this fpirit that in fome measure, ferved to foften the ferocity of the age; being a mixture of love, generofity, and war. Inftead of being taught the fciences, the fons of the nobility were brought into the field as foon as they were able, and instructed in no other arts:

but