 The campaign had been a disaster for the French, the worse for being unexpected; during the previous eight years of the war, the Anglo-Gascons had made no large-scale offensive moves.They had lost towns and castles; suffered heavy casualties; and had many nobles taken prisoner, who would not be available to fight until they had paid their heavy ransoms, much of which would go to fund the English war effort.Towns throughout south-west France embarked on urgent and expensive programmes to repair, improve or in some cases build from scratch their fortifications.