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Source Documents Relating to the Wars of Edward III
The Siege of Berwick, 1333. [Source: Thomas of Burton, Chronica Monasterii de Melsa, ed. E. A. Bond (London: Rolls Series, 1866-8), 2:367-9. Original in Latin.] This description of the events following Balliolês expulsion from Scotland is taken from the Latin chronicle of Meaux Abbey, the earlier sections of which were composed by Thomas of Burton in the 1380s and 1390s. Although it is, thus, rather distant in time from the events in question, it includes one of the best and most detailed accounts of the siege of Berwick in 1333, apparently based on a lost Cistercian chronicle ending in 1334. Edward Balliol therefore returned into England and anxiously begged for aid from Edward, King of England, promising him his homage and certain lands in Scotland if he would assist him in this hour of need. At this, Edward King of England granted him the right to pass through his territory into Scotland, and gave license to anyone willing to enter into his land along with him. Certain magnates, and many others, around 10,000 Englishmen, therefore entered into Scotland, and, after doing much damage to the Scots, reaching Berwick on the twelfth day of March, they opened the siege of that city, making a firm pact among themselves that none would withdraw from there until the besieged town and castle either were surrendered, or were victoriously seized. Then they closed off all the entrances and exits of the town with ditches, and laid siege to it by land and sea everywhere.... Meanwhile, Archibald Douglas entered England with 3,000 Scots, and set fire to the entire country of Gilsland, that is to say for fifteen miles in length and six in breadth, even to the churches; and they began to lay waste to the countryside everywhere, believing that in this way they would break the siege of Berwick; but they did not succeed. At this time, Anthony Lucy and William of Lochmaben along with 800 Englishmen and Scots rode twenty miles into Scotland, pillaging the country. On their way they met William Douglas, returning along with his Scots. At the end of a long, vigorous struggle, William Douglas, William Bard, and a hundred others were captured, and Humphrey de Bosco and Humphrey Gardiner, knights, along with another 160, were slain, the remainder fleeing. Meanwhile the English pillaged the goods at the Haddington fair, and killed the Scots they found there. When reports of Archibald Douglasê invasion of England were sent to Edward, King of England, he gathered his army and set out to defend the northern parts of his realm from the irruption of the Scots. Coming therefore to the siege of Berwick on the ninth of May, he ordered the construction of siege engines, and made a fierce assault on the town by land and water. But the besieged resisted manfully. The English of his army therefore dug a ditch all around the town, at the bottom of which they discovered four conduits which provided the town with fresh water. Breaking these, they entirely cut off the townês fresh water. Then they cast fire into the town, and burned a large part of it. In addition, the continuing assaults so exhausted the defenders, that, in exchange for a temporary truce, they promised to hand over to the King of England, Edward, twelve of the most noble among the besieged of the castle and the town; and they made a pact that, unless they were rescued by the magnates of Scotland or someone else before a certain fixed day, they would immediately on that day surrender the castle and town to the King of England, saving the lives, limbs, lands, tenements and goods, mobile and immobile, of all the besieged people. A Scottish Relief Attempt. [Source: Sir Thomas Gray, Scalacronica, ed. Joseph Stevenson. (Edinburgh: Maitland Club, 1836.), 162-3. Original in Anglo-Norman French.] From here the narrative is taken up by the Scalacronica, an Anglo-Norman chronicle begun by the border knight Sir Thomas Gray during a spell in captivity in Scotland in the mid-1350s. The descriptions of warfare in the Scalacronica are particularly valuable because its author was himself an active soldier. Before the set time was up, all the forces of Scotland -- an amazingly great multitude of people -- crossed the river Twede at dawn one day at Yair Ford, and presented themselves in front of Berwick on the other side of the Twede, towards England, in plain view of the King and his army; and they sent men and supplies into the town, and remained there all the day and the night, and late on the morrow decamped and moved off through the country of Northumberland, burning and destroying the land in plain view of the English army. These people having thus departed, the Council of the King demanded the surrender of the town according to the conditions of the pact, the term of their rescue having passed by. Those inside the town said that they had been relieved, both with men and with supplies, and presented the new guardians of the town, and the knights who had entered the town from their army, of whom William Keith was one, along with others. And the said Council [of the King of England] was of the opinion that they had forfeited their hostages; so they had the son of Alexander Seton, the guardian of the town, hanged. When this hostage had thus been put to death, the others in the town, out of tenderness towards their children, who were hostages, renewed the surrender agreement by the assent of the knights who had come in from the army, who were of the opinion that their forces of Scotland exceeded the army of the King of England. So new conditions were agreed... A Treaty for the Surrender of Berwick. [Source: Foedera, II:2:864. Original in Old French.] The type of treaty mentioned in both the passages above, in which a hard-pressed garrison agreed to surrender by a certain fixed date unless rescued by a relieving army, was a regular element of medieval warfare. Although many such agreements were made, it is likely that few of them were put into writing, and fewer still survive. Thus, the treaty made between Edward III and the defenders of Berwick in 1333 is an almost unique document. The full text is substantially more elaborate even than the excerpt given here. This indenture bears witness that the noble prince the King of England has granted a truce, by land and by sea, to last until sunrise on Tuesday [20 July], the upcoming day of Saint Margaret the Virgin, in the year of Grace 1333, to the noble man, Sir Patrick of Dunbar, Earl of March, and to all those of the castle and town of Berwick-upon-Tweed who in any way are dependent on him, as follows: So that the said Earl [of March], and all the aforesaid people, shall keep their lives and limbs, and they shall keep heritably all their lands, tenements, rents, fisheries, offices, fiefs, and possessions, whether purchased or inherited, of which they had possession the day that this accord was made, inside and outside of the said castle and town of Berwick, without other rights being denied, [except] through the laws of Scotland; And that they will not be cast out in any way, except only by process of the common law of Scotland; nor denied any seisin or possession held, before the said day, by anyone whomsoever, in the time of any King of England or Scotland, with all their goods, castles, chalices, money, clothes, horses, armor, prisoners, and all other manner of goods, moveables and otherwise, spiritual as well as temporal, in England as well as in Scotland, and with all their franchises, usages, laws, and customs, as held and practiced in the time of King Alexander, entirely, quit, and freely, without being imprisoned or otherwise troubled.... And the said King of England has given double safe conduct to Sir William Keith, warden of the town of Berwick, to go to the Warden of Scotland, and to return.... And neither the King of England, nor any of his adherents, nor Sir Edward Balliol, nor any of his adherents, will do any harm to the said Earl, nor his aforesaid people, nor to anything of theirs, inside or outside; nor will they approach their walls, nor their ditch, nor, without special leave by a person so empowered, will they enter inside their boundaries; And the said Earl and his men shall, without fraud, maintain their defenses, which have been begun inside the castle, their walls, ditches, breastworks, and engines, in exactly the same state as they were on the day this agreement was made; and that they will not resupply the said castle with food, armor, or other items. And if the castle should be rescued by the forces of Scotland...between now and the evening of Monday before the aforesaid Tuesday, by means of battle... or if a battalion including two hundred men-at-arms enters into the town of Berwick by day, that is to day between sunrise and sunset; then the castle shall be considered rescued, and the hostages... shall be surrendered to the said Earl on the said Tuesday at sunrise, without any longer delay or contradiction by anyone;... And if the said castle is not rescued either by battle or by the entry of the said two hundred men-at-arms between now and the said Monday evening, the castle shall be surrendered to the said King of England on the said Tuesday at sunrise, without any longer delay or contradiction by anyone; in such a way that some magnates of the Council of the King of England shall receive the said castle, and protect the people in good faith, without oppression, injustice, or harm, so that they are kept safe in their persons and goods.... The Scots Try to Break the Siege of Berwick. [Source: Thomas of Burton, Chronica Monasterii de Melsa, ed. E. A. Bond (London: Rolls Series, 1866-8), 2:369. Original in Latin.] We return to the narrative of the Meaux chronicle. Now a certain Archibald, the Warden of Scotland, collected an army of 90,000 fighters. Divided into four parts, they came into England to the town of Twedesmouth, on the other side of the river Twede, sending word to the King of England that, if he would not lift the siege, they would destroy the greater part of England. To this Edward King of England responded that he would never lift the siege until the town had surrendered to him, or else fell by assault to his men. And so the Scots moved on, turning the town of Twedesmouth into ashes, destroying the adjacent land all around, burning towns, slaughtering people, and perpetrating all the evils they could. In addition they besieged the castle of Bamburgh, where Queen Philippa of England was then staying, in order that they might thus perhaps dissolve the siege of Berwick. The Scots Decide to Fight. [Source: Andrew of Wyntoun, Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland, ed. David Laing (Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas [Historians of Scotland series, vols. II, III, IX], 1872-79), 399-401. Original in Middle English] But those within Berwick soon sent to them, and told them that they could fight, for they were more numerous [than the English], and also seemed to be superior troops. Having faith in that representation, they then went to the park of Duns, and lay there all that night, thinking to meet their foes in the morning, expecting the town to provide some help.... They made their way from Duns Park to Halidon, where they could well see the town, and their foes also, and their encampment. They saw them ready for the fight; on St. Margaret the Virginês day [20 July] they were all arrayed to fight. The Scotsmen arrayed themselves soundly, and advanced against them in open battle. But they had not considered the terrain: for there was a large, marshy creek bed between them, with steep rising ground on either side. They came together at that large valley, where they first had to go down the declivity, then climb up to their enemies up a slope where a single man might defeat three; but that they could not see beforehand. An English Account of the Battle of Halidon Hill. [Source: British Library, London. Cottonian MSS, Cleopatra D III, fo. 182v.] [An early redaction of the French Brut dêEngleterre.] The English minstrels sounded their drums, trumpets and pipes; and the Scots gave their hideous war-cry. Each division of the English army had two wings of good archers, who when the armies came into contact shot arrows as thickly as the rays in sunlight, hitting the Scots in such a way that they struck them down by the thousands; and they began to flee from the English in order to save their lives. But when the servants who were in the rear saw such a defeat, they pricked the horses of their masters with spurs in order to save themselves from peril, leaving their masters cold. With this the English mounted their horses and spurred them, and as they overtook the Scots they struck them right down, dead. There could one see the valiant and noble King Edward of England and his men: how vigorously they chased the Scots! There could one see many good men of Scotland dead and returned to the earth, their banners displayed on the ground, hacked to pieces, and many a good haubergion bathed in their blood. Many times they rallied in diverse companies, but always they were defeated. And thus it came about, as God willed, that the Scots on that day had no more numerical superiority against the English than twenty sheep would have against five wolves. Edward Seeks Additional Subsidies from Parliament, 1340. [Source: Rotuli Parliamentorum, 112-113.] After the end of the Cambrésis campaign, Edward III returned to England to raise funds to enable him to continue the war, especially needed since he had promised the Flemings £140,000 in subsidies, on top of his earlier commitments. As usual when he needed large quantities of money, it was to parliament that he turned. The petitions mentioned at the end of the document, which the King did grant, included a number of very important provisions. Among other things, the King effectively gave up his right to impose taxes within his demesne lands [i.e. the royal estates and boroughs] without parliamentary assent, and agreed to permit a parliamentary audit of collection and disbursement of the last subsidy granted. On the constitutional significance of these proceedings, see the article by G.L. Harriss, reprinted in Wars of Edward III. On that day [29 May 1340] the causes of the summoning of the parliament were presented, first of all to the Prelates, i.e. the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of Lincoln, Durham, Chester, London, Salisbury, Ely, Chichester, Norwich, and Carlisle, and to the Earls of Derby, Northampton, Warenne, Warwick, Arundel, Huntingdon, and Angus, and to the Lords Wake and Willoughby, Baron Stafford, Sir Ralph Basset, and other great men; and then the same was done for the great men and commons of the land in general, in the following manner: That is, how our Lord the King needed to be assisted by a great Aid, or he would be eternally dishonored, and his lands on both sides of the sea would be in great peril; for he would lose his allies, and along with all of that it would be necessary for him to return personally to Brussels, and remain there as a prisoner, until the sums for which he was obligated should be fully paid. If, however, he were granted the Aid, all these ills would disappear, and the enterprise which he had undertaken would be brought, with the aid of God, to a good conclusion, and thus there would be peace and calm everywhere. And the prelates, earls, barons, knights of the shires, citizens and burghers of the cities and burghs were asked if they would consult among themselves between that day, Saturday, and the following Monday, and grant a suitable Aid, by which the King could be sufficiently assisted, and his business successfully completed, on both sides of the Channel. To these requests the said prelates, earls, and barons, for themselves and for all their tenants, and the knights of the shires, for themselves and for the commons of the land, considering on the one hand the evils and perils which might come if, God forbid, the Aid should fail, and on the other hand the honor, profit, and peace which, with Godês help, might come to the King and to the whole nation of England, should he be aided, did on that Monday grant to our Lord the King, for the reasons stated above, the following Aid: [every] ninth sheaf, ninth fleece, and ninth lamb, out of all their sheaves, fleeces, and lambs, from that point for the two years following. And the citizens and burghers of the realm [granted] a true ninth of their goods; and the merchants who do not reside in cities or burghs, and other men who dwell in forests and wastelands, and who do not live either by their wages or by their flocks of sheep, granted a fifteenth of their goods, according to the true value. This was granted under the condition, that our Lord the King, in his good grace, considering the great burden and subsidies with which they had already before now been loaded, and that this grant which was now being made seemed very burdensome to them, should grant the petitions which they put before him and his Council; which petitions are contained below, and begin in this way: "These are the petitions, etc." The English Prepare a Fleet, 1340. [Source: Robert of Avesbury, De gestis mirabilibus regis Edwardi Tertii, ed. Edward Maunde Thompson (London: Rolls Series, 1889), 310-12. Original in Latin.] He were return to the chronicle of the well-informed Robert of Avesbury, who as the Archbishop of Canterburyês Registrar may well have been an eye-witness of the Archbishopês confrontation with Edward III before Sluys. In the year of the Lord 1340, on a certain Saturday , a fortnight before the feast of St. John the Baptist, the King of England was at Orwell with 40 ships, or about that many, which he had prepared there for his passage to Flanders in order to see his wife and his two sons who were then staying in Ghent, and to treat with his overseas allies concerning the expedition of his war. At that time he was planning to make the crossing within two days. But the lord Archbishop of Canterbury, his Chancellor, warned him that lord Philip of Valois, his adversary of France, having cautiously foreseen his passage, had secretly sent over a great navy with a huge fleet of ships equipped for war in order to resist him in the port of the Zwin, and advised him to wait and provide himself with a greater force, lest by crossing then he lose himself and his [men]. The King, not trusting the dispatches, said that he would cross anyway. The Archbishop, in truth, immediately placed himself entirely outside the Council of the King, and, taking his leave, left his presence and returned the Great Seal to him. The King called to him lord Robert Morley, his admiral, and a certain sailor named Crabbe; seeking the truth, he consulted with them as to whether it would be dangerous to cross then; they answered him in the same way as the lord Archbishop of Canterbury had done earlier. At which the King said: "You and the Archbishop have collaborated in a premeditated sermon, in order to impede my passage." And, offended, he said: "I will cross despite you; and you who are afraid, where there is nothing to fear, you stay at home." Then the said admiral and sailor swore by their heads that, if the King were to cross over at that time, he and everyone coming with him would inevitably be cast into peril. They said, however, that if he wanted to make the crossing at that time, then they would go before him, even if they should die. Hearing this, the lord King immediately sent for the Archbishop, his Chancellor, and, speaking soothing words to him, returned to him the seal of the Chancellor. Immediately he had orders for the larger ships sent to each port to the north and the south and also to London, so that then within ten days he had enough ships and an unhoped-for number of men-at-arms and archers, more indeed that he wanted to have, so that he sent many back. Two Days of the Siege of Tournai: August 27th-28th, 1340. [Source: Chroniques de Tournay, in Jean Froissart, Oeuvres, ed. baron Kervyn de Lettenhove (Brussels, 1867-77), 25:355-7. Original in French.] A local Tournai chronicle provides us with an extraordinarily detailed, day-by-day account of the siege. The extracts below give a sample of its contents. In reading it, consider the role of psychological warfare in the conduct of a siege. On the 28th of August, some companions, both mounted and afoot, issued out of the Moreau Gate and went coursing; they captured two merchant women and fifteen horses and led them peacefully back into Tournai.... On the Sunday before that, the 27th, some of the Count of Foixês men, around sixty men-at-arms, sallied out from the St-Martin Gate at the sounding of the great drum and rode as far as the gibbet of Tournai. The whole English army was awoken by the alarm and took up arms. Foixês men returned, riding in fine form; they were followed up to the Valenciennes Gate by the English. There they dismounted and had their horses taken into the town; and a great assault took place. From there the English returned to the St.-Martin gate, in order to shoot and to make a great assault; and Locemens was shot in the eye by an arrow, causing him to die. And milord Godemar [du Fay] was shot in the plates of his armor, and the arrow remained stuck in it. Item. When the English followed the men of the Count of Foix to the Valenciennes Gate, milord Pierre de Roussillon was with him, and fought against the English, and was killed along with one of his esquires. And a great lord of England, a knight, was also killed there, but his name was never known. And Walter Mauny was stuck down off his horse, and his banner knocked down beneath the bridge of the gate, and because of this there was a marvelous assault, the greatest which occurred during the entire siege. And Pierre de Werqinoeil was wounded, and Jacques Villains was wounded in an eye, and Lostart dêEnglemoustier, who was entirely unarmored, up in the crennelations of the wall, watching the assault, was wounded in a leg; and Jehan le Musit was shot by an arrow there, so that he died. And the arrows shot over the crennelations and into the town were a marvel; the servant of the Lady de Leuse was shot in front of the hospital, so that he died. The Count of Foix was at the turrets of the gate and shot plenty of quarrels against the English, and there continued to be a great amount of fire against the gate and the turrets; because of the arrows he had, perforce, to raise the drawbridge. While this assault was taking place at the Valenciennes gate, the alarm was cried throughout the English army, and they all moved out of their camp. At that time they had a prisoner in a tent, and when he didnêt see anyone around him, he set fire to his lodgings and burned it and others, and then returned into Tournai. The flames could be seen from the tops of the walls. A Fleming came to the Ste-Fontaine Gate and said: "Surrender, knaves, lest you die of starvation, and we take your women." And he said many bad things. So Lotin Mallart and Piérat Liégart sallied out by the wicket door of the said gate, and Lotin struck him from behind with a "woodpecker," which knocked him to the ground, and Piérart struck him with a dagger and left him for dead. And when he saw there was no one around him, he got back up. He was shot at, but he gathered up the quarrels and returned to his army. There was not a single day when some companions did not issue out of Tournai and go to fight against their enemies, especially at the Prés-aux-Nonnains. And the enemies came each day to yell at the gates that they should surrender, and that they were being betrayed by the lords who were then in Tournai. Often they said: "Eat well tonight, for you will not eat at all tomorrow." And they said these things because they wanted to cause fighting among those manning the walls; but, God be praised, there was never any argument or fighting there; rather, they were very peaceable. An Indenture of War, 1347. [Source: Maj. Gen. George Wrottesley, Crecy and Calais from the Original Records in the Public Record Office [Reprinted from the William Salt Archaeological Society] (London: Harrison and Sons, 1898), 192. Original in French.] In all his campaigns, Edward III formed the core of his army around the knights and esquires of his own household and the retinues of the magnates and bannerets who accompanied him, supplemented by archers and other troops arrayed from the towns and counties of England and Wales. The retinues of the lords, like the Kingês own household, were usually made up of a mix of men-at-arms and mounted archers in roughly equal numbers. Heads of retinue operating independently of the King-- e.g. as captain of a garrison in Scotland, or Kingês Lieutenant in Gascony or Brittany--- often secured contracts or "letters of indenture" specifying their term of service, rate of pay and benefits, etc. The King rarely if ever provided such indentures for those serving personally with him, but nonetheless many soldiers in the royal host would be operating under letters of indenture, for it was often the case that the heads of retinues agreed on letters of indenture with those serving under them, at least down to the level of bannerets. The following is a typical example. This indenture, made between the noble men Sir Ralph, Baron Stafford, on the one hand, and Sir Hugh fitz Simon on the other hand, bears witness that the aforesaid Sir Hugh is to remain as a banneret with the aforesaid Sir Ralph, along with four knights and eight esquires, for one year following the date of this document, to go with the said Sir Ralph wherever he wishes to make war, receiving from the said Sir Ralph the customary wages, or else direct support at court, at the choice of Sir Ralph, which is to say for himself 4s., for each knight 2s., and for each esquire 12 d. per day, and for his fee for the entire year, 100 marks. And the aforesaid Sir Ralph promises that he will pay to the aforesaid Sir Hugh, before his departure across the sea, half of his fee, which is to say 50 marks, and his wages, as specified above, for a quarter of a year in advance. And in case the said Sir Ralph wishes that he shall have direct support at court, he, his knights, and his esquires and their chamberlains, as is specified above, shall get hay and oats and stabling for forty-five horses, and eight horses for baggage, and wages for their grooms. And Sir Ralph shall provide a mount for Sir Hugh, for his own person. And in addition to the aforesaid, Sir Ralph promises that the great horses of the said Sir Hugh shall be appraised in the same fashion as his own great horses are by the King and his Council. And that the said Sir Ralph shall be bound to restore to the said Sir Hugh the loss of his said horses, thus appraised, if they should be lost in the service of the said Sir Ralph. And concerning the prisoners which may be taken by the aforesaid Hugh, or by his men, the aforesaid Sir Ralph shall have half the profits of their ransom, etc. In testimony whereof, etc. Written at London, the 16th of March, the year 21 Edward III [1347]. In total, eighty-eight men were listed in the records of the Kingês Wardrobe (the administrative department of the royal household which handled war-wages) as heads of retinues during 1346-7. The largest retinue was that of Henry of Lancaster, comprising 2 earls [himself and John of Kent, a minor], 11 bannerets, 193 knights, 512 esquires, 46 hobelars, and 612 mounted archers; the smallest was Sir Roger Lestraunge, who served as a retinue of one. Staffordês retinue, including himself and Sir Hugh, comprised 3 bannerets, 20 knights, 92 esquires, and 90 mounted archers, at 4s., 2s., 12d., and 6d. per day, respectively, the standard rates. Secret Instructions Given to the Duke of Lancaster Regarding the Ratification of the Treaty of Guînes (1354). [Source: F. Bock, "Some New Documents Illustrating the Early Years of the Hundred Years' War" BJRL XV (1931), 94-6. Original in French] Throughout the war, Edward III proclaimed his willingness to accept an honorable and reasonable peace; what he meant by that phrase is made fairly clear in the following secret instructions given to the Duke of Lancaster on his departure for Avignon, where he was expected to finalize the agreement outlined at Guînes. Although some historians (e.g. John le Patourel) have argued otherwise, the various forms of peace agreed upon between 1358 and 1360, including the Treaty of Brétigny, were all in principle similar to the terms set out below. The charge given by our lord the King on the last day of October, the 28th year of his reign [1354], in the private chapel inside the palace of Westminster, in the presence of milord the Prince, the Archbishop of York, Chancellor, the Bishop of Winchester, Treasurer, the Bishop of Durham, the Earls of Warwick and Stafford, Sir Bartholomew Burghersh, Sir John Beauchamp, and Sir John Gray, to those noble men the Duke of Lancaster and the Earl of Arundel, dispatched as the Kingês ambassadors to the Court of Rome for the treaty of peace between him and his adversary of France [1] Firstly they should commend our lord the King, milady the Queen, and their children to our holy father the Pope. [2] Item. It pleases the King that they may agree, conclude, and finally confirm the things that were formerly agreed and treated of at Guînes: namely that the King should have freely and as an alod, for himself and his heirs in perpetuity, in recompense for the crown of France, the entire Duchy of Guienne as fully as any King of England has ever held it, together with all the other lands named in the cedule then sent to the Pope by the confessor in the form which follows: [3] Firstly the entire duchies of Aquitaine-Guienne and Normandy and the county of Ponthieu as entirely as any of the ancestors of the King ever held them; and with this Angers and Anjou, Poitiers and Poitou, Le Mans and Maine, Tours and Touraine, Angoulême and Angoumois, Cahors and Quercy, Limoges and Limousin, and all the other lands, castles and towns acquired since the beginning of the war; the King and his heirs to have and hold all the abovesaid things freely, and like neighbor and neighbor. [4] And it pleases the King in honor of God and in order to avoid the perdition of Christians, and out of reverence for the Holy Father, if a good peace can be had, to release Normandy, Cahors, Quercy and the county of Angoulême. And all should be as included in the same cedule: that the King, in order to have peace, would release Cahors, Quercy and the county of Angoulême; however, it is not the intention of the King, nor will it ever be, to abandon the said lands, if they should be a portion of the duchy of Guienne of olden times; and this should be fully apparent from the form of the said cedule inasmuch as the said cedule names first of all the duchy entirely; and then says, after that, the other abovesaid lands with other different lands, not included in the said duchy. And it is the intention of the King that the said lordships of Cahors, Quercy and Angoulême should be asked for in demesne, if one should learn that any of his ancestors, Kings of England, held them in demesne. And if his ancestors only held the homages and sovereignty, the King wishes that they should be asked for in the same manner that his ancestors held them. [5] Item in case that one cannot come to have the said peace in the abovesaid manner, because of the cedule which speaks to the contrary, and namely [regarding] Angoulême and Angoumois, it pleases the King that in that case compensation should be made for the possession of the said lands out of other territories towards the high country where the thing can be done with the least damage to the King, and where the danger from the French in the future will be minimized. And if the other side will not agree to this at all, the King does not wish for the negotiations to be broken off for that reason, since it was written that way in the cedule. [6] And as to the limits of the lands, and the borders of the duchy and of all the other lands, the King wills that the lords should treat first of all and agree in principle on the boundaries as near as they can before they show their authorization to make Pope a mediator. And if it seems to them that the thing to do is that certain people should be assigned from each side to decide concerning the lands and the borders, [then] concerning this the King of definite knowledge and of his own initiative and will, desires and has commanded that the lords, if there should be debate concerning the limits or borders of the lands, may grant and give assent that the Pope, not as a judge but as an intermediary person or a mediator, should decide and conclude all debates concerning the limits of the lands and the aforesaid boundaries, within a certain time, for example within one month after the information concerning it should be acquired by the deputies of the two sides. Also, they may grant that power to the Pope either before the sending of the commissioners for the determination of the boundaries, or after, and they have special power to do this. And it is the intention of the King, that all this business should be taken care of and finally brought to a conclusion before the first day of April next, and that the King should be certified of the result within that time, if it is possible. [7] Item, as to the guarantees which are to be made for the performance and keeping of the peace and the agreement, the King wills that the other side should make all the guarantees that anyone can arrange or think up, and he for his part will do the same in order to bind himself and his heirs and all his lands over there. [8] Item, it is the Kingês will that the lords may extend the truce up to the Pentecost if they see that it should be done, depending on how the business is progressing over there. |
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