Treaty of Guînes

Encouraged by the new pope, Innocent VI, negotiations for a permanent peace treaty opened at Guînes in early March 1353.

A series of disagreements between France and England regarding the status of these lands culminated on 24 May 1337 in the council of the French king, Philip VI, declaring them forfeit.

[1][2] In 1340 the English king, Edward III, as the closest male relative of Philip's predecessor Charles IV, laid formal claim to the Kingdom of France.

[3] In 1346 Edward led an army across northern France, storming and sacking the Norman town of Caen, defeating the French with great loss of life at the Battle of Crécy and laying siege to the port of Calais.

With French finances and morale at a low ebb after Crécy,[4] Philip failed to relieve the town and the starving defenders surrendered on 3 August 1347.

[9] In early January 1352 a band of freelancing English soldiers seized the French-held town of Guînes by a midnight escalade.

[13] These could not compete with the strength of the defences at Guînes that would greatly improve the security of the English enclave around Calais, but retaining it would be a flagrant breach of the truce then in force.

Several members of the King's Council made fiery, warmongering speeches and the parliament was persuaded to approve three years of war taxes.

[12] The resumption of hostilities caused fighting to flare up in Brittany and the Saintonge area of south-west France, but the main French effort was against Guînes.

From there they harassed the French in what the modern historian Jonathan Sumption describes as "savage and continual fighting" throughout June and early July.

In mid-July a large contingent of troops arrived from England and, reinforced by much of the Calais garrison, were successful in approaching Guînes undetected and launching a night attack on the French camp.

[17] in August the French army in Brittany was defeated by a smaller English force at the Battle of Mauron with heavy losses, especially among its leadership and men-at-arms.

The new pope, Innocent VI, a relative of John's,[21] encouraged negotiations for a permanent peace treaty and discussions opened at Guînes in early March 1353 overseen by the Cardinal Guy of Boulogne.

[23] The English sent a senior deputation: Henry of Lancaster, one of Edward's most trusted and experienced military lieutenants; Michael Northburgh, keeper of the privy seal; William Bateman the Bishop of Norwich, the most experienced diplomat in England; and Simon Islip, an ex-keeper of the privy seal and the archbishop of Canterbury; among others.

The French responded on 8 May by cancelling the truce and announcing an arrière-ban for Normandy, a formal call to arms for all able-bodied males.

The negotiators met briefly in Paris on 26 July and extended the truce until November, although all concerned understood that much fighting would continue.

[27][28] Navarre and John formally reconciled in March 1354 and a new balance within the French government was reached; this was more in favour of peace with England, in some quarters at almost any price.

England was to gain the whole of Aquitaine, Poitou, Maine, Anjou, Touraine and Limousin – the large majority of western France – as well as Ponthieu and the Pale of Calais.

[35] The truce was to be immediately publicised, while the fact that the outline of a peace treaty had been agreed was to be kept secret until 1 October, when Innocent would announce it at the papal palace in Avignon.

[36] The English adhered to the truce, but John of Armagnac, the French commander in the south-west, ignored his orders to observe the peace; however, his offensive was ineffectual.

In August it was revealed that several of the men who had negotiated and signed the treaty had been deeply involved in the plot to murder Charles of Spain.

John had meanwhile decided that another round of warfare might leave him in a better negotiating position and the French planned an ambitious series of offensives for the 1355 campaigning season.

By this treaty vast areas of France were ceded to England, including Guînes and its county which became part of the Pale of Calais.