longer submit, and the peasants every where broke out into rebellion. They avowed their determination to exterminate every nobleman and gentleman, and they proceeded to execute their resolution with the sternest ferocity. The castles of their oppressors were stormed, their wives and children ruthlessly slaughtered, every noble who fell into their hands was tortured for their amusement, and in fine, every horror that could be expected from exasperated barbarians, was perpetrated. 7. This rebellion was called the Jacquerie, because, when the nobles plundered the peasants, they called in derision. any one that complained, Jacques bon homme (good man James), not remembering that an injury, sharpened by an insult, is never forgiven or forgotten. At length the nobles of every party combined to check this wide-spreading evil, in the suppression of which, England, France, and Navarre, were equally interested. The Jacquerie was suppressed, but the country was left a desert. 8. Marcel was doomed to experience the truth of the assertion, that popular favour is an uncertain support; being suspected of an intention to admit the English into Paris, he was murdered in a popular commotion, and the crowds, who an hour before followed shouting in his train, saw with indifference his body dragged through the streets and suspended from a gibbet. 9. The party of the king of Navarre declined after the death of Marcel, but that monarch was more enraged than discouraged at the event. He assembled a numerous army, and assisted by two of the Black Prince's most celebrated generals, the captal of Busche, and Robert Knowles, an English knight, advanced to the walls of Paris; he closely blockaded the city, which was badly supplied with provisions, and thus brought France to the very brink of ruin. 10. But at this moment, when destruction appeared inevitable, the king of Navarre suddenly offered the most favourable terms of peace to the dauphin, and after this unaccountable change of sentiment, quietly retired to his own dominions. A. D. 1360. 11. During all this time, a nominal truce continued between the French and English, though it was not much regarded by the commanders of independent companies, and negociations were in progress for concluding a treaty. The terms offered by Edward were sent over by the captive John to be submitted to the States-general, but they were so severe, that the assembly rejected them unanimously. 12. Edward, enraged at this refusal, prepared for a new invasion of France; passing over to Calais with a numerous army, he advanced through the country without meeting any resistance, and at length pitched his camp at Montlehery, within seven leagues of Paris. But nothing could induce the dauphin to risk a battle. the calamities of Crecy and Poictiers were too fresh in his memory, and he permitted sir Walter Manny and some other daring spirits, to ride with impunity to the very barriers of Paris, and reproach the chivalry of France with cowardice. 13. The legate of the pope in vain solicited Edward to listen to the terms of accommodation, but a dreadful storm, which was believed to be a token of divine anger, proved a more efficacious monitor; and Edward sent to the dauphin a friendly invitation to appoint commissioners for finally terminating these destructive wars. 14. Deputies from the different contending parties soon assembled at Bretigny, and as all were anxious for peace, the articles were settled within a week. It was agreed, that three million crowns of gold should be paid for the ransom of king John, one-third immediately, and the remainder secured by hostages; that Edward should retain Calais and all his conquests in Guienne, that he should resign his claim to the crown of France, and that the allies on both sides should not be molested for the share they had taken in these wars. 15. As soon as the treaty was signed, John was brought over to Calais, and permitted to return to his dominions after an absence of four years. 16. He did not, however, long enjoy his freedom; his two sons, whom he had given as hostages to the English, broke their parole, and as they refused to return, John considered himself bound in honour to go back to his prison. His friends in vain attempted to change his resolution, he declared that, "If honour and truth were banished from the rest of the world, they ought still to be found in the bosom of kings." John returned to his old residence at the palace of the Savoy, then outside the walls of London, and was received in the most friendly manner by EdA. D. ward. 17. While he was endeavouring to settle all 1364. remaining subjects of dispute with the English monarch, he was suddenly attacked by a disease which proved mortal in a few days. His remains were escorted to the seaside by a great number of the English nobility, and afterwards conveyed to the cemetery of Saint Denis, the usual burial-place of the French monarchs. 18. A little before his return to England, the duchy of Burgundy reverted to the crown by the failure of heirs; and John granted it as a fief to his son Philip, surnamed the Hardy, who had so bravely fought beside his father at the battle of Poictiers; Philip soon after married the heiress of Flanders, and thus acquired so much additional power and influence, that the house of Burgundy soon became formidable rivals of the royal family of France. Charles V. 8888 CHAPTER XVII. CHARLES V., SURNAMED THE WISE. Ill fated prince! on Creçy's glorious plain, Thou shouldst have fallen amid the heaps of slain; CROOK. 1. CHARLES had shown great talents for politics during the regency, and his accession to the throne was hailed with joy by his subjects, who hoped to obtain some respite from the calamities with which they had been hitherto afflicted. Though this king never appeared at the head of his armies, yet it was to his prudent arrangements that they owed their numerous victories. He was also so fortunate as to obtain a general, whose skill and valour made him almost fit to be a rival of the Black Prince; this was the celebrated Bertrand du Guesclin, a knight of Brittany, one of the brightest orna A. D. 1364. ments of chivalry. 2. The king of Navarre and the duke of Brittany, not having been included in the treaty of Bretigny, continued to maintain a desultory warfare; the former principally relied on the valour of the captal of Buche, whom we have before mentioned; but the captal being defeated and made prisoner by du Guesclin, Charles of Navarre found himself no longer able to maintain a war against the king of France. Du Guesclin was next sent to support the cause of de Blois in Brittany, where the count de Montfort, aided by the talents of the English general, lord Chandos, had recovered most of his paternal possessions. In this expedition du Guesclin was in his turn defeated and made prisoner; but Charles turned even this misfortune to advantage, for when he learned that de Blois was killed in the battle, he put an end to the war by acknowledging Montfort as duke of Brittany, provided that he would hold the duchy as a vassal of France. By thus availing himself equally of victory and defeat, Charles was enabled to make peace with the sovereigns of Navarre and Brittany, and to obtain an opportunity for consolidating the strength of his kingdom, previous to his intended plan of re-conquering the provinces which had been wrested from France by the English. 3. France, however, was still laid waste by other enemies; a great number of military adventurers, whose only trade was war, had formed themselves into troops under different leaders, and supported themselves by levying heavy contributions on those parts of the country which they thought fit to visit. These banditti, whom the English called free-companies, and the French malandrins, were too numerous and formidable to be subdued by force, when it was attempted by James de Bourbon, a prince of the royal blood; he was defeated with great loss, and the companies be- 1365. came in consequence worse than ever. 4. But a fortunate circumstance soon enabled Charles to get rid of these robbers, and at the same time to render an essential service to one of his most valuable allies. A. D. Peter I. king of Castile, surnamed the Cruel, on his accession to the throne, had treacherously murdered his father's mistress, and by similar tyrannical deeds, had provoked the hostility of all his subjects; Henry, count Transtamora, his natural brother, resolved to avenge the wrongs of his mother and his country. But not being able to compete with his brother unaided, he sought the assistance of the king of |