St Andrews Castle surrenders to the Scots after a three weeks siege. March: Murray captures Bothwell Castle. 3 March: Parliament of England meet at Westminster. 16 March: Parliament closes. The Lords have endorsed Edward III's plans to dispatch an army to Aquitaine and send an ultimatum to the King of France. Six earldoms have been created and Edward III's six years old heir Edward of Woodstock has become the Duke of Cornwall, the first use of the ducal title in England. William I of Hainaut announces that he intends convene a great diplomatic conference at Valenciennes on 4 May. 15 April: The English delegation to the peace conference at Valenciennes is announced: Henry Burghersh, Bishop of Lincoln, William Montagu, 1st Earl of Salisbury and William de Clinton, 1st Earl of Huntingdon. Late April: Philip VI refuses to receive ambassadors bearing the final proposals of the King of England. 30 April: The arrière-ban is proclaimed throughout the Kingdom of France. May: Philip VI comes to Paris to preside over a meeting of his Great Council. It is decided that the duchy of Aquitaine will be declared forfeit on the grounds that Edward III is sheltering the King's enemy, Robert of Artois. 4 May: The peace conference at Valenciennes opens with, as expected, only those well disposed to Edward III represented. 20 May: Gaston II of Foix-Béarn, the French commander in the south, receives his orders. 23 May: The Constable of France, Raoul I of Brienne, Count of Eu, receives his orders. 24 May: The bailli of Amiens is instructed to take possession of the English enclave of Ponthieu. May: Jeanne de Valois, Countess of Hainaut, Philip VI's sister, comes to Paris from Valenciennes with the conference's peace proposal. The proposals are dismissed. 7 June: Death of William I of Hainaut. He is succeeded by his son William II, Count of Hainaut June: The English ambassadors departs Valenciennes to visit John III, Duke of Brabant at Brussels and then the excommunicated Emperor, Louis of Bavaria, at Frankfurt. In return for a fee the Emperor promises to support an English invasion. The princes of the Low Countries sign similar agreements. 28 June: Edward III starts issuing orders for an expeditionary army to sail from London 28 July. 1337–1360 1340: The Battle of Sluys 1340: 26 January: Edward III declares himself 'King of France' in the marketplace of Ghent. 1341: The Breton War of