So, feeling more secure, he continued the siege. It was so well supplied with every sort of provision that there was no town or market in all of
Castile that was more abundant in produce.
The
king of Portugal stayed in
Lisbon with his people in great comfort, for they could not be deprived of access to the sea. He was advised, therefore, to send reliable ambassadors to
England before the
king and the
duke of Lancaster, so that the alliances forged between the
king of England and
king Fernando, his brother, might be renewed. These ambassadors would also be charged to notify the
duke of Lancaster that he would willingly take his daughter
Philippa to his wife and make her queen of Portugal, creating thereby a strong and lasting alliance, and that if Lancaster would come to
Portugal with two or three thousand soldiers and as many archers, he would recover the kingdom of
Castile as his rightful inheritance. To make the journey to
England he charged two knights from his household,
Sir João Rodrigues and
Sir Jean Teste d'Or, and a clerk at law, the archdeacon of Lisbon, whose name was
Marc de la Higuera.
They were provided with provisions and a vessel and made ready in every way. When a favourable wind came they embarked and left
Lisbon harbour, steering for the shores of
England.
Meanwhile,
king Juan of Castile who was still laying siege to
Lisbon was advised by his men to write to
France and
Gascony asking for knights and squires, for the
Spanish naturally assumed that the
king of Portugal had already sent for, or would send for assistance from
England to raise the siege. They had no wish to be caught by surprise with a force which was not large enough to resist the
English and
Portuguese united. The
king did as he was advised and sent letters and envoys to
France to several knights and squires who were eager to fight, particularly to
Béarn in the
county of Foix, for in those parts there were a great many fine knights and squires who had a love of combat but who did not know where to find it.
For at that time, although the
count of Foix, their lord, had previously trained them in arms and satisfied their need for them, he was currently enjoying a state of truce with the
count of Armagnac. The summons the
kings of Spain and Portugal had sent were neither easily nor readily attended to, since hostilities had not ceased in the
Auvergne, the
Toulousain,
Rouergue or the land of
Bigorre. Let us leave the affairs of
Portugal for now, and speak of other matters.
SHF 3-5 sync
Third Book, Chapter 5 [1363]
How the prince and princess came to see the count of Armagnac, and the boon which the princess requested of the count of Foix.
Between the
county of Foix and the land of
Béarn lies the
county of Bigorre which is held completely of the king of France and bordered on the one side by the
Toulousain, and on the other by the
county of Comminges and by
Béarn. In the
county of Bigorre lies the
stronghold of Lourdes which has always remained English from the time when
Bigorre was handed over to the
king of England and to the
prince as ransom for
king Jean of France, in accordance with the peace treaty signed at
Brétigny near
Chartres and later ratified at
Calais, as we find recorded earlier in this history.
pb 204 v