HISTORY OP POLAND,

A period of more than a hundred years followed, duringwhich the chief object of theEnglish was to establish, by forceof arms, a great empire on the Continent. The claim of Ed-ward to the inheritance occupied by the House of Valois was aclaim in which it might seem that his subjects were little in-terested. But the passion for conquest spread fast from theprince to the people. The war differed widely from the warswhich the Plantagenets of the twelfth century had wagedagainst the descendants of Hugh Capet. For the success ofHenry the Second, or of Richard the First, would have madeEngland a province of France. The effect of the successes ofEdward the Third and of Henry the Fifth was to make France,for a time, a province of England. The disdain with which,in the twelfth century, the conquerors from the Continent hadregarded the islanders, was now retorted by the islanders onthe people of the Continent. Every yeoman from Kent toNorthumberland valued himself as one of a race born forvictory and dominion, and looked down with scorn on thenation before which his ancestors had trembled. Even thoseknights of Gascony and Guienne who had fought gallantlyunder the Black Prince were regarded by the English as menof an inferior breed, and were contemptuously excluded fromhonourable and lucrative commands. In no long time our an-cestors altogether lost sight of the original ground of quarrel.They began to consider the crown of France as a mere appen-dage to the crown of England; and when, in violation of theordinary law of succession, they transferred the crown ofEngland to theHouse of Lancaster, they seem to have thoughtthat the right of Richard the Second to the crown of Francepassed, as of course, to that house. The zeal and vigourwhich they displayed present a remarkable contrast to thetorpor of the French, who were far more deeply interested inthe event of the struggle. The greatest victories recorded inthe history of the middle ages were gained at this time, against