The Duke and Duchess of Normandy had still no son, but another daughter, the Princess Bonne, had been born to them.
The war with England had gone on all the winter, but in the spring of 1360 new proposals of peace were made, and this time accepted. By the treaty signed at Bretigny, May 8, 1360, King Edward renounced his claim to the crown of France, and also to the duchy of Normandy and all the inheritance of the Plantagenets north of the Loire. But the King of France ceded to him, no longer as fiefs, but in absolute sovereignty, Poitou, Aquitaine, with all the arrière-fiefs appertaining to it from the Loire to the Pyrenees, and a ransom of three millions of écus d’or, to be paid in sums of four hundred thousand écus annually.
Six English knights were sent to Paris by King Edward, in presence of whom the Dauphin was to swear to the treaty in the most solemn manner. Therefore, when Mass was sung, after the Agnus Dei, Charles, who was then in the Hôtel de Sens, came out of his oratory and took the oath before the altar. Then, from a window of the Hôtel de Sens, peace was proclaimed by a sergeant-at-arms, “the regent went to Notre-Dame de Paris to return thanks for the said peace, and then they chanted the Te Deum, and rang the bells very solemnly.”[32]
King Edward is said to have been induced to make peace by a frightful storm which overtook his army near Chartres, killing six thousand horses and a thousand cavaliers, amongst whom were the heirs of Warwick and Morley. Thinking that the anger of God was roused against him because of the misery and devastation he was causing, he vowed to put an end to the war.
All over the country the news spread that peace was signed, and in spite of the hard conditions there was a general burst of rejoicing. In the villages and towns church bells rang, thanksgivings were offered, and festivities of all kinds went on everywhere; except in some of the towns and provinces transferred to England, who declared that they might yield homage to the English with their lips, but in their hearts never.
To the Princess Isabelle de France the return of the King can have been no subject of congratulation. She was his third daughter, her sisters being the Queen of Navarre and Marie, afterwards Duchesse de Bar. The fourth sister had taken the veil at Poissy, and died the year after in early childhood (1352).
In the deplorable state of the country, it was most difficult to obtain the money required to pay the first instalment of the King’s ransom. Galeazzo Visconti, Vicomte et Prince de Milan,[33] offered to give 600,000 florins in exchange for the Princess Isabelle, whom he was anxious to marry to his son, Giovanni. The Visconti were amongst the richest and most powerful of the princes of Italy. They ruled over Milan and the greater part of Lombardy. The two brothers, Galeazzo and Bernabo, chiefs of the family, were stained with countless crimes and cruelties. Of Giovanni nothing could be said, as he was only ten years old. The Princess Isabelle was not quite twelve, but she seems to have had her own ideas, and she hated this Italian marriage. It was no use. The Visconti were eager for the alliance of the King of France, and willing to pay for the honour. King Jean wanted the money, and had been ready to sign the utterly ruinous treaty at first proposed and sacrifice France to gain his own liberty; so that he was not likely to hesitate. The French people did not like the marriage, and there was a murmuring all over the country against the King for selling his own blood. But the preparations were hurried on, and the Princess was sent to Italy before the end of that summer, with a splendid cortège.
Villani gives an account of the magnificence of the entertainments given in her honour at the palaces of Galeazzo and Bernabo in Milan. He says she arrived in regal state, splendidly dressed, and received the homage of all before her marriage, but after that, notwithstanding her royal blood, she did reverence to Galeazzo and Bernabo and their wives,[34] the former of whom was a Princess of Savoy.[35]
The splendid fêtes went on for three days and nights in the stately beautiful Italian palaces, which so far surpass those of other lands. Every day there were banquets, where at the chief table dined a thousand guests, princes, ambassadors, nobles and representatives of the citizens. There were jousts in the cortile or courtyard of the palace of Galeazzo, ladies looking on from the windows and loggie.[36] The last fête was given by Bernabo.
Meanwhile the King of France, whose freedom had been bought in exchange for his daughter, had been conducted by the Black Prince to Calais, in the castle of which a great supper was given in his honour by King Edward, whose sons, with the Duke of Lancaster and the chief barons of England, served bareheaded at the table, and after two days spent at Boulogne in religious ceremonies and festivities King Edward embarked for England, and Jean prepared to return to Paris.