John [Stratford] by the same grace Archbishop of Canterbury etc....
greeting. The cause of our long sojourn in Brabant we have ofttimes
made known to you before now, and well known it is to each one of you;
but, for that of late scarce any aid hath come to us out of our realm,
and that the delay was to us so grievous, and our people in such great
straight and our allies too slow in business, our messengers also,
who had so long tarried over against the cardinals and the Council of
France to treat for peace, did bring us never other offers save that
we shall not have one handbreadth of land in the realm of France, and
again our cousin Philip of Valois had ever sworn, as we do have report,
that we should never make a sojourn for a single day with our host in
France, but that he would give us battle.--We, ever trusting in God
and our right, did make to come before us our allies, and did surely
make shown to them that for nought would we longer wait, but would go
forward in pursuit of our right, taking the grace that God should give
us; and they, seeing the dishonour which should have come to them if
they should have tarried behind us, agreed to follow us. A day was
taken for all to be on the march within France on a certain day, at
which day and place we were all ready and our allies came after, as
well as they could. The Monday, on the eve of St. Matthew [September
20], we passed out of Valenciennes, and on the same day they did begin
to burn in Cambresis, and they burnt there all the week following, so
that that country is clean laid waste, as of corn and cattle and other
goods. The Saturday following we came to Marcoing, which is between
Cambray and France, and they began to burn within France the same day;
and we did hear that the said lord Philip was drawing nigh towards us
at Peronne on his march to Noyon. So we held ever our road forward,
our people burning and destroying commonly to the breadth of twelve or
fourteen leagues of country. The Saturday next before the Feast of St.
Luke [October 18] we passed the water of Oise, and lodged and sojourned
there the Sunday; on which day we had our allies before us, who showed
unto us their victuals were near spent and that the winter was nigh at
hand, that they could not tarry, but that they must needs withdraw on
the march back, when their victuals should be spent. In truth, they
were the more shortly victualled by reason that they thought that our
said cousin should have given us speedy battle. On the Monday morning
there came letters unto my lord Hugh of Geneva from the master of the
crossbowmen of France, making mention that he wished to say to the King
of England, as from the King of France, that he would give him battle
within the Thursday next following. On the morrow, to do always what
destruction we could, we marched on. On the Wednesday after came a
messenger to the said Sir Hugh, and brought him letters of the King of
Bohemia and of the Duke of Lorraine, with their seals hanging, making
mention that whatever the said master of the crossbowmen had said, on
the part of the King of France, touching the battle, he would keep
covenant. We, regarding the said letters, immediately on the morrow
withdrew towards Flamengerie, where we stayed the Friday, all the day.
At vespers three spies were taken and were examined, each by himself,
and they agreed in saying that the said Philip would give battle on
Saturday, and that he was a league and a half from us. On the Saturday
we stood in the field full a quarter before dawn, and took our ground
in a fitting place for us, and for him, to fight. In early morning some
of his scouts were taken, and they told us that his advance guard was
in front of the field in battle array, and coming out toward us. The
news coming to our host, although our allies before bore themselves
sluggishly towards us, they were surely of such loyal intent that
never were folk of such good will to fight. In the meantime was one
of our scouts, a German knight, taken, who had seen all our array and
showed it in his plight to our enemy; so that now he made withdraw his
vanguard, and gave orders to encamp, and they made trenches around
them, and cut down the large trees, in order to prevent the approach to
them. We tarried all day in battle array, until, towards vespers, it
seemed we had tarried enough; and, at vespers, we mounted our horses
and went near unto Avesnes, a league and a half from our said cousin,
and made him to know that we would await him there all the Sunday;
and so we did. And other news of him we send not, save that on the
Saturday when we mounted our horses at the departing from our ground,
he thought that we should come towards them; and, such haste had he
to take stronger ground, that a thousand horsemen all at once were
foundered in the marsh at his passage, so came each one upon the other.
On the Sunday was the lord of Fagnolle taken by our people. On the
Monday morning had we news that the said Lord Philip and all his allies
were scattered and withdrawn in great haste. And so would our allies
no longer afterwards abide. And touching what is further to be done we
shall take counsel with them at Antwerp on the morrow of St. Martin
[November 11]. And from thence afterwards [we will send news] speedily
of what may be meanwhile done.
Given under our privy seal, at Brussels, the 1st day of November.
BEFORE SLUYS (1340).
SOURCE.--Robert of Avesbury's _De Gestis Edwardi Tertii_ (Rolls
Series), 311.
[Before the Battle of Sluys, Edward III., unheeding the news that
Philip of France had collected a large navy, to bar his passage,
prepared to cross into Flanders with a small force, early in June,
1340.]
But the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury advised the King that the lord
Philip de Valois, his French adversary, cautiously forseeing his [the
King of England's] crossing, had secretly sent over a large navy with
a large fleet of armed ships to confront him in the port of Swyna
[Sluys], and advised him to wait and provide himself with a larger
force, lest he and his should perish in the crossing. To whom the King,
having no faith in the warning, replied that he was going to cross
anyhow. The Archbishop immediately placed himself outside the King's
council, and, retiring, gave up the Chancellor's seal. But the King,
calling to him Sir Robert de Morley, his Admiral, and a certain sailor
called Crabbe, who were searching out the truth, asked them if there
was danger in crossing; they answered him as the said Lord Archbishop
of Canterbury had told him. To whom the King replied, "You and the
Archbishop are confederating together to hinder my passage." And being
offended he said to them: "Though you are unwilling, I will cross,
and you who fear, where there is no fear, shall remain at home." Then
the said Admiral and the sailor swore, under pain of death, that, if
the King then crossed, he himself, and all who went with him, would
inevitably be subject to peril. Nevertheless, they said, that, if he
wished to sail then, they would precede him, even though it should mean
death. Hearing this, the King sent immediately for the lord Archbishop
of Canterbury, his Chancellor, and, speaking gracious words to him,
restored the Chancellor's seal to him. And he hastily made demands on
all ports, both north and south, and also on London, for a larger navy,
so that within ten days from thence he had sufficient ships, and an
unexpected number of armed men and bowmen, greater even than he had
wished for, so that he sent many back, and, setting sail, he came to
the said port of Sluys on the Feast of St. John the Baptist.
THE BATTLE OF SLUYS (JUNE 24, 1340).
SOURCE.--Froissart's _Chronicle_ (Hafod Press, 1803), i. 141,
142.
Sir Hugh Quiriel, Sir Peter Bahucet, and Barbenoir were at that time
lying between Blanckenburg and Sluys, with upwards of one hundred and
twenty large vessels, without counting others: these were manned with
about forty thousand men, Genoese and Picards, including mariners. By
the orders of the King of France, they were there at anchor, waiting
the return of the King of England, to dispute his passage.
When the King's fleet was almost got to Sluys, they saw so many masts
standing before it, that they looked like a wood. The King asked the
commander of his ship what they could be, who answered that he imagined
they must be that armament of Normans, which the King of France kept at
sea, and which had so frequently done him much damage, had burnt his
good town of Southampton, and taken his large ship the _Christopher_.
The King replied, "I have for a long time wished to meet with them, and
now, please God and St. George, we will fight with them; for, in truth,
they have done me so much mischief, that I will be revenged on them, if
it be possible."
The King then drew up all his vessels, placing the strongest in front,
and, on the wings, his archers. Between every two vessels with archers,
there was one of men-at-arms. He stationed some detached vessels as a
reserve, full of archers, to assist and help such as might be damaged.
There were in this fleet a great many ladies from England, countesses,
baronesses, and knights' and gentlemen's wives, who were going to
attend on the Queen at Ghent; these the King had guarded most carefully
by three hundred men-at-arms and five hundred archers....
The Normans filled the _Christopher_, the large ship which they had
taken the year before from the English, with trumpeters and other
warlike instruments, and ordered her to fall upon the English.
The battle then began very fiercely: archers and crossbowmen shot with
all their might at each other, and the men-at-arms engaged hand to
hand: in order to be more successful they had large grapnels and iron
hooks with chains, which they flung from ship to ship, to moor them to
each other. There were many valiant deeds performed, many prisoners
made, and many rescues.
The _Christopher_, which led the van, was recaptured by the English,
and all in her taken or killed. There were then great shouts and cries,
and the English manned her again with archers, and sent her to fight
against the Genoese.
This battle was very murderous and horrible. Combats at sea are more
destructive and obstinate than upon land, for it is not possible to
retreat or flee--every one must abide his fortune, and exert his
prowess and valour.
THE KING OF FRANCE IGNORES THE KING OF
ENGLAND'S CHALLENGE (JULY 27, 1340).
SOURCE.--Adam Murimuth, _Continuatio Chronicarum_ (Rolls
Series), 110-112.
[Edward III.'s personal challenge to Philip of Valois after the victory
at Sluys and immediately before the Siege of Tournay, and the answer of
the King of France.]
"Philip of Valois, for long have we made suit before you by embassies
and all other ways which we knew to be reasonable, to the end that you
should be willing to have restored unto us our right, our heritage of
France, which you have long kept back and most wrongfully occupied.
And, for that we see that you are minded to continue in your wrongful
withholding, without doing us right in our demand, we have entered
into the land of Flanders, as sovereign lord thereof, and have passed
through the country. And we make known to you that, by the help of our
Lord Jesus Christ and our right, together with the power of the said
land and with our people and allies ... we are drawing near to you
to make an end of our rightful challenge, if you will come near....
We greatly desire that despatch be made, and for the avoiding of the
death of Christians, seeing that the quarrel is manifestly ours and
yours, that the trial of our challenge be made between our two bodies;
whereunto we offer ourself for the reason aforesaid, albeit that we
consider well the great nobility of your person, your prudence also and
discretion. And, in case you would not choose this way, then should our
challenge be laid to make an end thereof by battle between yourself,
with one hundred of the fittest men of your side, and ourself, with so
many others of our liegemen. And, if you will neither the one nor the
other way, that you assign unto us a certain day before the city of
Tournay to fight, power against power, within ten days next after the
date of this letter....
"Given under our Great Seal at Chin, in the fields near Tournay, the
27th day of the month of July, the year of our Lord 1340."
To which letter, Philip of Valois, King of France, answered as follows:
"Philip, by the grace of God, King of France, to Edward, King of
England. We have seen your letters, which were brought unto our Court,
sent from you to Philip of Valois, wherein are contained certain
demands which you make of the said Philip of Valois. And, for that the
said letters came not unto us, and that the demands were not made of
us, as clearly appeareth by the tenour of your letters, we make unto
you no answer.
"Nevertheless, inasmuch as we have heard, by means of the said letters,
and otherwise, that you have entered into our realm of France, bringing
great harm to us and to our realm and to our people, led on by
wilfulness, and without reason, and without regard to the faith that a
liege man oweth to his lord, for you did enter into our liege homage,
recognising us, as is right, to be King of France, and did promise
obedience, such as one is bound to promise to his liege lord, as more
clearly appeareth by your letters patent, sealed with your great seal,
the which we have in our hands, and which you ought equally to have
with you. Therefore, our intent is, when unto us it shall seem good,
to cast you forth from our realm, to the honour of us and of our realm
and to the profit of our people; and to do this we have steadfast hope
in Jesus Christ, from whom all power cometh unto us. For, by your
undertaking, which is of wilfulness and not reasonable, hath been
hindered the holy passage beyond sea, and great numbers of Christian
people have been slain, the service of God minished, and holy Church
had in less reverence.
"And as to what you have written that you think to have the help of the
Flemings, we take it, for certain, that the good people and commons of
the land will bear themselves in such manner towards our cousin the
Count of Flanders, their immediate lord, and us, their sovereign lord,
that they will keep their honour and their loyalty. And that they have
hitherto erred hath been from evil counsel of people who regarded not
the commonweal nor the honour of the country, but their own profit
only. Given in the fields near the priory of St. Andrew, under our
Privy Seal in default of our great seal, the 30th day of July, the year
of grace, 1340."
ARCHBISHOP STRATFORD INCURS THE KING'S
DISPLEASURE (JANUARY 1, 1340-1).
SOURCE.--Robert of Avesbury's _De Gestis Edwardi Tertii_ (Rolls
Series), 324-329.
Certain of the King's secretaries envying the Reverend Father in the
Lord John de Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury ... roused the King to
anger against him, imputing to him crimes and defects.... And the said
Lord Archbishop, fearing the anger of the King, and the jealousy of his
rivals, fled to safety to the priory church of Canterbury, and there
remained for some time. Meanwhile he wrote to the King:
"Most gentle lord, please you to know that the most sovereign thing,
that holdeth kings and princes in due and fitting estate, is good and
wise counsel.... Sire, in your own time, you had certain counsellors
by whom you did near lose the hearts of your people; from whom God
delivered you as it pleased Him. And then, even till now, by good
avisement of the prelates, peers, the great men and wise of the Council
of the land, your affairs have been brought into such a state that
you entirely have the hearts of your people, who, as well clerks as
others, have given you aid, even as you shall have henceforth, or more,
as never had King of England; so that by means of your good Council,
the help of your people, and the grace which God hath given you, you
have had the victory in presence of your enemies of Scotland, and of
France, and of all parts; so that this day, honour be to God, you are
held the most noble prince of Christendom. And now, by evil counsel,
abetted by certain people of this land, which are not so wise as were
needful, and by counsel of others, which seek rather their own profit
than your honour or the safety of the land, you begin to seize divers
clerks, peers and other folk of the land and to make suit, nothing
fitting, against the law of the land ... the which things are done at
the great peril of your soul and the minishing of your honour.... And
forasmuch as certain, who are near to you, do falsely charge us with
treason and falsehood, therefore they are excommunicate ... and also
they say of some others that they have evilly and falsely served you,
whereby you have lost the toun of Tournay and many other honours that
you might have had there; be willing, Sire, if it please you, to make
come the prelates, great men, and peers of the land, in fitting place,
where we and others may securely come, and cause, if it please you, to
see and enquire in whose hands, since the beginning of your war, wools
moneys, and other things whatsoever, which have been granted to you in
aid of your war even to this day, have come and have been expended, and
by whose default you thus departed from Tournay; and those which shall
be found guilty in any whit before you, as a good lord, make them to be
chastised well according to law. And in whatsoever concerneth us, we
will stand in all points at the judgment of our peers, saving always
the estate of holy Church, of us, and of our order....
"Written at Canterbury the first day of January, by your chaplain, the
Archbishop of Canterbury."
THE "LIBELLUS FAMOSUS" (FEBRUARY 10, 1340-1).
SOURCE.--Wharton's _Anglia Sacra_, i. 23-27.
[The following is a passage from the _libellus famosus_ put forth by
Edward III. against Archbishop Stratford, and directed to the Dean and
Chapter of St. Paul's.]
... Because we believed John, then Bishop of Winchester, now Archbishop
of Canterbury, to be preeminent before all others, because of his
faithfulness and discreetness, we followed his counsel in things
spiritual and things temporal, above those which were advantageous to
us for the safety of our own soul and for the increase and preservation
of our kingdom. In such friendship was he held by us ... that he was
named our father and was venerated by all as next after the King. And
when the kingdom of France had devolved on us by right of succession,
and was, according to report, occupied by Philip of Valois, the
same Archbishop violently and earnestly persuaded us to enter into
alliance with the German Princes and others against the said Philip of
Valois, and to expose us and ours to the losses of wars, promising and
affirming that it would be possible to meet abundantly the expenses
attaching to such, from the fruits of our land and from some special
subsidies, adding, moreover, that we should only make demands from
persons experienced and active in wars, as he himself would procure
sufficient for our necessities and their expenses. Whence we, having
crossed the sea, put our hand to the task and made a great outlay, as
was fitting, in warlike preparations, and bound our allies to us by
large sums, trusting in the promised help. But, alas! we placed our
faith, as it were, in the staff of a reed, on which, as the prophecy
is [Isaiah xxxvi. 6], whosoever leans it shall enter into his hand and
pierce it, and, driven by necessity, since the hoped-for subsidy had
been withdrawn (would it had not been fraudulently), we contracted,
under heavy usury, an almost insupportable burden of debts, and thus,
any further expedition being prevented, we were forced magnanimously
to desist for the time from our incomplete attacks on the enemy and
to return to England. There, having laid our many calamities and
never-to-be-forgotten misfortunes before our aforesaid Archbishop,
and, a Parliament having been called, the prelates, nobles, and other
faithful of our kingdom granted us such a subsidy (the ninth part
of the tithes of sheep and wool, besides the tenth conceded by the
clergy), that if it had been faithfully collected and acquired at a
fitting time it would have provided payment for the debts accrued in
the said expedition, and would have been of no small assistance towards
the confusion of the enemy, nay, even, according to some, it might have
sufficed altogether. The same Archbishop meanwhile promised faithfully
to mediate with his parts [of the country] for the collection of the
said subsidy and the administration of our necessities. Wherefore,
trusting in his promises, men having been again collected, and a fleet
having been gathered, we sailed towards Flanders, and engaged in a
hard naval battle with the enemy, who had sworn our destruction and
that of all the English people. By the compassion and mercy of Him
who rules the wind and the sea, not by our own merit, we obtained
a victory and triumph over the whole multitude of so many enemies.
This being accomplished we set out thence with a powerful army for
the recovery of our rights, and marked out a fort near the strong
city of Tournay, in the siege of which we were perpetually occupied
for some time, and, wearied out by continual expenses and labours,
awaiting in silence, we were hoping day by day for the promised help;
to be relieved, by the service of our Archbishop, from so many and so
great necessities. At length, the conceived hope being frustrated,
although by many messengers and many letters we fully signified to
the aforesaid Archbishop, and to others of our Council who adhered to
him, not only our poverty and the many perils to which we were exposed
on account of the failure of the said subsidy, but also the advantage
and the honour which, by the help of the money, we saw we could easily
secure. Nevertheless we could not obtain emolument from them, because,
caring for their own affairs rather than ours, and procuring their own
welfare, they excused their sluggishness, (not to say their fraud, or
their malice), by frivolous excuses and ornate rhetoric, like those
mockers who, as says Isaiah, delight in deriding, saying: "Precept upon
precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a
little, there a little." [Isaiah xxviii. 13.]
Whence alas, it came about that even when the near hope of triumphing
over our enemies gracefully smiled upon us, poverty prevailing,
we were obliged, unwilling though we were, to make truce, to the
shameful retarding of our expedition, and the no little exultation of
our rivals.... Wherefore we, directing the force of our mind to the
discipline and correction of such of our officials, caused certain of
them whom we held suspect, for probable causes, of bad administration,
of the subversion of justice, of the oppression of our subjects,
of corruption by acceptance of gifts and other grave offences, to
be removed from their offices as it seems well to us; while others
of inferior rank were placed in custody.... We ordered him [the
Archbishop], through our faithful servant Nicholas de Cantilupe,
specially chosen for this purpose, to hasten and come to London early
to our presence, since we desired to have a personal interview with
him. But he, always haughty in prosperity and cowardly in adversity,
fearing where no fear was, alleged untruly that the peril of death,
threatened and directed against him by our partisans, hung over him if
he should leave the Church of Canterbury, although this, by witness
of God and a pure conscience, never had come into our mind, or, we
believe, into that of any of our partisans, in spite of the fact that
by his demerits he had made himself hated by the clergy and people of
the kingdom. But we, desiring all to come to our presence, and that
all summoned to us by our letters should enjoy full security, sent our
faithful Ralph de Stafford, seneschal of our guest chamber, to him [the
Archbishop] to offer and make him a safe conduct; and we gave him our
letters patent, signed under our seal, to present, demanding, a second
time, that he should come to us personally, and should, first of all,
have a private interview with us concerning the affairs of the kingdom,
over which he had so long laboured, as aforesaid. But he, treating
the lenity of our prayers and our mandates with contempt, answered
indignantly that he would in nowise confer with us, save in a full
Parliament, which at this time, for reasonable causes, it would not be
expedient to summon....
TRIAL BY PEERS.
SOURCE.--Statute, 15 Edward III., cap. ii. (1341).
Item. _Whereas, before this time, the peers of the land have been
arrested and imprisoned, and their temporalties, lands and tenements,
goods and cattels asseised in the King's hands, and some put to death
without judgment of their peers_: It is accorded and assented, that
no peer of the land, officer, nor other, because of his office, nor
of things touching his office, nor by other cause shall be brought
in judgment to lose his temporalties, lands, tenements, goods, and
cattels, nor to be arrested, nor imprisoned, outlawed, exiled, nor
forejudged, nor put to answer, nor to be judged but by award of the
said peers in the Parliament, saving always to our Sovereign Lord the
King and his heirs, the laws rightfully used, and by due process, and
saving also the suit of the party....
THE BATTLE OF CRECY (AUGUST 26, 1346).
SOURCE.--Froissart's _Chronicle_ (Hafod Press, 1803), i. 325.
The English, who were drawn up in three divisions, and seated on the
ground, on seeing their enemies advance, rose undauntedly up, and fell
into their ranks. That of the Prince was the first to do so, whose
archers were formed in the manner of a portcullis, or harrow, and the
men-at-arms in the rear. The Earls of Northampton and Arundel, who
commanded the second division, had posted themselves in good order on
his wing, to assist and succour the Prince if necessary.