In October-December 1355, Edward the Black Prince despoiled the French countryside on a massive scale with an army roughly 5000 strong. John, leading his own army, remained in the vicinity of The Black Prince’s troops during much of this campaign, but he dared not confront the English in battle. This was not a decision made strictly due to cowardice. Rather, it was a strategic decision, though perhaps a poorly calculated one. John had seen the disasters that had befallen French at Crécy in 1346, and at Bergerac and Auberoche a decade earlier. All of these battles resulted in heavy losses for the French. Worse still, many prominent French noblemen were captured by the English at all three of these places and later ransomed, raising large amounts of money to fund the English war effort. With these catastrophes in mind, John proved extremely reluctant to risk another disaster by confronting the Black Prince on the battlefield. Regardless of his reasoning, John of Armagnac's inability to act in the face of the English threat embarrassed the French king (John II at the time), for whom he was acting as lieutenant.
