therefore that Edward saw the growth of a bitter
hostility between Charles and the Castilian king, Pedro the Cruel, through
the murder of his wife, Blanche of Bourbon, the French king's
sister-in-law. Henry of Trastamara, a bastard son of Pedro's father Alfonso
the Eleventh, had long been a refugee at the French court, and soon after
the treaty of Bretigny Charles in his desire to revenge this murder on
Pedro gave Henry aid in an attempt on the Castilian throne. It was
impossible for England to look on with indifference while a dependant of
the French king became master of Castille; and in 1362 a treaty offensive
and defensive was concluded between Pedro and Edward the Third. The time
was not come for open war; but the subtle policy of Charles saw in this
strife across the Pyrenees an opportunity both of detaching Castille from
the English cause and of ridding himself of the Free Companies. With
characteristic caution he dexterously held himself in the background while
he made use of the Pope, who had been threatened by the Free Companies in
his palace at Avignon and was as anxious to get rid of them as himself.
Pedro's cruelty, misgovernment, and alliance with the Moslem of Cordova
served as grounds for a crusade which was proclaimed by Pope Urban; and Du
Guesclin, who was placed at the head of the expedition, found in the Papal
treasury and in the hope of booty from an unravaged land means of gathering
the marauders round his standard. As soon as these Crusaders crossed the
Ebro Pedro was deserted by his subjects, and in 1366 Henry of Trastamara
saw himself crowned without a struggle at Burgos as king of Castille. Pedro
with his two daughters fled for shelter to Bordeaux and claimed the aid
promised in the treaty. The lords of Aquitaine shrank from fighting for
such a cause, but in spite of their protests and the reluctance of the
English council to embark in so distant a struggle Edward held that he had
no choice save to replace his ally, for to leave Henry seated on the throne
was to leave Aquitaine to be crushed between France and Castille.

[Sidenote: Charles the Fifth]

The after course of the war proved that in his anticipations of the fatal
result of a combination of the two powers Edward was right, but his policy
jarred not only against the universal craving for rest, but against the
moral sense of the world. The Black Prince however proceeded to carry out
his father's design in the teeth of the general oppos