Though all joined him in the summer of 1339 on his formal summons of them as Vicar-General of the Empire, and his army when it appeared before Cambray numbered forty thousand men, their ardour cooled as the town held out.

Philip approached it from the south, and on Edward's announcing his resolve to cross the river and attack him he was at once deserted by the two border princes who had most to lose from a contest with France, the Counts of Hainault and Namur.

But the king was still full of hope.

He pushed forward to the country round St.Quentin between the head waters of the Somme and the Oise with the purpose of forcing a decisive engagement.

But he found Philip strongly encamped, and declaring their supplies exhausted his allies at once called for a retreat.