to Philip till 1339, when he proclaimed himself King of France, and quartered the lilies of France on the royal shield.  The Flemish proved a very reed; and though the French army came up to meet the English in the Vermando country, no fighting took place, and the campaign of 1339 ended obscurely.  Norman and Genoese ships threatened the southern shores of England, landing at Southampton and in the Isle of Wight unopposed.  In 1340 Edward returned to Flanders; on his way he attacked the French fleet which lay at Sluys, and utterly destroyed it.  The great victory of Sluys gave England for centuries the mastery of the British channel.  But, important as it was, it gave no success to the land campaign.  Edward wasted his strength on an unsuccessful siege of Tournia, and, ill-supported by his Flemish allies, could achieve nothing.  The French King in this year seized on Guienne; and from Scotland tidings came that Edinburgh castle, the strongest place held by the English, had fallen into the hands of Douglas.  Neither from Flanders nor from Guienne could Edward hope to reach the heart of the French power; a third inlet now presented itself in Brittany.  On the death of John III. of Brittany, in 1341, Jean de Montfort, his youngest brother, claimed the great fief, against his niece Jeanne, daughter of his elder brother Guy, Comte de Penthievre.  He urged that the Salic law, which had been recognised in the case of the crown, should also apply to this great duchy, so nearly an independent sovereignty.  Jeanne had been married to Charles de Blois, whom John III. of Brittany had chosen as his heir; Charles was also nephew of King Philip, who gladly espoused his cause.  Thereon Jean de Montfort appealed to Edward, and the two Kings met in border strife in Brittany.  The Bretons sided with John against the influence of France.  Both the claimants were made prisoners; the ladies carried on a chivalric warfare, Jeanne de Montfort against Jeanne de Blois, and all went favourably with the French party till Philip, with a barbarity as foolish as it was scandalous, tempted the chief Breton lords to Paris and beheaded them without trial.  The war, suspended by a truce, broke out again, and the English raised large forces and supplies, meaning to attack on three sides at once,—­from Flanders, Brittany, and Guienne.  The Flemish expedition came to nothing; for the people of Ghent in 1345 murdered Jacques van Arteveldt as he was endeavouring to persuade them to receive the Prince of Wales as their count, and Edward, on learning this adverse news, returned to England.  Thence, in July, 1346, he sailed for Normandy, and, landing at La Hogue, overran with ease the country up to Paris.  He was not, however, strong enough to attack the capital, for Philip lay with a large army watching him at St. Denis.  After a short hesitation Edward crossed the Seine at Poissy, and struck northwards, closely followed by Philip.  He got across the Somme safely, and at Crecy in Ponthieu stood at bay