54 HISTORY OF FRANCE. [chap. at Vannes, in which the English party were worsted and Robert of Artois killed, a truce was made, during which Philip gave a splendid festival at Paris, defraying the cost with the gabelle, a tax which had been levied on salt to meet the expenses of the war. He took the oppor- tunity of seizing fifteen of his guests, Breton and Norman nobles, who had been inclined to the English, and putting them to death, thus rendering the French name hateful in Britanny. John of Montfort escaped from prison, but only to die ; and while his young son was bred up in England the war was carried on by his widow. In 1345 Jacob von Artevelde, whose measures on the behalf of England had affronted the mob of Ghent, so that they attacked and plundered his house, was killed together with seventy of his friends. 4. Campaign of Crecy, 1346. — Gcoffry of Harcourt, a Norman lord estranged from Philip by his violence, per- suaded Edward to land in Normandy. After ravaging that duchy the English were marching towards Flanders to obtain supplies when Philip, with 3,000 horse, 30,000 foot, and 6,000 Genoese archers, intercepted them in Ponthieu, meaning to bar the passage of the Somme. In his army were a crowd of foreign princes, especially the king's father-in-law, John of Luxemburg, king of Bohemia, the son of the Emperor Henry the Seventh, and his son Charles, who had just been chosen King of the Romans, in opposition to Edward's friend Lewis of Bavaria. King John was now old and blind, but he still fought as a knight errant. There were also princes of Lorraine and Savoy, and a force of mercenary Genoese cross -bowmen. France had a gallant cavalry in her nobles, but no infantry to oppose to the yeomen archers of England. Edward was posted at Crecy, where Philip gave battle on the 25th of August, 1236, immediately on coming up after a march on a sultry showery day. The bow strings of the Genoese who were sent on in front, were damp, and their arrows would not fly, and the poor men were between the enemy and the French knights who wanted to charge. " Clear away this rabble ! " cried Philip ; so the knights began by cutting down their own hired allies, the English archers on the hill above making havoc of them. Though the Count of Alencon for a moment broke the English ranks, the fight was nothing but a rout, chiefly fatal to the bravest, among whom was the King of Bohemia. The two other kings, Charles and Philip, escaped, leaving dead on the
