 He could not resist the chance to appear as a leader of the French aristocracy and led the suppression of the Jacquerie at the Battle of Mello, 10 June 1358 and the subsequent massacres of rebels.He then returned to Paris and made an open bid for power urging the populace to elect him as 'Captain of Paris'.This move lost Charles the support of many of the nobles who had supported him against the Jacquerie, and they began to abandon him for the Dauphin while he recruited soldiers – mainly English mercenaries – for the 'defence' of Paris, though his men, picketed outside the city, raided and plundered far and wide.