Truce of Calais

The Truce of Calais (French: Trêve de Calais) was a truce agreed by King Edward III of England and King Philip VI of France on 28 September 1347, which was mediated by emissaries of Pope Clement VI. The Hundred Years' War had broken out in 1337 and in 1346 Edward had landed with an army in northern France. After inflicting a heavy defeat on Philip and a French army at the Battle of Crécy the English besieged Calais, which fell after 11 months. Both countries were financially and militarily exhausted and two cardinals acting for Pope Clement were able to broker a truce in a series of negotiations outside Calais. This was signed on 28 September to run until 7 July 1348.

Edward suggested extending the truce in May 1348, but Philip was keen to campaign. However, the effects of the Black Death, which spread to both kingdoms in 1348, caused the truce to be renewed in 1348, 1349 and 1350. While the truce was in effect neither country campaigned with a full field army, but it did not stop repeated naval clashes nor fighting in Gascony and Brittany. Philip died on 22 August 1350 and it was unclear whether the truce then lapsed, as it had been signed on his personal authority. His son and successor, John II, took to the field with a large army in south-west France. Once this campaign was successfully completed John authorised the renewal of the truce for one year to 10 September 1352. English adventurers seized the strategically located town of Guînes in January 1352, causing full-scale fighting to break out again, which went badly for the French.

Intermittent peace negotiations continued but were fruitless until 6 April 1354 when a new truce and an outline permanent peace treaty were agreed as the Treaty of Guînes. But John subsequently turned against it, deciding another round of warfare might leave him in a better negotiating position. The French planned an ambitious series of offensives for the 1355 campaigning season and repudiated the Treaty of Guînes early in the year. Yet another extension to the Truce of Calais was agreed, until 24 June, when it finally expired. The war resumed in force in October 1355. In September 1356 the French royal army was defeated by a smaller Anglo-Gascon force at the Battle of Poitiers and John was captured. In 1360 the fighting was brought to a temporary halt by the Treaty of Brétigny under which large areas of France were ceded to England. In 1369 large-scale fighting broke out again and the Hundred Years' War did not end until 1453, by which time England had lost all its territory in France other than Calais.