GUERNSEY HISTORY. 



121 



against the same town. The commission sent by Henry VI, 

 to Normandy for this purpose, despatched John Bandulph, 

 Vicomte of Caen, to the Isles of Jersey and Guernsey 

 to collect as many vessels as possible, as well as men at arms 

 and sailors to assist in the attack. 



It is evident that the vessels from our islands did great 

 damage to the French on the coasts of the Cotentin, so much 

 so, that in 1451, after the final expulsion of the English 

 from Normandy, Charles VII. refused to give up to its 

 rightful owners the Castle of Pirou, which stood on the 

 coast nearly opposite to Jersey, on the plea that " it was 

 on the sea shore near the islands of Gerry and Gernesey, 

 occupied by our adversaries, and in a place of danger." A 

 few years later the French made an attempt to conquer 

 the islands, and in the " Paston Letters " on the 8th June, 

 1454, Botoner writes to John Paston, that " The Frenchmen 

 hafe be afore the Isles of Gersey and Guernsey, and a grete 

 navy of hem, and VC (500) be taken and slayn by men 

 of the seyd trew Isles." In the same year, John Nanfan, 

 Governor of the Isles, petitions the king for subsidies, and 

 among other things states that he had paid £1,000 to the 

 captains of " Shirburg " (Cherbourg) and St. Sauveur-le- 

 Vicomte " for the salvation of the lives of the hostages of 

 the said Isle of Jersey, being then in ward in peril of death, 

 which would have caused great division, and the final destruc- 

 tion of the said Isle.* It is probable that these were Jersey- 

 men taken prisoners during the last stages of the war with 

 France, before the capture of Cherbourg, 1450, as the 

 petition is endorsed on the 5th March, 1454, or three months 

 earlier than Botoner's letter. A sidelight on the same period 

 is thrown by a " Lettre " of the 13th February, 1459, 

 formerly in the possession of the late Mrs. Giffard Sheppard, 

 of La Roque Barree, whereby Guillmote de Mollepy (de 

 Mouilpied), widow of Johan Ollivier, of St. Martin's, sells 

 to Philippin Johan, alias du Doit, two bushels of wheat 

 rent for having obtained the deliverance of her son, Johan 

 Ollivier, from the Castle of Cherbourg. When de Breze 

 invaded Jersey in 1461, and captured Mont Orgueil Castle, 

 a final attempt was made by the French to capture Guernsey, 

 and a letter in the Patent Rolls of 15 May, 1461, speaks of 

 " the king's enemies of France who have entered the island 

 of Guernsey and besieged the Castle of Cornet there.f " 

 Unfortunately we have no details of this attack, but it is 

 evident that the French, being unable to capture the castle, 

 retired to Jersey. This was the last determined attempt 

 made by the French to conquer our island. 



* Ancient Petitions, Soc. Jersiaise, p. 89-90, No. 5892. t Oal. Patent Rolls, Edw. IV., p. 



