Soon after 11 a.m., Edward ordered his fleet to prepare for action, and to make sail on the starboard tack, to gain the wind.[1] This manœuvre appears to have been misinterpreted by the French, who imagined from it that the English were loath to fight. Avesbury says that the English thus stood off because they realised that they could not break the French line, the ships of which were chained together; and that, deceived by the apparent flight, the French then cast off and gave chase. That any ineffectual attempt to break the line was ever made is altogether improbable; yet it may well be that the French were betrayed into separating, as Avesbury represents. All that is quite certain is that eventually the English gained the wind, and then bore down upon the enemy, the battle beginning at about noon.
Admiral Sir Robert Morley opened with an attack upon one of the van ships, probably the Christopher, the re-capture of which was ardently desired throughout the English fleet; and he was well seconded by the ships of the Earls of Huntingdon and Northampton. Sir Walter Manny's was the fourth ship to be engaged. As the other vessels crowded up there was a general mélée, the ships grappling one another, and the men boarding with swords, axes, and pikes, while the archers in their rear discharged showers of arrows. The French fought with determination and gallantry, and the slaughter was prodigious, four hundred dead being found in one ship alone; but the English impetuosity was not to be resisted, and ere long several vessels of the French van were in their possession. Among these were the four much-coveted English prizes. The Christopher was at once manned by her old owners, and sent to the attack of the Genoese galleys.
The collapse of their van disheartened the enemy, and the other divisions, instead of maintaining the contest, endeavoured to make off. But the second and third, consisting of somewhat smaller craft, were presently surrounded, and their crews, flinging away their arms in panic, rushed to their boats, most of which they swamped, a loss of two thousand men being alleged to have been caused by this fact alone. Some of the fugitives reached two large French ships, the Saint Denis and the Saint Georges, which seemed to have succeeded in getting away. Most of the fourth division, consisting of the
- ↑ And to prevent the sun from being in their faces.—Froissart, i. 106.
