There were few who could have toured the country asking for money and made a triumphant progress of it but Edward did, and emerged from it ever more popular than when he had set out. The people deemed it well worthwhile to have paid their money to receive a smile and a friendly word from such a king – and in the case of the comely widow – a kiss.
In due course Edward was ready to cross the Channel at the head of a considerable army. He had fifteen hundred men at arms, fifteen thousand archers on horseback, and innumerable foot soldiers. In addition to this army he had equipped another smaller one to go to Brittany in order to aid the Duke whom the French were threatening to attack. He had a reason for wishing to make the Duke of Brittany his ally, for sheltering there was Jasper Tudor with his nephew Henry. Jasper had been one of the leading Lancastrians and although if he were to return to England now there would be little support for him, Edward liked to know where these Tudors were and he could at any time if he remained friendly with the Duke of Brittany ask for their extradition.
Edward was well aware that so many men had rallied to his banner because they hoped to bring back to their homes some of the spoils of war. They wanted French booty. Edward, however, had other ideas. To fight the French would be to embark on another war such as that which had taken one hundred years to settle, which had swayed back and forth over those years, costing blood and money and eventually had ended by driving the English almost completely out of France.
No, Edward wanted something, but it was not war. He wanted some alliance, some monetary reward for holding off a war ... bribe some might call it. But that was all part of the fortunes of war.
So if these men whom he had gathered together were spoiling for a fight, Edward was not. It was almost as though Warwick were at his shoulder. He would have liked to discuss this matter with Richard but it was something of which Richard would not approve. Rivers ... ? Well, Rivers agreed with him whatever he did, which was comforting almost always, although there were times when a man wanted an honest opinion.
As soon as he had landed in France he wrote a letter to Louis couched in formal terms. He must give up the crown of France to Edward or face a bitter war.
Having written the letter he called one of his most trusted men to him.
‘What I have to say to you,’ he said, ‘is too important to be trusted to writing. You must swear secrecy on this. Do so now.’
The man swore that nothing should prise the secret, or whatever it was, from him.
‘You will take this letter to the King of France and when he has read it you will ask to speak to him in private. He will see you and you will tell him that you know I have no wish to invade France, but that I have threatened to do so to satisfy my people and the Duke of Burgundy. If the King of France would come to some agreement which would be to the advantage of the King of England, your master would graciously consider it. Now is that clear?’
‘Absolutely so, my lord.’
‘You should also say that I shall not be prepared to listen to any proposition until my entire army is landed on French soil and as it is so large that will take at least three weeks.’
‘I understand, my lord.’
‘Tell the King that he will have that time to decide what he will be able to offer me to avert this long and destructive war on French land.’
The King’s messenger bowed his head and went off to do his mission.
Edward’s suspicion that the Duke of Burgundy had wished the English to fight his battles with the French was confirmed when the Duke came to meet him, not at the head of an army but with nothing more than a personal bodyguard and in the first meeting explaining, with some embarrassment, that he had to leave at once for the defence of Luxembourg.
Louis in the meantime had followed Edward’s lead in sending a herald to the English camp who was more than he appeared to be. This man told Edward in a private interview that Louis was prepared to consider the suggestions which had been put to him and suggested a meeting at Picquigny.
Edward called together a council of his commanders. This included his brothers Clarence and Gloucester, the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, his stepson Thomas, Rivers, Hastings and a few others. Edward laid the proposition before them. The Duke of Burgundy had gone to Luxembourg and had therefore deserted them; the King of France was ready to treat for peace. It seemed to Edward that they might come very well out of the excursion without having been engaged in the smallest battle.
Richard spoke up. ‘The people paid their benevolences to win victory in France. The soldiers have joined your banner in the hope of capturing booty to take home. The people want to hear of victories. You have taken their money under false pretences if you do not fight.’
Edward looked at his brother quizzically. ‘My dear brother,’ he said, ‘you are over-concerned with this scrupulous reckoning of yours. Wars have done no good to our country. We have lost all we won. Now we stand a chance of getting something very substantial from the King of France without bloodshed or the loss of our equipment.’
‘I see your point,’ said Richard. ‘But what will the people say? They will not get what they paid their taxes for ... call them benevolences if you will, they are still taxes.’
‘I tell you great good will come from this. You will be surprised what the King of France is ready to pay for peace.’
‘To pay to whom?’ asked Richard. ‘To the soldiers who have come for booty? To the people at home who have paid for a war?’
Edward laid his hand on his brother’s shoulder. ‘Richard,’ he said, ‘the others among us see my point. They will follow me in this.’
‘And you would do it if they did not,’ said Richard with a shrug of his shoulders.
‘You will see,’ said Edward.
He then discussed the terms he would put before Louis. First there should be a truce of seven years duration; there should be free trading between the two countries. Louis would pay Edward seventy-five thousand gold crowns immediately and fifty thousand a year; the Dauphin should marry Edward’s eldest daughter Elizabeth.
These terms seemed very harsh but to the amazement of the English Louis accepted them. It had all been so much easier than Edward had thought and he could not see that the arrangement was anything but a triumph of strategy. He had amassed an enormous army which seemed invincible; he had come to France and so frightened Louis that he had been eager to make terms at once.
When Charles of Burgundy came riding with all speed to Edward’s camp he demanded to know why Edward had made such terms with the enemy.
‘The King of France is no longer my enemy,’ said Edward. ‘My daughter is to marry his son.’
Burgundy sneered. ‘And you think Louis will ever allow that to come to pass?’
‘We are coming to an amicable agreement about the matter ... and others.’
Burgundy was furious. ‘So you come with your armies like a conqueror and slink away like a paid lackey of the King of France.’
Edward retained his imperturbable good humour. ‘Not so. Not so. I shall leave as triumphantly as I came – a richer man and my armies intact to make sure the peace stays with us.’
Burgundy left in a rage and Edward could not repress his gratification to see the mighty Duke so nonplussed.
There followed the meeting with Louis. The two Kings made a startling contrast. Edward was splendid, wearing a gown of cloth of gold lined with red satin. Out of compliment to the French he wore a black velvet cap aglitter with jewels in the shape of the fleur-de-lis. Louis was very soberly clad and so drab did he look beside the brilliant King of England that Hastings murmured that he looked like a mountebank.