How the Prince of Wales led a great and bold expedition through Languedoc, destroying and laying waste the country between Narbonne and Carcassonne.

It's only right that I should tell you how the Prince of Wales fared in gascony and Languedoc, where his father King Edward had sent him. He gathered to him so many gascon knights and squires that he had a force of two thousand heavy cavalry, including those he'd brought with him from England, and ten thousand brigandines on foot. He set out from Bordeaux, entered that part of gascony that supported the French, and advanced right across it, burning and destroying a swathe five leagues wide, until he was almost at the city of Toulouse. He waited there for a day and then crossed the great River Garonne, finding no one to oppose him, despite the fact that the men of Toulouse were so near – and despite the fact that King John had sent his marshal Sir Jean de Clermont there with the Duke of Bourbon, the Count of Armagnac, the Count of Foix, the Count of Forez, and so many knights and squires that they outnumbered the English by four to one.

After crossing the river the Prince's forces formed their battalions and burned all the country right next to Toulouse without anyone leaving the city to defend it. They camped that night at Montgiscard, and advanced next day to Castelnaudary where they captured the castle.