[8] Although Gascony was the cause of the war, Edward III was able to spare few resources for its defence, and previously when an English army had campaigned on the continent it had operated in northern France.

[19] Fighting continued in Picardy and Brittany, and especially fiercely in south-west France, where the English raided deep into French territory, but no large forces took the field.

[20] Negotiations for a permanent peace commenced in 1353 in Avignon under the auspices of Pope Innocent VI and the war died down to skirmishes and small-scale raids.

[22] In April 1355 Edward III and his council, with the treasury in an unusually favourable financial position, decided to launch offensives that year in both northern France and Gascony.

[23][24] John II of France (r. 1350–1364) attempted to strongly garrison his northern towns and fortifications against the expected descent by Edward III, at the same time assembling a field army; he was unable to, largely due to lack of money.

[43][44] However, the French King had stripped the area of fodder, food and potential booty, causing the English to return to Calais within ten days.

[51] The rapid march to this point caused many of the expedition's 15,000 horses[52] to die or break down, especially those which had accompanied the English on the exhausting eleven-day sea voyage and been given inadequate time to recover;[53] this had been allowed for, and they were replaced locally.

[38][60] They broke the bridges enabling access to the city[60] and confidently expected the Black Prince to withdraw to Gascony[61] once he saw the strength of the fortifications.

[62] The English passed within a few miles of the city and continued east, fording the strongly flowing Garonne and Ariège rivers;[63] the former was described by a member of the expedition as "rough, rocky and most frightening"[64] and the latter as even "more dangerous".

[58] The English continued to burn everything they could, targeting windmills in particular, as a region unable to grind its own grain was unlikely to be able to provide a surplus to support the French military.

[69] The major city of Carcassonne, 50 miles (80 km) east of Toulouse, was the cultural, political, religious and financial centre of the area[70] and was captured when the population abandoned the town and retreated to the strongly fortified citadel.

[71] The tax records for the region were also captured, which enabled the English to form an accurate view of the damage they were doing to the French economy and war effort.

[41][76] A major offensive so late in the year had not been expected and the Black Prince's willingness to march 300 miles (480 km) from his base, crossing rivers considered impassable to large bodies and living off the land, took the French completely by surprise.

[38][71] John of Armagnac, with Bourbon and Clermont, moved at least part of the French army to Homps, 15 miles (24 km) west of Narbonne, where the road crossed the River Aude.

[65][81] The English crossed the Aude north of Narbonne and then headed north-east towards Béziers;[82] their scouts reported that the town was strongly held, and so after a council of war they turned back to the west, expecting to have to fight Armagnac's force.

[78][86] The Black Prince pursued them as far as Carcassonne, where, struggling to forage in territory which had already been well picked over, he struck south towards the prosperous city of Limoux, which was destroyed.

[78][87][88] On Sunday 15 November the English army razed four large French towns and devastated the surrounding area, while their leaders were inducted as lay brothers at the Dominican monastery at Prouille.

On the 17th the Black Prince met with Gaston, Count of Foix, the most powerful French noble in the region after Armagnac, and a great enemy of his.

[96] The balance of the army returned to La Réole on 2 December, having marched 675 miles (1,100 km); the Black Prince and his entourage moved on to Bordeaux on the 9th.

[103] It was reported that the formal booty took 1,000 carts to transport; a gross exaggeration, but indicative of the impression the amount of loot seized made on contemporaries.

[1] The four main cities burnt down alone paid for 1,000 men-at-arms and generated an additional 100,000 écu in tax each year;[105] if unadulterated this would be approximately half a tonne (0.5 ton) of silver, or two per cent of the French Crown's annual income.

"[1] As well as the direct financial effects, towns throughout the south of France looked to their defences, spending large amounts over several years on building or repairing fortifications, and being much less willing to let troops raised locally serve away from home.

[105] Contemporaries, including the Black Prince, considered the chevauchée to have been as successful in non-financial terms as in financial, itemising the punishment of minor lords who had switched sides to the French; the persuasion of local magnates, especially Gaston of Foix, to move towards the English; the securing of Gascony against attack from the south; and the establishment of a moral ascendancy over the French forces.

[110] After a three-week break and an enthusiastic celebration of Christmas[111] the English force, plus a small number of Gascons, was divided into four groups and resumed the offensive.

[116][118] Reinforcements of men and horses and supplies of food and materiel arrived from England during the spring, and at the start of August 1356 the Black Prince headed north on another chevauchée with an Anglo-Gascon force of 6,000.