Second Treaty of London

The Second Treaty of London was formally agreed on 24 March 1359 in London, England. Its terms would have ended the then 22-year-old Anglo-French conflict now known as the Hundred Years' War. It was sealed by Edward III, king of England, and John II, king of France; the latter was a prisoner in England, having been captured with much of his council at the battle of Poitiers in 1356.

An agreement was negotiated in 1358 to end the war – the First Treaty of London. Its main terms set John's ransom at four million écus: this was £667,000 – the equivalent of the entire peacetime income of the English Crown for about 20 years – and France was to transfer to England approximately a quarter of its territory, while Edward would give up his claim to the French throne. The first installment of the ransom – 600,000 écus (£100,000) – was due to be paid on 1 November 1358, but with the French government collapsing into insurrection and anarchy, it proved impossible to raise, and Edward declared that the agreement had lapsed.

Desperate to be back in France, which was proving ungovernable in his absence, in March 1359 John rapidly negotiated the Second Treaty of London. This had similar terms to the previous treaty, except the amount of territory to be ceded to England was increased to nearly half of France. When the details became known, there was an outcry in France, and the Dauphin, who was acting as the regent while John was a captive, refused to ratify it. In retaliation Edward mobilised the English army. Hostilities resumed in October when the English again invaded France, and ended on 8 May 1360 when the Treaty of Brétigny was agreed.