Externally, King Charles V. had scarcely easier work before him.  Between himself and his great rival, Edward III., King of England, there was only such a peace as was fatal and hateful to France.  To escape some day from the treaty of Bretigny, and recover some of the provinces which had been lost by it—­this was what king and country secretly desired and labored for.  Pending a favorable opportunity for promoting this higher interest, war went on in Brittany between John of Montfort and Charles of Blois, who continued to be encouraged and patronized, covertly, one by the King of England, the other by the King of France.  Almost immediately after the accession of Charles V. it broke out again between him and his brother-in-law, Charles the Bad, King of Navarre, the former being profoundly mistrustful, and the latter brazen-facedly perfidious, and both detesting one another, and watching to seize the moment for taking advantage one of the other.  The states bordering on France, amongst others Spain and Italy, were a prey to discord and even civil wars, which could not fail to be a source of trouble or serious embarrassment to France.  In Spain two brothers, Peter the Cruel and Henry of Transtamare, were disputing the throne of Castile.  Shortly after the accession of Charles V., and in spite of his lively remonstrances, in 1267, Pope Urban V. quitted Avignon for Rome, whence he was not to return to Avignon till three years afterwards, and then only to die.  The Emperor of Germany was, at this period, almost the only one of the great sovereigns of Europe who showed for France and her kings a sincere good will.  When, in 1378, he went to Paris to pay a visit to Charles V., he was pleased to go to St. Denis to see the tombs of Charles the Handsome and Philip of Valois.  “In my young days,” he said to the abbot, “I was nurtured at the homes of those good kings, who showed me much kindness; I do request you affectionately to make good prayer to God for them.”  Charles V., who had given him a very friendly reception, was, no doubt, included in this pious request.

In order to maintain the struggle against these difficulties, within and without, the means which Charles V. had at his disposal were of but moderate worth.  He had three brothers and three sisters calculated rather to embarrass and sometimes even injure him than to be of any service to him.  Of his brothers, the eldest, Louis, Duke of Anjou, was restless, harsh, and bellicose.  He upheld authority with no little energy in Languedoc, of which Charles had made him governor, but at the same time made it detested; and he was more taken up with his own ambitious views upon the kingdom of Naples, which Queen Joan of Hungary had transmitted to him by adoption, than with the interests of France and her king.  The second, John, Duke of Berry, was an insignificant prince, who has left no strong mark on history.  The third, Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, after having been the