v.] THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. 59 city while the murderer of the marshals was alive ; and Marcel, forsaken by all, was struck down in a crowd and slain in 1358, just as he was going, in his despair, to pro- claim Charles the Bad king of France. He seems to have been a man with an honest desire to redress wrongs and obtain right, but nobody really understood or sup- ported him, and he was left to perish. It was the first of the many efforts against oppression always with some murder, and many bravados, which only ended in rivet- ing the yoke on the French, while the English, without words and with few blows, gained tlie point by steady firmness. 9. The Peace of Bretigny, 1360. — King John in 1360 signed a treaty with England by which he obtained his freedom on condition of yielding all that the ancestors of Edward had held — in fact all the Atlantic coast of France ; but the whole people, with the Dauphin at their head, refused to be bound by it. On this Edward made another invasion, meaning to be crowned at Rheims ; but he failed to take the city, and as the wretched country had been untilled for three years, lack of food drove him back into Britanny. The Pope, Inno- cent VI., interfered, and by his means was concluded the famous Peace of BretigJiy. By this Edward resigned his claims to the French crown and to Normandy, Maine, and Anjou ; but he kept Guienne, Saintonge, Gascony, Poitou, Ponthieu, and Calais in independent sove- reignty, with no duty of homage to the King of France. Edward now gave up his title of king of France, and called himself Lord of Aquitaine, in- stead of Duke. The Prince of Wales received these lands in fief with the title of Prince of Aquitaine, and held a splendid court at Bourdeaux. John's ransom was fixed at 30,000,000 crowns of gold, of which 60,000 were paid at once, being obtained from the Milanese family of Viscojiti. For the remainder the king's second and third sons, Lewis, Duke of Anjou, and John, Duke of Berry became hostages, being allowed to live at Calais, and spend four days at a time ayay from it. The Duke of Anjou broke his word, left Calais, and never returned ; and his father always punctilious in dealings with equals, and finding his prison a place of more ease than his throne, held himself bound to go back and surrender himself to Edward. He was received with great feasts, in the midst of which he died
