110 



GUERNSEY HISTORY. 



time. The French captain of the castle was Adam de Routi- 

 chan, who, in June, 1343, sent Adam Charles, sergeant of the 

 king of France, to Normandy, to request supplies.* We 

 hear nothing further of the castle until June, 1345, when the 

 truce expired and hostilities again broke out. The Governor 

 of the Isles, Thomas de Ferrers, came over with reinforce- 

 ments, and some time seems to have been spent in negotiations 

 for the surrender of the castle, which came to nothing. We 

 read in de Ferrers' accounts of payments to messengers sent 

 to Normandy to the friends of the knights in the castle 

 for news, and also to others sent with tidings to the king at 

 Sandwich. According to the Chronique de Flandres the 

 atrocities of Maran Le Maronier, who captured six English 

 ships off Guernsey and put to death all on board, made 

 Edward III. resolve to recapture the castle at all costs. 

 A force consisting largely of Gascon ships accompanied by 

 Godfrey de Harcourt, the famous Norman renegade, and 

 some say by Reginald de Cobham, was despatched to this 

 intent. In the meanwhile Thomas de Ferrers had been 

 closely besieging the castle and preparing material for its 

 assault. Godfrey de Harcourt arrived with his force on 

 the 13th August, 1345,f and a few days later Castle Cornet 

 was taken by assault. According to the Chronique de Flandres, 

 Nicholas Helie, the French captain of the castle, and the 

 whole garrison were slain. So ended the first French occupa- 

 tion of Castle Cornet, which they had held for nearly 

 seven years. 



THE INVASION OP GUERNSEY, 1356-1357. 



Recently, there has come to light in the Close Rolls of 

 Edward III. for the year 1357, three letters referring to a 

 hitherto unknown invasion of Guernsey (luring the governor- 

 ship of Thomas de Holand, 1356-7. This event must have 

 taken place either immediately before, or shortly after the 

 battle of Poitiers, which was fought on the 19th September, 

 1356. At this period the whole of the Cotentin was in the 

 hands of the English and of Charles, the Bad, king of 

 Navarre, who held all the chief towns and castles, including 

 the famous castle of St. Sauveur-le-Vicomte, which had been 

 bequeathed to Edward III. by Godfrey de Harcourt, and 

 which formed the rallying place of all the bands that ravaged 

 the districts of Normandy under French rule. During the 

 summer and autumn of 1356, Robert de Clermont, captain 



* Dupont. Cotentin et ses lies, II., p. 296. 

 t Bulletin VI., Society Jersiaise, pp. 47-53. 



