John’s good faith was conspicuously evinced by the efforts he made to raise the instalments of his ransom.  His payments were in arrears:  some of the hostages left in free custody by Edward’s generosity broke their parole and escaped; and among them was his own son, Louis, Duke of Anjou.  The father felt it his duty to step into the place thus left vacant.  In 1363 he returned to his English prison, where he died in 1364, surrounded with every courtesy and attention that Edward could lavish upon him.  During the last months of his life, England received visits from two other kings, David of Scotland and the Lusignan lord of Cyprus, who still called himself King of Jerusalem, and was wandering through the courts of Europe to stir up interest in the projected crusade.

Charles of Normandy then became Charles V. He was no knight-errant like his father, and his diplomatic gifts, tact, and patience made him much better fitted than John for outwitting his English enemies and for restoring order to France.  Slowly but surely he grappled with the companies, and at last an opening was found for their skill in the civil war which broke out in Castile.  Peter the Cruel, since 1350 King of Castile, had made himself odious to many of his subjects.  At last his bastard brother, Henry of Trastamara, rose in revolt against him.  Peter, however, was capable and energetic, and not without support from certain sections of the Castilians.  Moreover, he was friendly with Charles of Navarre, and allied with Edward III.  On the other hand Henry found powerful backing from the King of Aragon, and made an appeal to the King of France.  This gave Charles V. the chance he wanted.  He hated Peter, who was reputed to have murdered his own wife, Blanche of Bourbon sister of the Queen of France, and in 1365 he agreed to give Henry assistance.  Du Guesclin welded the scattered companies into an army and led them against the Spanish king.  The pope fell in with the scheme as an indirect way of realising his crusading ambition.  When Henry had become King of Castile, the companies would go on to attack the Moors of Granada.  English and French mercenaries flocked gladly together under Du Guesclin’s banner.  Edward in vain ordered his subjects not to take part in an invasion of the lands of his friend and cousin, Peter of Castile.  Though Chandos declined at the last moment to follow Du Guesclin into the peninsula, Sir Hugh Calveley would not desist from the quest of fresh adventure, even at the orders of his lord.  Professional and knightly feeling bound Calveley to Du Guesclin more closely than their difference of nationality separated them, so that Calveley took his part in the Castilian campaign with perfect loyally to his ancient enemy.  In December, 1365, Du Guesclin and his followers made their way through Roussillon and Aragon into Castile.  The spring of 1366 saw Peter a fugitive in Aquitaine, and Henry of Trastamara crowned Henry II. of Castile.  Most of the companies then went home, though Du Guesclin and Calveley remained to support the new king’s throne.