a respectable fleet, under Arundel and Sir Hugh Spencer, in position to essay the reconquest of he Channel.
In October, 1386, or very early in November, owing to various delays and to internal dissensions, the French put off the venture, and again proceeded to lay up their ships. As before, many of them were wrecked or taken as they dispersed.[1] Arundel, in the spring of 1387, captured nearly the whole of a Franco-Burgundian fleet, laden with wine and other valuable merchandise;[2] but on the way home part of the English squadron under Spencer fell in with a French flotilla off the Normandy coast, and was taken or destroyed. Froissart, who says that the enemy was under Jean de Bucq, Admiral of the Flamand Sea, gives detailed account of the earlier action. which he declares was fought off Gadzand (beginning probably on March 24th and lasting three tides); but his story differs in most respects from the version generally adopted, and, in some particulars, is manifestly inaccurate. In any event, the success, although most welcome, can scarcely be regarded as a great naval victory.
Jean de Vienne and Olivier de Clisson, Constable of France, organised a more modest scheme of invasion for 1387. They assembled two fleets of moderate size, with the intention of simultaneously directing one upon Orwell and the other upon Dover.[3] At the critical moment, however, Clisson was taken prisoner by the Duke of Bretagne. Jean de Vienne, who lay at Harfieur, ready to sail for Dover, was anxious to go on in spite of the misfortune to his colleague; but the nobles and knights refused to support him, and although Clisson was soon liberated, the expedition had ere then finally collapsed.[4]
In the summer of 1387, all the men-at-arms and archers in the fleet were placed under the captaincy of Sir Henry Percy, better kuown in history as Hotspur.[5] He probably exercised authority only when the men were landed. In the course of' the year he contributed to the relief of the castle of Brest: but it does not appear that he was much afloat. In the autumn John Gedney, Constable of Bordeaux, convoyed to Gascony the fleet bound thither
