[589] Sir Thomas Norwich.
[590] Limoges, besieged by the duke of Berry and the great French general, Bertrand du Guesclin, had just been forced to surrender. It was a very important town and its capture was the occasion of much elation among the French. Treaties were entered into between the duke of Berry on the one hand and the bishop and citizens of Limoges on the other, whereby the inhabitants recognized the sovereignty of the French king. It was the news of this surrender that so angered the Black Prince.
[591] A force of 3,200 men was led by the Black Prince from the town of Cognac to undertake the siege of Limoges. Froissart here enumerates a large number of notable knights who went with the expedition.
[592] The Limousin was a district in south central France, southeast of Poitou.
[593] Limoges was now in the hands of three commanders representing the French king. Their names were John de Villemur, Hugh de la Roche, and Roger de Beaufort.
[594] Here follows a minute enumeration of the districts, towns, and castles conceded to the English. The most important were Poitou, Limousin, Rouergne, and Saintonge in the south, and Calais, Guines, and Ponthieu in the north.
[595] That is, King John II. and the regent Charles.
[596] The enormous ransom thus specified for King John was never paid. The three million gold crowns would have a purchasing power of perhaps forty or forty-five million dollars to-day. On the strength of the treaty provision John was immediately released from captivity. With curious disregard of the bad conditions prevailing in France as the result of foreign and civil war he began preparations for a crusade, which, however, he was soon forced to abandon. In 1364, attracted by the gayety of English life as contrasted with the wretchedness and gloom of his impoverished subjects, he went voluntarily to England, where he died before the festivities in honor of his coming were completed.
[597] Throughout the Hundred Years' War the English had maintained close relations with the Flemish enemies of France, just as France, in defiance of English opposition, had kept up her traditional friendship with Scotland. The treaty of Bretigny provided for a mutual reshaping of foreign policy, to the end that these obstacles to peace might be removed.
[598] That is, the death of King Charles VI.