And that is why we will never share the opinion of your men, that we should not encounter them."
"By my faith," replied the
king, "you have spoken eloquently and loyally. In this war and in others I will henceforth follow your counsel, for my lord and
father and I have always found it more than dependable. And may God have mercy on the soul of
Sir Bertrand du Guesclin, for he was a steadfast knight who, during his lifetime, helped us to many great and important victories."
The words, advice, and all of the responses which
king Juan of Castile received that day from the knights of
France and
Béarn became known to the earls and barons of
Spain, which made them severely displeased for two reasons. For one because it seemed to them that the
king had greater confidence in foreigners than in those who were his liegemen and who had crowned him. For another because the French knights had advised the
king to keep them where they were, whereas they were tired of warring. So they fell to talking amongst themselves on a number of issues, not in the public eye but in private, saying,
"The
king does not know how to wage war except with the help of
Frenchmen, and neither did his
father."
They began to feel envious of the
French, and this became readily apparent to the varlets and foragers of the Gascon and French knights. They had lodged all the
French and French-speakers together, but when out foraging, the
Spanish were stronger than the
French. They took away their provisions and beat and wounded them, so much so that complaints eventually reached the
king. The
king then censured his marshal
Sir Arnaud Limousin for it, demanding to know why he had not prevented it. The
marshal of the army expressed regret and said that, God help him, he knew nothing about it but would promptly take the matter in hand.
So he immediately appointed men-at-arms in the fields to guard the roads to enable the
French foragers to ride out in safety. He also issued a proclamation that any person with goods and foraged provisions should bring them or have them carried or otherwise conveyed to the army at
Santarém where they would fetch a fair price. The foreigners did well out of this, for the proclamation also stipulated that they should be served before anyone else, a requirement which the
Spanish greatly resented.
SHF 3-34 syncNow it came about that, the very week the
king of Spain and all his men decamped and broke the siege of
Lisbon, three huge vessels loaded with English men-at-arms and archers sailed into
Lisbon harbour; there must have been around five hundred of them in total. I can tell you that three quarters of them were companion adventurers, unpaid and under no command, from
Calais,
Cherbourg,
Brest in
Brittany and
Mortagne in
Poitou. They had heard tell of the war between the
king of Castile and the
king of Portugal and so had come to
Bordeaux where they had gathered together and said,
"Let us go in search of an adventure in
Portugal. There we will find someone to fall in with and employ us."
Sir John Harpenden, who was
seneschal of Bordeaux at the time, had strongly advised them to do so, for he did not want them to remain gathered in the
Bordelais region. They would have done more harm than good there, for they were all companion adventurers with nothing to lose.
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