120 



GUERNSEY HISTORY. 



under the command of Richard Pouvoir and Lawrence 

 Hauden, Captain of Tombelaine. From the accounts of this 

 expedition that have come down to us, we find that the 

 Guernsey contingent consisted of three ships, La Pitie, La 

 Marie, and La Trinite, commanded respectively by Denis 

 Le Marchant, Pierres Nicholas, and Hemon Henry, who had 

 under them twenty-nine men-at-arms and eighty-nine archers 

 and sailors. These three vessels took part in the first month 

 of the blockade. They were reviewed by the Vicomte of 

 Carentan, Guillaume Biote, in the harbour of Chausey, on the 

 17th May, 1425, and seem to have terminated their engage- 

 ment on the 30th of the same month, up to which date 

 the captains and crew received payment. 



If so, they possibly escaped the terrible disaster that 

 overtook the English force at the end of the month of June, 

 of the same year, when it was totally defeated both on land 

 and sea. The entire English fleet was either burnt or 

 captured, and the Channel, from St. Malo to Calais, was left 

 at the mercy of the ships of St. Malo and Mont St. Michel 

 for the remainder of the summer of 1425. 



The names of the three Guernsey captains are well 

 known to us from local documents. Denis Le Marchant and 

 Pierre Nicholas were both of them jurats of the Royal Court. 

 Hemon, or Edmond Henry, was the son of Nicholas Henry, 

 of La Perelle, the foundry of the Chapel of Notre Dame 

 de la Perelle, now called St. Apoline. He was also one of 

 the jurats in 1421. 



It had long been known that several Jerseyman had 

 taken part in the campaigns of Henry V. in Normandy, 

 three of whom, John de St. Martin, John Lempriere, and 

 Ralph Tourgis having been rewarded by the king for their 

 services, by grants of forfeited manors in that province, 

 but this is the first notice concerning Guernseymen that 

 has as yet come to light. 



There are also several other letters in the appendix of 

 the above mentioned Chro?iique, showing that our islands 

 at this period were used as a base for the English fleet, 

 and for the collection of reinforcements to harass the 

 flanks of the French forces as they gradually drove the 

 English out of Normandy. Thus, in 1436, Thomas, Lord 

 Scales, Seneschal of Normandy, sends urgent orders to 

 the Isles of " Guelnerry," to the English force appointed 

 to guard the sea, for their assistance in his attack upon 

 the town of Granville, which the French had recently 

 captured. Another letter of 1443 refers to a similar project 



