A HISTORY OF CORNWALL 



partnership with a Lostwithiel man in one ship. 1 Early in 1340 the western ports promised to 

 provide seventy ships of 100 tons and upwards, as far as possible at their own cost to join the 

 roval fleet and no doubt many of these ships helped to win the great victory of Sluys in the 

 following 'lune In 1342 complications arose in Brittany owing to the death of the duke without 

 direct heirs leading to the dispatch of a large fleet and army under Sir Walter de Mauny ; Edward 

 himself crossed later in the year. In one fleet alone there were 357 vessels of which Looe sent 

 five and Fowey three ships. 3 An undated list, probably relating to another fleet prepared for this 

 expedition gives a total of 119 vessels, towards which Saltash sent two barges and Looe one; 

 Fowey Polruan, and Lostwithiel, six ships and a barge ; Falmouth, two ships and a barge ; and 

 Padstow one barge. A comparison of this list with the corresponding one for Devon (Mar. Hist, 

 of Devon) will show how far behind in maritime importance the neighbouring county had already 

 left Cornwall. After Edward's arrival many of the vessels deserted from Brest, leaving the king 

 and his troops ' in very great peril,' and writs were directed to the bailiffs of the ports to arrest the 

 deserters and seize their property. The masters of six ships of Looe, eight of Fowey, five of 

 Polruan and one of Falmouth are named ; the ships and goods were to be forfeited, and the masters 

 and mariners fined. 4 For the campaign of Crecy and the siege of Calais a huge armament was 

 collected from 1,000 to 1,600 sail, say the chroniclers. According to the Roll of Calais, which 

 purports to be a copy of a Wardrobe account, Looe sent 20 ships and 325 men ; Fowey, 47 ships 

 and 770 men ; Padstow, 2 ships and 27 men ; and Polruan, i ship and 60 men. 8 These figures, 

 however are very doubtful. There is no contemporary record, all the copies being of the sixteenth 

 century ' They do not agree among themselves ; besides minor discrepancies, one MS. 6 gives 

 Fowey only 370 and Looe 203 men, another gives Padstow sixty men. 7 There are certainly blunders 

 relating to other towns in these copies, and we cannot ignore the fact that Fowey, hitherto treated 

 as a third-rate or fourth-rate port, is suddenly found to have more naval strength available than 

 London, Dartmouth, Plymouth, Bristol, Hull, Newcastle, Ipswich, or any of the Cinque Ports. 

 To the naval historian the pretension is an impossible one, especially as it is not even based on an 

 original record. Whatever the true figures may be, a possible explanation of them is that Fowey 

 and Looe were places of assembly for the naval levies of the county. Such districts as Mount s 

 Bay towns like Penryn, Truro, and Saltash, and the fishing villages of Mevagissey Bay, must 

 have been represented in the fleet, although they do not appear in the lists, and the 1,200 or 1,600 

 sail did not include fishing boats. 8 There is another test that can be applied. The poll-tax 

 returns of 1377' show that there were 269 persons, male and female, above fourteen years of age 

 in East and West Looe. Assuming that the two Looes had not recovered at all in nearly twenty 

 years from the devastation of the Black Death, and that they contained twice as many people in 

 1347, they still could not have produced 203 able-bodied seamen, far less 325, out of a population 

 of 538, males and females, of all classes, occupations, and ages, above fourteen years; while although 

 to make the Cornish argument stronger West Looe is included, there is no mention of it in the 

 Calais Roll. Unfortunately, the returns for Fowey have disappeared, but there is little doubt that 

 they would have led to the same conclusion, and it should be remembered that in 1326, only 

 twenty-one years previously, when every ship available was being brought forward, Fowey was 

 only asked for two ships and forty-six men, being half as many as Looe. 10 The handwriting of the 

 five copies of the Calais Roll is of the period 1575-1630, and they offer internal evidence that 

 when the original record was transcribed it was in some places nearly or quite illegible. 



The naval history of Edward III is an illustration of the almost invariable consequence, in 

 former times, of the destruction of an enemy's military fleets in causing an increase of raids and 

 privateering. Although sea victories were "won, and no resistance was or could be made to the 

 transport of Edward's armies, the coasts were continually harassed by French incursions or the fear 

 of them, and the sense of helplessness was increased by the losses suffered from privateers and the 

 exhaustion of the ship-owning classes. An unstable peace existed between 1360 and 1369, and 



1 Close, 1 3 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 1 1 . The prisoners were set free and the ship impressed. We have 

 seen that Bodmin had been treated as a port as recently as 1337 (Rot. Scot. 10 Edw. Ill, m. 2). 



2 Rot. Par!, ii, 108. 3 Chanc. Misc. j g ; ^. 



4 Pat. I 7 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 1 7 d. ; Close, 1 7 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 4 d., 3 d. One Falmouth and three Looe 

 ships did not appear at all. It is very doubtful whether the severe penalties of the thirteenth and 

 fourteenth centuries were often enforced. In some cases they certainly were not, the shipping interest being 

 too important to offend. 



5 Cott. MS. Titus F. iii, f. 262 ; Stowe MS. 570, f. 222 ; 574, f. 28 ; Harl. MS. 3,968, f. 130 ; 



ibid. 246. 



Stowe MS. 570. 7 Ibid. 574. 



8 Rot. Fr. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 36, m. 32 (8, 18 March, 1345-6). To arrest all vessels that could 

 be of use for the transport of troops and stores, even of ten or twelve tons, fishing boats excepted. 



9 Journ. of Roy. Inst. of Cornwall, iv, 27. 



10 Compare also the far greater number of ships sent by the Devon ports in 1342. 



480 



