pleased to hearken to some terms of
accord, and would win over the King of England to be pleased to
condescend thereto." In concert with the envoys of Pope Benedict XII.,
Joan of Valois at last succeeded in bringing the two sovereigns and their
allies to a truce, which was concluded on the 25th of September, 1340, at
first for nine months, and was afterwards renewed on several occasions up
to the month of June, 1342. Neither sovereign, and none of their allies,
gave up anything, or bound themselves to anything more than not to fight
during that interval; but they were, on both sides, without the power of
carrying on without pause a struggle which they would not entirely
abandon.

An unexpected incident led to its recommencement in spite of the truce:
not, however, throughout France or directly between the two kings, but
with fiery fierceness, though it was limited to a single province, and
arose not in the name of the kingship of France, but out of a purely
provincial question. John III., Duke of Brittany and a faithful vassal
of Philip of Valois, whom he had gone to support at Tournay "more stoutly
and substantially than any of the other princes," says Froissart, died
suddenly at Caen, on the 30th of April, 1341, on returning to his domain.
Though he had been thrice married, he left no child. The duchy of
Brittany then reverted to his brothers or their posterity , but his very
next brother, Guy, Count of Penthievre, had been dead six years, and had
left only a daughter, Joan, called the Cripple, married to Charles of
Blois, nephew of the King of France. The third brother was still alive;
he too was named John, had from his mother the title of Count of
Montfort, and claimed to be heir to the duchy of Brittany in preference
to his niece Joan. The niece, on the contrary, believed in her own right
to the exclusion of her uncle. The question was exactly the same as that
which had arisen touching the crown of France when Philip the Long had
successfully disputed it with the only daughter of his brother Louis the
Quarreller; but the Salic law, which had for more than three centuries
prevailed in France, and just lately to the benefit of Philip of Valois,
had no existence in the written code, or the traditions of Brittany.
There, as in several other great fiefs, women had often been recognized
as capable of holding and transmitting sovereignty. At the death of John
III., his brother, the Count of Montfort, immediately