Chapter 50, midsummer 1340
Midsummer-even in the year of our Lord MCCCXL., all the English fleet was departed out of the river of Thames and took the way to Sluys. And the same time between Blankenberghe and Sluys on the sea was sir Hugh Quieret, sir Peter Behuchet and Barbevaire, and more than sixscore great vessels, beside other; and they were Normans, bidaus, Genoways and Picards about the number of forty thousand: there they were laid by the French king to defend the king of England's passage. The king of England and his came sailing till he came before Sluys: and when he saw so great a number of ships that their masts seemed to be like a great wood, he demanded of the master of his ship what people he thought they were. He answered and said, 'Sir, I think they be Normans laid here by the French king, and hath done great displeasure in England, brent your town of Hampton and taken your great ship the Christofer.' 'Ah,' quoth the king, 'I have long desired to fight the Franchmen, and now shall I fight with some of them by the grace of God and Saint George; for truly they have done me so many displeasures, that I shal be revenged, an I may.'
England defeated France in the sea battle at Sluys.
French
- Sir Hugh Quieret, Sir Peter Behuchet, Barbevaire
- 120+ (?) vessels
- 40,000 souls
English
- ?
- ?
- ?
Christofer was taken from the English circa 1339 by the French, while conveying a cargo of wool to Flanders:
... specially they won a great ship called the Christofer, laden with wool, as she was going into Flanders, ...
Sources:
1. World History: HyperHistory
2. The Hundred Years' War (1336-1352)
3. "Map Notes"
