Chronicles

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1400

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Book 1, Chapters 11-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 11 Summary: “The Siege of Breteuil and the Poitiers Campaign”

King Philip VI died and was succeeded by his son, who became King John II. Another rival claimant to the French throne, John’s cousin Charles “the Bad,” King of Navarre, plotted against him. However, Charles the Bad was put in prison, though his allies and family in Normandy continued resisting John II. The French attacked Evreux and Breteuil, both part of Charles the Bad’s territories. They conquered Evreux and began to besiege Breteuil. Charles the Bad’s men defended Breteuil using “Greek fire,” a chemical used in warfare that burns easily and is difficult to extinguish. Kept at bay, the French tried filling the castle’s moat.

Edward III’s son, now known as the “Black Prince,” sailed for Aquitaine to deal with pro-French sympathizers. After successfully subjugating the area, the Black Prince set out for Normandy to aid the supporters of Charles the Bad. Eager to stop the Black Prince’s army from looting the countryside, John II agreed to spare the men at Breteuil as long as they surrendered the castle and their possessions. A detachment of English defeated a French battalion, forcing them to take refuge in the castle of Romorantin. Despite the Black Prince’s larger force, the French were able to resist him and inflict casualties on his army. The Black Prince resorted to launching fire at Romorantin. The strategy worked, forcing the knights there to surrender and become the Black Prince’s prisoners. From there, the Black Prince continued to raze southwest France with John II and his army in pursuit. After defeating some French soldiers who fell behind the main army, the Black Prince managed to follow behind the French. John II decided to turn around and confront the English near the city of Poitiers.

Before the battle, John II was advised to try to “scatter” (128) the archers in the English army using cavalry. Also, the Cardinal de Périgord approached both the Black Prince and John II on behalf of the Pope to try to broker a peace truce. However, John II refused any terms less than “four-fifths” (131) of the army submitting themselves as prisoners, including the Black Prince himself, and an unconditional surrender, even when the Black Prince offered to give up all the territory he captured and agree to a seven-year truce. The Cardinal’s efforts fail.

Meanwhile, two knights on opposite sides of the conflict, Jean de Clermont, the Marshal of France, and John Chandos, both noticed they were wearing the emblems of the same lady and threaten each other. During the fighting, Jean de Clermont was killed, and Froissart claims it was believed that it was because of his feud with John Chandos. The English won the battle. Froissart again credits the English victory to the English archers: “If the truth must be told, the English archers were a huge asset to their side and a terror to the French… (135).

Still, Froissart argues that the French fought better at Poitiers than they had at Crécy. Also, he notes that this time most nobles were taken prisoner, not killed. The French army was forced to flee, and John II himself was captured. Further, there were so many prisoners from the battle the English “ransom them on the spot” (143). The Black Prince even held a feast for John II and the other captives and told John II, “In my opinion, you have good cause to be cheerful, although the battle did not go in your favour, for today you have won the highest renown of a warrior, excelling the best of your knights” (144). Afterward, the English army marched back to Bordeaux with the King of France and the other prisoners in tow.

Chapter 12 Summary: “Consequences of Poitiers”

Naturally, the French were “deeply disturbed” (146) that their king had been taken prisoner, and the king’s sons were all too young to take command. Representatives of the clergy, nobility, and burghers of France met in Paris to discuss what was to be done. They created a body of representatives from all three classes, the Three Estates, to decide on policies. The Three Estates ordered the arrest of the king’s former counselors to “render a true account of all the funds which had been levied and collected on their advice” (147). These ministers all flee the country. Also, the Three Estates minted a new gold coin and appointed their own ministers to handle the administration of taxes, loans, and other sources of government income.

A knight in the service of France, Regnault de Cervoles, nicknamed “the Archpriest,” revolted when his pay ended with the capture of John II. Raising his own force, he began to pillage Provence in southern France. When Cervoles threatened Avignon, the city in southern France where the Pope was then located, the Pope invited him to a feast and forgave him for all his sins in exchange for leaving them alone. More bands of former soldiers, called the Free Companies, began looting lands around Paris. “No place was safe from being attacked and pillaged unless it was strongly defended…” (149).

Étienne Marcel, the Provost of the Merchants of Paris and one of the leaders of the Three Estates, demanded that John II’s son and heir Charles, the Duke of Normandy, give him a greater share of the government to deal with the Free Companies. An argument arose between the Duke and his men and Marcel that three members of the Duke’s council were killed “so close to him that his robe was splashed with blood and he himself was in great danger” (150). The Duke had to pardon the killers and wear one of the caps worn by Marcel’s supporters.

Under Marcel’s orders, Charles the Bad was released from prison. Publicly Charles the Bad claimed he was falsely imprisoned and that he had a better claim to the French throne than Edward III. In Paris, Charles the Bad proved more popular than the heir to the throne. By 1348, peasant revolts broke out called the Jacquerie. Froissart alleges that peasants brutalized and murdered knights and their families. “Never did men commit such vile deeds” (151-152). The nobles of the regions attacked by the Jacquerie were forced to call upon their allies in the Netherlands. The Jacquerie took over the town of Meaux, threatening the lives of the Duchess of Normandy and the Duchess of Orléans, who had taken refuge there with other nobles. Forces led by nobles from the region rescued them, however, and Froissart claims they killed “seven thousand” (155) of the Jacquerie. After that, the revolts came to an end.

Back in Paris, Charles the Bad supported Marcel but made a secret agreement with the Duke of Normandy, who had been made the Regent of France in the name of his father. In their power struggle, Marcel and the Duke of Normandy resorted to armed support. A fight broke out between Marcel’s Navarrese and English mercenaries and Parisian citizens, resulting in the deaths of 60 mercenaries (156). For the sake of peace, Marcel imprisoned many mercenaries and promised to investigate their crimes but secretly released them later. In revenge, they threatened the people of Paris. As a result, Marcel and many of his supporters were murdered during a revolt by the citizens.

Still, disorder continued in the countryside. “The kingdom of France was plundered and pillaged in every direction, so that it became impossible to ride anywhere without being attacked” (161). Froissart recounts the stories of Eustace d’Aubrechecourt, a noble brigand who dominated the region of Champagne and fell in love with a noblewoman, and an English squire, whose horse went mad until they both broke their necks after the squire attacked and robbed a priest. Also, Froissart tells how an English knight named Lord Burghersh captured a French castle by hiring miners to dig under the fortress’s tower.

Finally, Froissart describes a friar named Jean de la Rochetaillade who was imprisoned by order of the Pope because of his alleged prophecies. He predicted “misfortunes” for the Church “on account of the excessive luxury and pomp in which they lived” and for the nobility because of how they “oppressed the common people” (165). Froissart claims that some of his predictions came true, including his prediction that the war between England and France would not end until the land of France was devastated.

Chapters 11-12 Analysis

In writing about Religion and the Church, Froissart gives space to an alleged prophet who was critical of the Church, Jean de la Rochetaillade. His prophecies especially drew attention to the luxuries enjoyed by the clergy (165) despite the negative attitudes toward wealth shown in the Gospels. This was a common criticism of the medieval Church. Also, Rochetaillade’s criticisms reflect the relocation of the papacy to Avalon, where the papacy enjoyed unprecedented wealth and became a political pawn of the French monarchy, and the coming Great Schism between rival popes in Rome and Avignon.

The fact that King John II of France and other French captives were given a feast hosted by the Black Prince after the catastrophic French defeat at Poitiers is another insight into Chivalry, Honor, and War. Despite being the leader of an enemy people, John II is still treated well according to international rules shared between the royalty and nobility of different Christian kingdoms. At the same time, the rise to power of Étienne Marcel and the outbreak of the Jacquerie of the growing power of the burgher class and revolts by commoners, a recurring part of Froissart’s interest in Nobility, Burghers, and Peasants. As Brereton noted, Froissart is hostile to peasant rebellions like the Jacquerie. He focuses on atrocities blamed on them more so than he dwells on the violence committed by Étienne Marcel’s middle-class movement and describes the participants of the Jacquerie as “evil men” and “mad dogs” (151) whose extermination at the hands of nobles was entirely justified.