518 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE capture the walled towns, and even the peasantry offered a local resistance. The treaty gave Edward III a little terri- tory near Calais and greatly enlarged his borders in south- western France, where he received all Gascony, Guienne, and Poitou free from any feudal bond to the French king. In return he renounced his claim to the French throne. The terms of the Treaty of Bretigny are of slight impor- tance, however, since it was soon broken and went by the board. The French had suffered and were yet to suffer far more injury from the war than the English, not so much because ~, they had been beaten as because the war was 1 he com- •* panies of fought on French soil. Both sides soon came to mercenaries i • i « . % . j rely mainly upon hired troops under mercenary leaders, and these companies, as they were called, lived on the country, and, if they did not receive their pay promptly, made it up by plundering. Even after peace had been de- clared, it was almost impossible to get rid of them in France. They defeated the royal troops in 1362 and lasted into the next reign. In order to secure generous grants for the prosecution of the war abroad, Edward III had rather allowed the Parlia- Edward III ment to have its way in the conduct of internal and Parlia- affairs. Once he annulled some laws to which he had agreed the previous year, but Parliament secured a promise that he would not so offend again. Some- times he took taxes before asking their consent, but either obtained it later or promised not to levy such a tax again. Thus, the principle was repeatedly stated and upheld that legislation and taxation must be through Parliament. Im- portant legislation of the middle of his reign included the Statute of Treason which further safeguarded the crown, the Statute of the Staple regulating trade, the Statute of Laborers, — an attempt to keep down the wages of agri- cultural laborers after the great pestilence, — and the Statutes of Provisors and Prcemunire directed against papal appointments of foreigners to positions in the English Church and appeals of cases from English courts to Rome.
