on the western coasts. Previous to leaving port, the vessels appear to have been systematically surveyed, for in July three surveyors were told off to look to the shipping preparing in the ports on the east coast, and two more to look to those in the ports on the west.[1] A proclamation, ordered on August 12th, rescinded the prohibition of the export of provisions, and commanded merchants to send stores to the north for the army under the Earl of Lancaster, but directed that security should he given that none of these stores should reach the king's enemies.[2]
In the midst of Edward's anxieties, the King of France applied to him for assistance against the Count of Flanders. The King of England, in his reply, explained his difficulties, and courteously regretted that he could not spare ships, but added that he had ordered his admirals, Sir Humphrey de Littlebury[3] and Sir John Sturmy, in particular, and his other admirals in general, to lose no opportunity of doing damage to the enemies of the French king, and to co-operate with his commanders at sea.[4] But Louis of France, though so anxious for English help, does not seem to have adequately protected English interest; for in November. 1315, Edward again wrote to his royal kinsman to complain that off Margate twenty-two ships of Calais had attacked four ships laden with wool and other goods, and bound from London to Antwerp, and had killed some and wounded others of their crews, taking one ship worth 2000 marks, and refusing to give her up.[5] At about the same time, the Constable of Dover Castle seized several Spanish ships laden with arms and provisions for Flanders, and as Louis, on hearing of the affair, wrote begging that the ships should be retained and their crews enslaved,[6] it is probable that if only in order to procure the granting of his own wishes in the one case, the French king made suitable recompense with reference to the other. It will be seen that questions connected with the transmission of contraband of war cropped up again in the following year.
Discipline must have been lax in the navy in those days of foreign war and civil upheaval. In November, 1315, some piratical vessels having appeared off the coast near Berwick, ,Sir John Sturmy and William Gettour, as "captains and admirals" of six ships, were
