From 1461 to 1465 the career of Matthias was a perpetual struggle punctuated by truces.
Malik-al-Adil, the brother of Saladin, had by 1200 succeeded to his brother's possessions not only in Egypt but also in Syria, and he granted the Christians a series of truces (1198-1203, 1204-1210, 1211-1217).
Attendant on them were the heralds, who were the officers of their military court, wherein offences committed in the camp and field were tried and adjudged, and among whose duties it was to carry orders and messages, to deliver challenges and call truces, and to identify and number the wounded and the slain.
In 1380 and 1381, Lancaster, uncle of Richard II., arranged truces, but difficulties were caused by the late proclamation, in Scotland, of a truce made with her ally, France, on the 26th of January 1384.
Truces and empty negotiations merely protracted disorder.
