VIII. which the French were beaten, their vessels destroyed, CHAP. and their sailors killed. The French legists, the law militant, instantly took up the quarrel of their countrymen. Philip's seneschals on the frontier summoned the Gascon sailors to answer before them, and seizing some, put them in the king's prison at Perigord. The Paris court summoned Edward himself. There being no answer to such summons, the parliament in the capital, and its officers in the provinces, thundered forth decrees of forfeiture against the English king, precisely according to the law and practice of the Roman Court in fulminating forth excommunications. The French officers found no difficulty in sequestrating the English monarch's property in Perigord and Anjou; they also threatened Bordeaux and the towns of Guienne. Edward was sorely annoyed on receiving intelligence of these events. He was at the time completely absorbed in the Scottish war, directing to it all his resources and his energies; so that being called upon to defend Guienne, or go to war with France, was as foreign to his thoughts as injurious to his interest. He sent his brother Edmund to France to settle the matter, but this prince had evidently no knowledge or suspicion of the court and the legists with whom he had to deal. Edmund had married Blanche of Artois, the mother of the French queen, and of course was received as one of the family. The proposal with respect to the difference was, that Edward should espouse Philip's sister Margaret, and that Guienne should be settled on their issue. Edward knew the small value of Guienne, its distance from England rendering it indefensible, and he had no desire but to be rid of it honourably. The two queens, amongst themselves, charged by Philip to conduct the negotiation, approved of the arrangement that Edmund proposed, and there took place an exchange of papers tantamount to a solemn treaty between them. Previous to the conclusion of the treaty, Philip had VIII. CHAP. given orders to his seneschals to attack Bordeaux and occupy it, with the other towns in Guienne. The queen promised Edmund that the order should be recalled or remedied, as soon as the agreement with her was concluded. But as there was some delay in this, the English court, to avoid fresh quarrels or collision, sent orders to its officers at Bordeaux and in other towns to offer no opposition to the French. It was notified to Philip that the treaty with Edmund was concluded, and that the order to his seneschals should be recalled. But Philip, who wanted not the reversion of Guienne, but the actual revenues of Bordeaux, declared that he knew nothing of the matter, that the queens were not empowered by him to negotiate, and that his constable had already advanced to execute orders. Raoul de Nesle, in fact, took tranquil possession of Bordeaux, Bayonne, and the fortresses of Guienne without resistance; and when assured of the accomplishment of this capture, Philip maintained that the forfeiture was complete, by reason of Edward himself not appearing, and that the French crown was (1294) henceforth lawfully possessed of the Duchy of Aquitaine. So disgraceful a trick has seldom been perpetrated by a sovereign. The moral laws which the Church had inculcated during the centuries of its predominance were often treacherous, violent and sanguinary; but ecclesiastics had never descended to a meanness like this, or for mere greed had cheated confiding relatives of what for centuries had belonged to them. Edward could do no less than send his herald to France to disavow allegiance and amity. He collected what mercenaries he could and despatched them to Guienne, whilst by envoys he endeavoured to raise up continental princes against Philip. The fleet, which sailed from England in the direction of La Rochelle, first landed troops on the isle of Rhé, devastated and burned its towns, and then proceeded to the Garonne. The castle of Blaye surrendered to it, as well as three or four towns on the river. Bordeaux it could not recapture, this city being strongly held by the Constable de Nesle. The English, however, fell back upon Bayonne, entered the town, and investing the castle, took it after an obstinate defence. Philip then sent his brother Charles Count of Valois to reduce the towns of Gascony which still remained true to the English. He invested the castle of Riom, a town farther up the Garonne, whilst the Constable besieged Podenzae. This place the English surrendered on condition of being allowed to depart with their arms, but without enforcing the same stipulations for the Gascon commanders. These were accordingly taken and hanged in sight of Riom. The Gascons of the garrison rebelled in anger, and the English were compelled to fly. St. Sever also was taken by the Count of Valois, but was afterwards recaptured. In 1296 King Edward sent his brother Edmund to Gascony, whilst Robert Count of Artois commanded against him. Edmund was carried off by illness at Bayonne; and Robert of Artois defeated the English in the field, took John of St. John prisoner, the Earl of Lincoln and John of Brittany escaping with difficulty. This put an end to English resistance in the south. At a time when the French monarchs were with such astuteness, violence, and success extending their dominions southwards, it is not to be supposed that their ambition was not equally active upon the northern and eastern frontier. King Charles of Anjou had almost conquered Hainault when the authority of St. Louis compelled him to desist. In 1292 Philip sent Charles of Valois with an army and compelled the Count of Hainault to come to Paris and do homage. Several intermarriages had taken place between the royal family of France and the ducal one of Brabant. Philip made attempts to deprive the Count of Bar of his territories, and extend his authority to Vendome. And offering CHAP. CHAP. his protection to the two counts who reigned in Franche Comté, he menaced to withdraw this ancient fief from the empire, as Charles of Anjou had almost deprived it of Provence. This encroachment on Franche Comté and the Duchy of Bar attracted the attention of Rudolph of Hapsburg, and that active prince marched an army to Besançon. Philip the Fair sent a summons to have it withdrawn; but Rudolph answered that he had not crossed the Rhine to dance, and that he awaited the King of France sword in hand. Philip made no reply to Rudolph, but when, after that emperor's death, Adolph of Nassau was elected emperor, with scarcely force sufficient to keep his crown, Philip renewed his relations with Franche Comté, and procured one of its princesses in marriage for his second son. Adolph, who styled himself King of the Romans, not having been yet crowned, sent a solemn missive to Philip in 1295, declaring that he would no longer endure the retention by the King of France of so many territories belonging to the empire. The French chroniclers relate that Philip answered by calling Adolph's proceeding trop Allemand, too German. This is a fiction: Philip returned an evasive but not uncourteous reply. Edward conceived the hope of raising against Philip the Fair a league of German princes, similar to that which John had once excited against Philip Augustus, and which that monarch defeated at Bovines. The English king, with this view, paid a considerable sum to Adolph. But the German was lukewarm, the Pope was strenuously opposed to a war between France and Germany, and the emperor partly made use of the money which he received from Edward to make a purchase of Thuringia. Edward was more fortunate in securing the alliance of the Count of Flanders. As he had formerly made his marriage with Margaret of France the bond of alliance with Philip, he now proposed to marry the daughter of the Count of Flanders. The count con VIII. sented, but Philip enticed him to Paris, and then com- CHAP. mitted him to prison, not consenting to his liberation until his daughter came as a captive in his stead. Such treatment incensed Guy of Flanders, who renounced his allegiance, and in concert with Edward and the Germans prepared for war. Popular and wealthy Flanders, supported by the English king and the German emperor, was evidently considered by Philip a more formidable foe than Guienne. And the French made every preparation. The first necessity was money, for it was rendered quite evident by his repeated ordinances, that to carry on war by mere feudal levies was hopeless and impracticable. His first measure was a recoinage. A royal edict was issued forbidding any one who had less than 6000 livres of yearly revenue to keep plate; one-third of what they had was instantly to be brought to the mint. The public was informed that the new money might be somewhat lighter than the old, but that those who received it should be indemnified:-how, was not very well explained. The maltôte was, however, not discontinued; it was at first a hundredth, and afterwards a fiftieth, of all property. It was then raised to a twentieth. But the great innovation, in 1256, was its being levied indiscriminately on the goods of clergy and laity. This raised a storm, and placed King and Pope in the same open antagonism which had so long prevailed between Pope and Emperor. The kings of France might be said to have owed everything to the Church and to Rome. The Capetian dynasty sprung up under its protection; the monarchy had raised itself above the aristocracy by its means; whilst the Roman Pontiffs in their struggles against the Emperor had never derived much assistance from France. It was the Popes who, by exposing Languedoc to the hostility of Europe, had made over to the King |