Hello everyone and welcome to the History of England, episode 114, The Worm in the Apple.

Last week we took a bit of a detail from the story to talk about pointy shoes and court pieces and so on.

This week let's cover the 60s and ambitious aim given our current speed but I'm determined to move on so let's give it a go.

So then as we said a couple of weeks ago, Edward had divvied up his world amongst his sons and of course including the brightest, sparkless jewel in his family crown, the Black Prince.

The Black Prince's rule in Aquitaine started absolutely fine. Those big families, the Albrei, the Armaniac and the Counts of Foie saw no reason not to play along and see how things went under the new boss.

It was a bit like the honeymoon period for a new football manager, Steve McClaren taking over at Darby for example.

Everyone's prepared to give him a chance, see how he does.

In Aquitaine there is no tradition of taxation on the English model but so compliant were they that they allowed him to levier Fouage a half-tax.

The Black Prince was having a ball and no mistake and his court in Porto glittered.

But as the Plantagenet river flowed along its course there was a boulder under the water and that boulder's name was Spain.

Spain would prove over the next 30 years or so to be the graveyard of English foreign policy.

But the Sixth is all started so brightly.

In 1364 John, King of France, died in captivity in London.

This is not the bright start I'm referring to by the way because this was a bad thing, capital B, capital T.

No, the death of John was a bad thing because John was a thoroughly decent bloke bound by his word of honour and a loser to boot.

Charles V formerly known as the Dofa and a complex character had his failings but as an adversary he would be considerably more impressive than John or Philip.

It also meant of course that Edward no longer had the French King in his custody.

No, the bright thing was the final resolution of the struggle between Charles of Ploy and the English-backed Montfort family for the dukedom of Brittany.

Once released from the Tower of London Charles of Ploy had returned to the struggle which both parties claimed to be separate from the general war and therefore not bound by the peace of Brittany.

In September 1364 Montfort was besieging the castle of Oray, supported by a trial of English commanders John Chandas, Hugh Calvary, Robert Noles.

Desperate to stop the castle falling, Ploy and Guescalá advanced to drive them off and in the ensuing battle Montfort was victorious, Blower was killed and Guescalá was captured to be ransomed by Charles V for a hundred thousand francs.

At last this ruinous civil war seemed to be over as Charles bowed to the inevitable and accepted Montfort as the rightful duke.

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