n: Threshing corn with the flail.]

19. =The Statute of Treasons. 1352.=--In =1352= was passed the Statute
of Treasons, by which the offences amounting to treason were defined,
the chief of them being levying war against the king. As no one but a
great nobleman was strong enough even to think of levying war against
the king, this statute may be regarded as a concession to the
wealthier landowners rather than to the people at large.

20. =The Black Prince in the South of France. 1355.=--In =1350= Philip
VI. of France died, and was succeeded by his son John. The truce (see
p. 243) was prolonged, and it was not till =1355= that war was
renewed. Edward himself was recalled to England by fresh troubles in
Scotland, but the Black Prince landed at Bordeaux and marched through
the south of France, plundering as he went. Neither father nor son
seems to have had any idea of gaining their ends except by driving the
French by ill-treatment into submission. "You must know," wrote a
contemporary in describing the condition of southern Languedoc, "that
this was, before, one of the fat countries of the world, the people
good and simple, who did not know what war was, and no war had ever
been waged against them before the Prince of Wales came. The English
and Gascons found the country full and gay, the rooms furnished with
carpets and draperies, the caskets and chests full of beautiful
jewels; but nothing was safe from these robbers." The Prince returned
to Bordeaux laden with spoils.

21. =The Battle of Poitiers. 1356.=--In =1356= the Black Prince swept
over central France in another similar plundering expedition. He was
on his way back with his plunder to Bordeaux with no more than 8,000
men to guard it when he learnt as he passed near Poitiers that King
John was close to him with 50,000. He drew up his little force on a
rising ground amidst thick vineyards, with a hedge in front of him
behind which he could shelter his archers. As at Crecy, the greater
part of the English horsemen were dismounted, and John, thinking that
therein lay their secret of success, ordered most of his horsemen to
dismount as well, not having discovered that though spearmen on foot
could present a formidable resistance to a cavalry charge, they were
entirely useless in attacking a strong position held by archers. Then
he sent forward 300 knights who retained their horses, bidding a
strong body of dismounted horsemen to support them. The horsemen,
followed