The truce which followed the capture of Calais seemed a mere rest in the career of victories which opened before Edward.

England was drunk with her glory and with the hope of plunder.

The cloths of Caen had been brought after the sack of that town to London.

"There was no woman," says Walsingham, "who had not got garments, furs, feather-beds, and utensils from the spoils of Calais and other foreign cities." The court revelled in gorgeous tournaments and luxury of dress; and the establishment in 1346 of the Order of the Garter which found its home in the new castle that Edward was raising at Windsor marked the highest reach of the spurious "Chivalry" of the day.

But it was at this moment of triumph that the whole colour of Edward's reign suddenly changed.