Michael Jones

And this is very interesting.

Edward III renounces his claim in return for getting Aquitaine, that's a very enlarged Gascony, in full sovereignty.

So that's the best.

We won't do better than that in the 14th century.

So...

That is a win.

And the prince becomes outright ruler of Aquitaine.

He doesn't have to bend the knee and do homage.

And that was extraordinary.

But the problem was that it wouldn't last.

But while it did last, it looked very good indeed.

Things went wrong when we intervened in Spain to support Pedro the Cruel, who was, as his name suggests, a total psychopath.

And

The prince was very reluctant to do this and was kind of pushed into it by his father.

Edward III saw the strategic advantage of allying with Castile.

The prince was aware, however, that this guy he was helping had been excommunicated twice, probably murdered his wife.

murdered his half-brother during a banquet and then left a corpse on the floor.

And his last act before he showed up at Bordeaux to plead for help from the prince was to stab to death the Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela in one of the sacred pilgrimage sites on consecrated ground.

So I don't think the prince was very excited.

And although he wins this battle at Mejera, it all goes wrong because the counterclaim escapes, gets back on the throne, and now Castile is an enemy.