THE BATTLE OF SLUYS, June 24, 1340.
"On the 22nd June, 1340, Edward III again sailed from Orwell, escorted by 200 vessels,
it being reported that the French had made great preparations to capture him on his voyage. The royal fleet
anchored off Blankenburgh, a fishing village about a dozen miles to the north east of Ostend, on its being seen
that there was a large number of French vessels lying ten miles farther east, opposite Cadsand, in the port of
Sluys (L'Ecluse), the harbour of Bruges, from which it is distant twelve miles. Sluys is situated on the Swyn,
then an arm of the Scheldt, but now so silted up that the greater part is a fertile plain with a little gulf
running up to the mouth of the canal at the town.
Lord Cobham and two knights were put ashore to obtain intelligence, and it was ascertained that the enemy was
in great strength, numbering, according to Edward's despatch, 190 ships manned by 35,000 Normans, Genoese, and
Picards. Edward therefore gave orders for his fleet to stand to sea till the following day, Saturday, 24th June;
and in the morning the hostile fleet came in sight. Having put his ships into a favourable position, with the
wind and the sun at his back, the King bore down upon them. As the ships came within range, the long-bows of
the English sent forth vast flights of arrows, to which the French could answer but feebly with their cross-bows.
The ships closed, and were made fast with grappling-irons, and then the battle became the same as one on land,
the men-at-arms fighting with their swords or spears
or axes, and huge stones or beams being hurled from the
lofty topcastles of the enemy's ships as from the battlements of a fortress. The battle raged with great fury
till about seven in the evening, when the enemy's ships were nearly all captured.
This victory was most important to the English King, for it deprived the French of their superiority at sea,
enabled the army to pass freely to the Continent, and relieved England from the danger of predatory descents.
On landing Edward III proceeded to Ghent, and thence with Van Artevelde to Vilvoorde, where he arranged with
his allies to besiege Tournay with 100,000 men, while Robert of Artois led 50,000
against St. Omer."
Excerpted from:
Clinton, H. R. From Crécy to Assuye.
London: Frederick Warne & Co., 1881. 16-17.
"Among the most distinguished persons by whose valour the victory was obtained, were
Henry of Lancaster, the young Earl of Derby, eldest son of
Henry Earl of Lancaster, to which title he succeeded in 1345, and was afterwards
created Duke of Lancaster; Sir Laurence Hastings, first Earl of Pembroke;
Sir Richard Fitzalan, ninth Earl of Arundel;1 Sir Humphrey de Bohun, sixth
Earl of Hereford and Essex, Lord High Constable; Sir William Clinton, Earl of Huntingdon;
Sir William de Bohun, first Earl of Northampton; Sir Hugh de Audley, Earl
of Gloucester; Sir Robert, second Lord Morley, admiral of the northern squadron; Sir Reginald, first Lord
Cobham of Sterborough; Sir Henry, Lord Percy; Sir Roger, second Lord la Warr;
Sir John Beauchamp; Sir Richard Stafford; Lord Multon2; Sir Walter Manny;
Sir John Chandos; Sir William Felton; Sir Thomas Bradeston; Sir William Trussell;3 and a young esquire
called Nele Loring.4"
1. Rymer's Fœdera, ii. 1130.
2. Apparently Sir Thomas Lord Lucy.
3. Fœdera, ii. 1130.
4. Loring was knighted for his conspicuous valour in the battle; and by letters-patent dated at Sluys the 26th of June,
two days afterwards, the King granted him £20 a year [roughly £18,000 in 2021]. He was one of the
Knights founders of the Order of the Garter in 1348.
Excerpted from:
Nicolas, Nicholas Harris. A History of the Royal Navy. Vol II.
London: Richard Bentley, 1847. 59.
Other Local Resources:
Books for further study:
Cushway, Graham. Edward III and the War at Sea: The English Navy, 1327-1377.
Boydell Press, 2011.
Nicolas, Nicholas Harris. A History of the Royal Navy. Vol II.
London: Richard Bentley, 1847.
Rose, Susan, ed. Medieval Ships and Warfare.
Routledge, 2008.
Sumption, Jonathan. The Hundred Years' War, Vol. I: Trial by Battle.
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999 [London: Faber & Faber, 1990].
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