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1351-1360
1361-1370
1371-1380
1381-1390
1391-1400
1401-1410
1411-1420
1421-1430

Timeline
for
Our Period of Interest


1351-1360






1351 April French Royal Ordinance of 1351: Raises pay for Soldiers and in an attempt to curb the Right of Independent Withdrawal forbids nobles to leave the battlefield without the permission of the commanders.
1352   Parliament limits the English kings powers of conscription.
  6 January Foundation of the French Order of the Star.
[Grandes Chroniques Image]
    Battle of Mauron: Walter Bently, Edward III's commander in Brittany, defeats a French army, inflicting heavy casualties on the Blois - Penthièvre party.
1353 April Walter Bently is removed as Edward III's commander in Brittany, having failed to achieve any notable success in campaigns in the area below the Loire.
  June Walter Bently is imprisoned on his return to England
1354 January Philippe of Navarre, at the instigation of his brother Charles (the Bad) of Navarre, assassinates Constable Charles d'Espagne.
Charles lands in Normandy are confiscated.
  March King Jean and Charles of Navarre are officially reconciled.
[Grandes Chroniques Image]
1355 Midsummers Day The Black Prince sails to Bordeaux.
    The Black Prince leads a destructive raid into Languedoc.
  6 June Edward III orders Walter Bently released.
  End of October Henry, Duke of Lancaster and King Edward sail for Normandy.
  November Walter Bently, cleared of the charges against him, returns to Brittany, with his stepson, Olivier IV de Clisson.
  2 November Duke Henry and King Edward Land in Calais, raid in Pas de Calais, Artios and Picardy.
  5-7 November French Royal host is in Amiens.
  12 November French Royal host is in St. Omer. Between Amiens and there Jean burned or carried off provisions, leaving the English without supplies.
  by 15 November Facing a threat of Scottish invasion, and not wanting to spend the winter in France, Henry and Edward return to England.
  October-November Plaisance, Mont Giscar, Carcassone and Narbonne are pillaged by the Prince.
    Estates of Langued'oil (Northern France) meet in Paris, agree to support 30,000 man at arms, at a cost of 5,000,000 livres despite the grave misgivings of it's members, expressed by Etienne Marcel.
1356   Charles de Blois, having promised a large ransom to the English, is released. The ransom is never paid.
  April King Jean and Marshal d'Audrehem personally arrest Charles of Navarre, Jean de Harcourt and several other Norman lords for treason.
[Froissart's Chronicle Image]
Jean de Harcourt and the other minor lords are executed.
[Grandes Chroniques Image]
Charles of Navarre is imprisoned in the Chatelet, and his lands in Normandy are confiscated (again).
  3 September Prince Edward reaches the Loire but, finding the bridges burnt turns west towards Tours, where he has reports of a large French Army.
  First Week September French army gathers at Chartres.
  8-13 September French army crosses the Loire at Orleans, Blois and other points. The city forces, disaffected about taxes, withdraw, though according to Froissart King Jean dismisses them.
  12 September Prince Edward is in Montbazon, receives Cardinal Tallyrand, on a mission to negotiate a truce, which Edward refuses.
  17 September At a farm called La Chavoterie a French force led by Raoul de Coucy overtakes an English scouting party. They engage and, though outnumbered, the English win. Raoul is taken captive.
  Morning, 18 September King Jean and the French army block the line of march of Prince Edward. Edward draws up his forces for battle.
  mid morning, 18 September In response to pleas by Cardinal Tallyrand to maintain the Truce of God, given the fact that it was Sunday, King Jean agrees to delay battle until the next day.
English entrench their position.
  19 September Battle of Poitiers:
Capture of King Jean, 1 Archbishop, 13 Counts, 5 Viscounts, 21 Barons and Bannerets and Ap 2,000 knights, squires and men-at-arms. Most were released on their promise to bring their ransom to Bordeaux before Christmas.
[Grandes Chroniques Image][Froissart's Chronicle Image]
  O/A 20 September Edward withdraws to Bordeaux.
  October The Estates General is summoned in Paris, to raise money for defense. The 800 delegates vote themselves into a standing committee of 80, the rest depart. Etienne Marcel, Provost of Merchants of Paris confronts the Dauphin Charles and demands the dismissal of the seven most notoriously greedy of King Jean's councillors, the institution of a Council of Twenty-Eight to take their place, and the release of Charles of Navarre. The Dauphin Charles rejects their demands, and dismisses them.
[Grandes Chroniques Image]
  2 October Henry of Lancaster, Edward III's commander in Brittany, lays siege to Rennes.
  November After the Dauphin Charles leaves Paris the committee reforms and, inciting strikes and the arming of the public, forces Charles to return to Paris and reconvene the Estates General.
1357 February-March The Estates General write the Grand Ordinance, a sweeping attempt to reform the government of France.
By threats of mob violence Charles is forced to sign it as Regent of France.
  May King Jean repudiates Dauphin Charles' signature, and the Grand Ordinance.
Prince Edward returns to England escorting King Jean, and the significant French prisoners.
  Summer Charles goes on progress through the countryside.
Gradual collapse of all government outside of Paris, exacerbated by the rise of the Brigand Companies.
  August Charles, emboldened by the support he received on progress, reinstates the dismissed councillors, and dismisses the Council of Thirty-Six.
  November Charles of Navarre is released (or escapes) from prison in Picardy. He addresses a crowd in Paris and mentions that his claim to the throne is as least better that King Edward's. The crowd favors Navarre.
[Grandes Chroniques Image]
1358 11 January The Dauphin Charles reenters Paris with 2,000 men-at-arms, and addresses the crowd at Les Halles. The crowd favors the Dauphin.
[Grandes Chroniques Image]
Etienne Marcel raises a crowd, and storm the Palace. Regnaut d'Acy is killed in the streets, and Marshal Roger de Clermont and Marshal Jean de Conflans are slain in front of the Dauphin.
[Grandes Chroniques Image]
The crowd favors Marcel, but he looses the last of his support amongst the nobility.
  May The Dauphin orders the nobles along the water routes to Paris to fortify their castles, in order to blockade Paris.
  28 May At St. Leu the peasants of the town rise up and kill the local nobles (a knight, his wife and children) and burn the manor. The unrest quickly spreads, becoming the Jacquerie.
[Grandes Chroniques Image]
  9 June A large force of the Jauques (9000?) reach the city of Meaux, where the French royal family is in residence. They are confronted by the Captal de Buch and the Comte de Foix, with about 120 followers. Pandemonium ensues, and on the narrow bridge connecting the fortress to the town, where the peasants cannot make use of their superior numbers many are slaughtered.
[Grandes Chroniques Image][Froissart's Chronicle Image]
Meaux burned for two weeks, and the tide turned against the Jacques.
  June Charles of Navarre faces Guillame Caen, the leader of the Jacques, in battle. Charles invites Caen to parley, seizes him and beheads him, according to some sources after crowning him King of the Jacques with a crown of red hot iron.
  June Engurrand de Coucy hunts down and destroys the remaining bands of Jaques.
  by 24 June The Jacquerie is crushed between Seine and Marne.
  July Charles of Navarre enters Paris, and again addressing the crowd, makes a bid for the crown.
[Grandes Chroniques Image]Etienne Marcel plans to turn the city over to him.
The English are ravaging the outskirts of the city on a daily basis.
  22 July Charles brings a band of English men-at-arms into Paris, where an enraged crown attacks them, driving them into the Louvre.
  31 July At the Port St. Denis Marcel orders the guard to give the keys to the city to Charles of Navarre. They refuse and a riot breaks out. Marcel tries again later, at the Port de St. Antoine, with the same result, only this time he is caught in the rioting and trampled to death in the streets.
[Froissart's Chronicle Image]
  2 August Paris opens it's gates to the Dauphin, who proclaims a pardon for all, except those of of Navarre and Marcel's party, who are executed or banished.
  10 August After angry demonstrations result from an attempt to arrest more of Marcel's followers, the Dauphin issues a general amnesty.
  23 August Isabella, the She-Wolf of France, widow of Edward II, dies.
    In St. Denis, Charles of Navarre defies the Dauphin, and renews his alliance with the King of England.
1359   King Jean signs the Treaty of London, surrendering most of western France and agreeing to pay 4,000,000 gold ecus ransom.
  19 May The Estates General at Paris reject the treaty, and order war to be made on England.
  August Charles of Navarre is reconciled with the Dauphin, and through him the King (again).
[Grandes Chroniques Image]
  End of October King Edward sets out with a massive force from England, landing in Calais.
    The Dauphin pursues a policy of avoiding pitched battle.
  1st week December Edward reaches Reims, having encountered no resistance. He is low on supplies, Picardie having been ravaged by the Companies, and the suppression of the Jacquerie.
In the interim, Reims has increased it's fortifications, and destroyed all the buildings outside the walls that could shelter him.
[Froissart's Chronicle Image]
1360 2nd or 3rd week January Edward lifts the siege of Reims, and marches to Burgundy, to pillage.
  1 March King Jean is moved from Lincolnshire to the Tower of London.
  15 March Engurrand Ringoes, with a force of @ 2000, lands in Winchelsea and takes and pillages the town. Alarms fly out across England, panic ensues.
  16 March Rye is likewise pillaged. The French return to Winchelsea and then to France.
  End of March Philip de Rouvre, Duc de Bourgogne, pays Edward 200,000 moutons to leave. Edward turns and marches towards Paris.
  1st week April Edward invests Paris for siege, issuing challenges to fight. The Dauphin remains behind the walls.
  Second week April After burning the outskirts of Paris for a week, Edward picks up and moves towards Chartres.
  13 April Black Monday - While camped on the approach to Chartres the English army is devastated by a storm of immense hail and freezing rain. Yielding to the wrath of heaven (and the advice of the Duke of Lancaster) Edward agrees to negotiate a peace.
  8 May Treaty of Bretigny is signed. Jean's ransom is reduced to 3,000,000 ecus, and Edward renounces the crown of France, and any territories not covered by the treaty. Edward is granted Guienne and Calais free of homage, and large grants of land were made between the Loire and the Pyrenees, amounting to approximately a third of France. Forty hostages are to be sent to England to ensure compliance.
  July King Jean is returned to Calais and kept there pending the delivery of the first installment of his ransom.
  End of July King Jean notifies the clergy, nobles, towns and inhabitants of Poitou that the region is being turned over to the English. Sir John Chandos travels through the region receiving homages on behalf of Edward III.
  Mid-October Jean's daughter is married to the son of Galeazzo Visconti, in return for a payment of 600,000 florins.
  24 October A payment of 400,000 ecus is made to the English at Calais. It is less than the the stipulated 600,000, but it is accepted. The treaty is ratified, with some slight modifications, as the Treaty of Calais. Jean returns to Paris.
[Grandes Chroniques Image]
  28 October The party of hostages sails for England.


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