with all their might to build up an alliance with the princes of the Low Countries.  When the count died, his son and successor, William II., persisted, though with less energy, in his father’s policy, and the Hainault connexion became the nucleus of a general Low German alliance.  Burghersh was lavish in promises, and soon a large number of imperial vassals took Edward’s pay and promised to fight his battles.  Among these were Count Reginald of Gelderland, who since 1332 had been the husband of Edward III.’s sister Eleanor, and with him came the Counts of Berg, Juelich, Cleves, and Mark, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, and a swarm of minor potentates.

Hardest to win over of the Netherlandish princes was Duke John III. of Brabant, a crafty statesman and a successful warrior, who had recently conquered limburg, and won a signal victory over a formidable coalition of his neighbours.  Among his former foes had been the house of Avesnes, but he had reconciled himself with Hainault, by reason of his greater hatred for Louis of Flanders.  The Flemish cities were the rivals in trade of his own land, and their count’s friendship for his French suzerain ensured the establishment of Philip of Valois as temporary lord of Mechlin, the possession of which had long been indirectly disputed between Brabant and Flanders.  The hesitating duke was at last won over by a favourable commercial treaty, which made Antwerp the staple of English wools, and ensured for the looms of Louvain and Brussels the advantages denied by Edward’s hostility to the clothworkers of Ghent and Ypres.  Convinced that war with Philip was the surest way of adding Mechlin to his dominions, he then joined the circle of Edward’s stipendiaries.  The excommunicated and schismatic emperor, Louis of Bavaria, welcomed the advances of Burghersh.  More than one tie already bound the Bavarian to England.  The English Franciscan, William of Ockham, proved himself the most active and daring of the literary champions of the imperial claims against John XXII.  Moreover, the emperor and Edward had married sisters, and their brother-in-law, the new Count of Hainault, Holland, and Zealand, was childless, so that they had common interests in keeping on good terms with him.  Louis’ bitter enemy, Benedict XII., forbade all hope of French support, and blocked the way to all prospect of reconciliation with the Church.  It was natural that Louis should take his revenge by an alliance with the prince who ignored the advice of the pontiff, and hated the Valois king.  As the result of all this, an offensive and defensive alliance between Edward on the one hand and Louis and his Low German vassals on the other was signed at Valenciennes in the summer of 1337.