The
duke of Berry, the
duke of Burgundy and the king's council had written many times about this to the aforementioned
duke, for then, as you know, the young
king of France was governed by his
uncles. They had besought the
duke of Brittany to make every effort to reclaim his inheritance of the
castle of Brest, which was a discredit to him while
Englishmen were in possession of it. The
duke, in compliance with the entreaties of these men, as well as for the fact that he was himself eager to be seen as the lord of
Brest, had laid siege to it once before but had not achieved anything. When he departed he said that nothing could be done, for which several Breton knights and squires murmured behind his back saying that he was avoiding the matter and that those holding it were his great friends, and would not on any account wish it to fall into his own hands or the grasp of the
king of France, for if the
French held it he would no longer be the lord, but much weaker. Whereas while the
English were in possession, they would not dare to upset him. After careful consideration of these matters the
constable of France concluded that the castle and town of
Brest, which were closed up and hostile to the kingdom of
France, in so far as the
duke of Brittany was content to leave things as they were, was not in an honourable posture with regard either to himself or to the knights of
Brittany. He therefore ordered it to be besieged and sent a great many knights and squires of
Brittany under the command of the
lord of Malestroit, the
viscount of la Bellière,
Morfouace and the
lord of la Roche-Derrien.
These four courageous men laid the siege as near to
Brest as they could and had a fine timber fortification erected before it, surrounded by palisades and gates which effectively sealed off the inhabitants of
Brest from access to the outside, save by the sea, which it was not in the besiegers' power to block. There were frequent skirmishes and feats of arms at the barriers there in front of
Brest, I can assure you, for the companions who were game for a fight would cheerfully come right up to the barriers to goad and draw out the Brest garrison who were just as keen to meet them valiantly in combat. When they had fought there for a considerable spell, often injuring one another, they would withdraw, but few days passed without the event of some sort of clash between them.
SHF 3-49 syncAt this time in the
Toulouse region there was a valiant French knight named
Sir Gaucher de Passac, a fine captain of men-at-arms. This
knight was from
Berry on the borders of the
Limousin. Before his arrival, the
seneschal of Toulouse Sir Hugues de Froideville, and the
seneschal of Carcassonne Sir Roger d'Espagne had written to the
king of France and his council concerning the pressure the area found itself under, because at the borders of
Toulouse and
Rabastens there were several intrepid companions riding out from
Lourdes and
Castelculier and making war on behalf of the
English; these had now invested the following forts:
Saint Cirq,
La Bouffie,
Pechpeyroux,
Curvale,
Le Mesnil,
Roque-d'Arifat,
Sainte Dole,
Navarret and several others with which they had surrounded the great city of
Toulouse so effectively that its inhabitants could not venture out to tend their vines or their land, nor leave
Toulouse to do business or trade, except at great risk unless there was a truce between them or they were paying protection money.
pb 246 v