. 282.
Chron Dunst. vol. ii. p. 622.

**** Trivet, p. 279.

The favor which the Gascon nobility bore to the English government
facilitated these conquests, and seemed to promise still greater
successes; but this advantage was soon lost by the misconduct of some
of the officers. Philip's brother, Charles de Valois, who commanded
the French armies, having laid siege to Podensac, a small fortress near
Reole, obliged Giffard, the governor, to capitulate; and the articles
though favorable to the English, left all the Gascons prisoners at
discretion, of whom about fifty were hanged by Charles as rebels;
a policy by which he both intimidated that people, and produced
an irreparable breach between them and the English.[*] That prince
immediately attacked Reole, where the earl of Richmond himself
commanded; and as the place seemed not tenable, the English general drew
his troops to the water side, with an intention of embarking with the
greater part of the army. The enraged Gascons fell upon his rear, and
at the same time opened their gates to the French, who, besides making
themselves masters of the place, took many prisoners of distinction. St.
Severe was more vigorously defended by Hugh de Vere, son of the earl
of Oxford; but was at last obliged to capitulate. The French king, not
content with these successes in Gascony, threatened England with an
invasion; and, by a sudden attempt, his troops took and burnt Dover,[**]
but were obliged soon after to retire. And in order to make a greater
diversion of the English force, and engage Edward in dangerous and
important wars, he formed a secret alliance with John Baliol, king of
Scotland; the commencement of that strict union which, during so many
centuries, was maintained, by mutual interests and necessities, between
the French and Scottish nations. John confirmed this alliance by
stipulating a marriage between his eldest son and the daughter of
Charles de Valois.[***]

* Heming. vol. i. p. 49.

** Trivet, p. 284. Chron. Dunst. vol. ii. p. 642.

*** Rymer, vol. ii. p. 680, 681, 695, 697. Heming. vol. i. p.
76. Trivet, i, 285.

The expenses attending these multiplied wars of Edward, and his
preparations for war, joined to alterations which had insensibly taken
place in the general state of affairs, obliged him to have frequent
recourse to parliamentary supplies, introduced the lower orders of the
state into the public councils, and laid the foun