About 1340 King John became blind. In 1346 he rode into battle with King Charles VI at Crécy, between two knights, going to a certain but chivalrous death, as only a knight would do. John fought with the French because his sister had married the previous king of France and his daughter had married the king’s son. John’s son succeeded him as king of Bohemia and later became one of the great Holy Roman emperors as Charles IV. Crécy was a turning point in history, for the English archers, who had longbows and were on foot, destroyed the cream of French knighthood, though they had horses, armor, and crossbows.

Through the king’s influence, Pope John XXII had named Machaut a canon of the cathedral of Reims in 1333. The office was conferred on him in 1337, and he lived there regularly from 1340. All cathedrals and a small number of churches (known as collegiate churches because the canons formed a group or college) were staffed by a chapter of canons, whose duty it was to chant the Office daily. By the 14th century, not all canons were ordained priests, and the benefice was sometimes bestowed as a source of income on men who had little interest in living in common at the chapterhouse. Machaut was also a canon at St. Quentin, a magnificent collegiate church almost 60 miles (100 km) to the northwest. He never lived there, but he composed the motet Martyrum gemma/Diligenter/A Christo in honor of the patron saint. Machaut’s residence at Reims coincided with the onset of King John’s blindness.

Even before the king’s death, Machaut began to serve his daughter, Bonne of Luxembourg. She was married to the duke of Normandy but died a year before he became king of France in 1350 as Jean II. As in the case of his later patrons, Machaut’s service to Bonne consisted of furnishing poetry and songs.

Soon afterwards, Machaut composed a tale for King Charles II of Navarre, known to the French as Charles the Bad. The kings of Navarre were descended from the counts of Champagne, of which the capital was Reims. Charles soon married a daughter of Jean II. During this time France suffered because of the 100 Years’ War with England. Relations between Jean II and Charles, originally cordial, became so strained that Charles was arrested and imprisoned by the French. In 1356, at the battle of Poitiers, Jean II was captured by the English and held for ransom in England for several years. In 1359 the English army laid seige to Reims. After attacking the newly built walls of the city for six weeks, the English lifted the seige. Three of Machaut’s Latin motets can be dated to this time.