not rule in France; nor could any man have any right to rule there through his mother. What they really cared about was that they should be ruled by a Frenchman, and not by an Englishman. In fact, what was good for France was good for England too. It could only bring harm to Englishmen that thousands of them should kill and be killed in order to make Frenchmen obey a foreigner. They might win battles and be talked of at home; but they were sure to fail in the end. War is sometimes a duty, but a war of this kind is wicked and ruinous. If Edward had been content to fight for the independence of Flanders, he would have been able to have ended his war by a peace which would probably have lasted a long time. By fighting for the crown of France, he engaged in a war which could not end till the English were driven out of France.

6. The Battle of Crecy and the Siege of Calais.— Edward's first victory was in a sea-fight at Sluys, where 30,000 Frenchmen were slain or drowned. After a little time Edward III. gained a still greater victory at Crecy. Just as the English at Senlac continued fighting on foot with axes, though the Normans had long ago learned to fight on horseback, so the French at Crecy (1346) continued to fight on horseback after the English had learned to fight on foot with the bow, though the English knights and gentlemen still fought on horseback. The French indeed had a number of Genoese archers, but the French gentlemen on horseback despised every one who fought on foot. A shower came on and wet the bow-strings of the Genoese archers, so

that they were not ready to use their weapons. Philip VI. called out to his gentlemen to ride in amongst these poor Genoese archers and to cut them down, as if they were mere useless lumber. The English bowmen kept their bows in cases till the rain was over. They were free men long accustomed to shoot strongly and steadily at the mark. Down went those gay and gallant French horsemen before the pitiless shower of arrows, and the English knights charging amongst them completed the victory. The King's eldest son, the Black Prince as he was called, bore himself nobly on that day, boy as he was. Once during the fight some one, who saw him hard pressed, called on Edward to send him aid. 6 No,' said Edward, 'let the boy win his spurs.' The spurs were the mark which distinguished the knights from the lower ranks, or from those who were only learning to fight. Not long after the battle of Crecy, Edward besieged Calais. He did not take it for eleven months. When there was no longer anything to eat in the town, the chief citizens came out to beg for mercy, with cords in their hands, to show that they were ready to be hanged. The king showed mercy to them, but he turned almost every Frenchman out of Calais and filled it with Englishmen, so that it remained an English town for more than 200 years.

7. The Battle of Poitiers.-Ten years after the Battle of Crecy, the Black Prince won for himself another great victory at Poitiers. Philip VI. had died, and his son John was by that time king of France. He ordered his knights to charge up a lane at the end of which was the small army of the Black

Prince, but he did not know that on either side of the lane there were English archers behind the hedges till the arrows began to fly. As the horses were struck down, those behind fell over them as they lay on the ground in that narrow space. In a moment the proud French army was in confusion. The Black Prince charged, and the victory was complete. King John himself was taken prisoner.

8. Chivalry. It was the duty of a knight to fight bravely. It was also his duty when the battle was over to treat knights and gentlemen with gentleness and mercy. The word Chivalry, which means that which befits a knight, is still used whenever a man who is strong employs his strength to help those who are weak, more especially to help and protect a woman. After the battle the Prince led John to his own tent, and set him down to the dinner provided for himself. Then he stood behind his chair and waited on him like a servant. Conduct of this kind is the best thing of which we hear in those fierce days. Unfortunately gentleness was not shown to all alike. It was not thought at all necessary to treat kindly any one who was not a knight or a gentleman. The English used their strength to plunder and destroy. Poor French peasants had their cottages burnt, their little store of money carried off, their vine-trees cut down, their corn reaped or trodden under foot. On one occasion, some years later, a town named Limoges, in which the soldiers had refused to surrender, was given over to destruction by the Black Prince himself, and the brave warrior, who was usually so gentle, looked