Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/572

 522 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE was economical and intelligent, employed able officials, cor- rected abuses in the government, and maintained law and order to the best of his ability. He also was more successful against England than his two predecessors and did not have to shoulder the blame for any such defeats as those of Crecy and Poitiers. Philip VI and John II had led their armies in person and had displayed inferior generalship. Charles V was himself R % sickly and no warrior, but found in the Breton, jf French Du Guesclin, an able military leader. After some preliminary fighting against Charles of Navarre, and in Brittany where the succession was still disputed, and in Spain where Du Guesclin and the Black Prince fought on opposite sides in another disputed succession to the throne of Castile, direct hostilities between France and England broke out again. In 1369 an appeal from the inhabitants of southwestern France against the harsh rule of the Black Prince led Charles V to renew the war, which this time turned in favor of France. The Black Prince soon became broken in health and returned to England, where his father was still king, but now in his dotage. In 1372 the Castilian fleet in alliance with France defeated the English at La Rochelle, and by the close of the reign of Charles V, the English had little left on the Continent except such seaports as Calais, Bordeaux, and Bayonne. During the remainder of the century there was no fighting of importance. It was now the turn of the English people to express dis- satisfaction with the conduct of the war and with their royal The "Good government. In the " Good Parliament" of 1376 Parliament" the leading part was taken by the House J, Commons and its Speaker, 1 who is to-day purely a presiding officer, but then was the spokesman who presented their petitions to the king. The corrupt favorites and ministers m the aged king were banished or were impeached by the Coi mons before the House of Lords, the first instance of the Peter de la Mare, whom the Commons chose as their leader on this <M : n does not seem to have had the title of Speaker, but it was introduced the very next year.