360.=--So miserably devastated was
France that Edward, when he invaded the country in =1359=, had to take
with him not only men and munitions of war, but large stores of
provisions. He met no enemy in the field, but the land had been so
wasted that his men suffered much from want of food, in spite of the
supplies which they had taken with them. "I could not believe," wrote
an Italian who revisited France after an absence of some years, "that
this was the same kingdom which I had once seen so rich and
flourishing. Nothing presented itself to my eyes but a fearful
solitude, an extreme poverty, land uncultivated, houses in ruins. Even
the neighbourhood of Paris manifested everywhere marks of destruction
and conflagration. The streets were deserted; the roads overgrown with
weeds; the whole a vast solitude." In the spring of =1360= Edward
moved on towards the banks of the Loire, hoping to find sustenance
there. Near Chartres he was overtaken by a terrible storm of hail and
thunder, and in the roar of the thunder he thought that he heard the
voice of God reproving him for the misery which he had caused. He
abated his demands and signed the treaty of Bretigni.

[Illustration: West front of Edington Church, Wilts: built about 1360.
An example of the transition from the Decorated style to the
Perpendicular.]

25. =The Treaty of Bretigni. 1360.=--By the treaty of Bretigni John
was to be ransomed for an enormous sum; Edward was to surrender his
claim to the crown of France and to the provinces north of Aquitaine,
receiving in return the whole of the duchy of Aquitaine together with
the districts round Calais and Ponthieu, all of them to be held in
full sovereignty, without any feudal obligation to the king of
France. Probably it cost Edward little to abandon his claim to the
French crown, which had only been an after-thought; and it was a clear
gain to get rid of those feudal entanglements which had so frequently
been used as a pretext of aggression against the English kings. It was
hardly likely, however, that England would long be able to keep a
country like Aquitaine, which was geographically part of France and in
which French sympathies were constantly on the increase. "We will obey
the English with our lips," said the men of Rochelle, when their town
was surrendered, "but our hearts shall never be moved towards them."

CHAPTER XVI.

REIGN OF EDWARD III. AFTER THE TREATY OF BRETIGNI.

1360--1377.

LEADING DATE