rittany were still obedient to Charles of
Blois.[1] But Edward had embarked upon a course infinitely beyond his
material resources. When a special effort could only give him the one
town of Calais, how could he ever conquer all France?

[1] See on this A. de la Borderie, _Hist. de Bretagne_, iii.,
507, _et seq_.

CHAPTER XVII.

FROM THE BLACK DEATH TO THE TREATY OF CALAIS.

At the conclusion of the truce of Calais in 1347, Edward III and
England were at the height of their military reputation. Perhaps the
nation was in even a stronger position than the monarch. Edward had
dissipated his resources in winning his successes, but the danger which
faced the ruler had but slightly impaired the fortunes of his subjects.
The country was in a sufficiently prosperous condition to bear its
burdens without much real suffering. The widespread dislike of
extraordinary taxation, which so often assumed the form of the familiar
cry that the king must live of his own, had taken the shape of
unwillingness to accept responsibility for the king's policy and a
growing indisposition to meet his demands. But since the rule of Edward
began, England enjoyed a prosperity so unbroken that far heavier
burdens would hardly have brought about a diminution of the well-being
which stood in glaring contrast to the desolation long inflicted by
Edward's wars on France. A war waged exclusively on foreign soil did
little harm to England, and offered careers whereby many an English
adventurer was gaining a place among the landed classes. The simple
archers and men-at-arms, who received high wages and good hopes of
plunder in the king's foreign service, found in it a congenial and
lucrative, if demoralising profession. In England, though wages were
low, provisions were cheap and employment constant. The growth of the
wool trade, then further stimulated by refugees from the "three towns
of Flanders," against which Louis de Male was waging relentless war,
was bringing comfort to many, and riches to a few. The maritime
greatness of England that found its first results in the battle of
Sluys was the fruit of a commercial activity on the sea which enabled
English shipmen to deprive the Italians, Netherlanders, and Germans of
the overwhelming share they had hitherto enjoyed of our foreign trade.
The dark shadows of medieval life were indeed never absent from the
picture; but medieval England seldom enjoyed greater wellbeing and
tranquillity tha