the number of 500; of the townsmen, only 89 were killed. A second attack was repulsed, and the enemy retired to Southampton.
On 1 August 1340 the French attacked Plymouth again. They first burnt Teignmouth, then they assailed Plymouth, but, finding it well-defended, they did little damage – apart from burning some farms and taking a knight prisoner.
In the meantime, King Edward III received news that the French were amassing a fleet of 190 ships to invade England. He launched a pre-emptive strike, which destroyed almost all of the French ships in the Battle of Sluys. The English archers unleashed a torrent of arrows before leaping aboard the French ships and forcing thousands of French soldiers into the sea, where they drowned.
The news of the defeat was allegedly broken to the French King by his jester, who informed the King that the English were cowards. ‘How so?’ enquired the King. ‘Because they have not the courage to leap into the sea, like the French and Normans at Sluys,’ he replied. Tens of thousands of French troops were killed, and their bloated corpses would have floated to the surface by the harbour for weeks afterwards. Though Edward III himself was wounded in this battle (hit in the thigh with either an arrow or a crossbow bolt, it is thought), it put an end to the threat of French invasion for some time.
Edward then launched his own counter-invasion in 1346, with Plymouth sending twenty-six ships, manned by 603 men, to join an invading fleet. After capturing Caen, the English forces trounced the French at the Battle of Crecy, largely due to some fortunes in the weather, but mostly due to the power and skill of the English archers. Their 5ft-long yew bows could fire a 3ft arrow with a steel tip able to penetrate a 4in-thick solid oak door. The French relied on their armour for defence, but their armour could not compete against such brutal fire-power.
Edward then besieged Calais, starving the city into submission. After nine months of disrupted food supplies, having been forced to eat rats, the besieged population ejected 500 children and the elderly in a last effort to ensure the survival of the remaining adult men and women. The English refused to help the desperate 500 exiles and merely watched as the old and the young slowly starved to death just outside the town walls.
In time, the fight would be passed on to King Edward III’s son, another Edward – better known as the Black Prince – who established his headquarters in Plymouth. In 1348 the Black Prince stayed at Plympton Priory as he prepared his forces for a further invasion of France. However, the Black Death ravaging Devon and France at the time delayed his plans. His father, of course, attributed the spread of the plague to the people’s lack of morality, and not the chaos of continuous warfare!
Not until 1356 could the Black Prince again assemble his invasion fleet – a force of 3,000 men gathered in Plymouth town, which then had a population of only around 2,000. Food and supplies were brought to Plymouth from Cornwall, Devon and Somerset and the Sheriffs of Devon and Cornwall were ordered to supply gangways for the ships and hurdles to corral the horses as they fought their way ashore in France.
Despite initial delays, the Black Prince led his forces to victory in the Battle of Poitiers and captured the new French King Jean II, who was brought back to Plymouth a prisoner. The war-ravaged party escorting the tragic figure of the defeated French monarch on his white horse formed a triumphant procession from Plymouth to Exeter and on to London. Treaties were signed, the French King released, and the Black Prince set up his court at Aquitaine as the French government fell into turmoil. The Treaty of Brétigny in 1360 gave England authority over Aquitaine, half of Brittany, Calais and Ponthieu, though subsequent attempts by the Black Prince to take Paris failed.
The Black Prince capturing the King of France.
The triumph did
On 1 August 1340 the French attacked Plymouth again. They first burnt Teignmouth, then they assailed Plymouth, but, finding it well-defended, they did little damage – apart from burning some farms and taking a knight prisoner.
In the meantime, King Edward III received news that the French were amassing a fleet of 190 ships to invade England. He launched a pre-emptive strike, which destroyed almost all of the French ships in the Battle of Sluys. The English archers unleashed a torrent of arrows before leaping aboard the French ships and forcing thousands of French soldiers into the sea, where they drowned.
The news of the defeat was allegedly broken to the French King by his jester, who informed the King that the English were cowards. ‘How so?’ enquired the King. ‘Because they have not the courage to leap into the sea, like the French and Normans at Sluys,’ he replied. Tens of thousands of French troops were killed, and their bloated corpses would have floated to the surface by the harbour for weeks afterwards. Though Edward III himself was wounded in this battle (hit in the thigh with either an arrow or a crossbow bolt, it is thought), it put an end to the threat of French invasion for some time.
Edward then launched his own counter-invasion in 1346, with Plymouth sending twenty-six ships, manned by 603 men, to join an invading fleet. After capturing Caen, the English forces trounced the French at the Battle of Crecy, largely due to some fortunes in the weather, but mostly due to the power and skill of the English archers. Their 5ft-long yew bows could fire a 3ft arrow with a steel tip able to penetrate a 4in-thick solid oak door. The French relied on their armour for defence, but their armour could not compete against such brutal fire-power.
Edward then besieged Calais, starving the city into submission. After nine months of disrupted food supplies, having been forced to eat rats, the besieged population ejected 500 children and the elderly in a last effort to ensure the survival of the remaining adult men and women. The English refused to help the desperate 500 exiles and merely watched as the old and the young slowly starved to death just outside the town walls.
In time, the fight would be passed on to King Edward III’s son, another Edward – better known as the Black Prince – who established his headquarters in Plymouth. In 1348 the Black Prince stayed at Plympton Priory as he prepared his forces for a further invasion of France. However, the Black Death ravaging Devon and France at the time delayed his plans. His father, of course, attributed the spread of the plague to the people’s lack of morality, and not the chaos of continuous warfare!
Not until 1356 could the Black Prince again assemble his invasion fleet – a force of 3,000 men gathered in Plymouth town, which then had a population of only around 2,000. Food and supplies were brought to Plymouth from Cornwall, Devon and Somerset and the Sheriffs of Devon and Cornwall were ordered to supply gangways for the ships and hurdles to corral the horses as they fought their way ashore in France.
Despite initial delays, the Black Prince led his forces to victory in the Battle of Poitiers and captured the new French King Jean II, who was brought back to Plymouth a prisoner. The war-ravaged party escorting the tragic figure of the defeated French monarch on his white horse formed a triumphant procession from Plymouth to Exeter and on to London. Treaties were signed, the French King released, and the Black Prince set up his court at Aquitaine as the French government fell into turmoil. The Treaty of Brétigny in 1360 gave England authority over Aquitaine, half of Brittany, Calais and Ponthieu, though subsequent attempts by the Black Prince to take Paris failed.
The Black Prince capturing the King of France.
The triumph did
Similar Books
Carousel
J. Robert Janes
The Weary Generations
Abdullah Hussein
The Dom with the Dark Eyes
Raven McAllan
Gauguin Connection, The
Estelle Ryan
The Deceivers
John Masters
Black Gate: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 4
Michele Callahan
Horus Rising
Dan Abnett
TheCharmer
The Charmer
Charmed
Emily Jane Trent