Edward the Black Prince the party of Montfort, and Chandos won the Battle of Auray (29 September 1364) against the French. As the leaders of the free companies which desolated France were for the most part Englishmen or Gascons, they did not ravage Aquitaine, and the prince was suspected, probably not without cause, of encouraging, or at least of taking no pains to discourage, their proceedings. Accordingly on 14 November 1364 Edward III called upon him to restrain their ravages. In 1365 the free companies, under Sir Hugh Calveley and other leaders, took service with Bertrand du Guesclin, who employed them in 1366 in
Edward the Black Prince the Battle of Nájera. However, after a wait of several months, during which he failed to obtain either the province of Biscay or liquidation of the debt from Don Pedro, he returned to Aquitaine. Prince Edward persuaded the estates of Aquitaine to allow him a hearth tax of ten sous for five years in 1368, thereby alienating the lord of Albret and other nobles. Drawn into open war with Charles V of France in 1369, he took Limoges, where in 1370 he gave orders for an indiscriminate massacre in revenge for the voluntary surrender of that town to the French