These conditions, harsh as they yet remained, were so much better than the first proposals of King Edward, that after much intriguing and hesitation, they were at length solemnly ratified by the two sovereigns at Calais, on the 24th of October, 1360, with this strange clause, that the definitive renunciations by the monarchs, of the possessions which they ceded, should not take place until the festival of the Assumption in the following year. On the morrow, the 25th of October, King John was restored to liberty, and King Edward embarked for England.
The festival of the Assumption had passed by, as well as many other holidays, but the conditions of the treaty of Brétigny were not yet fulfilled: the financial distress of France had not admitted of raising the sums promised for the ransom. The land was ravaged by the free bands, formerly in the pay of the belligerents, but who, having no employment since the peace, had lived by plunder and rapine. They proceeded from province to province, wherever there still remained any resources; and they defeated John of Bourbon, who had been despatched against them by the Dauphin. The States-general murmured at the conditions of the treaty. King John saw nothing in his kingdom but oppression and misery; he could not fulfil his engagements, and as a crowning disgrace, one of his hostages, his own son, the Duke of Anjou, having been brought to Calais with the other knights of the Lily—a designation applied to his brother, the Duke of Berry, his uncle, the Duke of Orleans, and his cousin, the Duke of Bourbon—shamelessly broke his word, by flying from prison to repair to Paris. King John was weary of the struggle and wounded in his pride and his loyalty; perchance also he remembered the rejoicings which had been instituted in his honor in London, so he announced that he was about to return to England. "Were honor banished from the whole earth," he proudly said, "it would be found again in the heart of a king." He arrived in London at the beginning of the year 1364; but before being able to resume negotiations, he fell ill, and died on the 8th of April. His body was brought back to France, with all royal magnificence, and the Dauphin became king under the title of Charles V.
While the perplexities of the government in France had hindered the consolidation of peace, the Prince of Wales had been married, on the 10th of October, 1361, to the woman whom he had loved all his lifetime, his cousin Joan, daughter of Edmund, earl of Kent. She had already been twice married, and her second husband, Lord Holland, had recently died. Happy at length, the Black Prince established himself with his wife, in Aquitaine, and held at Bordeaux a magnificent court, the school for all good chivalry, while he labored to restore order in these provinces, so long desolated by war.
King Charles V. had found means of ridding himself of the free companies. The King of Castile, Peter IV., had deserved his surname of "the Cruel" for a series of crimes which had exasperated the people. His brother, Henry of Transtamare, exiled by him, and burning with a desire to avenge his mother and all his relatives assassinated by the tyrant, had taken refuge in France, asking the assistance of King Charles V. The latter offered the services of the free companies; the good knight Bertrand du Guesclin, already famous among the most illustrious warriors of his time, concluded a treaty with the chiefs of the different bands, and, placing himself at their head, crossed the Pyrenees under the orders of Henry of Transtamare, who was soon placed upon the throne of Castile, almost without striking a blow. In vain did Peter the Cruel call to his aid all his vassals; they were too happy to see themselves delivered from his yoke, and when the tyrant was compelled to take to flight, he took refuge at Bordeaux, begging the assistance of the Prince of Wales.
Passion blinds the most clear-sighted men: the noble character of the Black Prince had nothing in common with the savage ferocity and calculating perfidy of Peter the Cruel; but the prince thought this king ill-used by his brother and his subjects. France had embraced the cause of Henry of Transtamare, and England thought herself constrained to support his rival. He had brought with him his two daughters, who remained at the court of Bordeaux, where they were married, a few years later, to two sons of King Edward, the Duke of Lancaster and the Earl of Cambridge. The first rumor of the intentions of the Black Prince caused a secession from the army of Du Guesclin of some of his best bands. Sir John Calverley and Sir Robert Knowles, with twelve thousand men, immediately abandoned Henry of Transtamare and proceeded into Guienne, assembling under the banner of their legitimate chief. The King of Navarre delivered up the passage through the Pyrenees, and in the month of February, 1367, in spite of cold, snow, and scarcity of provisions in a poor country, thirty thousand men crossed the defiles of the mountains under the command of the Prince of Wales and Peter the Cruel, and on the third of April a battle was fought between the two pretenders upon the plain of Navarette. The combat was fierce. A portion of the Spaniards had given way; but Henry of Transtamare, supported by Du Guesclin, resolutely defended himself. At length the latter was made a prisoner, and the rout was complete. Don Henry fled and took refuge in Arragon. Six thousand men remained upon the field of battle, and two thousand prisoners were in the hands of Peter the Cruel. He was preparing to slaughter them, when the Prince of Wales demanded mercy for them, and the king did not dare to refuse it; but he had no intention of fulfilling the promises which he had made at Bordeaux. From his camp at Valladolid, the prince repeatedly sent to Peter the Cruel, demanding the money which he had undertaken to pay for the expenses of the war. No answer, no visit from the king, no provisions; while the English army was decimated by sickness, by the climate, and by want. The prince himself was suffering from a fever. Weary of waiting, and convinced of the perfidy of his ally, he raised his camp on the 26th of June, and returned to Guienne. Peter the Cruel had momentarily regained his throne, but the treasury of England was empty; the health of the Black Prince was for ever destroyed, his character embittered by suffering and deceptions, and the barons of Aquitaine were beginning to murmur and to turn unwillingly toward France.
Charles V. deserved his title of the "Wise." Prudent and foreseeing, but too weak in body to have any taste for warfare, he directed the affairs of the kingdom from his seat, with a firm moderation to which the French, like their enemies, had not been accustomed under his predecessors. When the Poitevins presented themselves before Charles V., as the liege lord, to complain of the excessive taxes imposed by the Black Prince, he temporized, gave vague answers, and retained the complainants at Paris, while his brother, the Duke of Anjou, governor of Languedoc, was fostering the discontent in the provinces of the south belonging to the English.
The Spanish ally of the Black Prince had recently received the reward of all his crimes. Scarcely had the English retired, when Don Henry had again taken the field, and for the second time he had dethroned his brother. As he was besieging him in a fortified castle, they met in the tent of a French knight. Peter immediately seized his brother by the throat, and threw him to the ground. Henry drew his dagger, and Peter, stabbed to the heart, died immediately. An offensive and defensive alliance had recently been concluded between France and Spain (20th of November, 1368), and King Charles V., publicly taking his course, summoned Edward, Prince of Aquitaine, to appear at Paris before his peers, there to answer the complaints of his vassals.