the privileges of the city and of the province, and, nine months after, on the 6th of September, 1363, disposed of the duchy of Burgundy in the following terms:  “Recalling again to memory the excellent and praise-worthy services of our right dearly beloved Philip, the fourth of our sons, who freely exposed himself to death with us, and, all wounded as he was, remained unwavering and fearless at the battle of Poitiers . . . we do concede to him and give him the duchy and peerage of Burgundy, together with all that we may have therein of right, possession, and proprietorship . . . for the which gift our said son hath done us homage as duke and premier peer of France.”  Thus was founded that second house of the Dukes of Burgundy which was destined to play, for more than a century, so great and often so fatal a part in the fortunes of France.

Whilst he was thus preparing a gloomy future for his country and his line, King John heard that his second son, the Duke of Anjou, one of the hostages left in the hands of the King of England as security for the execution of the treaty of Bretigny, had broken his word of honor and escaped from England, in order to go and join his wife at Guise Castle.  Knightly faith was the virtue of King John; and it was, they say, on this occasion, that he cried, as he was severely upbraiding his son, that “if good faith were banished from the world, it ought to find an asylum in the hearts of kings.”  He announced to his councillors, assembled at Amiens, his intention of going in person to England.  An effort was made to dissuade him; and “several prelates and barons of France told him that he was committing great folly when he was minded to again put himself in danger from the King of England.  He answered that he had found in his brother, the King of England, in the Queen, and in his nephews, their children, so much loyalty, honor, and courtesy, that he had no doubt but that they would be courteous, loyal, and amiable to him, in any case.  And so he was minded to go and make the excuses of his son, the Duke of Anjou, who had returned to France.”  According to the most intelligent of the chroniclers of the time, the Continuer of William of Nangis, “some persons said that the king was minded to go to England in order to amuse himself;” and they were probably right, for kingly and knightly amusements were the favorite subject of King John’s meditations.  This time he found in England something else besides galas; he before long fell seriously ill, “which mightily disconcerted the King and Queen of England, for the wisest in the country judged him to be in great peril.”  He died, in fact, on the 8th of April, 1364, at the Savoy Hotel, in London; “whereat the King of England, the Queen, their children, and many English barons were much moved,” says Froissart, “for the honor of the great love which the King of France, since peace was made, had shown them.”  France was at last about to have in Charles V. a practical and an effective king.