nd such as seemed more than sufficient to secure him from the danger.
Besides the concurrence of all the nobility in his own populous and
warlike kingdom, his foreign alliances were both more cordial and more
powerful than those which were formed by his antagonist. The pope,
who, at this time, lived in Avignon, was dependent on France; and being
disgusted at the connections between Edward and Lewis of Bavaria, whom
he had excommunicated, he embraced with zeal and sincerity the cause of
the French monarch. The king of Navarre, the duke of Brittany, the count
of Bar, were in the same interests; and on the side of Germany, the king
of Bohemia, the Palatine, the dukes of Lorraine and Austria, the bishop
of Liege, the counts of Deuxpont, Vaudemont, and Geneva. The allies of
Edward were in themselves weaker; and having no object but his money,
which began to be exhausted, they were slow in their motions and
irresolute in their measures.

{1339.} The duke of Brabant, the most powerful among them, seemed even
inclined to withdraw himself wholly from the alliance; and the king was
necessitated both to give the Brabanters new privileges in trade, and to
contract his son Edward with the daughter of that prince, ere he
could bring him to fulfil his engagements. The summer was wasted in
conferences and negotiations before Edward could take the field; and he
was obliged, in order to allure his German allies into his measures, to
pretend that the first attack should be made upon Cambray, a city of the
empire which had been garrisoned by Philip.[*] But finding, upon
trial, the difficulty of the enterprise, he conducted them towards the
frontiers of France; and he there saw, by a sensible proof, the vanity
of his expectations: the count of Namur, and even the count of Hainault,
his brother-in-law (for the old count was dead,) refused to commence
hostilities against their liege lord, and retired with their troops.[**]
So little account did they make of Edward's pretensions to the crown of
France!

* Froissard, liv. i. chap. 39. Heming. p. 305.

** Froissard, liv. i. chap. 29.

The king, however, entered the enemy's country, and encamped on the
fields of Vironfosse, near Capeile, with an army of near fifty thousand
men, composed almost entirely of foreigners: Philip approached him with
an army of near double the force, composed chiefly of native subjects;
and it was daily expected that a battle would ensue. But the English
m