THE FRENCH WARS 



with the Navy, but as a matter of fact it would appear that essentially he 

 was far more a soldier, and his interest in nautical matters was almost 

 entirely centred on their uses for transport. He raised naval forces to 

 convoy his troops, but after that he could not spare any more money 

 for the Navy, and complaints were constantly received from Parlia- 

 ment that the Narrow Seas were left absolutely unpatrolled and that our 

 commerce was being preyed upon by various enemies, a destruction 

 that had got to such a pitch that by the end of the reign it involved the 

 reduction of most of the coastal towns. 



Pillage of Portsmouth, 1337. 



Early in 1337 Portsmouth was kept busy equipping a big fleet for 

 service on the West Coast of Scotland, and the state of the King's Navy 

 may be noted by the fact that a number of ships that had been brought 

 in from the Continent were put under the command of a Genoese. At 

 the same time another squadron was dispatched from Lynn to intercept 

 a Flanders convoy taking arms to the Scots. The French were always 

 friendly with the Scots, and they saw the opportunity of helping their 

 friends and doing us an injury at the same time, so that while the British 

 squadron was in the North Nicholas Behuchet slipped across with a 

 flotilla of galleys and a body of troops and burned Portsmouth after 

 sacking it thoroughly. He then crossed to Guernsey, burned St. Peter 

 Port and ravaged the whole of the island. Coming so soon after Edward 

 had claimed to be Sovereign of the Seas, this raid is illuminating, carried 

 out with impunity as it was. 



I'he " Christopher " and the " Edward." 



One of the first of our fights against the big odds that is specifically 

 mentioned in history occurred in the year 1338 when the King's ships 

 Christopher and Edivard, with three smaller ships, were returning from 

 Flanders with valuable cargo. While on passage they met the same 

 French and Genoese Fleet that had sacked Portsmouth, carrying some 

 forty thousand soldiers and having just completed a raid on Hastings 

 and other towns on the South Coast. The French fleet consisted of over 

 fifty vessels, and in men they outnumbered the English by a hundred to 

 one, yet the latter fought through the day and night in most gallant 

 fashion and inflicted very heavy casualties before they were over- 

 come. The two big ships went to the French Navy, but they did not 

 remain on their lists very long. 



The Battle of Sluys. 



In September, 1339, the French collected a huge naval force at 

 Sluys to cut King Edward's communications, but putting to sea early in 

 October they were caught on a lee shore and nearly half were lost. 

 There remained, however, sufficient to form a very great menace to 

 England, and every preparation was made to collect a naval force to 

 counter it. Finally, the King found himself in command of two hundred 

 ships and as many men-at-arms and archers as his armada could accom- 

 modate. The King himself sailed in the cog Thomas and was joined of? 



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