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CHAP. posted, and appear to form but one division, in a place which there is but one way of approaching, a road where not more than four may ride abreast. There are fences on either side, and these fences the enemy has lined with archers. At the summit of this road are posted their men-at-arms, with archers in front. They will be difficult to assail," concluded De Ribeaumont.

"And how should you advise us to attack?" asked the king.

"Sire, we should all descend from our horses," replied the knight, "except 300 of the hardiest and best mounted, who should advance first to break through the archers, and leave an opening by which the rest might follow to a hand-to-hand fight.'

The counsel of Ribeaumont was adopted. All the knights, except 300, were ordered to dismount, take off their spurs, and cut short their lances to five feet. Amidst these preparations for the combat appeared the Cardinal Talleyrand-Perigord, who craved the French prince to allow of a truce for the Sunday, that he might go backwards and forwards between the armies, and endeavour to bring about an accommodation. The king consented, and the cardinal spent Sunday bringing offers from one camp to the other. It was rumoured that the Black Prince offered to cede all the conquests, prisoners, and booty which he had made in this expedition, if he were allowed to retire free with his army to Bordeaux; and that, moreover, he consented not to serve against the King of France for seven years. But John, who saw that he was between the prince and Bordeaux, with a force ten times that of the English, would not consent to terms, unless the prince, with a hundred of his chief followers, should constitute themselves prisoners. The reply of the Black Prince was, that "England should never pay his ransom."

The French army was well furnished with provisions, whilst the English had but a very scanty allowance, and

their prospects were far from bright. "Still," said John Chandos, "I hope there will be a fight: for if we are beaten by such a multitude, we shall incur no blame; whereas, if we are victorious, we shall be the most glorious fellows in the world." The prince caused more ditches to be dug, and, to defend the passes between them, filled them with his cars. On the morning of the battle he sent 300 men-at-arms and 300 archers to take post behind a rising ground, in order to fall upon the French flank during the heat of battle.

The engagement commenced, as Ribeaumont had counselled, by the 300 chosen knights charging up the narrow road. This array was soon thrown into confusion by the arrows which poured in upon them from on either side, and when they reached the main body of the English, they were driven back with the loss of the two marshals who led them. The first of the French divisions was thus broken and compelled to fall back on the second, commanded by the Duke of Normandy, which, in consequence, began to waver. At this moment the 600 men whom the Black Prince had placed in ambush made their concerted charge, took the division of the Duke of Normandy in flank, and threw it into utter confusion. The main body of the English then advanced from their strong position, the Black Prince crying out, "Ride on, banner, in the name of God and St. George!" The Duke of Normandy and his two brothers did not stand the shock, but, taking with them 800 lances which had not yet been in the fight, fled from the field.

The Duke of Orleans had rallied the remains of his, the first division, behind that of the king, who, far from having any idea of retreat, called on his followers to dismount, and, although he saw before him the fugitives of his son's division give way, he still ordered his banner forward, to the cry of "God and St. Denys," and, with his hache d'armes in his hand, advanced to attack the prince. Had one fourth of the French, says

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CHAP. Froissart, done their duty as well as King John, they would have won the day. Many French nobles had, however, been slain; amongst them the Duke of Bourbon, the constable, Ribaumont, the Bishop of Chalons. The Count of Tancarville, James of Bourbon, John and Charles of Artois were struck down and taken close to the king. The monarch himself was hard pressed, but was unwilling to surrender except to the Prince of Wales. He was at last obliged to give his right gauntlet, in token of surrender, to Denis de Mortbecque, a knight of Artois, who promised to lead the monarch and his son Philip to the English prince. It was a difficult task, so many English and Gascons, in emulation, claiming the honour of the capture and the prisoner. John begged them to be courteous, "for, as a captive, he was rich enough to make all their fortunes." Fortunately, the Lords Warwick and Cobham, sent by the prince, arrived, and rescued the French king and his son from the press, bringing him to the tent of the Black Prince, who bowed himself before the captive monarch, received him as king, and ordered refreshments to be instantly offered him. Later, when supper was served up for the illustrious captives, the conqueror served them at table, and sought to do them all the honour and afford them all the consolation in his power.

The battle of Poitiers lasted from morn till noon; but it was night ere the conquerors retired from the pursuit, which was the more fatal as the town had shut its gates. Besides those who had perished, thirteen counts, nearly seventy barons, and 2000 knights were taken. The Earl of Warwick, who captured the Archbishop of Melun, had 8000l. for his ransom; on the other hand, Lord Berkeley, who had been saved by John de Helena, paid 6000 nobles. The Prince of Wales conducted his royal prisoners to Bordeaux. The king's capture was the most serious result of the victory, being an event so

new, a case so totally unprovided for, that the whole CHAP. country was struck at once with surprise and terror.

sources."

Froissart paints vividly the disastrous state of France when the king, who was its all, was led away captive. The monarch's sons were young and with "few re"The knights and nobles who had fled from the battlefield were so generally blamed and ill regarded, that they could scarcely venture into the good towns. The people murmured and communed one with another, whilst English and Navarrese from the Cotentin overran and ravaged the country."

The first act of Charles, Duke of Normandy, on reaching Paris from Poitiers, was to assume authority as lieutenant of the kingdom, as well as son of the king, and, in this capacity, to hasten the assembly of the States-General for the 15th of October. It was necessary, in the meantime, to provide for the safety of the city; and this was undertaken by Stephen Marcel, a draper, Prévost des Marchands, chief of the trading corporation. At his command, the more exposed gates of the city were closed up, the walls repaired, the buildings that masked these walls, many of them convents, destroyed, the ditches deepened and cleared out, and chains provided to stretch across the streets so as to arrest the progress of an invading enemy. A civic force, of a spirit and organisation calculated to support such measures, had been formed by the Estates of 1355, and the Duke of Normandy thus found his authority in the capital very different from what, as royal vicegerent, he might consider himself entitled to.

At the meeting of the three estates, the Commons found themselves in the majority. They were 400 out of 800. The nobles were too much prostrated by their late defeat the clergy were bewildered and in doubt: the townsfolk alone were eager for the defence of the country, and prepared to organise an administration. But an assembly of 800 could not undertake this, whilst

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CHAP. separate assemblies of either clergy or nobles were at the moment uninfluential and unequal to the emergency. Eighty members were therefore chosen of the 800, and these were dominated and guided by two leading spirits, the Provost Marcel, and Robert Lecoq, once an advocate and a functionary, now Bishop of Laon. They had no need of inventing any new mode of raising taxes. The estates of the preceding year had gone far enough in appointing a Commission of Nine to preside over the levying of the salt tax and other contributions. But the provincial towns had rebelled against the assumption of authority by the estates in which the Parisians dominated; and therefore Lecoq and Marcel were under the necessity of wielding power more directly under the royal sanction. They complained that the nobles and the king's councillors had nullified all their previous efforts for economy and reform, and that it was necessary to form another royal or grand council, by whose advice the prince should act, and through which the whole administration should be carried on: this council to be elected by the estates. Mr. H. Martin says with justice, these were the Provisions of Oxford, except that the nobles had nothing to do with them, and that it was an assumption, not merely of legislative, but administrative power by the citizens.

To carry such a change into effect, it was necessary to proscribe the old councillors; and accordingly the Assembly of Eighty proposed the arrest of the Chancellor, the Chief of the Mint, the King's Maître d'Hôtel, and the First President of Parlement, threatening at the same time inferior personages and departments. When the accused personages fled, the assembly ordered that their goods should be seized.

To these demands, so offensive to royalty, to the noblesse, to the legists and functionaries, and to all the upper and eminent classes, the Duke of Normandy refused to accede, so that the aide with which the