But it was perhaps this breakdown of all foreign hope that contributed to Edward’s success in the fresh outbreak of war.  The war opened in Guienne, and Henry of Lancaster, who was now known as the Earl of Derby, and who with the Hainaulter Sir Walter Maunay took the command in that quarter, at once showed the abilities of a great general.  The course of the Garonne was cleared by his capture of La Reole and Aiguillon, that of the Dordogne by the reduction of Bergerac, and a way opened for the reconquest of Poitou by the capture of Angouleme.  These unexpected successes roused Philip to strenuous efforts, and a hundred thousand men gathered under his son, John, Duke of Normandy, for the subjugation of the South.  Angouleme was won back, and Aiguillon besieged when Edward sailed to the aid of his hard-pressed lieutenant.  It was with an army of thirty thousand men, half English, half Irish and Welsh, that he commenced a march which was to change the whole face of the war.  His aim was simple.  Flanders was still true to Edward’s cause, and while Derby was pressing on in the south a Flemish army besieged Bouvines and threatened France from the north.  The king had at first proposed to land in Guienne and relieve the forces in the south; but suddenly changing his design he disembarked at La Hogue and advanced through Normandy.  By this skilful movement Edward not only relieved Derby but threatened Paris, and left himself able to co-operate with either his own army in the south or the Flemings in the north.  Normandy was totally without defence, and after the sack of Caen, which was then one of the wealthiest towns in France, Edward marched upon the Seine.  His march threatened Rouen and Paris, and its strategical value was seen by the sudden panic of the French king.  Philip was wholly taken by surprise.  He attempted to arrest Edward’s march by an offer to restore the Duchy of Aquitaine as Edward the Second had held it, but the offer was fruitless.  Philip was forced to call his son to the rescue.  John at once raised the siege of Aiguillon, and the French army moved rapidly to the north, its withdrawal enabling Derby to capture Poitiers and make himself thorough master of the south.  But John was too distant from Paris for his forces to avail Philip in his emergency, for Edward, finding the bridges on the Lower Seine broken, pushed straight on Paris, rebuilt the bridge of Poissy, and threatened the capital.

[Sidenote:  Crecy]

At this crisis however France found an unexpected help in a body of German knights.  The long strife between Lewis of Bavaria and the Papacy had ended at last in Clement’s carrying out his sentence of deposition by the nomination and coronation as emperor of Charles of Luxemburg, a son of King John of Bohemia, the well-known Charles IV. of the Golden Bull.  But against this Papal assumption of a right to bestow the German Crown Germany rose as one man.  Not a town opened its gates to the Papal claimant, and driven to seek help and refuge from