policy that a truce between England and Scotland was brought about by the mediation of the pope and not of the French king.  But Benedict found that a crusade was impossible so long as the chief powers of the west were hopelessly estranged from each other.  In 1336, he vetoed the crusading scheme until happier times had dawned.  Philip, bitterly disappointed, sought out Benedict at Avignon, but utterly failed to change his purpose.  He was in his own despite released from the crusader’s vow, though exhorted still to continue his preparations.  The galleys, purchased from the crusading tenths of the Church, were transferred from the Mediterranean to the Channel.  The French king might well find consolation for the abandonment of the holy war in a sudden descent on England.

From that moment the horizon darkened.  Philip VI., once more took up the cause of the Scots, and once more the Aquitanian troubles became acute.  His irritation at Benedict led him to open up negotiations with Louis of Bavaria, whereat Benedict was greatly offended.  Edward III. then sought to find friends who would help him against Philip.  He was as much disgusted with the pope as was his French rival.  The crusading fleet, equipped with the money of the Roman Church, threatened the English coast, and the curia was even more French in its sympathies than the temporising pontiff.  It is no wonder then that both kings looked coldly on Benedict’s offer of mediation between them.  Yet, notwithstanding the indifference manifested by both courts, two cardinals, Peter Gomez, a Spaniard, and Bertrand of Montfavence, a Frenchman, were sent in the summer of 1337 as papal legates to France and England to settle the points in dispute.  For the next three years these prelates pursued their mission with energy and persistence, though with little result.

A fresh dispute further embittered the personal relations of Philip and Edward.  In 1336, Edward offered a refuge in England to Robert of Artois, Philip’s brother-in-law and mortal enemy.  The grandson of the Count Robert of Artois who was slain in 1302 at Courtrai, Robert of Artois was indignant that the rich county of Artois should, according to local custom, have devolved upon his aunt Maud, the wife of Otto, Count of Burgundy, or Franche Comte, and the mother-in-law of the last two kings of the direct Capetian line.  Though he had failed in several suits to obtain it, Robert renewed his claim after his brother-in-law became King of France.  It was soon proved that the charters upon which he relied to prove his title had been forged.  The sudden death of the Countess of Artois, followed quickly by that of her daughter and heiress, added the suspicion of poisoning to the certainly of forgery.  Robert was deprived of all his possessions and was exiled from France.  Driven from his first refuge in Brabant by Philip’s indignant hostility, he found shelter in England, where he was received with a favour which Philip bitterly resented.  Condemned