enemies in feudalism, the French monarchy, and the pretensions of high clericalism.  Afraid to renew the attack in France without allies, Edward welcomed the support of the Montfort party, as giving him a chance of renewing his assaults on his adversary of Valois.  He invested Montfort with the earldom of Richmond, of which John III had died possessed.  He sent Sir Walter Manny with a force sufficient to raise the siege of Hennebont.  The heroic Joan of Flanders was almost at the end of her resources, when on an early June morning, in 1342, she espied the white sails of Manny’s fleet working its way from the sea up the estuary of the Blavet, which bathes the walls of Hennebont.  After the arrival of the English, Charles of Blois abandoned the siege in despair.  For the rest of the year the war was waged on a more equal footing.  In August Edward sent to Brest an additional force under William Bohun, Earl of Northampton, who attempted, though with little success, to invade the domains of the house of Penthievre.  A hard-won victory against great odds near Morlaix was made memorable by Northampton’s first applying the tactics of Halidon Hill to a pitched battle on the continent.[1] But the earl’s troops were so few that they were forced to withdraw after their success into more friendly regions.  Leon and Cornouailles then resumed allegiance to the house of Montfort.  In the midst of the struggle Robert of Artois received a wound which soon ended his tempestuous career.

    [1] Baker, p.76, gives the place, Knighton, ii., 25, the
    details.  See also my note in Engl.  Hist.  Review, xix. (1904),
    713-15.

Edward was eager to enter the field in person.  Since his return to England in 1340, his only military experience had been a luckless winter campaign in the Lothians against King David.  In October, 1342, he left the Duke of Cornwall as warden of England during his absence, and took ship at Sandwich for Brittany.  He remained in the country until the early months of 1343, raiding the land from end to end, receiving many of the greater barons into his obedience, and striving in particular to conquer the regions included in the modern department of the Morbihan.  There he besieged Vannes, the strongest and largest city of Brittany, says Froissart, after Nantes.  The triumphs of his rival at last brought Philip VI. into Brittany.  While Edward laboriously pursued the siege of Vannes, amidst the hardships of a wet and stormy winter, Philip watched his enemy from Ploermel, a few miles to the north.  For a third time the situation of Buironfosse and Tournai was renewed.  The rivals were within striking distance, but once more both Edward and Philip were afraid to strike.  History still further repeated itself; for the cardinal-bishops of Palestrina and Frascati, sent by Clement VI. to end the struggle, travelled from camp to camp with talk of peace.  The sufferings of both armies gave the kings a powerful reason for listening to their