Treaty of Guînes

The Treaty of Guînes was a draft agreement to end the Hundred Years' War negotiated between King Edward III of England and King John II of France. It greatly favoured the English and was agreed at Guînes on 6 April 1354. However, John decided not to ratify it and it did not take effect.

Treaty of Guînes
TypeTreaty of perpetual peace
ContextHundred Years' War
DraftedSpring 1353 – April 1354
Signed6 April 1354 (1354-04-06)
LocationGuînes, France
EffectiveNot ratified
Mediators• Pope Innocent VI
• Cardinal Guy of Boulogne
Negotiators• Bishop of Norwich and others
• Archbishop of Rouen and others
Original
signatories		• Bishop of Norwich and others
• Archbishop of Rouen and others
Parties• Kingdom of England
• Kingdom of France
LanguageLatin
The location of some places mentioned in the text, shown within modern France

Background


Following a series of disagreements between France and England regarding the status of English-held lands in south-west France, on 24 May 1337 the Great Council in Paris declared that they were forfeit. This marked the start of the Hundred Years' War, which was to last 116 years.[1][2] In 1346 King Edward III of England led an army across northern France, defeating the French at the Battle of Crécy and laying siege to the port of Calais. With French finances and morale at a low ebb after Crécy, King Philip VI failed to relieve the town, and the starving defenders surrendered on 3 August 1347.[3][4] Following further inconclusive military manoeuvres by each side for four weeks, and given that both sides were financially exhausted, emissaries despatched by Pope Clement VI found willing listeners. By 28 September the Truce of Calais, intended to bring a temporary halt to the fighting, had been agreed.[5] This strongly favoured the English, confirming them in possession of all of their territorial conquests.[5] It was to run for nine months to 7 July 1348, but was extended repeatedly over the years until it was formally set aside in 1355.[6] The truce did not stop ongoing naval clashes between the two countries, nor small-scale fighting in Gascony and Brittany.[7][8]

In early January 1352 a band of freelancing English soldiers seized the French-held town of Guînes by a midnight escalade. The French garrison of Guînes was not expecting an attack and Doncaster's party crossed the moat, scaled the walls, killed the sentries, stormed the keep, released the English prisoners there, and took over the whole castle.[9] The French were furious and French envoys rushed to London to deliver a strong protest to Edward.[10][11] Edward was thereby put in a difficult position. The English had been strengthening the defences of Calais with the construction of fortified towers or bastions at bottlenecks on the roads through the marshes to the town.[12] These could not compete with the strength of the defences at Guînes, which would greatly improve the security of the English enclave around Calais. However, retaining it would be a flagrant breach of the truce then in force. Edward would suffer a loss of honour and possibly a resumption of open warfare, for which he was unprepared. He ordered the English occupants to hand Guînes back.[9]

By coincidence, the English parliament was scheduled to meet, with its opening session on 17 January. Several members of the King's Council made fiery, warmongering speeches and the parliament was persuaded to approve three years of war taxes. Reassured that he had adequate financial backing, Edward changed his mind. By the end of January the Captain of Calais had fresh orders: to take over the garrisoning of Guînes in the King's name. Doncaster was pardoned and rewarded. Determined to strike back, the French took desperate measures to raise money, and set about raising an army. And so the war resumed.[11]

Prelude
The motte and keep of Guînes castle in 2012

The resumption of hostilities caused fighting to flare up in Brittainy and the Saintonge area of south-west France, but the main French effort was against Guînes. The French assembled an army of 4,500 men, including 1,500 men-at-arms and a large number of Italian crossbowmen under the command of Geoffrey de Charny. By May the 115 men of the English garrison, commanded by Thomas Hogshaw, were under siege. The French reoccupied the town, but found it difficult to approach the castle.[13] By the end of May 1352 the English authorities had raised a force of more than 6,000 which was gradually shipped to Calais. From there they harassed the French in what the modern historian Jonathan Sumption described as "savage and continual fighting" throughout June and early July. In mid-July a large contingent of troops arrived from England, and, reinforced by much of the Calais garrison they were successful in approaching Guînes undetected and launching a night attack on the French camp. Many Frenchmen were killed and a large part of the palisade around the convent was destroyed. Shortly after, Charny abandoned the siege, leaving a garrison to hold the town.[14]

Treaty

Negotiations
A contemporary image of the French king, John II

The war also went badly for the French on other fronts[15] and money and enthusiasm for the war were running out in France. Sumption describes the French administration as "fall[ing] apart in jealous acrimony and recrimination". Encouraged by the new pope, Innocent VI, negotiations for a peace treaty opened at Guînes beginning in early March 1353, overseen by the Cardinal Guy of Boulogne.[16] The English sent a senior deputation: Henry of Lancaster, one of Edward's most trusted and experienced military lieutenants; Michael Northburgh, keeper of the privy seal; the Bishop of Norwich, the most experienced diplomat in England; and Simon Islip, an ex-keeper of the privy seal and an ex-archbishop of Canterbury. The French were represented by Pierre de La Forêt, Archbishop of Rouen and John's Chancellor; Charles of Spain the Constable of France and a close confident of John; Robert de Lorris, John's Chamberlain; Guillaume Bertrand, the Bishop of Beauvais; and several other high-ranking figures. Both parties were ill-prepared and ill-briefed. After several meetings it was agreed that they would adjourn to receive further instructions from their monarchs, reconvening on 19 May. It was agreed that until then hostilities would be suspended by a formal truce. This temporary agreement was signed and sealed on 10 March.[17]

In early May the English requested that the negotiations not be restarted until June, to allow them to discuss the matter more fully. The French responded by cancelling the truce and called an arrière-ban, a formal call to arms for all able-bodied males, for Normandy on 8 May. The negotiators met briefly in Paris on 26 July and went through the motions of extending the truce until November, although all concerned understood that much fighting would continue. [18] French central and local government collapsed. French nobles took to violently settling old scores rather than fight the English. Charles of Navarre, one of the most powerful figures in France, murdered Charles of Spain in his bedroom, boasted of it, and made tentative approaches to the English regarding an alliance.[19] Navarre and John formally reconciled in March 1354 and a new balance within the French government was more in favour of peace with England, in some quarters at almost any price. Informal talks started again at Guînes in mid-March. The principle of a peace being brokered by Edward abandoning his claim to the French throne in exchange for French territory was agreed; Edward gave his assent to this on 30 March. Formal negotiations recommenced in early April and rapidly concluded. A formal truce for a year was agreed, as was a permanent peace.[20] On 6 April 1354 a treaty was formally signed by the representatives of both countries.[21]

Agreement
France after the later (1360) Treaty of Brétigny; the territorial settlement was similar to that proposed in the failed Treaty of Guînes: French territory in green, English territory in pink

The treaty was very much in the favour of England. By it England was to gain the whole of Aquitaine, Poitou, Maine, Anjou, Touraine, and Limousin – the large majority of western France – as well as the Pale of Calais. All were to be held in Edward's own name, not as a fief of the French crown.[22] It was also a treaty of friendship between the two nations and both France's alliance with Scotland – over which Edward claimed suzerainty – and England's with Flanders – which was technically a province of France – were to be abandoned.[23] The truce was to be immediately publicised, the treaty kept secret until 1 October, when Innocent would announce it at the papal palace in Avignon. In the same ceremony English representatives would repudiate the English claim to John's throne, and the French would formally relinquish the agreed provinces.[22] Edward was overjoyed, the English parliament ratified it sight unseen, and the English party for the ceremony departed more than four months before they were due in Avignon.[24] John also endorsed the treaty, but members of his high council were less enthusiastic.[22]

Repudiation

This did not occur, as John was persuaded that another round of warfare may leave him in a better negotiating position and withdrew his representatives.[25] The English adhered to the truce, but John Count of Armagnac, the French commander in the south west, ignored his orders to observe the peace; however, his offensive was ineffectual.[22][26] Details of how much of the treaty was known to the French ruling elite and their debates regarding it are lacking, but sentiment was against its terms. In August it was revealed that several of the men who had negotiated and signed the treaty had been deeply involved in the plot to murder Charles of Spain. At least three of John's closest councillors fled his court or were expelled. By early September the French court had turned against the treaty. The date for the formal ceremony in Avignon was put back.[27]

In November 1354 John seized all of Navarre's lands, besieging those places which did not surrender. Planned negotiations in Avignon to finalise the details of the treaty did not take place in the absence of French ambassadors. The English emissaries who were to formally announce the agreement arrived among much pomp in late December. The French court turned entirely against the treaty and planned an ambitious series of offensives for the 1355 campaigning season. The French ambassadors arrived in mid-January, repudiated the previous agreement and attempted to reopen negotiations. The English and the Cardinal of Boulogne pressed them to adhere to the existing treaty. The impasse continued for a month. Simultaneously the English delegation plotted an anti-French alliance with Navarre. By the end of February the futility of their official missions was obvious to all and the delegations departed with much acrimony. The one achievement was a formal extension of the ill-observed truce to 24 June. It was clear that from then both sides would be committed to full-scale war.[22][28]

Aftermath

The war resumed in 1355,[29] with both Edward and his son, Edward the Black Prince, taking to the field in separate campaigns in France.[30] In 1356 the French royal army was defeated by a smaller Anglo-Gascon force at the Battle of Poitiers and John was captured.[31] In 1360, the Treaty of Brétigny, which largely replicated the Treaty of Guînes,[32] but was a little less generous towards the English, brought a temporary halt to the fighting, with vast areas of France being ceded to England; including Guînes and its county which became part of the Pale of Calais.[33] The Hundred Years' War finally ended in 1455, 101 years after the Treaty of Guînes was signed.[34]

Citations and sources

Citations
  1. Wagner 2006d, pp. 157–158.
  2. Wagner 2006e, p. 163.
  3. Jaques 2007, p. 184.
  4. Burne 1999, pp. 144–147, 182–183, 204–205.
  5. Sumption 1990, p. 585.
  6. Wagner 2006b, pp. 74–75.
  7. Wagner 2006b, p. 74.
  8. Harari 2007, p. 114.
  9. Sumption 1999, pp. 88–89.
  10. Kaeuper & Kennedy 1996, p. 14.
  11. Sumption 1999, pp. 89–90.
  12. Harari 2007, p. 122.
  13. Sumption 1999, pp. 91–92.
  14. Sumption 1999, p. 93.
  15. Rogers 2014, p. 290.
  16. Sumption 1999, pp. 102, 111, 115.
  17. Sumption 1999, pp. 115–116.
  18. Sumption 1999, pp. 117, 122.
  19. Sumption 1999, pp. 121–126.
  20. Sumption 1999, pp. 131–133.
  21. Rogers 2014, pp. 290–291.
  22. Wagner 2006f.
  23. Rogers 2014, p. 291.
  24. Sumption 1999, p. 133.
  25. Rogers 2014, pp. 291–292.
  26. Sumption 1999, p. 136.
  27. Sumption 1999, p. 137.
  28. Sumption 1999, pp. 139–142.
  29. Wagner 2006c, p. xxxviii.
  30. Rogers 2014, pp. 297, 304.
  31. Wagner 2006a, p. 20.
  32. Rogers 2014, p. 292.
  33. Sumption 1999, pp. 135–136, 447.
  34. Wagner 2006c, p. l.

Sources
  • Burne, Alfred (1999) [1955]. The Crecy War. Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions. ISBN 978-1-84022-210-4.
  • Harari, Yuval N. (2007). "For a Sack-full of Gold Écus: Calais 1350". Special Operations in the Age of Chivalry, 1100–1550. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press. pp. 109–124. ISBN 978-1-84383-292-8.
  • Jaques, Tony (2007). Dictionary of Battles and Sieges. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-33537-2.
  • Kaeuper, Richard W. & Kennedy, Elspeth (1996). The Book of Chivalry of Geoffroi de Charny: Text, Context, and Translation. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-3348-3.
  • Rogers, Clifford (2014) [2000]. War Cruel and Sharp: English Strategy under Edward III, 1327–1360. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press. ISBN 978-0-85115-804-4.
  • Sumption, Jonathan (1990). Trial by Battle. The Hundred Years' War. I. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-20095-5.
  • Sumption, Jonathan (1999). Trial by Fire. The Hundred Years' War. II. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-13896-8.
  • Wagner, John A. (2006a). "Armies, Command of". Encyclopedia of the Hundred Years War. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Greenwood. pp. 19–21. ISBN 978-0-313-32736-0.
  • Wagner, John A. (2006b). "Calais, Truce of (1347)". Encyclopedia of the Hundred Years War. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Greenwood. pp. 74–75. ISBN 978-0-313-32736-0.
  • Wagner, John A. (2006c). "Chronology: The Hundred Years War". Encyclopedia of the Hundred Years War. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Greenwood. pp. xxxix–l. ISBN 978-0-313-32736-0.
  • Wagner, John A. (2006d). "Hundred Tears' War, Causes of". Encyclopedia of the Hundred Years War. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Greenwood. pp. 157–159. ISBN 978-0-313-32736-0.
  • Wagner, John A. (2006e). "Hundred Tears' War, Phases of". Encyclopedia of the Hundred Years War. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Greenwood. pp. 160–164. ISBN 978-0-313-32736-0.
  • Wagner, John A. (2006f). "Guines, Treaty of". Encyclopedia of the Hundred Years War. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Greenwood. pp. 160–164. ISBN 978-0-313-32736-0.
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