18 May. On 9 July he and Henry, duke of Lancaster, landed at Calais in attendance on the French king. As, however, the stipulated instalment of the king's ransom was not ready, he returned to England, leaving John in charge of Sir Walter Manny and three other knights (Froissart, vi. 24). He accompanied his father to Calais on 9 Oct. to assist at the liberation of King John and the ratification of the treaty, rode with John to Boulogne, where he made his offering in the Church of the Virgin, and returned with his father to England at the beginning of November. On 10 Oct. 1361 the prince, who was then in his thirty-first year, married his cousin Joan, countess of Kent, daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, earl of Kent, younger son of Edward I, by Margaret, daughter of Philip III of France, and widow of Thomas lord Holland, and in right of his wife earl of Kent, then in her thirty-third year, and the mother of three children. As the prince and the countess were related in the third degree, and also by the spiritual tie of sponsorship, the prince being godfather to Joan's elder son Thomas, a dispensation was obtained for their marriage from Innocent VI, though they appear to have been contracted before it was applied for (Fœdera, iii. 626). The marriage was performed at Windsor, in the presence of the king, by Simon, archbishop of Canterbury. It is said that the marriage — that is, no doubt, the contract of marriage — was entered into without the knowledge of the king (Froissart, vi. 275, Amiens). The prince and his wife resided at Berkhampstead in Hertfordshire. On 19 July 1362 the king granted him all his dominions in Aquitaine and Gascony, to be held as a principality by liege homage on payment of an ounce of gold each year, together with the title of Prince of Aquitaine and Gascony (Fœdera, iii. 667). During the rest of the year he was occupied in preparing for his departure to his new principality, and after Christmas he received the king and his court at Berkhampstead, took leave of his father and mother, and in the following February sailed with his wife and all his household for Gascony, and landed at Rochelle. There he was met by Chandos, the king's lieutenant, and proceeded with him to Poitiers, where he received the homage of the lords of Poitou and Saintonge; he then rode to various cities and at last came to Bordeaux, where from 9 to 30 July he received the homage of the lords of Gascony. He received all graciously, and kept a splendid court, residing sometimes at Bordeaux and sometimes at Angoulême. He appointed Chandos constable of Guyenne, and provided the knights of his household with profitable offices. They kept much state, and their extravagance displeased the people(Froissart, vi. 82). Many of the Gascon lords were dissatisfied at being handed over to the dominion of the English, and the favour the prince showed to his own countrymen, and the ostentatious magnificence they exhibited, increased this feeling of dissatisfaction. The lord of Albret and many more were always ready to give what help they could to the French cause, and the Count of Foix, though he visited the prince on his first arrival, was thoroughly French at heart, and gave some trouble in 1365 by refusing to do homage for Bearn (Fœdera, iii. 779). Charles V, who succeeded to the throne of France in April 1364, was careful to encourage the malcontents, and the prince's position was by no means easy. In April 1363 the prince mediated between the Counts of Foix and Armagnac, who had for a long time been at war with each other. He also attempted in the following February to mediate between Charles of Blois and John of Montfort, the rival competitors for the duchy of Brittany. Both appeared before him at Poitiers, but his mediation was unsuccessful. The next month he entertained the king of Cyprus at Angoulême, and held a tournament there. At the same time he and his lords excused themselves from assuming the cross. During the summer the lord of Albret was at Paris, and his forces and several other Gascon lords held the French cause in Normandy against the party of Navarre. Meanwhile war was renewed in Brittany; the prince allowed Chandos to raise and lead a force to succour the party of Montfort, and Chandos won the battle of Auray against the French.
As the leaders of the free companies which desolated France were for the most part Englishmen or Gascons, they did not ravage Aquitaine, and the prince was suspected, probably not without cause, of encouraging, or at least of taking no pains to discourage, their proceedings (Froissart, vi. 183). Accordingly on 14 Nov. 1364 Edward called upon him to restrain their ravages (Fœdera, iii. 754). In 1365 these companies, under Sir Hugh Calveley [q. v.] and other leaders, took service with Du Guesclin, who employed them in 1366 in compelling Peter of Castile to flee from his kingdom, and in setting up his bastard brother, Henry of Trastamare, as king in his stead. Peter, who was in alliance with King Edward, sent messengers to the prince asking his help, and on receiving a gracious answer at Corunna, set out at once, and arrived at Bayonne with his son and his three daughters. The prince met him at Cap Breton, and rode with him to Bordeaux. Many
