family. The Duke of Lancaster with the brave Sir John Chandos was before
Dinan, which town Bertrand, his brother Olivier, and the governor who had
defended Rennes, had hastened to enter before the enemy could invest it.
One day when all was quiet, Olivier Du Guesclin had gone out of the town
unarmed for the purpose of amusing himself in the open country, when he met
with an English knight, who asked him his name, and behaved in a very
haughty manner towards him, and made him walk on first, vowing that he
should not escape until he had given him a thousand good florins. A Breton
knight, however, who had seen Olivier made prisoner, hastened to tell Du
Guesclin what had happened. Bertrand instantly mounted his horse and rode
off to the English camp, where he found the Duke of Lancaster in his tent
playing at chess with Sir John Chandos, whilst several of the chief nobles
were standing around looking on. They were all glad to see Bertrand because
they had a great respect for his valour, and it is true that he had many
qualities which endeared him to his fellow-men, and gained for him
friendships which lasted as long as life.
Du Guesclin would not drink the wine they poured out for him until justice
had been done to his brother. Henry of Lancaster was an upright man, and
promised to settle the matter fairly. He summoned the offending knight to
his presence, and ordered him to release Olivier at once. But the knight,
who was called Thomas of Canterbury, would not allow that the complaint
made against him by Bertrand was just, and threw down his iron glove in
defiance. It was soon known in Dinan that a terrible combat would take
place between the two knights, and the people feared that Du Guesclin would
fall, because the Englishman was possessed of such extraordinary strength
and skill. But a very beautiful young lady of noble family in Dinan, named
Tiphaine de Raguenel, whom Bertrand married soon after the siege was
raised, predicted that he would triumph over his foe. Tiphaine was called
an astrologer, because she professed to foretell by observing the stars in
the heavens, whether people were to be prosperous in their lives or
unfortunate; happy or miserable. This was very foolish, and we know better
in our own times than to put faith in such a science; and even in Dinan,
when by chance Tiphaine's predictions came true, the people looked upon her
with distrust and called her a witch. The Duke of Lancaster with all his
nobles came into the town to witness the combat, which ended to the great
joy of the inhabitants of Dinan in the triumph of Bertrand, and the
offending knight was ordered by Lancaster to retire from his service.
The siege of Dinan was raised by our King Edward, who had King John of
France at this time a prisoner in the palace of the Savoy. Du Guesclin went
on fighting for Charles de Blois, until at last the younger Jean de
Montfort got weary of the war, and proposed to his rival that the Duchy of
Bretagne should be halved between them; and that Rennes should be the
capital of Charles's dominions, and Nantes the capital of his own. Charles
de Blois was a man who loved peace; he agreed solemnly to divide the duchy
as Jean had proposed, and would have kept faith with him, had not his wife
broken out into a violent passion as soon as she heard what he had done,
and overruled him by saying that she would never consent to so shameful a
settlement, and that she had married him to defend the whole of her duchy,
and not the half of it. The war must have broken out again at once if the
good offices of Lancaster had not effected a truce for a time.
When King John came back to France he invited Du Guesclin to enter his
service, and gave him the command of a hundred lances. Each lance, or
man-at-arms, was attended by three archers, a man armed with a cutlass, and
a page, so that a company of a hundred lances really included six hundred
men. Du Guesclin had the permission to form his troop of the gentlemen of
Bretagne, of whom many were his relations and friends; and with these he
set out hopefully to take part in a war which King John was carrying on in
Normandy against the wicked King of Navarre.
Bertrand did the king good service in Normandy, and captured the towns of
Mantes and Meulan. At the latter place he lost all patience with the
tardiness of the besiegers, and seizing a ladder, began to mount it with
his sword in his hand, and his shield on his breast. He was just mounting
the last steps and boasting to the Baron of Mereuil who was on the other
side of the wall, that he would soon make him feel the strength of his arm,
when the baron threw some heavy stones on the ladder, which dashed it to
pieces, and Bertrand fell with his head downwards into the ditch around the
city wall. The ditch was full of water, and Bertrand was taken out by his
comrades half dead, but he scarcely waited for his injuries to be healed,
before he began to fight with greater vigour than before, and a little
while later gained the battle of Cocherel over the Captal de Buche, who was
fighting for the King of Navarre, and took the Captal prisoner.
King John was now dead, and Charles the Wise was on the throne of France.
The victory at Cocherel had served to raise the spirits of the French, who
had been much cast down by their defeats during the two last sieges, and
the fame of Du Guesclin was spoken all over the country.
But the war unhappily broke out in Bretagne once more. Jean de Montfort,
angry with his rival for his breach of faith, came with his army to invest
the town of Auray. The people there were in great need and misery, and
lighted fires every night on the summits of their towers in token of their
distress. Charles de Blois set off at once to assist them in their danger,
but his wife at parting, charged him on no account whatever to agree to any
division of the duchy. Du Guesclin and many brave nobles and knights
hastened to join his army; and when they arrived in sight of Auray, De
Montfort sent a herald to them to propose peace on the terms that had
already been made, or to demand an immediate battle.
Charles de Blois, weakly dreading the anger of his wife if he gave way,
sent the herald back without an answer, although in his heart he was
longing more than ever to be at peace.
In the disastrous battle of Auray which began soon after, and lasted for
seven hours, Charles de Blois lost his life, the celebrated Oliver Du
Clisson an eye, and Du Guesclin his liberty. It was late in the day, and
Bertrand was left almost alone upon the battle field with the dead lying
around him; he had been thrown from his horse, and surrounded by his
enemies, but he had risen from the ground and defended himself
single-handed to the last. Now the blood was flowing from his wounds; his
sword was broken; the handle had been wrenched off his battle-axe, and Sir
John Chandos found him armed only with an iron hammer. It was useless for
him to resist longer, and when he had given up the broken piece of his
sword into the hands of the English knight, the battle was at an end.
Charles de Blois had fought that day like one in despair. With his last
breath he had said that he had long waged war against his conscience. And
thus the feud was ended which had lasted for nearly twenty years; Jean de
Montfort could have the whole duchy of Bretagne for himself, and the
unhappy widow of his rival had the sorrow of remembering that it was her
own pride and unbending spirit which had cost her the life of her husband.
The people of Bretagne were so tired of war that when, a little while
after, the treaty, which Jean de Montfort was making with Jeanne, could not
be settled, they assembled in a vast concourse and throwing themselves on
the ground, implored the Count to give them peace.
The King of France did not suffer Bertrand to remain a captive long. The
country was at that time infested by bands of lawless men of various
nations, who called themselves "Free Companies," and used to go about
laying waste the orchards and fields, sacking and burning the castles of
the nobility; and making war just as they pleased. The greater number of
these men were disbanded soldiers, whose services were no longer needed now
that the war was at an end.
Their power became very formidable when such men as Sir Hugh de Caverlay,
the Green Knight, Sir Matthew Gournay, and many others who were renowned
for their valour, joined them, and elected themselves their leaders.
The thought occurred to King Charles that Du Guesclin was the one man
capable of ridding his country of so terrible a scourge, and he hastened to
pay the hundred thousand francs which his enemies had required for his
ransom, and told him that if he would consent to drive the Free Companies
out of France, he might choose his own method of carrying out his purpose.
Du Guesclin went to the camp where the Free Lances were assembled, and, as
many of the leaders had already served under his banner, he found little
difficulty in persuading them to go with him into Spain on a crusade
against the Saracens, who still retained possession of a part of that
country. But a war had already broken out between Pedro the Second of Spain
and his half brother, Henry of Trastamare. Pedro had made himself hateful
to his subjects by repeated acts of tyranny, and worst of all had suffered
his wife, Blanche de Bourbon, to be cruelly murdered. This princess was
very amiable and lovely; she was sister to the Queen of France, and
granddaughter to the good Saint Louis, and Charles, indignant and sorrowful
at her unhappy fate, thought the services of Du Guesclin would be better
employed in driving Pedro from the throne than in making war on the
Saracens.
Bertrand was therefore ordered to hasten to the assistance of Henry of
Trastamare, and one day he collected all the Free Companies at a place
called Chalons sur Saone, and marched from thence southwards, to the great
delight of the French nation, taking Avignon on his way, where the Pope
then resided, instead of at Rome.
The companies went to Avignon to ask for absolution, because they had been
excommunicated, that is to say, cut off from all fellowship with the
church, on account of their lawless deeds. The Pope readily granted them
absolution, but he was not nearly so ready to give them a large sum of
money--which they asked for in addition to the 200,000 gold florins which
they had already received from Du Guesclin--and it was only after a long
delay, that he could be persuaded to give them any money at all.
The troops Du Guesclin led himself were called "The White Company," because
they all wore a white cross on their shoulder, as a sign that they meant to
abolish the religion of the Jews, which Pedro was supposed to favour. Pedro
was very much alarmed at the approach of so vast an army; he happened to be
engaged at the time in laying waste with fire and sword the lands belonging
to his brother, whilst Henry himself was hiding in a castle with his wife
and children, and for a long while could not be made to believe that the
French hero was really coming to his aid.
Du Guesclin soon enabled him, however, to gain possession of several
cities, and at a frontier town, called Maguelon Home, he took the title of
King. And when the people of Burgos (which was the Christian capital of
Spain at that time) heard of the approach of the White Company, they
brought the keys of the city, and laid them at the feet of Henry, and
joyfully acknowledged that he was King over Castille. Henry made a
triumphant entry into Burgos, with Bertrand, his deliverer, clad in
complete armour by his side; they went to the palace, where a great banquet
was served before them, with the richest viands, while the whole city was
one scene of rejoicing and merriment, and wine flowed in the streets like
water; the people were so glad to be freed from the tyranny of Pedro the
Second.
Bertrand having thus placed Henry of Trastamare on the throne, urged him to
send for his wife Jeanne, that they might both be crowned the same day. And
when the Queen was seen approaching the capital, Bertrand went out to meet
her, accompanied by the bravest of his knights. As soon as the Queen
perceived that it was Du Guesclin who was advancing towards her, she
alighted from her mule that she might render him the greater honour, and
turning to his whole company, she exclaimed, "Friends, and gentlemen, it
may truly be said that we hold the crown of Castille through you alone."
Henry and Jeanne were crowned at Burgos on Easter-day of the year 1366, and
the King, in gratitude for the services of Du Guesclin, gave him the Duchy
of Molina, and made him constable of Castille.
Pedro meanwhile was in great terror at the approach of his brother, and
kept himself concealed with his treasures in a forest a hundred leagues
long. One of his treasures was a table of pure gold, inlaid with jewels,
and engraven with the portraits of Charlemagne's twelve peerless knights.
Amongst the gems was a carbuncle, which is said to have had the peculiar
property of shining by night as brightly as the sun shines by day; and one
very dark night, when Pedro was outside the walls of a city, and beset with
dangers on every side, he was obliged to have his table fetched out from
among his treasures, that he might discover by its light the means of
escape. The stone may have possessed a singular brilliancy, but for the
fact of its shining as brightly as the sunlight, I cannot vouch. It was
said to have another strange property, that of changing colour and turning
black directly poison approached it.
The forest was near the town of Cardonna, where Pedro had taken refuge,
immediately after the great city of Toledo had surrendered to his brother.
Henry supposed him to be still in the town, and went in pursuit of him with
Du Guesclin, Hugh de Caverlay, Olivier de Mauny, and many other valiant
men. Their way between Toledo and Cardonna lay through the long forest,
which was full of wild beasts and snakes, and had neither villages nor
houses of any kind in its depths. They were in this wild tract seven days,
and lost many of their men there; some of them being devoured by the wild
beasts, and others dying from the bites of the snakes. When they got to
Cardonna they found, of course, that Pedro had fled, but they took
possession of the town.
Now that Henry had really been placed on the throne, Bertrand thought he
might carry out his original plan, and proceed to Granada, which was the
stronghold and capital of the Moors in Spain. The Queen, however, with
many tears implored him not to forsake her husband; she dreaded so much the
anger and cruelty of Pedro, when he should come out of his hiding-place.
And Pedro soon made himself dreaded once more, for he had found his way to
Guienne and entreated the Black Prince, who held his court in that
province, to protect him, and assist him with troops; and had offered him
his golden table, and part of his treasures as an equivalent for his aid;
promising him, besides, a large sum of money to defray the cost of an army.
The Black Prince, either out of compassion for the fallen King, or because
he did not like to see his rival in league with France, agreed to assist
him; and in the spring of the year 1367 crossed the province of Navarre
with Pedro, and a large army of Gascons, Normans, and English, and entered
Castille.
The fortunes of Henry already began to decline: several of the Companies
withdrew from his service, and enlisted themselves in preference under the
banner of the Black Prince. Du Guesclin urged the King not to risk a
decisive battle too soon, but he would not listen to him, and the two
armies met at Najara, on the right bank of the river Ebro. The watchword of
the Black Prince's army was "Guienne and St. George!" and that of King
Henry's, "Castille and St. James!"
The battle proved disastrous for the King of Castille, his cavalry were
forced to give way, and the rout becoming general he escaped from the field
with very few of his followers. When Bertrand saw the King's discomfiture,
he stationed himself against a wall, and with a battle-axe defended
himself so vigorously that several Englishmen were overthrown by him; and
at last his enemies dared not approach him, but only hurled at him their
daggers and swords. The Black Prince, hearing of this, desired to see him,
and went with his standard unfurled to the place where he stood. Bertrand
recognised the Prince, and kneeling on one knee before him said, "To you,
Sire, the Prince of Wales, I surrender myself and to no other; for I will
never be the captive of Pedro, e'en though I die in my defence!"
The Prince received the submission of Du Guesclin graciously, and confided
him to the keeping of the Captal de Buche, who in remembrance of his own
capture by Bertrand in the battle of Cocherel, told him kindly that he
might live with him at large, if he would give him his word not to escape.
Du Guesclin, much pleased with the confidence reposed in him, swore, like a
true knight, that he would rather die than break his word.
For six months he remained with the English army, and during that time had
no cause to complain of his treatment. But as soon as he arrived at
Bordeaux, where the Black Prince held his splendid Court, he was shut up in
the prison of Ha. One morning whilst he was there, three pilgrims, who had
arrived in Bordeaux the evening before, had gone to hear mass in the Church
of Notre Dame. One of these pilgrims was Henry of Trastamare, who had
disguised himself thus in the hope of journeying safely to the Duke of
Anjou, to entreat him to support his cause.
Several knights happened to be in the church, who had fought with Du
Guesclin in the battle of Najara; they began talking of their common
misfortunes, and Henry, taking one of them apart, asked news of Bertrand,
and learned with sorrow that the Black Prince had made a vow never to
ransom him or set him free. Henry went home with the knight to whom he had
spoken, and told him who he was, and persuaded him to procure him the means
of seeing Du Guesclin. So the knight concealed the King in his house, and
went to the prison of Ha, and told the gaoler that he was going to Bretagne
to seek for money to pay his ransom, and that he greatly desired to see Du
Guesclin before he started.
The gaoler did not admit him at once, but only hinted that such things were
not done without a bribe. The knight assured him that Du Guesclin was most
liberal, and would amply reward him if he would procure the interview. The
gaoler owned that he was so proud of his prisoner, that he hoped such a man
might never go out of his hands, and after a little more delay he conducted
the knight to Bertrand, who thought that his visitor had come to borrow
money, and was much surprised to hear that Henry of Trastamare was in
Bordeaux in the disguise of a pilgrim of St. James. He called the gaoler,
and told him that there was a poor pilgrim in the city, a native of
Bretagne, and one of his own vassals, whom he wished to assist with money
to enable him to complete his journey; and he begged him to take his seal
and go to a certain Italian jew in the city, and ask him for the sum of 400
florins. The gaoler fetched the money; Du Guesclin gave him a hundred
florins for himself, and by noon the King was admitted into the prison. A
more sumptuous dinner than was usually seen within its walls was served in
his honour, and they lingered over it, talking of their misfortunes and of
the King's project for seeking aid from the Duke of Anjou; Du Guesclin
would not, however, on any account suffer him to ask the duke to pay his
ransom. Whilst they were at dinner the gaoler began to feel the pricks of
his conscience, and he took his wife apart, and told her that he suspected
some treason was going on between the pilgrim and Du Guesclin against his
master the Black Prince, and that he must acquaint him with the whole
affair. The gaoler's wife whispered her husband's intentions to Bertrand,
and the brave knight, with a dexterity similar to that he had employed,
when as a boy he freed himself from the dungeon of La Motte, did not suffer
his keeper to pass through the prison wicket, but dealt him so heavy a blow
with a stick that the poor man fell on his knees: then taking the keys from
his pocket, he opened the door to Henry, who quickly disappeared with his
two companions and the knight who had accompanied him thus far. Bertrand
closed the door upon them, and keeping the keys, came back to the gaoler
and, after giving him a good beating, shut him up in a room by himself, as
a warning that the transaction was not to be breathed beyond the prison
walls.
The Duke of Anjou assisted Henry, and enabled him to enter Burgos a second
time, whilst Pedro was obliged to fly from the throne he had re-ascended
after the battle of Najara. Many of the knights who had been taken
prisoners in that contest were now ransomed, but Du Guesclin, "the scourge
of the English," as he was called, was deemed too formidable an enemy to
be set at large; and he might have remained in prison until his dying day,
had not some of the English nobles, who held his qualities in high esteem,
remonstrated with their prince in his favour, and taunted him by saying
that he only retained his prisoner through fear.
The Black Prince at last resolved to have an interview with his captive,
and Du Guesclin, overjoyed at the prospect of obtaining his release, rose
hastily at the prince's summons, and appeared before him in the soiled and
coarse grey robe he wore in his prison, but which could not detract from
the dignity of his bearing. He told the prince that he was indeed weary of
his long confinement; "I have listened to the rats and mice long enough,"
he said, "and I would fain go where I can hear the birds sing once more."
The prince told him that he would set him free that very day without a
ransom, if he would swear never again to bear arms against him for France;
or against Pedro for Henry. These conditions Bertrand of course could not
accept, and before the interview was ended he had spoken with so much
honesty and candour, that the Black Prince could not but own the
righteousness of his cause, and requested him to name his own ransom.
Bertrand fixed it at 100,000 gold florins, and when the prince asked him
why he named so large a sum, he declared his ransom should not be less than
70,000 florins, adding that although he was a poor knight, the Kings of
France and Castille would assuredly pay that sum for him; and that if they
did not that the Breton women would spin till they had gained the money for
him.
He was now set at liberty on condition of obtaining his ransom. The people
of Bordeaux flocked to see him when he came out of his prison, and the
Princess of Wales, Joanna the Fair, journeyed expressly from Angouleme to
Bordeaux that she might have the honour of entertaining him at a banquet,
and presented him besides with 10,000 francs towards his ransom. Sir John
Chandos and Hugh de Caverlay helped also to raise the sum required. Chandos
was always his friend, although he fought on the opposite side; and it may
be that these brave men esteemed one another the more for clinging to what
each one believed to be the right.
Du Guesclin had hardly gone a league on his way homewards when he met a
poor knight who was returning to his prison in Bordeaux on foot, in a very
forlorn condition, because he was unable to pay his ransom. Bertrand not
only gave him the money to pay it, but also enough to set him up in arms.
The knight told him that the Duke of Anjou was then besieging the town of
Tarascon. Bertrand was bound in honour not to fight; but he could not
resist going to Tarascon, to aid the duke with his advice, and made the
besieged tremble at the very sound of his name. And there he was in the
midst of all the danger, and the clashing of weapons, mounted on his horse,
but with a peeled rod in his hand, instead of a sword, for his oath's sake!
When he reached his own estate in Bretagne, he begged his wife to give him
her jewels, and all the valuable things she possessed; but she told him
that a number of poor knights and squires, all taken at Najara, had come
to her in great distress, and that she had given them all she could find in
the castle. Bertrand was very glad that his wife had been so kind to the
poor men, and had not sent them away empty handed. The sum for his ransom
was raised amongst his relations and friends, and he had set out for
Bordeaux, when he met ten poor knights, whose ransoms he could not resist
paying; preferring to remain a captive himself rather than to know that so
many others were languishing in prison, away from their homes, and all whom
they loved.
When the Black Prince heard of Bertrand's generosity, he did not shut him
up in a dungeon again, but let him go about the city as he pleased on his
word of honour that he would not escape. A day came when mules were seen
approaching Bordeaux loaded with 70,000 good gold florins which the kings
of France and Castille and the Duke of Anjou had sent to purchase his
liberty.