, maintained such close connections with
France, that war with one crown almost inevitably produced hostilities
with the other. The French monarch, whose prudent conduct had acquired
him the surname of Wise, as he had already baffled all the experience
and valor of the two Edwards, was likely to prove a dangerous enemy to
a minor king: but his genius, which was not naturally enterprising,
led him not at present to give any disturbance to his neighbors; and
he labored, besides, under many difficulties at home, which it was
necessary for him to surmount, before he could think of making conquests
in a foreign country. England was master of Calais, Bordeaux, and
Bayonne; had lately acquired possession of Cherbourg from the cession of
the king of Navarre, and of Brest from that of the duke of Brittany;[*]
and having thus an easy entrance into France from every quarter,
was able, even in its present situation, to give disturbance to his
government. Before Charles could remove the English from these important
posts, he died in the flower of his age, and left his kingdom to a minor
son who bore the name of Charles VI.

{1378.} Meanwhile the war with France was carried on in a manner
somewhat languid, and produced no enterprise of great lustre or renown.
Sir Hugh Calverly, governor of Calais, making an inroad into Picardy
with a detachment of the garrison, set fire to Boulogne.[**] The duke
of Lancaster conducted an army into Brittany, but returned without being
able to perform any thing memorable.

{1380.} In a subsequent year, the duke of Glocester marched out of
Calais with a body of two thousand cavalry and eight thousand infantry,
and scrupled not, with his small army, to enter into the heart of
France, and to continue his ravages through Picardy, Champaigne, the
Brie, the Beausse, the Gatinois, the Orleanois, till he reached his
allies in the province of Brittany.[***] The duke of Burgundy, at the
head of a more considerable army, came within sight of him; but the
French were so overawed by the former successes of the English, that no
superiority of numbers could tempt them to venture a pitched battle with
the troops of that nation. As the duke of Brittany, soon after the
arrival of these succors, formed an accommodation with the court of
France, this enterprise also proved in the issue unsuccessful, and made
no durable impression upon the enemy.

* Rymer, vol. vii. p. 190.

** Walsing, p. 209.

*** Fr