Truce.
The Black Death. 1349.
It is somewhat strange to observe the smallness of the effect of the late great victories. Edward seemed no nearer his objects than before he had won them. The exhaustion of his own kingdom was almost equal to that of France, and shortly after the fall of Calais, a truce was made for a few months, and afterwards from time to time extended. One cause, no doubt, of the general quietness which prevailed at this time in Europe was the presence of the Black Death, a terrible scourge, which, after passing over Europe, reached England in 1349. Its ravages were fearful. It is calculated that at least a third, if not a half, of the whole population of England was swept away. Such calculations are based partly upon the mortality among the clergy: more than one half of the priests in Yorkshire died, more than two-thirds of the beneficed clergy of Norfolk. In Norwich alone 60,000 people are said to have perished. So fearful a plague unavoidably changed the whole relation between employer and employed, and while famine was threatening the country, while farms could no longer be worked or harvests gathered for want of hands, there was a natural disinclination to continue the war.
Renewal of the war. 1355.
It was not, therefore, till the year 1355 that the war was renewed. Meanwhile, Philip of Valois had died, and been succeeded by his son John, and at the instigation of the Pope, following his usual pacific course, in 1354, a treaty had been set on foot. Edward, regarding his claim to the French throne as hopeless, was willing to accept a peace, if the French King would give him the province of Aquitaine in full sovereignty. English plenipotentiaries appeared at Guisnes ready to conclude the treaty, but the French envoys then declared that they would never surrender a fragment of the French sovereignty.
Destructive march of the Black Prince. 1355.
Edward had no choice, therefore, but to renew the war. He now possessed two points whence an attack on France was easy; while he pushed out from Calais, the Black Prince was to lead an army from Bordeaux. As so often happened upon the northern frontier, the operations were without fruit; and the King was hastily recalled to England by the news that the Scots had surprised Berwick, and were over the Borders. The Black Prince’s expedition was more successful. He marched at the foot of the Pyrenees, and all through Languedoc to Narbonne, and to Carcassonne, plundering and burning in all directions, destroying in seven weeks more than five hundred towns or villages. Such brutal and destructive war had indeed become habitual to the English.
POITIERS.
September 19. 1356.
The Burnt Candlemas.