Of a knight who, after the King of France was captured, gathered men from every land and plundered Provence.

At the very same time, a knight known as ‘the Archpriest’ gathered together a great company of men-at-arms from all countries who realised they would have no more pay and wages now that King John was a prisoner. They didn't know where to go to make money in France, so they headed for the county of Provence, where they seized castles and well-fortified towns and plundered far and wide right down to Avignon and beyond, led only by the aforementioned knight. The Pope and all the cardinals residing then in Avignon were in such alarm that they didn't know what to do with themselves, and ordered priests and clerks to arm each night to guard the city against this marauding band. In the end, indeed, the Pope invited ‘the Archpriest’ to Avignon and treated him with lavish respect, as if he'd been the King of France! It was widely rumoured that the Pope and the College of Cardinals had given him forty thousand old écus to take his company away and guarantee their safety.

But I'll say no more about that; I wish to return to the remarkable events that have taken place in the kingdom of France.