Truce of Calais

After inflicting a heavy defeat on Philip and a French army at the Battle of Crécy the English besieged Calais, which fell after 11 months.

Both countries were financially and militarily exhausted and two cardinals acting for Pope Clement were able to broker a truce in a series of negotiations outside Calais.

While the truce was in effect neither country campaigned with a full field army, but it did not stop repeated naval clashes nor fighting in Gascony and Brittany.

English adventurers seized the strategically located town of Guînes in January 1352, causing full-scale fighting to break out again, which went badly for the French.

In 1369 large-scale fighting broke out again and the Hundred Years' War did not end until 1453, by which time England had lost all its territory in France other than Calais.

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.

Philip, under pressure from representatives of Pope Clement VI, sent envoys offering peace backed by a marriage alliance; Edward replied that he was not prepared to lose marching time to futile discussion and dismissed them.

It was also surrounded by extensive marshes, some of them tidal, which made it difficult to find stable platforms for trebuchets and other artillery capable of breaching its walls.

On 9 September Philip announced that the army would reassemble at Compiègne on 1 October, an impossibly short interval, and then march to the relief of Calais.

Recriminations were rife: officials at all levels of the Chambre des Comptes (the French treasury) were dismissed and all financial affairs were put into the hands of a committee of three senior abbots.

Joan II, Queen of Navarre, daughter of a king of France (Louis X), and previously a partisan of Philip, declared neutrality and signed a private truce with the English.

[29] Between mid-November and late February Edward made several attempts to breach the walls of Calais with trebuchets or cannon and to take the town by assault; all were unsuccessful.

Philip attempted to take the field in late April, but the French ability to assemble their army in a timely fashion had not improved since the autumn and by July it had still not fully mustered.

[30] In late April the English established a fortification on the end of a spit of sand to the north of Calais, which enabled them to command the entrance to the harbour.

On 1 August the garrison of Calais, having observed the French army seemingly within reach for a week, signalled they were on the verge of surrender.

[38] Edward also had difficulties in raising money, partly because of the unexpected timing of the need; he employed draconian measures, which were extremely unpopular.

[40] The two cardinals acting as papal emissaries from Pope Clement had been attempting to negotiate a halt to hostilities since July 1346, with no success.

[43] The plague was to eventually cause the death of approximately 45 per cent of the population of each country[44][45] and it brought military preparations to a halt.

While this was happening negotiations to renew the truce opened at Guînes, 13 kilometres (8 mi) south of Calais, on 7 July, but made slow progress.

Once their campaign in the south west was successfully completed John authorised the new truce, which was formally agreed on 11 September to last one year.

Encouraged by the new pope, Innocent VI,[51] negotiations for a permanent peace treaty opened at Guînes in early March 1353.

These broke down and on 8 May the French cancelled 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.

[53][54] 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.

[57] The prolongation of 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.

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 decided 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.

[63][64] In April 1355 two papal emissaries appealed to Edward and his council to extend the Truce of Calais once again, but they were rebuffed and the agreement finally lapsed.

[69] In 1369 large-scale fighting broke out again and the Hundred Years' War did not end until 1453, by which time England had lost all its territory in France other than Calais.