The expedition was planned to co-operate with the King of Navarre.  Charles, surnamed the Bad, traced on his father’s side his descent to that son of Philip the Bold who obtained the county of Evreux in upper Normandy for his appanage.  From his mother, the daughter of Louis X., he derived his kingdom of Navarre and a claim on the French monarchy of the same type as that of Edward III.  Cunning, plausible, unscrupulous, and violent, Charles had quarrelled fiercely with King John, whose daughter he had married.  His vast estates in Normandy made him a valuable ally to Edward, and he had suggested joint action in that duchy against the French.  Unluckily, while the west winds kept the English fleet beyond the Straits of Dover, John made terms with his son-in-law.  Lancaster was compensated for his disappointment by the governorship of Brittany.  The army equipped for the Norman expedition was diverted to Calais, whence in November, Edward and Lancaster led a purposeless foray in the direction of Hesdin, which hastily ended on the arrival of the news that the Scots had surprised the town of Berwick, and were threatening its castle.  Thereupon Edward hastened back home.  He had to keep the Scots quiet, before he could attack the French.

    [1] For the Black Prince’s career in Aquitaine, see Moisant,
    Le Prince Noir en Aquitaine (1894)

When the Black Prince reached Bordeaux, he received a warm welcome from the Gascons, and at once set out at the head of an army, partly English and partly Gascon, on a foray into the enemy’s territory.  He made his way from Bazas to the upper Adour through the county of Armagnac, whose lord had incurred his wrath by his devotion to the house of Valois and his invasions of the Gascon duchy.  Thence he worked eastwards, avoiding the greater towns, and plundering and devastating wherever he could.  The Count of Armagnac, the French commander in the south, watched his progress from Toulouse, and prudently avoided any open encounter.  The prince approached within a few miles of the capital of Languedoc, but found an easier prey in the rich towns and fertile plains in the valley of the Aude.  He captured the “town” of Carcassonne, though he failed to reduce the fortress-crowned height of the “city”.  At Narbonne also he took the “town” and left the “city”.  His progress spread terror throughout the south, and the clerks of the university of Montpellier and the papal curia at Avignon trembled lest he should continue his raid in their direction.  But November came, and Edward found it prudent to retire, choosing on his westward journey a route parallel to that which he had previously adopted.  He had achieved his real purpose in desolating the region from which the French had derived the chief resources for their attacks on Gascony.  The raiders boasted that Carcassonne was larger than York, Limoux not less great than Carcassonne, and Narbonne nearly as populous as London.  Over this fair region, where wine and oil were more abundant than water, the black band of desolation, which had already marked so many of the fairest provinces of France, was cruelly extended.