THE FRENCH WARS 



to any appreciable extent. Henry himself went one better, and certainly 

 proved his good faith, by enacting that any breach of a truce by an armed 

 British ship should be regarded as high treason and punished accord- 

 ingly. By this means, and by the patrol which he improved at the first 

 opportunity, a considerable check was put on piracy. 

 The Invasion of France. 



The checking of piracy, however, did not mean peace, for Henry 

 asserted his claim to the throne of France within a year of his 

 accession, and that could only mean war. He did not make the mistake 

 of Edward III, but made every preparation for a fleet in being to be 

 maintained while he was away, while the French also commissioned a 

 Navy of mercenaries. Fifteen hundred vessels in all were collected in 

 Southampton Water for the transport of his Army, but a hundred of 

 these were not utilised, and with the remainder Henry sailed on 

 August 11th, 1415, and entered the Seine two days later. The harbour 

 of Harfleur was defended by a chain between two piers, and in addition 

 a number of tree trunks and stakes had been made into a boom heavy 

 enough to impede the progress of any fleet. Behind these defences was 

 the French squadron, but no attempt was made to force them, Harfleur 

 being taken from the land side after a siege of little more than a month. 

 The rest of the campaign is purely of a land nature, but while Henry 

 was protecting the Narrow Seas from the French the Scots were doing 

 very considerable damage to our northern commerce and destroyed a 

 number of ships. At a little later period the French with Genoese 

 auxiliaries made a gallant attempt to harry us as they had done in the 

 days of Jean de Vienne, but the Navy was then in a very different 

 condition and they appear to have sustained every bit as much damage 

 as they inflicted on us. 



The Battle of Harfleur. 



This Franco-Genoese Fleet co-operated with the Army in investing 

 Harfleur, and a large fleet was raised in England and placed under the 

 command of Thomas, Lord Morley, with the Duke of Bedford in charge 

 of the military on board to raise the siege. The two fleets met on 

 August 15th, 1416, and to begin with, the French received great help from 

 the high freeboard Genoese ships, whose men were comparatively safe 

 from our people. After a protracted fight the English began gradually 

 to gain ground, and the victory turned into a rout when a number of the 

 enemy's vessels deserted their flag and sought safety. It was a crushing 

 victory, but it must not be forgotten that in spite of the superiority of so 

 many individual enemy ships, the British Fleet had considerably the 

 better of the balance as far as numbers were concerned. After the 

 action, and while we were trying to land stores and men to the besieged 

 town, the galleys proved very troublesome but were eventually driven 

 off by the boats of the fleet. 

 The Norman Expedition, 1417. 



At the end of 1416 a truce was arranged with France, but as soon 

 as it was over Henry began preparations for a new expedition to 



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