ngholds of
the Blois party, which had hitherto been exempt from the war. In
October he laid siege to Rennes and was detained before its walls until
July, 1357, when he agreed to desist from the attack in return for a
huge ransom. Lancaster then established young Montfort as duke. At the
same time Charles of Blois, released from his long imprisonment, once
more reappeared in his wife's inheritance, though, as his ransom was
still but partly paid, his scrupulous honour compelled him to abstain
from personal intervention in the war. Thus Brittany got back both her
dukes.

The northern operations in 1356 sink into insignificance when compared
with the exploits of the Black Prince in the south. After the capture
of Perigueux, there had been some idea of the prince making a northward
movement and joining hands with Lancaster on the Loire. When Lancaster
retired from Verneuil, however, the Black Prince was still in the
valley of the Dordogne. Even when all was ready, attacks on the Gascon
duchy compelled him to divert a large portion of his army for the
defence of his own frontiers. Not until August 9 was he able to advance
from Perigueux to Brantome into hostile territory. It was a month too
late to co-operate with Lancaster, and the 7,000 men, who followed his
banners, were in equipment rather prepared for a raid than for a
systematic conquest.

Edward's outward march was in a generally northerly direction. Leaving
Limoges on his right, he crossed the Vienne lower down the stream, and
thence he led his troops over the Creuse at Argenton and over the Indre
at Chateauroux. When he traversed the Cher at Vierzon, his followers
rejoiced that they had at last got out of the limits of the ancient
duchy of Guienne and were invading the actual kingdom of France. On
penetrating beyond the Cher into the melancholy flats of the Sologne,
the prince encountered the first serious resistance. He then turned
abruptly to the west, and chased the enemy into the strong castle of
Romorantin, which he captured on September 3. There he heard that John
of France, who had gathered together a huge force, was holding the
passages over the Loire. Edward marched to meet the enemy, and on
September 7 reached the neighbourhood of Tours, where he tarried in his
camp for three days. But the few bridges were destroyed or strongly
guarded, and the men-at-arms found it quite impossible to make their
way over the broad and swift Loire. Moreover the news came