and the lesser lords were as yet not averse from English rule.  But the greater feudatories saw in the new hearth-tax a pretext for revolt.  They had no special zeal for the French monarchy, but the house of Valois was weak and far removed from their territories.  Their great concern was the preservation of their independence, which seemed more threatened by a resident prince than by a distant overlord at Paris.  Even before the imposition of the hearth-tax, the Count of Armagnac entered into a secret treaty with Charles V., who promised to increase his territories and respect his franchises, if he would return to the French allegiance.  The lord of Albret married a sister of the French queen and followed Armagnac’s lead.  A little later the Counts of Perigord and Comminges and other lords associated themselves with this policy.  Thus the rule of the Black Prince in Aquitaine, acquiesced in by the mass of the people, was threatened by a feudal revolt.  Armagnac appealed to the parliament of Paris against the hearth-tax.  Charles V. accepted the appeal on the ground of the non-exchange of the renunciations which should have followed the treaty of Calais.  Cited before the parliament in January, 1369, the Black Prince replied that he would go to Paris with helmet on head and with sixty thousand men at his back.  His father once more assumed the title of King of France, and war broke out again.

The relative positions of France and England were different from what they had been nine years before.  Edward III. was sinking into an unhonoured old age, and the Prince of Aquitaine suffered from dropsy, and was incapable of taking the field.  Of their former comrades some, like Walter Manny, were dead, and others too old for much more fighting.  On the other side was Charles V., who had tamed Navarre and the feudal lords, had cleared the realm of the companies, had put down faction and disorder, and had made himself the head of a strong national party, resolved to effect the expulsion of the foreigner.  His chief military counsellors were Du Guesclin, and Du Guesclin’s old adversary in the Breton wars, Oliver de Clisson, now the zealous servant of the king.  A wonderful outburst of French patriotism facilitated the reconquest of the lands that had passed to English rule nine years before.  Even the tradition of military superiority availed little against commanders who were learning by their defeats how to meet their once invincible enemies.

There was a like modification in the foreign alliances of the two kingdoms.  Dynastic changes in the Netherlands had robbed Edward of supporters who, though costly and ineffective, had been imposing in outward appearance.  Even after the dissolution of the alliances of the early years of the war, the temporising policy of Louis de Male at least neutralised the influence of Flanders.  During the peace both Edward and Charles did their best to win the goodwill of the Flemish count.  Louis’ relation to the two rivals