House of Valois the senior descendant of Philip IV of France. Charles' character eventually alienated both the French and English monarchs, because he readily switched sides whenever it suited his interest. In 1356, Edward, the Black Prince, eldest son and heir of Edward III, led an army to a chevauchée in France. John pursued the Black Prince, who tried to avoid battling the French king's superior force. Negotiations broke down. In the Battle of Poitiers, the French suffered another humiliating defeat, and their king was captured. Edward hoped to capitalize on the victory by invading France and having himself crowned at Reims. But
Edward the Black Prince burnt, and that 3,000 persons of all ranks and ages were massacred. However modern scholarship, including the historian Richard Barber writing in 2008 in the "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", and drawing on a wider range of evidence, places casualties much lower than Froissart did—around 300 garrison soldiers and civilians in total. The prince returned to Cognac; his sickness increased, and he was forced to give up all hope of being able to direct any further operations and to proceed first to Angoulème and then to Bordeaux. The death of his eldest son Edward, which happened at this time, grieved