Treaty of Brétigny
The treated of Brétigny is signed the May 8th 1360, with Brétigny, (a hamlet depend on the commune of Sours close to Chartres), between Edouard III of England and Jean II the Good. It allows a nine years truce in the Guerre One hundred Year old.
Context
For 200 years of the conflicts with repetitions between English and French have reduced the English possessions on the continent (Normandy and most of Aquitaine was recovered gradually by the Capétiens).The Guerre One hundred Year old was started because of a dynastic quarrel for the Succession of Charles IV Beautiful the. Edouard III of England, being small son of Philippe the Beautiful one, could claim with the throne of France, but it was drawn aside, and Philippe VI of Valois was preferred for nationalist reasons.
The first phase of the war was marked by cuisantes French defeats with Crécy and Poitiers. The political organization and military French being based on feudality, the English army, numerically but very more reduced organized, could gained crushing victories which discredited the French nobility.
The king Jean II the Good was made prisoner with the Bataille of Poitiers in 1356 and is retained in London.
The English tried to impose a first treaty of London where the release of the king would have been done against 4 million books and the transfer of all Aquitaine to the kingdom of England. This treaty would not have involved renunciation of Edouard III of the throne of France.
But, the French defeats discredited the nobility and in 1358 the country is devastated by the revolt of the Parisian commercial rich person carried out by Etienne Marcel. In addition, Charles the Bad, other claiming with the throne of France, wanted to benefit from the Jacquerie S to seize the power. The English thus will increase their claims with the second treaty of London where they claim Aquitaine and Normandy (one the third of the French territory) but conceive that to obtain a durable peace, it is necessary to give up the crown of France. However to obtain the ratification of this treaty, one needs the downstream of Charles V which exerts regency during the captivity of his/her father. This one, and with the secret agreement of Jean II, joins together the General states which refuse the agreement, which makes it possible to clear the king and the regent and avoids a disastrous fate with Jean the Good. Edouard III thus organizes a new ride which must lead it to Rheims, the city of the sacring.
Contrary to the Chevauchée S of 1346 and 1356 which showed crushing English victories with Crécy and Poitiers, this one is a fiasco. Edouard III is confronted with the tactic of the deserted Ground, badgered with all shares, famished, deprived of horses (deaths for lack of fodder). The remainders of its army are decimated by a terrible storm of hail which is interpreted like a divine sign. Finally he learns that Normands sailors attacked and plundered the port of Winchelsea (March 1360) sowing a true panic in England. He re-embarks piteously, after having negotiated the preliminary agreements with the future treaty of Brétigny. Its dream to be crowned king de France, disappeared with this failure and it monnaye peace against the king of France which it retains as an hostage since the battle of Poitiers.
The treaty
The treaty puts a term at the four years of captivity to London of Jean II the Good which is prisoner of the English since the Bataille of Poitiers of the September 19th 1356. The king of France is released against payment of a ransom of 3 million ecus of gold which, moreover, will not be paid entirely. Hostages are delivered to guarantee the payment, of which most important is undoubtedly its ambassador and adviser: Bonabes IV of Red and Derval.
The English obtains the Guyenne and the Gascogne in all sovereignty like Calais, the Ponthieu and the Comté of Guines. He also obtains the Poitou - of which one of wire of Jean II, Jean, is however count -, the Périgord, the the Limousin, the Angoumois and the Saintonge. Lastly, it becomes sovereign of all the grounds of the county of Armagnac by receiving the Agenais, the Quercy, the Rouergue, the Bigorre and the Comté of Gaure.
On the other hand, Edouard III gives up the duchies of Normandy and Touraine, in told of Maine and of Anjou and with suzerainty on Brittany and Flandres. He especially gives up asserting the crown of France. This treaty aims at defusing all the objections which led to the release of the conflict.
Effects
Charles V had need of time to reorganize the country and to put an end to the instability which reigned there. It thus sends Bertrand of Guesclin to gather the Grandes companies which devastate the campaigns to fight Pierre Cruel the in Castille. That occupies the English (allies with Pierre the Cruel one) in Spain and will make it possible to tie an invaluable alliance with the new king de Castille Henri de Trastamare. The ransom only will be partially paid and the treated of Brétigny-Calais was not durable. But it allowed a nine years truce during the Guerre One hundred Year old (1337-1453).
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