Charles V. deserved his title of the "Wise." Prudent and foreseeing, but too weak in body to have any taste for warfare, he directed the affairs of the kingdom from his seat, with a firm moderation to which the French, like their enemies, had not been accustomed under his predecessors. When the Poitevins presented themselves before Charles V., as the liege lord, to complain of the excessive taxes imposed by the Black Prince, he temporized, gave vague answers, and retained the complainants at Paris, while his brother, the Duke of Anjou, governor of Languedoc, was fostering the discontent in the provinces of the south belonging to the English. The Spanish ally of the Black Prince had recently received the reward of all his crimes. Scarcely had the English retired, when Don Henry had again taken the field, and for the second time he had dethroned his brother. As he was besieging him in a fortified castle, they met in the tent of a French knight. Peter immediately seized his brother by the throat, and threw him to the ground. Henry drew his dagger, and Peter, stabbed to the heart, died immediately. {331} An offensive and defensive alliance had recently been concluded between France and Spain (20th of November, 1368), and King Charles V., publicly taking his course, summoned Edward, Prince of Aquitaine, to appear at Paris before his peers, there to answer the complaints of his vassals. Since the treaty of Brétigny, King Edward and his son had no longer recognized the superiority of France. "I will go," said the Black Prince, "but with sixty thousand lances." His father was better aware of the difficulty of the undertaking; he made moderate proposals to Charles V., simply claiming the sovereignty of Aquitaine; but Charles V., seeing the English Parliament wearied of the wars, King Edward aged and tired, and the Black Prince ill, maintained his pretension, and the French troops entered into Poitou, Guienne, and Limousin. The discontented and capricious inhabitants almost always lent their support to the French. King Edward sent his second son, the Duke of Lancaster, with considerable reinforcements, to the assistance of the Black Prince; but, while he was overrunning the northern provinces. King Charles not permitting any important engagement to take place, the conquests of the French extended in the South, and the Prince of Wales, dangerously ill, found himself compelled to take the field upon a litter. The Dukes of Anjou and Berry did not await him; they had left garrisons in the towns, but had retired when the prince advanced against Limoges. He had formerly lavished his favors upon that town, which the Bishop had surrendered to the French, and he had sworn, by the soul of his father, not to move thence nor do any thing until he should recapture it. The siege progressed slowly, the citizens bravely supporting the garrison, for they feared the vengeance of the prince. {332} The latter conducted the military operations with a savage fury