Du Guesclin found amongst his Breton friends a portion of the sum he wanted; King Charles V.lent him thirty thousand Spanish doubloons, which, by a deed of December 27, 1367, Du Guesclin undertook to repay; and at the beginning of 1368 the Prince of Wales set the French warrior at liberty.
The first use Du Guesclin made of it was to go and put his name and his sword at the service first of the Duke of Anjou, governor of Languedoc, who was making war in Provence against Queen Joan of Naples, and then of his Spanish patron, Henry of Transtamare, who had recommenced the war in Spain against his brother, Pedro the Cruel, whom he was before long to dethrone for the second time and slay with his own hand.

But whilst Du Guesclin was taking part in this settlement of the Spanish question, important events called him back to the north of the Pyrenees for the service of his own king, the defence of his own country, and the aggrandizement of his own fortunes.

The English and Gascon bands which, in 1367, had recrossed the Pyrenees with the Prince of Wales, after having restored Don Pedro the Cruel to the throne of Castile had not disappeared.

Having no more to do in their own prince's service, they had spread abroad over France, which they called "their apartment," and recommenced, in the countries between the Seine and the Loire, their life of vagabondage and pillage.

A general outcry was raised; it was the Prince of Wales, men said, who had let them loose, and the people called them the host (army) of England.