hurled back the attack of the French knighthood at Crécy in
1346, and, though four times outnumbered, remained the
masters of the field. Ten years later, the Black Prince,
having already fought as a lad of fourteen under his father's
eye at Crécy, won a still more astounding success behind the
vineyards of Poitiers, where the French King John, surnamed
the Good, was taken prisoner. But these adventures proved
as useless as they were brilliant; they inflamed that military
arrogance which sought occasions for a quarrel; their mone-
tary cost increased by leaps and bounds; and the baronage,
which seldom vailed its crest to the French foe, could not
long endure the restraints of domestic peace. The scions of
the aristocracy, who respected little except physical force,
fell foul of one another, and were finally exterminated in the
ferocious Wars of the Roses.

The treaty of Bretigny, confirmed on October 26, 1360, by
which France ceded nearly one third of her territory to Eng-
land, ended the first stage of the Hundred Years' War. The
rewards of battle enriched the cities and castles of Edward's
Kingdom, and his fiftieth birthday was kept with the pomp
befitting so unexampled a conquest. His fame rang in
all men's ears; no other ruler of the day could equal
the regalities of the chief prince of Christendom, con-
trasted as they were with the distress and humiliation of
his defeated foes. For the nonce all went merrily, and
the royal court was the scene of stately ceremonials and
sumptuous feastings. At this apex of prosperity, when a
moribund phase reasserted itself, deeds of valor and knightly
defiance were commemorated in the Round Tower at
Windsor, where the Order of the Garter was established
in the winter of 1347, shortly after the king's return from
France.

But the suffering and discontent of the people were in
glaring contrast with the artificial exuberance of their rulers.
The laborers of six surrounding counties were impressed to
build Edward's Tower, and his Order was instituted when

-128-