The Black Prince in Aquitaine.
When the Black Prince had been created Duke of Aquitaine, the barons and
knights of that country were very anxious that he should come and live
amongst them, and they often entreated the King that he would allow him
to do so. The English Parliament also, seeing the large sums of money
which were necessary to keep up the magnificent establishments of the
King and his sons in England, represented to Edward that if the Black
Prince were to set up his court in Aquitaine, that rich and fertile
country would supply all his expenses. The Black Prince himself was
nothing loath to go there, and set to work to make the necessary
preparations for his journey. His wife was to accompany him, as well as
many English barons and knights, and he intended to establish his court
in Aquitaine with all the magnificence of an independent prince.
Aquitaine had been now for more than two hundred years in the hands of
the English, and some of the English kings had given a good deal of
attention to means for promoting the prosperity of the country. Edward
I. had begun a course of policy which, if it had been continued, might
have done much to strengthen the ties which bound Aquitaine to England.
He had founded many new towns, which he endowed with special privileges,
so as to induce inhabitants to flock to them. As these towns owned no
intermediate lord, and owed all their privileges to the English Crown,
the inhabitants naturally regarded the English rule with favour. Edward
I.'s towns were all built on a regular plan, and to this day are
sometimes called English towns. When founded, they were called
_Bastides_. They had two parallel streets at a short distance from one
another, connected by many short narrow lanes. In the middle of the town
was the market-place, in one corner of which stood the church. Here was
the market-hall, with a great weighing machine to weigh the merchandise;
here also was the well or fountain of the town. The houses round the
market-place, as was the custom in southern climates, were built on
arcades, which protected the merchants from the hot rays of the sun
whilst conducting their business. In fifty years, fifty of these towns
had been founded. Many of them were named after the English officers who
superintended their foundation. Charters were given them, and as they
were free towns and had no over-lord, they were regarded with great
jealousy by the other towns. Libourne was the most important and
flourishing of these Bastides, and excited the jealousy of Bordeaux
itself. Edward III. renewed its charters, and further allowed its
inhabitants to have free trade with England, releasing them from all
custom dues at Bordeaux.
At the death of Edward I. the English ceased to found Bastides; but they
carried on a policy likely to be equally successful in winning the
affections of the people. They annexed to the crown a large number of
towns, freeing them from their over-lords, and granting them charters.
This freedom from over-lords was what all the towns in the middle ages
were struggling to get. As the towns had grown up on land belonging to
some baron, they owed him, like other inferior vassals, certain dues and
money payments. They had no corporate and independent existence until
they could obtain a charter of liberties from their over-lord. The
struggle of towns to obtain charters was going on in all countries
during the course of the middle ages. As a rule the monarchs favoured
the towns, hoping thereby to get their support and aid in their own
struggles against the nobles.
Edward III. committed a mistake by departing from the policy of his
predecessors, and giving back many of the towns in Aquitaine to the
chief Gascon lords, who belonged to the English party. He was anxious by
this means to win the aid of the nobles in his wars against France, but
he forgot that if he wished to keep any permanent hold on the Duchy of
Aquitaine he must secure the affections of the people. The nobles were
ready to fight for any one who would give them wealth and sufficient
opportunities for plunder, and France might easily outbid Edward. The
people could only be won by a wise and liberal government. The towns
could not hope for much from Edward. They saw him disregard their
dearest wishes and interests, and give them back into the hands of their
over-lords.
Aquitaine must have presented a flourishing appearance when the Black
Prince arrived to take up his abode there. The rich and fertile country
was covered with vineyards, and the Bastides of Edward I., with their
regular streets and fine market-places, had increased into flourishing
towns. The wine trade with England was carried on very vigorously;
though here as in many other cases Edward III.'s over-busy legislation
was a hindrance rather than a benefit. At one time he would allow no
English merchants to go to Gascony to buy wine, but enacted that all the
wine must be brought to England by Gascon merchants. When complaints
were raised that large quantities of wine lay unsold in Aquitaine for
want of English buyers, he revoked his prohibition, but forbade the
English merchants to carry the wine to any other country but England.
The Black Prince drew most of his revenue from the duties on wine, so
that it was of no small importance to him that the trade should
flourish.
The Black Prince with his wife, the Princess Joan, and all his
followers, arrived at de Rochelle in the beginning of the year 1363.
Here they were met by Sir John Chandos, who had come from Niort to
receive them. He was followed by a large number of knights and squires,
who all greeted the Prince with great joy. They spent four days at
Rochelle in feastings and merriment, and then went to Poitiers, where
the prince received the homage of all the knights of Poitou and
Saintonge. Then he rode on to Bordeaux, and at every city on his way the
knights and barons crowded to do him homage.
At Bordeaux he and his wife established their court, and received all
the nobles of Aquitaine who came to pay him their respects. The court at
Bordeaux was very brilliant. The prince had his father's love for
feasting and fine clothes. Splendid merry-making was the fashion of the
age, and life at the Black Prince's court was a succession of revels and
tournaments. He was a right noble host, and knew how to make all around
him happy. "Never," says Chandos the Herald, "since the birth of Christ
was there such good and honourable entertainment. Every day at his table
he had more than eighty knights, and four times as many esquires. There
they made jousts and revels. Though all of them were subjects, yet were
they all free; for he made them quite welcome. All who were about his
person valued and loved him; for liberality was his staff, and nobleness
his director. Rightly might men say, that search the whole world you
could find no such prince." It is no wonder that the Gascon lords
crowded to this court. Even the greatest of them all, the Counts of Foix
and Armagnac, came to visit him, and they found that his court was as
splendid as that of the King of France himself.
But we must not let our eyes be dazzled by all this magnificence. To
meet the expenses of his court the Prince allowed the resources of the
country to be drained. Though we may admire his noble hospitality and
his princely courtesy to all comers, we cannot altogether consider him a
wise governor. His mind seems only to have been occupied with the desire
of making his court gay and pleasant, instead of furthering the true
interests of the people whom he was called upon to govern. Here again he
may be taken as a type of his age. We must not judge him by any standard
of our own, but by the standard of his days. But the time was fast
coming when it would be no longer possible for the rulers to forget the
interests of the people, when the people would at last succeed in making
their voice heard; and we shall see that at the end of his days the
Black Prince did not refuse to hear them.
In 1364 there were great rejoicings at the birth of the Prince's first
son Edward. This little Prince only lived to be seven years old: but in
1366 the Princess of Wales bore another son, called Richard of Bordeaux
from his birthplace, who ruled England as Richard II.
The Prince had not long set up his court at Bordeaux before it seemed
likely that peace would again be disturbed. In his new dominions he had
become the neighbour of Spain, and he was now called upon to interfere
in Spanish affairs.
Up to this time Spain had been of little importance in the general
affairs of Europe. The energies of its people had been entirely spent in
fighting one long crusade against their Moorish conquerors. The disunion
between the small Christian kingdoms long hindered their success against
the Moors. But in 1230 the Christian kingdoms of Castile and Leon were
united under one ruler, who, being wise and powerful, succeeded in
winning back a large territory from the Moslem. The Kings of Portugal
and Aragon had also been successful in the west and east of the
peninsula, and at last nothing was left of the Mahometan power in Spain
save the kingdom of Grenada.
It is easy to understand, that whilst the kingdoms of Spain were
disunited, and were engaged in this desperate struggle against the
Moors, on which their very existence as a nation depended, they had no
time to interfere in the affairs of Europe, and except for the connexion
of the Kings of Aragon with Naples and Sicily, remained almost entirely
outside European politics.
Now, however, things were more settled in Spain. It was divided into
five kingdoms, the four Christian kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, Portugal,
and Navarre, and the Mahometan kingdom of Grenada. Of these Castile was
the largest, and had, from its neighbourhood to the Duchy of Aquitaine,
been connected with the Kings of England. A daughter of Henry II. of
England had been married to the King of Castile, and Edward I. had
married Eleanor of Castile, who had known well how to gain the love and
veneration of the English people. As Dukes of Aquitaine, it was the
policy of the English Kings to be on friendly terms with the Kings of
Castile. Contending commercial interests had provoked discord from time
to time, as we have seen in speaking of the great sea fight of
Winchelsea, when Edward III. defeated the fleet of the maritime cities
of Biscay; but this was in no way a quarrel between the two monarchs,
and their friendly relations remained unchanged.
So it happened that when the King of Castile, Don Pedro, was chased from
his throne on account of his cruelty and tyranny, he turned naturally to
the Black Prince, hoping to find in him a friend. He had been engaged to
marry the Prince's sister, the Princess Joan, who had died of the plague
at Bordeaux on her way to Spain. He called himself therefore the
Prince's brother-in-law, and considered that he had a claim to the
Prince's friendship.
This Don Pedro was cruel and wicked, and by his tyranny had gained the
hatred of his subjects. He had caused many of the proudest Spanish
nobles to be secretly assassinated or executed for some pretended
crime, and had even caused the death of his own wife, who was a French
Princess. Moreover, he was regarded with abhorrence by the Pope, because
he oppressed the Church, and lived on friendly terms with the Moorish
King of Grenada. The Pope therefore legitimatised his bastard brother,
Henry of Trastamare, a bold and valiant knight, and encouraged him to
wrest the kingdom from Don Pedro.
Henry had special reasons to hate Don Pedro; for one of the tyrant's
first victims had been Henry's mother, Leonora de Guzman; and it was
only with difficulty that Henry himself, and his brother Don Tello, had
escaped from Pedro's hands, when he seized and executed the other
members of their family.
Neither was it difficult for Henry of Trastamare to find friends and
supporters. Within his own dominions Pedro had no friends; and in
Charles V., who had been King of France since the death of his father
King John, Henry found a ready ally.
Charles had various reasons for animosity to Pedro. He resented bitterly
the murder of his kinswoman, Pedro's queen, and saw in Pedro an ally of
England. Charles V. was a wise and cautious man. Though he writhed under
the burdensome obligations of the peace of Bretigny, he felt that he was
not yet strong enough to reopen the war with England. Now he hoped that,
by aiding Henry of Trastamare, he might strike a blow at the English
power through their ally.
Another important reason influenced him in this direction. France, as we
have seen, was devastated by the Free Companies, who were daily growing
more powerful. The Pope at Avignon trembled before them, and it was
equally important to both Charles V. and the Pope to get rid of them.
The two therefore joined together in hiring these companies to aid
Henry. A treaty was concluded with the leaders of the companies, who
were only too glad to engage on a military expedition in which they
might hope for plenteous spoils. The French general, Bertrand Du
Guesclin, whose fame had grown in the Breton war, was ransomed from
captivity in Britany, that he might lead the Free Companies into Spain.
Amongst the chiefs of the companies were many English and Gascons, who
went in spite of Edward III.'s commands to the contrary. They marched
over the Pyrenees into Spain, and were met at Barcelona by Henry of
Trastamare.
There was no one found to take up the cause of the hated Pedro, who lost
his throne without a battle, and was obliged to fly, with his two
daughters, to the fortress of Corunna, and then to Bayonne. Thence he
sent letters to the Black Prince, asking for his protection and aid.
We may be surprised that the Black Prince listened for a moment to the
entreaties of a man whose own crimes had lost him his throne, and whose
wickedness drew on him universal abhorrence. But, on the other hand,
there were many things which recommended Pedro to his pity. He was the
ally of England, and as a helpless fugitive asked for aid; it was always
the part of a true knight to succour the distressed. Again, there was a
very strong feeling in favour of the legitimate sovereign, however great
his crimes might be; and we cannot wonder at one ruler feeling sympathy
for the misfortunes of another. The whole situation appealed strongly to
the chivalric spirit of the Prince. As a Christian knight, it was his
duty, without any further thought of policy, to receive the fugitive
hospitably, and help him to win back his rightful inheritance.
Some motives of policy also came in to influence him. Should an ally of
France be placed on the throne of Castile, the Black Prince would be
awkwardly placed in Aquitaine, with a declared enemy on one side, and a
probable enemy on the other. Possibly also he indulged in some hope that
he might get substantial advantages from aiding Pedro, and that he might
even be able to annex the maritime province of Biscaya, with all its
thriving commercial cities, whose spirit of enterprise led them to
compete even with England herself.
Still the policy which could lead the Black Prince to help Pedro was not
very far-sighted. He might have seen that it would be impossible to
establish firmly on the throne a ruler so much hated as was Pedro. In
the end the opposite party must triumph, and then he would find that he
had embittered them against himself by helping their enemy. His wisest
course would have been to do all in his power to secure the friendship
of Henry of Trastamare; but this was opposed to all his feelings of what
was due to an ally in distress.
On receiving Don Pedro's letters, the Black Prince immediately sent for
Sir John Chandos and Sir William Felton, his chief advisers, and said to
them, smiling, "My lords, here is great news from Spain." He then told
them what he had heard, and begged them to tell him frankly what they
thought he ought to do. They advised him to send a body of soldiers to
bring Don Pedro safely to Bayonne, that they might learn his condition
from his own mouth. Their advice pleased the Prince, and he sent Sir
William Felton and a number of other knights to fetch Don Pedro. They
met him at Bayonne, and treating him with the utmost honour, brought him
to Bordeaux.
The Prince rode out of the town at the head of his knights to meet the
fugitive king. He greeted him respectfully, and led him into the city
with great courtesy. An apartment had been prepared for him, and in all
things he was treated with the honour due to a reigning sovereign.
Feasts and tournaments were held, and everything was done which could
make him forget his miserable condition. Don Pedro on his side did all
he could to attach the Prince to his interests. He had nothing but
promises to give, and of these he was most liberal, promising rich gifts
of money and lands to the Prince, and all his knights, if they would
help his cause.
There were not wanting wise men amongst the Prince's counsellors to
dissuade him from giving Don Pedro any help. They spoke to him of his
secure and prosperous condition, telling him that he could want for
nothing more, and that to try for more might endanger what he already
possessed. They showed him the unworthiness of Pedro, how he was an
enemy to religion, had oppressed his subjects, and was hated by all men.
But all this made no impression on the Prince. He could not shut his
eyes to Don Pedro's distress, nor forget that he had come as a fugitive
to ask his help. Before deciding upon anything, however, he assembled a
great council of all the barons of his duchy to ask their advice. Many
of the council were eager for the enterprise, as knights in those days
longed for anything which might win them honour. They agreed, however,
to send ambassadors to England, to ask the advice of the King.
When the answer came back, it appeared that Edward III. and his council
were clearly of the same opinion as the Prince. They advised him to aid
Don Pedro with all the force at his command. The expedition was
determined upon; but next arose the question of payment. The barons of
Aquitaine were not willing to engage in this enterprise at their own
expense. Don Pedro assured the Prince that there need be no difficulty
on this head; once restored to the throne of Castile, he would have
abundant treasure at his command, and would pay all the expenses of the
war. The Black Prince put such trust in his word, that he made himself
answerable for the expenses of the war, believing that Pedro would not
fail to pay him. Chandos and Felton, however, advised the Prince to melt
down some of his plate, of which he possessed an enormous quantity, for
immediate expenses. Swords and coats of mail were forged at Bordeaux in
preparation for the expedition.
Letters were sent to the leaders of the English Free Companies, who had
accompanied Henry of Trastamare into Spain, bidding them return and aid
in this expedition. It was a matter of perfect indifference to these
companies for whom they fought, provided they had pay and booty enough.
Though they had helped Henry of Trastamare to the throne, they were
quite willing to serve under the banner of the Black Prince, and to pull
down in turn the king whom they had set up.
It was necessary to obtain permission from the King of Navarre to pass
through his dominions, which lay between Aquitaine and Castile. Charles
the Bad had pledged himself to Henry of Trastamare not to let any troops
pass through his kingdom; but he was soon persuaded by the promise of a
large sum of money to break his word.