His affections inclined to the side of France; but the English had never reason during his lifetime to complain of any breach of the neutrality by Scotland.
* Hall, fol.86.Stowe, p.364.Grafton, p.

501.
* Rymer, vol.x.p.

299, 300, 326.
But the regent was not so much employed in these political negotiations as to neglect the operations of war, from which alone he could hope to succeed in expelling the French monarch.

Though the chief seat of Charles's power lay in the southern provinces beyond the Loire, his partisans were possessed of some fortresses in the northern, and even in the neighborhood of Paris; and it behoved the duke of Bedford first to clear these countries from the enemy, before he could think of attempting more distant conquests.

The Castle of Dorsoy was taken after a siege of six weeks: that of Noyelle and the town of Rue, in Picardy, underwent the same fate: Pont sur Seine, Vertus, Montaigu, were subjected by the English arms: and a more considerable advantage was soon after gained by the united forces of England and Burgundy.