In the East

Abstract

On March 23, 1357, at Bordeaux, Giannino di Guccio and the English agreed to a truce to last from Easter of that year, April 9, until Easter of 1359, April 29. The king of France, Jean II the Good, was taken to England by the Black Prince, which meant that the Dauphin could rule the kingdom without the awkward presence on French soil of his captive father and the heir to the English throne. The magistrates of the commune of Siena, who until then had taken a hands-off approach, began to worry about the reprisals that Sienese merchants in France might suffer if it became known that back home the self-proclaimed sovereign of that kingdom was being harbored and honored. Giannino would eventually have his own personal seal, made of silver, on which his own visage was portrayed, the seal of Cola di Rienzo with the large star, and the seal—unquestionably counterfeit—of the king of Hungary. He traversed the Apennines with hired horses, crossing the mountains near Mangona. Finally, on August 6, 1359, he entered Siena.