Following the fall of Calais in 1347 a truce had been concluded, but in 1349 open warfare broke out again, the most conspicuous event of that year being Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster's raid deep into Languedoc to the walls of Toulouse.

James belonged to the party fronted by the dowager queens, Jeanne and Blanche d'Évreux, who lobbied John on Charles's behalf.

However, by the time John II's letters reached Pamplona, the capital of Navarre, Charles and his army had already embarked with a course for the Cotentin Peninsula in Normandy.

In autumn 1355 the Constable was in the south where he, together with John I, Count of Armagnac, who commanded an army of local troops, and the Marshal Jean de Clermont were to defend against the expected invasion of the Edward, Prince of Wales.

Thinking the English might attempt to invest the city from both sides, the Constable left for Montauban to hold the crossings of the Tarn and the Garonne.

The Constable and Armagnac followed him east and taking up camp at the town of Homps on the river Aude seem first to have intended to cut off retreat and force him to battle on their own terms.

During the whole campaign Armagnac had insisted on avoiding battle at all cost, concentrating on defending the principal cities and river crossings, thus abandoning the countryside to the English.

The French conduct of the defence was deeply unpopular in the south and although the Constable had not agreed to Armagnac's strategy and gave the King his own eye-witness account he could not escape the blame directed against the three commanders.

On 12 November 1355, the day following Edward III of England's return to Calais, after a largely fruitless raid into Picardy, James and the Marshal Arnoul d'Audrehem were behind an abortive proposal to settle the war in single combat between the two kings.

While the English were at peace with France, the discharged mercenary companies found new employment by ravaging the countryside and holding whole cities for ransom.

Soon after his return from captivity, King John II commissioned James and Jean de Tancarville to raise an army to put down the "Free Companies" under the informal leadership of Petit Meschin before they could overrun Burgundy.