d to blockade
it, and Philip had time to gather another army to attempt its relief;
but the English army were so posted that he could not attack them
without great loss. He retreated, and the men of Calais surrendered,
Edward insisting that six burghers should bring him the keys with ropes
round their necks, to submit themselves to him. Six offered themselves,
but their lives were spared, and they were honourably treated. Edward
expelled all the French, and made Calais an English settlement. A truce
followed, chiefly in consequence of the ravages of the Black Death,
which swept off multitudes throughout Europe, a pestilence apparently
bred by filth, famine, and all the miseries of war and lawlessness, but
which spared no ranks. It had scarcely ceased before Philip died, in
1350. His son, _John_, was soon involved in a fresh war with England by
the intrigues of Charles the Bad, and in 1356 advanced southwards to
check the Prince of Wales, who had come out of Guienne on a plundering
expedition. The French were again totally routed at Poitiers, and the
king himself, with his third son, Philip, were made prisoners and
carried to London with most of the chief nobles.

3. The Jacquerie.--The calls made on their vassals by these captive
nobles to supply their ransoms brought the misery to a height. The salt
tax, or _gabelle_, which was first imposed to meet the expenses of the
war, was only paid by those who were neither clergy nor nobles, and the
general saying was--"Jacques Bonhomme (the nickname for the peasant) has
a broad back, let him bear all the burthens." Either by the king, the
feudal lords, the clergy, or the bands of men-at-arms who roved through
the country, selling themselves to any prince who would employ them, the
wretched people were stripped of everything, and used to hide in holes
and caves from ill-usage or insult, till they broke out in a rebellion
called the Jacquerie, and whenever they could seize a castle revenged
themselves, like the brutes they had been made, on those within it.
Taxation was so levied by the king's officers as to be frightfully
oppressive, and corruption reigned everywhere. As the king was in
prison, and his heir, Charles, had fled ignominiously from Poitiers,
the citizens of Paris hoped to effect a reform, and rose with their
provost-marshal, Stephen Marcel, at their head, threatened Charles, and
slew two of his officers before his eyes. On their demand the
States-General were conv