Chapter XLIV

THE DUKE OF NORMANDY MARCHES WITH A GREAT ARMY INTO GASCONY, AGAINST THE EARL OF DERBY.

The King of France, having received information of the expeditions and conquests that the Earl of Derby had made in Gascony, issued a special summons for all nobles and others that were capable of bearing arms to assemble in the cities of Orleans and Bourges, and in that neighborhood, by a certain day.

At last these lords were all assembled, with their men, in and near Toulouse, for they were too great in numbers to be lodged in the city: they amounted, in the whole, to upward of a hundred thousand persons. This was the year of grace 1345. Soon after the feast of Christmas, the Duke of Normandy, who was the commander-in-chief of this army, set out to join it, and ordered his marshals, the Lord of Montmorency and the Lord of St. Venant, to advance with the van. They came first to the castle of Miraumont, which the English had conquered in the summer, and most vigorously assaulted it. There were within about a hundred Englishmen for its defence, under the command of John Briscoe.

With the French were the Lord Lewis of Spain, and a number of Genoese crossbow-men, that spared none. Those within could not defend themselves against so superior a force, but were taken, and the greater part of them slain, even their captain. The marshals, having recruited their battalion with fresh men, advanced farther, and came before Villefranche, in the county of Agenois. The army halted there, and surrounded it on all sides. Sir Thomas Cook, the governor, was not there, but at Bordeaux, whither the Earl of Derby had sent for him. However, those within made a vigorous defence; but in the end they were taken by storm, and the greater part of the garrison put to the sword. The army then marched toward the city of Angoulême, leaving the town and castle of Villefranche standing undemolished, and without any guard. The city of Angoulême was closely besieged: the governor of it for the King of England was Sir John Norwich.