ffices, preliminary articles of peace were
actually agreed upon on April 6, 1354, at Guines. By them Edward agreed
to renounce his claim to the French throne if he were granted full
sovereignly over Guienne, Ponthieu, Artois, and Guines. When the
chamberlain, Burghersh, laid before parliament, which was then sitting,
the prospect of peace, "the commons with one accord replied that,
whatever course the king and the magnates should take as regards the
said treaty, was agreeable to them. On this reply the chamberlain said
to the commons: 'Then you wish to agree to a perpetual treaty of peace,
if one can be had?' And the said commons answered unanimously, 'Yea,
yea'."[1] Vexatious delays, however, supervened, and at last the
negotiations broke down hopelessly. The French refused to surrender
their over-lordship over the ceded provinces, and the Easter parliament
of 1355 agreed with the king that war must be renewed. Two years of war
were to follow more fierce than even the struggles which had culminated
in Crecy, La Roche, and Calais.

[1] _Rot. Pad.,_ ii., 262.

Two expeditions were organised to invade France in the summer of 1355,
one for Aquitaine under the Prince of Wales,[1] and the other for
Normandy under Lancaster. Westerly winds long prevented their despatch.
It was not until September that the Prince of Wales reached Bordeaux.
The change of wind, which bore the prince to Gascony, enabled the host,
collected by the King and Lancaster on the Thames, to make its way to
Normandy. But the special reason which brought the English thither was
already gone. The expedition was planned to co-operate with the King of
Navarre. Charles, surnamed the Bad, traced on his father's side his
descent to that son of Philip the Bold who obtained the county of Evreux
in upper Normandy for his appanage. From his mother, the daughter of
Louis X., he derived his kingdom of Navarre and a claim on the French
monarchy of the same type as that of Edward III. Cunning, plausible,
unscrupulous, and violent, Charles had quarrelled fiercely with King
John, whose daughter he had married. His vast estates in Normandy made
him a valuable ally to Edward, and he had suggested joint action in that
duchy against the French. Unluckily, while the west winds kept the
English fleet beyond the Straits of Dover, John made terms with his
son-in-law. Lancaster was compensated for his disappointment by the
governorship of Brittany. The army equipped for the N