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 76 HISTOR y OF FRANCE. [chap. the state of things which we see in modern times. Here was the first beginning of standing armies and of regular taxation, the two great forces of modern governments. The power of the crown was further strengthened by giving it an army which was always at its command, quite apart from the feudal force, which was only called out for a limited time on special occasions. The instinct of the nobility of course went dead against the new regulations. 33. The Praguerie, 1440. — Bourbon, Alengon, and Dunois took offence on the notion of subjecting warriors and gentlemen to law and depriving them of their plunder, declaring that nobody would fight on such terms, and that the country would be left open to the English. They even took arms at the head of all the wild Eco7-chetirs, and wasted the country after the fashion of the Hussite I'ebels at Prague, whence this war was called the Pra- guerie I-a Tremouille joined them, as did the dauphin Lewis, a youth of seventeen. The Duke of Burgimdy refused, saying their rising was all that was wanting to complete the ruin of France ; and the king and constable took the field, and pressed them so hard that the dauphin and the nobles made peace by ones and twos, and the des- perate remnant of Ecorcheiirs were overpowered in detail. 34. Truce with England, 1444.^ — Charles then besieged Pontoise, and, though twice forced by Lord Talbot to re- treat, finally took the place, much to the relief of Paris. As the peace party under Cardinal Beaufort was now in the ascendant in England, a truce of two years was con- cluded in 1444. Shortly after the Earl of Suffolk arranged Henry's marriage 'i Mari^aret <y // ///'^w, daughter of Rend, the queen's brother. He was the grandson of Lewis of Anjou, the son of King John, who had been adopted by Queen Joan of Naples. He and his descendants therefore called themselves Kings of Sicily and Jeru- salem, and often tried to establish themselves at Naples. But the only jjart of Joan's inheritance which they really kept was the county of Provence. Rend also claimed the Duchy of Lorraine through his wife ; his French appanages of Anjou and Maine were in the hands of the P2nglish. These Suffolk restored as the price of the marriage, so that I'^ngland kept only what was still left of the conquests of Henry V. in Normandy and of the old possessions in the south. Tiie cities of Mctz^ Vertfurt, and Toul, which were surrounded by the duchy of Lorraine, were claimed by Rend, and Charles helped him in an