pointed to the Northern, and Richard, Earl of Arundel,[1] to the Western fleet.[2]
About January, 1378, the people of Rye and Winchelsea seem to have made an independent effort to avenge the injuries which had been inflicted on them by the enemy. They are said to have embarked in their barges, and to have sacked and burnt Peter's Port and Vilet, in Normandy;[3] but, as these places cannot be identified, the importance of the expedition cannot be appraised.
France, at this time, became aware that the King of Navarre had offered his daughter in marriage to Richard II., and with her all the towns, except Cherbourg, held by Navarre in Normandy. Preparations were therefore made to seize the possessions in question ere they could he handed over to the English. They fell rapidly to the French arms, and by the end of April, Port Audemer, at the mouth of the little river Rylle, alone held out against them. Reyner Grimaldi, with a squadron, blockaded it; and Jean de Vienne besieged it on the land side. Salisbury and Arundel, with a hundred and twenty ships, attempted to relieve it, but in vain. They then made an ineffective attack on Honfleur. Port Audemer, unsuccoured, surrendered; and the King of Navarre, having nothing left to him in Normandy except Cherbourg, and being threatened at home by the de facto King of Castille, despaired of being able to hold his own in France, and handed over Cherbourg in pledge to Salisbury and Arundel, who apparently placed a garrison there.[4]
In the meantime, England was still in a state of panic. Oxford was fortified, to serve as a central point of defence for the kingdom, in case the French should invade it; Thanet was filled with troops; and the royal jewels were pawned.[5] The main part of the fleet being on the French coast, nine ships hired from Bayonne were directed to patrol the Channel, where they won a considerable success by the capture of fourteen sail of a Spanish convoy merchantmen, laden with wine and other goods.[6] But such a
- ↑ Richard, tenth Earl of Arundel, was eldest son of the ninth Earl, and was born about 1348, succeeding his father in 1376. He served in 1377 as admiral, and 1386 as Admiral of the Fleet. At about the same time he was made a K.G. In 1388 he was reappointed Admiral of the Fleet. He was beheaded on a charge of high-treason in 1397.
- ↑ Parl. Rolls, 1 Rich. II. m. 22.
- ↑ Walsingham, 211.
- ↑ Again the text substantially follows ' Studies in Nav. Hist.,' 19, 20.
- ↑ 'Fœdera,' vii. 185, 190; Pat. Rolls, 1 Rich. II. p. 4, m. 31d
- ↑ Walsingham 211.
