XXIII.

1362.

CHAP. as earl of Leicester, the office of hereditary seneschal, or steward, of England; as duke of Lancaster, to bear the great sword, called Curtana, before the kings of England at their coronation; and, as earl of Lincoln, to be grand carver at the dinner given on that

1363.

occasion .

All things were now gradually preparing the way for that extent of power, which John of Gaunt possessed in the latter part of his father's reign. His brother Lionel in the year 1361 had been commissioned as lord lieutenant to Ireland, where he continued to reside several years; and, the king having bestowed upon his eldest son the Black Prince, as a fief, the principality of Aquitaine', that victorious leader proceeded in February 1363' to fix his abode there, that by his administration and his personal virtues he might reconcile the inhabitants of that province to the

XXIII.

1363.

English government, against which they had CHAP. expressed some degree of dislike. The only one therefore of Edward's sons, having arrived at years of discretion, who now resided at home, beside John of Gaunt, was Edmund of Langley; and he, as has been already mentioned, was by no means equal to any of his brothers in abilities and attainments, while the new duke of Lancaster was, for the dignity of his deportment, and the gallantry of his spirit, an object of popular and general admiration.

1364.

of France revisits

England.

The peace of Bretigni, concluded in 1360, met with many unexpected delays and diffi- John ki g culties in the execution. These were principally occasioned by the chicanes and sinister policy of the court of Paris. The dauphin of France and his counsellors looked with extreme dislike upon the cession, not as fiefs, which had been the case before, but in full sovereignty, of some of the fairest provinces of their country. They could not abrogate the treaty which had been concluded; they could not replunge the kingdom into the hazards of war; but, while one

CHAP. formality for the complete performance reXXIII. mained unexecuted, the case appeared in

1364.

their eyes less desperate. The ransomed sovereign was of a temper opposite to that of his son. He was plain, ingenuous and sincere. He was therefore impatient of the arts and subterfuges of his own council; and, to convince his brother of England of thè integrity of his purposes, he resolved upon the extraordinary step of coming to London where he had lately been a captive, and putting himself into the power of his conqueror ". It was on this occasion that he is said to have uttered that laudable sentiment, a sentiment which, if acted on, would have saved to mankind a world of woe, that, "if truth were banished from all other mortals, it ought still to find refuge in the breast of a king.

This illustrious, and now voluntary, guest was received by Edward III. with every demonstration of cordiality and affection, and

Filippo Villani, Lib. XI, cap. lxxvi.

XXIII.

entertained with all that magnificence and CHAP. profusion which were characteristic of the 1364. times. Among his inviters, the lord-mayor and aldermen of London particularly distinguished themselves. The name of Henry Picard, who entertained the same company seven years before, is now again mentioned with peculiar honour; and, beside the king of France, the English metropolis could at this time boast of the visit of David king of Scots, Peter king of Cyprus, Waldemar king of Denmark, and Albert duke of Bavaria. John of Gaunt yielded his palace of the Sayoy as a residence for the French monarch, as his predecessor had done before and after an abode of three months, which had been protracted by the attacks of disease, this unfortunate sovereign at length paid the debt of Dies. nature under the roof of his ducal host'.

resides in of Lan

the duke

caster's

palace of

the Sa

voy.

CHAP. XXIV.

ROMANCE OF THE ROSE, A POEM, TRANSLATED
BY CHAUCER.

XXIV.

Merits of the original poem.

IT was probably during the interval of peace which followed the treaty of Bretigni, that Chaucer engaged in a literary work of the utmost importance and honour to the age and country in which he lived, the translation of the Roman de la Rose. We have already had occasion to mention this poem. It was the most eminent poetical composition existing in any of the modern languages of Europe, previously to the Commedia of Dante, The French have a just claim to priority over all the European nations, in the invention of romances of chivalry, and the pro