 The marital alignment with France was tested and failed as early as 1316, when Louis X requested Brabant to cease trade with Flanders and to participate in a French attack; the councillors representing the towns found this impossible, and in reprisal Louis prohibited all French trade with Brabant in February 1316, in violation of a treaty of friendship he had signed with Brabant in the previous October.After his initial period of maintaining independent neutrality from both France and England failed,<ref>The following details are drawn from Sergio Boffa, "The Duchy of Brabant caught between France and England