Pending the delay, a treaty with Flanders was executed in June without the personal intervention of Edward. It was agreed that the Flamands should not aid the Scots; that they should remain neutral in the dispute between Edward and "Sir Philip de Valois, styling himself King of France"; and that there should be free trade between England and Flanders, on the Flamands showing "their sign called coket, or charterparties." It was further agreed that Edward should not cross Flanders to operate against the territories which the Flamands held of France, and that, if he or his forces entered any Flanders harbour, the English ships should not remain for more than one tide, unless compelled by obvious stress of weather.[1]
King Edward sailed from Orwell on July 16th; and being joined at sea by the fleet from Great Yarmouth, with troops under the Earl of Lancaster, landed at Antwerp on the day following.[2] Manny and Burghersh seem to have been then still in command. But on July 28th, Sir Thomas Dryton was appointed "Vice-Admiral" of the Northern, and Peter Bard "Vice-Admiral" of the Western Fleet;[3] and, as in a document of a little later date, each of these officers is styled "Admiral" of his respective fleet, there is small doubt that their commissions were not supplementary to, but rather supersessory of, those of Manny and Burghersh. Just before his departure for the continent, Edward, still perhaps cherishing some hope of peaceably obtaining concessions from France, dispatched the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Durham to treat with Philip; but the French king was in no humour to change his attitude by one hair's breadth.[4]
The date of one or two naval events belonging to about this period cannot now be fixed with exactness. Indeed, the details of the events are involved in much obscurity; and it may be well, therefore, to simply transcribe the accounts as given by that laborious historian, Sir Harris Nicolas.[5]
"Numerous galleys," he says, "landed at Southampton[6] on a Sunday, while the inhabitants were at mass, and their crews, which
