Notes and Queries, Number 135, May 29, 1852 / A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.

Possibly some of the readers of N. & Q. may remember that King John II. of France was taken prisoner by Edward the Black Prince at the battle of Poitiers, fought September 20, 1356. If not, I would refer them to the delightful pages of old Froissart, where, in the version of Lord Berners, they will see chronicled at length,—
How Kyng John of Fraunce was taken prisoner at the Batayle of Poyeters; how the Englyshmen wan greatly thereat, and how the Prince conveyed the Frenche Kyng fro Burdeaux into Englande.
I am induced to bring under the notice of your readers a curious roll, containing one year's expenditure (July 1, 1359, to July 8, 1360) incurred by the French king during his captivity in England. This important document has been very recently printed in the Comptes de l'Argenterie , and edited from a MS. in the Bibliothèque Nationale by M. Douët d'Arcq for the Société de l'Histoire de France . It may perhaps be well to state, that after the battle of Poitiers the heroic Prince Edward conducted his royal prisoner to Bordeaux, where he remained till the end of April, 1357. On the 24th of May following they both made their entry into London, the Frenche Kynge mounted on a large whyte courser well aparelled, and the Prince on a lytell blacke hobbey ( haquenée ) by hym. John was lodged at first at the Savoy Palace, but was removed shortly afterwards to Windsor Castle, at which place he was allowed to go a huntynge and a haukynge at hys pleasure, and the lorde Phylyp his son with him. The document in question refers to the years 1359 and 1360, when the king was confined at Hertford Castle, at Somerton Castle in Lincolnshire, and lastly in the Tower of London. As this document, which is so intimately connected with a favourite portion of our history, has, I believe, received no notice from any English journal, and as it moreover affords many valuable illustrations of domestic manners, and of the personal character of the royal captive, I have made a few extracts from it for insertion in N. & Q., in the