Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/72

Edward III England (ib. p. 898). Agreements were also made with the margrave of Juliers and the Duke of Gueldres for the supply of mercenaries.

On the English side the war was carried on without any of the vigour of earlier days, for the king was sinking into premature old age and the prince was mortally sick. Edward's hold on his French dominions was slight, and his subjects were ready to return to their old allegiance as soon as ever they should find that it was safe to do so. Accordingly Charles declined to risk a battle, and allowed the English to wear themselves out with fruitless operations. While Chandos and Pembroke carried on a desultory warfare in Poitou and Touraine, Charles gathered a considerable army and many ships at Harfleur, and in August an invasion of England seemed near at hand (ib. p. 878). Edward sent Lancaster with a body of troops to Calais, and if any idea of an invasion on a large scale had existed it was given up. Nevertheless an attack was made on Portsmouth, and the town was burnt (ib, p. 880), an incident which proves how entirely the king had neglected the naval and coast defences of the country during some years past, for this attack was not unexpected. The French army was commanded by the Duke of Burgundy, who, in obedience to the king's orders, refused to give battle to the English. Lancaster, with some foreign troops under Robert of Namur, did some plundering, and in November returned home. During the summer of this year England suffered from a third visitation of the plague. On 15 Aug. Edward sustained a serious loss in the death of his queen. Even during her lifetime he had formed a connection with one of her attendants named Alice Perrers (Chron, Angliæ, p. 95), and after her death this woman exercised an overweening and disastrous power over him. From this event, too, may perhaps be dated the rapid growth of Lancaster's influence over his father, and of the rivalry between him and the Prince of Wales, though some signs of that may probably be discerned in the evil counsel which led Edward to neglect the prince's warnings as to the intentions of the king of France. During 1370 the war in France went on with varying success. The English lost ground in Aquitaine; Sir Robert Knolles plundered up to the gates of Paris, was defeated, and retired to Brittany; and Limoges was betrayed to the French, and was retaken by the prince. Edward endeavoured to conciliate his French subjects, and took measures that weakened the authority of the prince, and were evidently suggested by Lancaster. On 30 Dec. l369 he set up a court of appeal at Saintes (Fœdera, iii. 884); on 28 Jan. 1370 he abated certain duties on wine; on 1 July he sent out Lancaster to help his brother, granting him extraordinary powers; and on 5 or 15 Nov. he declared the abolition of all, fouages, the tax by which the prince had roused the Gascons to revolt, and other aids (, vii. 210, 211). In January he received a grant of a tenth for three years from the clergy. In accordance with the bad advice of some of his counsellors he borrowed largely from his subjects for the expenses of the war (Cont,, p. 207), and in consequence of the grant of the year before did not summon a parliament. He had received a visit from the king of Navarre, and made a treaty with him, but this treaty was annulled on 27 Jan. in consequence of the prince's refusal to assent to it (ib, p. 210; Fœdera, iii. 907).

In January 1371 Edward received the Prince of Wales at Windsor on his return home in broken health, and then went up to Westminster and was present at the parliament of 24 Feb. The chancellor, William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, declared the king's need of supplies to enable him to prevent invasion. A petition from the monastic landowners was made the opportunity for an attack on the wealth of the church, which was, a certain lord said, like an owl dressed in the plumage of other birds, until a moment of peril came and each bird reclaimed its own feathers (Fasciculi Zizaniorum, Pref. p. xxi). The attack was led by the Earl of Pembroke, who was betrothed to the king's daughter Margaret, and it probably, therefore, met with the king's approval. A petition, in which both lords and commons joined, was presented to the king declaring that the government of the kingdom had been for a long time in the hands of churchmen who could not be called to account, and praying that the king would choose lay ministers. Wykeham and the treasurer Brantingham, bishop of Exeter, resigned their offices, and the king appointed two laymen to succeed them. The ignorance of the new ministers was at once displayed in the proposal to raise 50,000l. by a contribution of 22s. 3d. from every one of the parishes in England, the larger to help the smaller, for it was found that there were not nine thousand parishes; and in June the king called a great council at Winchester, consisting of some lords and one representative from each constituency, and with their consent the proportion to be levied on each parish was raised proportionately. A grant of 50,000l. was also made by the clergy (Const, Hist. ii. 420 sq.; Rot. Parl, ii. 303, 304;