GUERNSEY HISTORY. 



Ill 



in command of the French forces in Normandy, made two 

 determined, but unsuccessful, attempts to drive the English 

 out of the Cotentin. It is probable that the invasion of 

 Guernsey took place on either the first or second of these 

 occasions. We learn from the above mentioned letters, the 

 earliest of which is dated 15th August, 1357, that sometime 

 previous to this date the French had invaded Gruernsey and 

 captured Castle Cornet. When news of this disaster reached 

 Jersey,* Thomas de Langhurst, deputy of Otho de Holand, 

 lieutenant of Thomas de Holand, Governor of the Isles, 

 collected his forces, and accompanied by Sir Reynold de 

 Carteret, Philip de Carteret, John de Garriz, Richard de 

 Saint Martin, Ralph le Empere (Lempriere), John de la 

 Hougue, and Denis Le Feuvre, with others of the principal 

 men of the island and their followers, proceeded to Guernsey 

 to besiege Castle Cornet. After a fierce battle they captured 

 the captain of the French force in the castle, who ransomed 

 himself from them for eighty thousand florins. f Finally, the 

 French agreed to surrender the castle in exchange for their 

 captain. During their stay in the island, the Jerseymen 

 killed a certain Guernseyman, named William Le Feyvre. 

 According to their version they executed him for treason, 

 according to his wife's account they murdered him out of 

 ancient enmity.? It is to this event that we owe the names 

 of the Jerseymen taking part in the expedition. 



Have we not here the true origin of the story told by 

 Falle of the part played by Jersey in the reconquest of 

 Guernsey. Falle's account is full of inaccuracies, his date, 

 1343, is quite wrong : he evidently mixed up two sources of 

 information, the Chronicle of Flanders, and an old Jersey 

 manuscript to make them fit into the story of the recapture of 

 Castle Cornet in 1345. Still, have we not in the enormous 

 contribution of six thousand four hundred marks which he 

 says was raised by the people of Jersey for the reconquest of 

 Guernsey, and in the names of the Jerseymen who he says 

 were killed on that occasion, namely, the Seigneurs de Vin- 

 chelez, de Matravers, des Augrez, de Garis, de la Hougue, 

 Lempriere and others, a garbled tradition of the ransom of 

 eighty thousand florins patriotically given up by the Jersey- 

 men for the surrender of Castle Cornet ; and of the names of 

 the leaders of the Jersey force ? Three of the names he 

 mentions, de Garis, de la Hougue and Lempriere § are iden- 

 tical with those in the Close Rolls. 



* Cal. Close Rolls, 31 Ed. III., m. g., p. 377. 

 t Calendar Close Rolls, 31 Ed. III., p. 374, 25 Aug., 1357. 

 % Falle. Hist, of Jersey, p. 63. § Cal. Close Rolls, p. 184, Nov. 12, 1357. 



