ST. PETEH-lM)irr IX P.V(^()XE TIAIKS. 33-5 



neighbours upon the mainland, were added to the number of 

 their enemies, and their liability to invasion ^Yas greatly 

 increased. Indeed, for some time after the old Duchy had 

 changed rulers, neither the French nor English felt quite sure 

 as to whose property these islands were, an<l each iiation seems 

 to have had a shot at them in turn. 



Directly after the separation, i.e., A.D. 120;"), the famous 

 outlaw Eustache de IVIoine with thirty galleys furnished by 

 King John came, if we can believe the metrical version of his 

 exploits, to attack the islands and burn everything he could put 

 his hands to. It is not certain however which of the islands he 

 attacked, but having ravaged them and collected great booty he 

 sailed away. 



Gradually the islands settled down as dependencies of the 

 English crown, and increased greatly in importance, and in the 

 year 1275 St. Peter-Port is for the first time honoured with the 

 name of a town. It was in this year that King Edward I., 

 having understood that ships and boats coming into the port of 

 Guernsey were often in danger through the roughness of the 

 sea, granted permission for the levying of a custom in order to 

 provide the funds required for building a wall or causeway of 

 stone for their protection — " inter castrum nostrum ibidem et 

 villain nostram de Porti Sancti Petri," between our castle in 

 that place and our town of the Port of Saint Peter. 



Towards the end of the reign of John's grandson, 

 Edward I., and about 30 years after the order for the building 

 of the pier, we get an authentic notice of a French attack upon 

 St. Peter-Port, and the town received its baptism of fire. The 

 attack here referred to took place in the summer of 1294 during 

 the war between England and France, w^hich lasted from 

 1293-4 to Jan. 1298, for there is no notice of any infraction 

 of the peace then signed. Fifteen hundred of the inhabitants 

 were killed, houses burned, churches desecrated, crops 

 destroyed and goods carried off. The damage done was so 

 great that it took years to repair it. In the year 1303 (as we 

 learn from Col. Carey's notes from the assize-rolls of that 

 period) a suit was brought against the Abbot of Marmoutier, to 

 oblige him to contribute towards the restoration of the furni- 

 ture and rebuilding of the churches in the island under his 

 patro]iage, and his lands were seized in the King's name for the 

 payment of £200 as his third of the expense. 



Our authority is an Order in Council, the Latin original of 

 which still exists among the English records. It is an interest- 

 ing document, so I will give a translation of it. It is dated the 

 thirty-third year of Edward I., 1305, and runs as follows : — 



"The King to his beloved and faithful Otho de Grandison, 

 Guardian of the Islands of Jersey and Guernsey, or his 

 Lieutenant,^ — Greeting, — Whereas Richard Rose and other 



