The Greatest Story in the World, Period 2 by Horace G. Hutchinson

After the Hundred Years' War had been in progress less than a quarter / of a century, it seemed as if Edward III. had won all that he could / possibly claim -- peace and sovereignty over all the outlying parts of / his dominion at home, and over more than he had set out to gain on / the Continent. But the war was renewed by the action of Edward's / vassal lords in France, only nine years later, and before his death, / which happened in 1377, scarce a possession on the Continent was left / to England except the city of Calais and a narrow strip of coast / south of Bordeaux, in Guienne. Even at sea the French fleet, now / aided by the Spanish since the interference by the Black Prince with / the affairs of Spain -- see p. 180 -- was completely victorious and made / raids on the south coast of England. At the end of the fourteenth / century it was on the terms that England should hold these fragments, / and these only, of her once great territory on the Continent, that a / treaty was made with France by Richard II., Edward's successor on the / English throne.

The cost and miseries incurred in England by those unsuccessful wars / in France led to serious riots against the Government. It was then / that Wat Tyler led his force of Kentish rebels to London, where only / the courage of the king, a boy of fourteen, and the resistance of the / militia of the town saved the city from the mob.