Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/111

 thing that the ships landed them at La Hogue and were back at Southampton again in five days. In company with John of Montfort, the youthful claimant of the duchy of Brittany, the duke sailed for La Hogue and landed on the 18th. At Cherbourg he was joined by Philip of Navarre and Geoffrey Harcourt; their united forces numbered nine hundred men-at-arms and fourteen hundred archers. They marched to Montebourg, and thence on the 22nd to Carentan, by St. Lo to Torigny on the 24th, by Evrecy to Lisieux on the 28th, and on the next day to Pont Audemer, for a special object of the campaign was to relieve that and other towns belonging to the king of Navarre which were besieged by the forces of the French king. On the approach of the duke's army the siege was raised, and he remained there until 2 July to strengthen the fortifications; he next marched to Bec Herlewin, and thence by Conches, where he fired the castle, to Breteuil, and so to Verneuil, where he did some damage. Hearing that the French king was coming against him with a large army he retreated to Laigle on the 8th, and when heralds came to him bringing him a challenge to battle from King John he replied that he was ready to fight if the king interrupted him. He continued his retreat by Argentan and Torigny, and returned to Montebourg on the 13th with large booty and two thousand horses, which he had taken from the French (, pp. 462–8;, col. 2612). He next marched towards Brittany, having on 3 Aug. been appointed captain of the duchy by the king, with the concurrence of John of Montfort (Fœdera, iii. 335). He made an attempt to effect a junction with the Prince of Wales in the latter part of the month, but was out-manœuvred at Les Ponts de Cé, near Angers [see under the ]. In Brittany he campaigned successfully on behalf of the widowed duchess and her son, and on 3 Oct. formed the siege of Rennes, which was defended by the Viscount de Rohan and other lords for Charles of Blois. The siege lasted until 3 July 1357, when the duke was reluctantly forced to abandon it in consequence of a truce. During 1358 and a large part of 1359 Lancaster was probably much in England, but he sent Sir Robert Knolles and other captains to uphold the cause of the king of Navarre in Normandy. On 5 April 1359 David II of Scotland [see ] created him Earl of Moray.

About 1 Oct. Edward sent the duke to Calais to keep order among the rabble of adventurers who were gathered there to await the king's arrival and the beginning of a new campaign. In order to keep them employed the duke led them on a raid. He marched past St. Omer, remained four days at the abbey of St. Éloy, turned towards Peronne, marched leisurely along the valley of the Somme, his followers wasting the country; attacked the town of Bray, but failed to take it, and was at Toussaint when he heard of the king's arrival at Calais. He led his host to meet the king, accompanied him to Rheims, and while the army lay before that city on 29 Dec. led a party against Cernay, about eight leagues distant, took the town and burnt it, and after doing damage to other places in the district returned to the camp. When Edward determined after Easter 1360 to leave the neighbourhood of Paris and lead his army into the Loire country, he appointed Lancaster and two others to command the first division. At Chartres the duke persuaded him to listen favourably to the French proposals for peace, and took the leading part in arranging the treaty of Bretigni, which was concluded in his presence on 8 May. At the feast which followed he and the king's sons and other lords served the kings of England and France bareheaded. On 8 July he joined the Prince of Wales in conducting the French king to Calais; on 22 Aug. he was appointed Edward's commissioner in France, and on 24 Oct. was at Calais when the treaty was ratified. He died at Leicester of the pestilence on 13 May 1361. He was buried with much pomp on the south side of the high altar of his collegiate church at Leicester, in the presence of the king and many prelates and nobles, for his death was felt to be a national calamity. By his wife Isabel, daughter of Henry, lord Beaumont, he had two daughters: Maud (d. 1362), who married first Ralph, eldest son of Ralph, earl of Stafford, and secondly, in 1352, with the king's approval, during her father's absence in Poland, William, count of Holland, son of the Emperor Lewis of Bavaria; and Blanche, who married John of Gaunt [q. v.]

Henry of Lancaster was esteemed throughout Western Europe as a perfect knight; he was brave, courteous, charitable, just, and at once magnificent and personally temperate in his habits. He had a thorough knowledge of public affairs, was a wise counsellor, and was loved and trusted by Edward III beyond any other of his lords. Like his father, Earl Henry, he was religious, and during his last days is said to have been much given to prayer and good works, and to have written a book of devotions called ‘Mercy Gramercy.’ In this he set down first all the sins which he could remember to have committed, asking God's mercy on account of them, and then all the good things which he had received, adding a