ble to suppose that his fiery
ambition, and his impatience to decide, once for all, that question of
the French kingship which had been for five years in suspense between
himself and his rival, were the true causes of his warlike resolve.
However that may be, he determined to push the war vigorously forward at
the three points at which he could easily wage it. In Brittany he had a
party already engaged in the struggle; in Aquitaine, possessions of
importance to defend or recover; in Flanders, allies with power to back
him, and as angry as he himself. To Brittany he forwarded fresh supplies
for the Count of Montfort; to Aquitaine he sent Henry of Lancaster, Earl
of Derby, his own cousin, and the ablest of his lieutenants; and he
himself prepared to cross over with a large army to Flanders.

The Earl of Derby met with solid and brilliant success in Aquitaine.
He attacked and took in rapid succession Bergerac, La Reole, Aiguillon,
Montpezat, Villefranche, and Angouleme. None of those places was
relieved in time; the strict discipline of Derby's troops and the skill
of the English archers were too much for the bravery of the men-at-arms,
and the raw levies, ill organized and ill paid, of the King of France;
and, in a word, the English were soon masters of almost the whole country
between the Garonne and the Charente. Under such happy auspices Edward
III. arrived on the 7th of July, 1345, at the port of Ecluse (Sluys),
anxious to put himself in concert with the Flemings touching the campaign
he proposed to commence before long in the north of France. Artevelde,
with the consuls of Bruges and Ypres, was awaiting him there. According
to some historians, Edward invited them aboard of his galley, and
represented to them that the time had come for renouncing imperfect
resolves and half-measures; told them that their count, Louis of
Flanders, and his ancestors, had always ignored and attacked their
liberties, and that the best thing they could do would be to sever their
connection with a house they could not trust; and offered them for their
chieftain his own son, the young Prince of Wales, to whom he would give
the title of Duke of Flanders. According to other historians, it was not
King Edward, but Artevelde himself, who took the initiative in this
proposition. The latter had for some time past felt his own dominion in
Flanders attacked and shaken; and he had been confronted, in his own
native city, by declared enemies, w