and ratified the convention as a free man on French soil.  This permanent treaty is more properly styled the treaty of Calais than the treaty of Bretigni; but the alterations between the two were only significant in one particular respect.  At Calais the English agreed to omit a clause inserted at Bretigni by which Edward renounced his claims to the French throne, and John his claims over the allegiance of the inhabitants of the ceded districts.  As the Calais treaty of October alone had the force of law, it was a real triumph of French diplomacy to have suppressed so vital a feature in the definitive document.[1] Even with this alleviation the terms were sufficiently humiliating to France.  Edward and his heirs were to receive in perpetuity, “and in the manner in which the kings of France had held them,” an ample territory both in southern and northern France.  All Aquitaine was henceforth to be English, including Poitou, Saintonge, Perigord, Angoumois, Limousin, Quercy, Rouergue, Agenais, and Bigorre.  The greatest feudatories of these districts, the friendly Count of Foix as well as the hostile Count of Armagnac, and the Breton pretender to the viscounty of Limoges, were to do homage to Edward for all their lands within these bounds.  Nor was this all.  The county of Ponthieu, including Montreuil-sur-mer, was restored to its English lords, and added to the pale of Calais, which was to include the whole county of Guines, made up two considerable northern dominions for Edward.  With these cessions were included all adjacent islands, and all islands held by the English king at that time, so that the Channel islands were by implication recognised as English.

[1] On the importance of this, see the paper of MM.  Petit-Dutaillis and P. Collier, La Diplomatie francaise et le Traite de Bretigny in Le Moyen Age, 2e serie, tome i. (1897), pp. 1-35.

The ransom of John was fixed at 3,000,000 gold crowns, that is 500,000 sterling.  The vastness of this sum can be realised by remembering that the ordinary revenue of the English crown in time of peace did not much exceed L60,000, while the addition to that of a sum of L150,000 involved an effort which only a popular war could dispose Englishmen to make.  Of this ransom 600,000 crowns were to be paid at once, and the rest in annual instalments of 400,000 crowns until the whole payment was effected.  During this period the prisoners from Poitiers, several of the king’s near relatives, a long list of the noblest names in France, and citizens of some of its wealthiest cities, were to remain as hostages in Edward’s hands.  As to the Breton succession, Edward and John engaged to do their best to effect a peaceful settlement.  If they failed in attaining this, the rival claimants were to fight it out among themselves, England and France remaining neutral.  Whichever of the two became duke was to do homage to the King of France, and John of Montfort was, in any case,