Whilst he was residing there, he received news and orders from
France from the
king to make for the garrison of
Bouteville in
Saintonge on the borders of the
Bordelais and
Poitou, which was under the command of
Guillonnet de Sainte Foy, a Gascon. It had been reported in
France that
Sir John Harpenden, the seneschal of Bordeaux, was gathering troops at
Libourne on the Dordogne with the intention of eliminating the fortifications the
Poitevins and
Saintongeois had constructed in front of the fortress. Naturally,
Sir Gaucher obeyed the orders of his sovereign the
king and, with the command of sixty lance and one hundred
Genoese crossbowmen, he left the town of
Carcassonne. He passed through
Rouergue and
Agen, skirted the
Périgord and reached
Bouteville. There he found the seneschals of La Rochelle, Poitou, Périgord and Agen, and a great many fine men-at-arms.
SHF 3-57 syncForeign and distant lands may wonder at the noble kingdom of
France, the way it is situated and how it is filled with countless cities, towns and castles, for there are as many in the more distant parts as there are at the very heart of
France, and they are strong. If you travel from the city of
Toulouse to the city of
Bordeaux you will find these castles I will name for you, situated along the
river Garonne, which is known as the
Gironde in
Bordeaux. First there is
Lagoirant,
Rioms,
Cadillac,
Langon,
Saint-Macaire,
Castets-en-Dorthe,
Caudrot,
Gironde,
La Réole,
Meilhan,
Sainte-Bazeille,
Marmande,
Caumont,
Tonneins,
Le Mas d'Agenais,
Monheurt,
Aiguillon,
Thouars,
Port-Sainte-Marie,
Clermont,
Agen,
Auvillars,
Castel-Sarrasin, Le Hesde,
Verdun and
Beauville.
Then following the Dordogne, which flows into the
Garonne, there are the following castles and fortified towns on either side:
Bourg,
Fronsac,
Libourne,
Saint-Émilion,
Castillon,
La Mothe-Montravel,
Montravel,
Sainte-Foy-la-Grande,
Bergerac,
Montcuq, Noirmons and
Castelteré. The castles on these rivers, some
English others
French, have always made war like this and would not have it any other way, not even the
Gascons, because they have not been attached to one lord alone for thirty years running. It is true that the
Gascons gave
king Edward of England and the
prince of Wales, his son, power over
Gascony, which they subsequently withdrew, as it is clearly recorded, including how it was done, earlier in this history.
King Charles of France, the son of
king Jean, through his good sense, wisdom, gentleness and ample generosity gained the favour of the most illustrious personages in
Gascony, namely
the count of Armagnac and the
lord of Albret. Whilst the
prince of Wales alienated them through his pride and arrogance. When I, the author of this history, was in
Bordeaux and the
prince marched to
Spain, the haughtiness of the
English was so great that they were amiable to no other nation but their own, nor could the noblemen of
Gascony and
Aquitaine, who had lost everything through war, find appointment in their own country, because the
English deemed them neither competent nor worthy.
pb 252 r