Treaty of Brétigny (1360): Edward III's Great Peace With France

The Treaty of Brétigny was the peace agreed between England and France on 8 May 1360, during the Hundred Years’ War. It released King John II of France, captured at the Battle of Poitiers, for a ransom of 3 million gold écus. In return for giving up his claim to the French crown, Edward III received a greatly enlarged Aquitaine and other lands in full sovereignty, the high point of English power in medieval France.

Background

After Poitiers in 1356, John II was a prisoner in England, and France was shaken by political crisis in Paris and the peasant rising of the Jacquerie in 1358. In captivity, John agreed to two harsh treaties in London. The second, of March 1359, would have handed Edward roughly the western half of France, including Normandy. The Estates-General, called by the Dauphin Charles, rejected it in May 1359.

Edward responded with a new invasion. Landing at Calais in October 1359, he marched to Reims, where French kings were crowned, possibly intending to be crowned there himself. Reims held out, and a siege from December 1359 to January 1360 failed.

Edward then marched on Burgundy and towards Paris, but the Dauphin avoided battle. Near Chartres, on 13 April 1360, the English army was caught in a violent storm with hail, later remembered as “Black Monday”, which killed men and horses. Exhausted and short of supplies, Edward agreed to negotiate.

The terms

Talks opened at Brétigny, a hamlet near Chartres, and a draft was agreed on 8 May 1360. Its main terms were:

• Aquitaine: Edward would hold an enlarged duchy, including Gascony, Poitou, Saintonge, the Angoumois, the Limousin, Périgord, Quercy, the Rouergue and other lands, in full sovereignty, owing no homage to the French king.
• The north: Edward kept Calais, captured in the siege of 1346–1347, with the county of Guînes and the county of Ponthieu.
• The crown: Edward would renounce his claim to the throne of France, and John would renounce sovereignty over the ceded lands.
• The ransom: John’s ransom was set at 3 million gold écus, payable in instalments, with 600,000 due before his release.
• Hostages: Royal princes, including John’s sons Louis of Anjou and John of Berry, and leading nobles and burghers would go to England as security.

Ratification at Calais

John was taken to Calais, where the two kings confirmed the treaty on 24 October 1360. At this stage a crucial change was made: the mutual renunciations of the crown and of sovereignty were removed from the main text and placed in a separate agreement, to be exchanged once the lands had been handed over, in 1361. The exchange never took place, so legally both claims remained alive.

John was released and returned to France. To raise his ransom a new gold coin, the franc, was struck in December 1360, the first French coin of that name.

Reactions

In England the treaty was celebrated as a triumph. Edward III had won, through war and ransom, lands far larger than the duchy his grandfather had held, without having to do homage for them. In France the price was bitter but accepted: the kingdom was exhausted by war, plague and rebellion, and the Dauphin needed his father back to restore royal authority. The heavy taxes raised to pay the ransom, collected over many years, helped build a more regular system of royal taxation in France.

Collapse of the peace

The transfer of territory was slow and contested, and the ransom fell behind. In 1363 Louis of Anjou broke his parole and escaped. John, feeling his honour compromised, returned voluntarily to England, where he died in London on 8 April 1364. His son succeeded as Charles V.

In 1362 Edward III made the Black Prince Prince of Aquitaine. His costly rule and heavy taxes, especially after his campaign in Castile in 1367, angered Gascon lords. In 1368 the Count of Armagnac and the Lord of Albret appealed to the French king’s court in Paris. Charles V accepted the appeals, which implied that he was still sovereign over Aquitaine. War resumed in 1369, and by the mid-1370s France had recovered most of the ceded lands.

Timeline

• 1356, 19 September: John II is captured at Poitiers.
• 1359, March: The Second Treaty of London is agreed, then rejected in May.
• 1359, December – 1360, January: Edward III besieges Reims without success.
• 1360, 13 April: “Black Monday” storm strikes the English army near Chartres.
• 1360, 8 May: The Treaty of Brétigny is agreed.
• 1360, 24 October: The treaty is ratified at Calais; John II is released.
• 1364, 8 April: John II dies in London.
• 1369: War between England and France resumes.

Why it matters

The Treaty of Brétigny marked the peak of Edward III’s success, giving England almost a third of France without the crown he had claimed. Its failure showed how hard it was to divide sovereignty within a feudal kingdom, and it set the stage for the French recovery under Charles V.