was received in London with the utmost enthusiasm. Four years, Peace made at however, elapsed before peace was concluded, and it Bretigny. was only after the English, under Edward, had suffered terrible hardships during an almost unresisted march to Paris, that Edward agreed to come to terms.

Terms of the

The treaty, which was called the Great Peace, was made at Bretigny in 1360. By it Edward agreed to give up his claim to the French crown, and to Normandy, Anjou, and Maine, treaty. i.e. to the possessions derived from Henry II. On the other hand, he was to have in full sovereignty the whole of the duchy of Aquitaine, which had come to England through Eleanor, the wife of Henry II., Ponthieu, which was the dowry of Margaret, second wife of Edward I., and his recent conquest, Calais.

By this arrangement Edward secured the advantage of extensive possessions in the wine-growing districts of the south of France, and entrance for his wool and his soldiers into the north, and a great accession to the glory of the

Results of the

war.

Scotland.

English name. In return for these advantages he gave up the empty dream of uniting the crowns of the two countries. The new possessions in the south were created into a principality, which was conferred on the Black Prince. At the same time a treaty was made with David, and both France and Scotland were bound over Treaty with to pay large ransoms for their captive kings. The Scots paid their instalments with difficulty, but it was found quite impossible to raise the stipulated sum in France; so John returned to England, and died during his residence in this country. The validity of the treaty of Bretigny depended on the mutual renunciation by the English and French kings of the claim to the crown and the suzerainty over the ceded provinces respectively. The formal ceremony was delayed by the lawyers, and in the end this delay was the cause of the renewal of hostilities.

Cause of fresh trouble.

While England and France had been at war, Spain had been convulsed by the cruelties of Pedro the Cruel, King

State of Spain. of Castile. His unpopularity was so great that his illegitimate brother, Henry of Trastamare, formed a plan to dethrone him, and called to his aid many of the professional soldiers who had been lately fighting for the French or English. He was successful,

and Pedro appealed for help to the English. The Black Prince, out of a false idea of the duty of princes to dethroned Interference of sovereigns, gave him his aid, and defeated Henry of the Black Trastamare in 1367 at Najara, near Vittoria, in Spain;

Prince.

but Pedro was unable to pay the expenses of the expedition, as he had promised, and the Prince, loaded with debt and smitten with disease, returned to Bordeaux. To pay his creditors, Edward levied taxes on his French subjects; this was resented, and the people of Aquitaine appealed to their superior lord, the King of France, who summoned Edward to answer for his conduct. This, of course, led to war.

Renewal of the war.

The second stage of the war opened with far less advantage to the English than the first. The enthusiasm of the nation had cooled, and men were less eager than before to offer themselves as soldiers. Besides, the French soldiers were very different from those who had fought at Bad prospects the beginning of the war. In a long war the feudal of the English. system always broke down, and then the French had to adopt the English plan of hiring soldiers. These men were well trained, and, we may take it, made as good soldiers as the English had; so they could no longer rely on winning against superior numbers as of old, and in any fight the chances are that the invaders will b outnumbered. Moreover, the French king, Charles V., was a very clever man, and had adopted as his motto that the French never ought to fight pitched battles with the English, but should content themselves with small skirmishes, cutting off supplies and stragglers, and harassing the invaders without bringing on a decisive engagement. Under these circumstances the renewal of the war was all in favour of the French, and they rapidly overran the English provinces, in spite of all the efforts of the Black Prince.

Loss of the command of

the sea.

The war began in 1369, and in 1372 the English suffered a disaster which made their case hopeless. Since the battle of Sluys they had had the command of the sea, but in 1372 they lost this advantage; for the Spaniards, who were now under Henry of Trastamare-for Pedro had been murdered-were on the side of the French, and in that year the Spanish fleet completely defeated the English under the Earl of Pembroke, near Rochelle. After this the French made way rapidly.

Defeat off
Rochelle.

An expedition under John of Gaunt lost almost all its men without bringing the French to action, and in 1374 only Calais, Bordeaux, and Bayonne remained in the hands of the English.

It is now time to return to English events. During the wars the Parliament had been very active; the continual demands for money Activity of gave it excellent opportunities for demanding redress Parliament. of grievances, and a great many statutes were passed, some bad, some good, which effected many changes in the state of the country.

Provisors.

Among others, two important laws regulating the Papal power were enacted. We saw how, in Henry III.'s time, the pope Statute of ~ had caused discontent by paying his servants with English livings. In 1351 was passed the Statute of Provisors, which ordered that all persons receiving such preferments from the pope were to be liable to imprisonment, and that the right of presentation should go for that turn to the king.

Statute of

We have also seen how jealous the English were of appeals being made to the Papal courts. In 1353 a statute was passed to prevent persons prosecuting suits in foreign courts without the Praemunire. king's leave. This law was called the Statute of Praemunire, from the words in the writ praemunire (a corruption of praemoneri facias, cause A. B. to be forewarned). Its penalties were forfeiture of goods and imprisonment during the king's pleasure. This statute was often renewed, and it was held a violation of it to receive letters from Rome without the king's consent, as had been forbidden by William the Conqueror. Another statute defined the meaning of treason. This term had been made very elastic by the lawyers, so it Treason. was a very good thing to have its meaning laid down. Its chief forms were levying war against the king, or plotting his death. This statute was passed in 1352.

Statute of

Private grants forbidden.

Edward had sometimes evaded the confirmation of the charters by getting the merchants to make a private grant of a duty on wool. This clearly infringed the rights of Parliament, and was forbidden by statute in 1362. Besides these Regulation of statutes, Parliament took a great deal of trouble to regulate trade, with a view to increasing the quantity of coin in the kingdom. It was long thought that the amount of

trade.

coin in a country was the true test of its wealth. This is now known to be a mistake.

Unpopularity of the pope.

During the latter part of Edward III.'s reign, a great deal of discontent was roused against the clergy. This took various forms. Some part of it was directed against the pope, who was now living at Avignon, on the Rhône; for the English hated paying money to him, when they feared that some of it found its way into the treasury of the King of France. The Statutes of Provisors and Praemunire were the outcome of this feeling.

And of the

'clergy.

The English clergy themselves were also very unpopular, and that for many reasons. For many years the way in which the clergy engrossed most of the offices of state had been much disliked; for the universities were now turning out plenty of laymen sufficiently well educated to perform the duties required, and who naturally objected to these posts being in the hands of a particular class. Complaints were also made from the country that bishops and priests neglected their dioceses and livings in order to go and seek lucrative places in London; while there was a general outcry against the wealth of the clergy, which was said to lead to all manner of corruption even in the most recently created orders. (For orders of regular clergy, see p. 187).

Rise of the
Lollards.

To reform these abuses, one party appeared who wished to drive the clergy from all secular offices, and another who wished to purge the Church of abuses and to restore it to the purity of primitive times. The latter were often called Lollards, a name which is frequently used to include reformers of all kinds. At the head of the former was John of Gaunt, at the head of the latter was John Wycliffe.

John of Gaunt was the third surviving son of Edward III., and when that king grew old, and the Black Prince was abroad of in feeble health, he aspired to be the leader of the government. His rival in the state was William of

John of

Gaunt.

Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, the founder of Winchester College and of New College, Oxford.

John Wycliffe, a Yorkshireman, was educated at Oxford, where he became master of Balliol College. He was strongly moved by the corruption he saw around him, and

John
Wycliffe.

at Oxford he did his best to train up a set of young priests who

should set an example of the duties of clergymen; he also translated the New Testament, and published in a popular style tracts which appealed to the intelligence of the common people. Wycliffe was not the only man to write against the clergy-the whole literature of the time is full of satire on the monks and friars; and Chaucer's Prologue to the "Canterbury Tales" gives us a very good idea of the feelings with which some of the orders were regarded. The disasters of the French war were naturally charged on the party in power, and in 1371 Parliament petitioned the king to dismiss all his clerical officers. This gave laymen. John of Gaunt an opportunity of appointing his own friends; but they proved worse administrators than the clergy they had displaced.

The clergy replaced by

The Good Parliament.

Impeachments.

A reaction, therefore, ensued, and in 1376 a Parliament was elected, under the influence of the Black Prince and William of Wykeham, which attacked the king's new advisers. Some of them were very corrupt, and had made friends with the king's mistress, Alice Perrers. Accordingly the Commons proceeded to impeach, that is, prosecute before the House of Lords, Lords Latimer and Neville. It was the first time that the Commons had attacked the king's ministers in this way. The persons impeached, and also Alice Perrers, were condemned and punished, and William of Wykeham came back to power. This Parliament is known as the Good Parliament.

Reaction on death of the Black Prince.

Unfortunately the Black Prince died in 1376, and many feared that John of Gaunt would try to set aside the little son of the Black Prince, and make himself king on Edward's death; but the Commons insisted that Richard should be recognized as heir-apparent. John of Gaunt then called another Parliament, which reversed the acts of its predecessor. To revenge himself on Wykeham, he also allied himself with Wycliffe, and defended him when he was sumking. moned by the bishops to appear before them at St. Paul's. These violent proceedings caused much discontent, and matters were in this position when the king died, in 1377.

Death of the