conquer Lisbon and the whole country before he returned, for no assistance, except from Eng-land, could come to them. This only he fear* ed; but, having considered that the English were at a great distance, and that the king of England and his uncles were not on good terms with each other, he carried on the siege with security. The army was so plentifully supplied with every sort of provision, there was not a town or market in all Castille where was more abundance. The king of Portugal remained with his people in Lisbon, much at his ease, for they could not be deprived of the advantage of the sea. His council advised him to send able ambassadors to England, to the king and duke of Lancaster, to renew the alliance which had subsisted between the king of England and his brother Ferdinand., to charge the ambassadors to ask his daughter Philippa from the duke of Lancaster, who would willingly give her to him for his queen ; to offer, under the strongest terms, a perpetual alliance between the two countries, and to declare he would exert himself so effectually, if the duke would come • thither with two or three thousand combatants, and as many archers, that he should recover the kingdom of Castille, which was his lawful inheritance. Two knights of his household, sir John Rodri-* guez and sir John Testedor, with a clerk of laws called Marche de la Figgiere, archdeacon of Lis-bon, were nominated to go as ambassadors to England. Having provided themselves with all things 123