CASTLE CORNET. 357 



of the King- of France, to Normandy to request supplies and 

 munitions for the garrison. The ship in which the latter 

 sailed was wrecked and he lost all his belongings. On the 

 28th July, 1343, Philip de Valois, by Letters Patent addressed 

 to the Bailiff of the Cotentin, granted to Adam Charles, 

 " son sergent au chastel de Cornet," an indemnity of 30 livres 

 worth of wood in the forest of Brix, as he had lost, " en la 

 mer toutes ses armeures par ce que la nef on il estoit pery 

 et enfondra." 



For the next two years, though many letters appear 

 in the Close and Patent Polls referring to the Channel Islands 

 as a whole, or with a few exceptions to various appoint- 

 ments, &c, in Jersey, they do not afford any information as to 

 the condition of Guernsey during this period. This absence 

 of any direct reference to our island cannot be considered 

 evidence of its recapture by the French. The fact of Thomas 

 de Ferrers holding the post of Warden during the whole 

 of this time in itself precludes such an assumption ; for it is 

 most improbable, if he had again lost the island during his 

 second term of office, that he would have been permitted to 

 retain his post. 



We now come to the closing scenes of the French 

 occupation of Castle Cornet. From a fragment of a " Chro- 

 nicle de Flandre, relatifs a Godefroi de Harcourt " given by 

 Delisle, in his " Histoire des Sires de Saint Sauveur le Vicomte," 

 we gather that about the year 1345, Maran le Marronier, 

 captured six English ships off Guernsey, putting to death 

 all on board. When news of this atrocity reached Edward III. 

 he dispatched Godfrey d'Harcourt and Peginald de Cobham, 

 his Marshal, with 10,000 men to expel the French from Castle 

 Cornet. The castle was bravely defended by Nicholas Elleyes 

 (or Helie), the Captain and the French garrison of 500 men, 

 but after three days' assault it was taken, Nicholas Helie and 

 his whole force being slain.* This account, though probably 

 correct in its principal facts, is undoubtedly very untrustworthy 

 as regards the numbers employed on both sides. 



The Accounts of Thomas de Ferrers, which begin on the 

 3rd June, 1345,f add many interesting facts to our knowledge 

 of this period. They show that the condition of affairs in the 

 island previous to the capture of the castle was identical with 

 that existing in 1342 and 1343. The island was held by the 

 English, whilst the French still occupied Castle Cornet, in 

 which they were closely besieged. 



* De Lisle. Histoire des Sires de St. Sauveur le V. preuves, pp. 91-92. 

 t Bulletin XVI., Societe Jersiaise, pp. 47-53. 



