There was a brief or almost no struggle. Henry of
Transtamare was crowned king, first at Calahorra, and afterwards at
Burgos. Don Pedro, as much despised before long as he was already
detested, fled from Castile to Andalusia, and from Andalusia to Portugal,
whose king would not grant him an asylum in his dominions, and he ended
by embarking at Corunna for Bordeaux, to implore the assistance of the
Prince of Wales, who gave him a warm and a magnificent reception. Edward
III., King of England, had been disquieted by the march of the Grand
Company into Spain, and had given John Chandos and the rest of his chief
commanders in Guienne orders to be vigilant in preventing the English
from taking part in the expedition against his cousin the King of
Castile; but several of the English chieftains, serving in the bands and
with Du Guesclin, set at nought this prohibition, and contributed
materially to the fall of Don Pedro. Edward III. did not consider that
the matter was any infraction, on the part of France, of the treaty of
Bretigne, and continued to live at peace with Charles V., testifying his
displeasure, however, all the same. But when Don Pedro had reached
Bordeaux, and had told the Prince of Wales that, if he obtained the
support of England, he would make the prince's eldest son, Edward, king
of Galicia, and share amongst the prince's warriors the treasure he had
left in Castile, so well concealed that he alone knew where, "the knights
of the Prince of Wales," says Froissart, "gave ready heed to his words,
for English and Gascons are by nature covetous." The Prince of Wales
immediately summoned the barons of Aquitaine, and on the advice they gave
him sent four knights to London to ask for instructions from the king his
father. Edward III. assembled his chief councillors at Westminster, and
finally "it seemed to all course due and reasonable on the part of the
Prince of Wales to restore and conduct the King of Spain to his kingdom;
to which end they wrote official letters from the King and the council of
England to the prince and the barons of Aquitaine. When the said barons
heard the letters read they said to the prince, 'My lord, we will obey
the command of the king our master and your father; it is but reason, and
we will serve you on this journey and King Pedro also; but we would know
who shall pay us and deliver us our wages, for one does not take
men-at-arms away from their homes to go a warfare in a foreign la