THE BATTLE OF POITIERS

OF THE GREAT HOST THAT THE FRENCH KING BROUGHT TO THE BATTLE OF
POITIERS


After the taking of the castle of Romorantin and of them that were
therein, the prince then and his company rode as they did before,
destroying the country, approaching to Anjou and to Touraine. The
French king, who was at Chartres, departed and came to Blois and there
tarried two days, and then to Amboise and the next day to Loches: and
then he heard how that the prince was at Touraine[1] and how that he
was returning by Poitou: ever the Englishmen were coasted by certain
expert knights of France, who alway made report to the king what the
Englishmen did. Then the king came to the Haye in Touraine and his men
had passed the river of Loire, some at the bridge of Orleans and some
at Meung, at Saumur, at Blois, and at Tours and whereas they might:
they were in number a twenty thousand men of arms beside other; there
were a twenty-six dukes and earls and more than sixscore banners, and
the four sons of the king, who were but young, the duke Charles of
Normandy, the lord Louis, that was from thenceforth duke of Anjou, and
the lord John duke of Berry, and the lord Philip, who was after duke
of Burgoyne. The same season, pope Innocent the sixth sent the lord
Bertrand, cardinal of Perigord, and the lord Nicholas, cardinal of
Urgel, into France, to treat for a peace between the French king and
all his enemies, first between him and the king of Navarre, who was in
prison: and these cardinals oftentimes spake to the king for his
deliverance during the siege at Bretuel, but they could do nothing in
that behalf. Then the cardinal of Perigord went to Tours, and there he