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of Castille. He practised with the king of CHAP. Arragon; he gained the support of Charles V. king of France; and he prevailed upon the pope to excommunicate and pronounce a sentence of deposition against Peter ". The times were favourable to his enterprise. The long wars between France and England, left at their conclusion a multitude of military adventurers in the former of these kingdoms, indisposed to every other occupation, and having no longer a legitimate opportunity for exercising that to which they were accustomed. These men refused all the laws of subordination, and subsisted by acts of plunder. The king of France therefore willingly entered into the scheme of drawing them off upon an expedition into Spain; and, to cover his real purpose, it was given out that the object was a crusade against the Moors of Grenada". The Black Prince became the dupe of this pretence, and piously

Froissart, Chap. ccxxx.

"Froissart, ubi supra. Mémoires de Du Guesclin, Chap.

xxi.

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1366.

CHAP. encouraged the individuals among these outlaws, who had served under him, or were natives of England or Aquitaine, to engage in the expedition, which was headed by the celebrated adventurer Bertrand du Guesclin. The undertaking was successful; Peter was Obtains the taken by surprise; and, after a short struggle, was obliged to seek his safety in flight. He first endeavoured to engage the king of Portugal to espouse his cause; and, being repulsed there, he immediately resorted to the court of the Black Prince at Bourdeaux.

crown.

Favourable reception

Bour

deaux.

This renowned hero felt as the heir of one of Peter at of the first monarchies in Europe might be expected to feel. If Peter had been expelled by the resentment and concerted revolt of his countrymen, it may be believed that Edward, full of the high notions he derived from his illustrious ancestry, would have decided that kings are not to be arraigned at the bar of their rebellious subjects, and would. have condemned their insolence. But that a

• Mémoires de Du Guesclin, Chap. xix.

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1366.

king should be driven from his dominions, CHAP not by the provoked insurrection of the nation he governed, but by the venal hostility of foreigners the burthen and scourge of their native soil, he regarded as an example odious and intolerable. He also felt with double fervour in the present case, as he had unintentionally been made an instrument in the mischievous enterprise.

a

Under the prejudices of chivalry, to restore Views of

lawful king to his throne, and to expel a body of unprincipled adventurers who had spread like locusts over his country, was one of the most glorious enterprises in which a great military leader could engage, The war in which Edward had already so illustriously signalised himself was of a doubtful character; it was a contention between, let us say, two equal pretenders to a throne. It was not so much; Edward had been compelled by the force of truth repeatedly to acknowledge John for a king, and thus to condemn the cause in which he fought. To vindicate right, to assist the oppressed, and to beat

the Black Prince.

CHAP. down the boasts of successful wrong, the of

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1366.

Undertakes the restora

tion of Peter.

fices to which he was now invited, were the favourite pursuits of chivalry. Thus allured, he thought not of the actions and dispositions of Peter; he saw in him nothing but his illustrious ancestry, the splendour of the throne to which he was born, and the inheritor of that throne an unhappy fugitive, partly through the error of the man to whom he now sued for relief.

Influenced by these considerations, the Black Prince gave a favourable and cordial reception to the exiled monarch, and immediately sent to consult his father upon the propriety of an expedition to redress his wrong. Edward III, who had the magnanimity to contemplate the rising fame of a dutiful and affectionate son without envy, desired nothing more than to see his reputation increased by the successful execution of so generous an enterprise. He therefore immediately returned an answer to that effect, and sent the duke of Lancaster to Bourdeaux to concert with his brother the detail of the

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undertaking, and the extent of the supplies CHAP, it would be necessary or practicable to draw from England.

1367.

march.

Preparations for the expedition were now Begins his made with great diligence, and the Black Prince began his march in the month of January. He had no sooner been informed of the expulsion of Peter, than he peremptorily recalled as many of the French troops serving under Henry of Transtamare as he was en→ titled to influence'; and these soldiers, who understood that the Black Prince purposed to march into Castille, and who desired nothing more eagerly than to serve under their tried and honoured commander, were not less prompt to set out upon their march to Aquitaine, than he was strict to summon them. Du Guesclin, finding his ranks greatly thinned by this desertion, wintered in France", and, having recruited his army, took the

▸ Barnes, Book IV, Chap. i, §. Q. Froissart, Chap. ccxxxvi.

Froissart, Chap. ccxxxiii.