390-8. From Edward’s own letter1 we learn that Philip pitched his tent on a hill near Calais on July 27th;2 that some time was spent in vain negotiations, the Cardinals doing their best to effect a settlement; that on the 31st the French King sent a proposal that Calais should be the prize of a combat between four knights chosen from either side, which Edward accepted the next day; but that Philip never really intended to carry out this proposal, and retreated leaving Calais to its fate during the night of Aug. 1st-2nd.3 Jean le Bel, and Froissart copying him,4 say that Edward sent a refusal to this offer, declaring that he had been there quite long enough to be fought with before that date. Apart, however, from the fact that the King himself should know best, an acceptance was more in accord with the spirit of the age.
186400. Edward constructed a regular town before Calais; ‘Villeneuva-la Hardie,’ Froissart calls it.
401-5. Calais surrendered Aug. 3, 1347. Froissart’s account of this and the devotion of the six burghers,5 which he borrowed from Jean le Bel,6 and which appears with slight variations in most other writers7 (probably copied), has been sometimes questioned. On this, and the general decision in its favour, see Luce’s notes to his edition of Froissart.8
415. Truce made Sept. 28, 1347; 12th Oct., Edward landed at Sandwich; 14th Oct., he reached London.9
417-33. The plot for the recovery of Calais is so confusingly told that it needs helping out with other records. The actual facts appear to have been as follows; — Geffroi de Charny, at that time Governor of St. Omer, made a secret arrangement with Aimery of Pavia to purchase the town of Calais, or more probably an entrance into the castle. News of this plot reached the ears of Edward, who arrived secretly with a small but picked force, lay in ambush in the castle until a certain number of the French were admitted, and then, rushing out, surprised and cut to pieces the first detachment within the town; afterwards falling upon Charny and the rest of his men outside, he totally defeated them, almost the whole force being either killed or taken prisoners (Dec. 31, 1349 - Jan. 1, 1350.)
420. This curious mention of the Seigneur de Beaujeu is peculiar to Chandos and seems inexplicable. The only other of the many accounts of this plot which mentions a third person at all is the Chronicle of the First Four Valois, which says that Aimery betrayed Calais to Marshal d’Audrehem, who in his turn told Geffroi de Charny.10 No importance, can, however, be attached to this narrative, as the whole thing is inaccurate, Aimery being called a Frenchman, and the date of the event being given as 1355.11 As for Edouard, Sire de Beaujeu at this time, we have no reason to connect him in any way with Geffroi de Charny and his plot. He took part in Philip’s expedition to relieve Calais in 1347, and was made Captain of St. Omer in 1352;12 but in 1350 he went on an expedition to the Holy Land, which, without rendering the other affair an absolute impossibility, considerably increases the unlikeliness of his share in an enterprise which, we learn, cost the lives or liberties of almost all who took part in it. He had a brother, Guichard, who ‘was distinguished in all the wars against the English’, and who afterwards fought at Poitiers;13 but there is equally little reason for coupling his name with that of Charny in this attempt on Calais.
421. Geoffroi de Charny, Seigneur de Pierre-Perthuis. Jean le Bel calls Aimery de Pavia Governor of Calais.14
422. Froissart and Avesbury both give him the title of Captain,15 Froissart adding that Edward had brought him up from his infancy; while Lefebvre, in his history of Calais, actually states, though without reference, that Aimery had been the King’s governor in his early days.16 This latter statement is very improbable; but that Aimery was a person of some importance 187 is shown by the fact that in 1348 he was made Captain of the King’s Galleys, with full judicial power.17 As for his position in Calais is it most improbable that he should have been Captain. In Rymer we have documents enumerating the different appointments to this post, which was always held by an Englishman: Oct. 1347, John de Montgomery; Dec. 1, 1347, John Chiverston; Jan. 1, 1349, John Beauchamp.18 Lefebvre is probably right when he describes Aimery as Commander of the castle, for we learn later in Rymer19 that there was a Constable of the castle, separate from the Captain of the town, inferior to and removable by the latter. Thompson, in his notes to Baker of Swynebroke,20 suggests an even less important position for the ‘Lombard mercenary’, namely that of Captain of one of the towers forming part of the walls of the town, but, as we know that the other office existed, the former is quite a plausible explanation.
427-8. Chandos is quite vague as to the manner in which the news reached the ears of Edward. Was it early made known to him by Aimery, as Avesbury, Jean le Bel and one of the MSS. of Froissart state,21 or was it betrayed by his secretary, as we find in Baker of Swynebroke?22 In any case, the Lombard must have been in collusion with the King in the end, as he had to carry on negotiations while the English lay in ambush in the tower. As we find that Aimery was still left in Calais after this event,23 it is most probable that he had been more of a traitor to the French than to the English in this very discreditable transaction.
429-33. Chandos is the only Chronicler who lays great stress on the special prowess of the Black Prince. Baker, however, must be referring to the same event when he describes how Edward with only 16 men-at-arms and 16 archers held 80 of the enemy at bay, until they were put to flight by the arrival of the Black Prince.24 According to Avesbury, the King, being left with only 30 armed men and fewer archers, was set upon by Charny with superior numbers, but he waved his sword and so astonished the French that they lost heart and, on more of the English coming up, were defeated.25
Edward’s best-known adventure on this night was his fight with Eustace de Ribemont, when he was twice beaten to the knees, but raised by Cobham and Manny, and finally victorious.26 Guy de Brian also did some deed of valour this day, in which he bore the royal banner, for shortly afterwards he received a pension in reward for the distinguished services then rendered.27 The Black Prince no doubt fought well on the occasion, and Chandos calls particular attention to it, as in duty bound.
481-98. The battle of L’Espagnols-sur-Mer, fought off Winchelsea, Aug. 29, 1350. The cause appears to have been that the Spaniards had destroyed and robbed some English ships at Guérande earlier in the year. The Spanish Commander was Don Carlos de la Cerda. The few facts given by Chandos agree with other accounts of the battle.28
499-500. Froissart also speaks of Prince John being present, but says nothing of his being knighted on this occasion. He is generally supposed to have received this honour from the hands of Henry of Lancaster in 1355.29
518-21. The birth of Thomas of Woodstock did not take place shortly after L’Espagnols-sur-Mer, as Chandos implies, but on Jan. 7, 1355.
188525-6. Whether Jean de Grailly, Captal de Buch, really visited England at this time is uncertain; Froissart states that a Gascon embassy consisting of Pommiers, Rosem, Lesparre and Mussidan came in 1352 with a request that Prince Edward should be sent out to their assistance;30 but he mentions the Captal as amongst the nobles whom the Prince summoned to his side after his arrival.31
549. According to Avesbury a council was held at Westminster, Easter 1355, which ordered the Prince to go to Gascony.32 King Edward as early as 28th May of this year gave orders for the assembling of a fleet for this purpose.33
555. earl of Warwick.
557. William de Montagu, Earl of Salisbury,
559. Robert Ufford, Earl of Suffolk.
561. John de Vere, Earl of Oxford.
These are all mentioned in Edward III’s Household Book (July 10, 1355) as about to accompany the Black Prince into Gascony.34
562. The Earl of Stafford is not so certain; according to Froissart he was accompanying King Edward in his expedition to Normandy this year,35 while Avesbury speaks of him as a member of Lancaster’s army in Brittany.36 Possibly Chandos has given the title of Earl to Ralph’s younger brother, Richard Stafford, who certainly took part in the Gascon wars,37 and to whom the Black Prince alludes in a letter dated from Bordeaux, Christmas, 1355.38
563. Bartholomew de Burghersh is in Froissart’s list of those who are starting with the Prince,39 and he is mentioned repeatedly during the expedition. His father, Bartholomew the elder, being now dead, there is no question as to which is intended.
565. John de Montagu, brother of the Earl of Salisbury, is also given by Froissart as taking part in the Norman Expedition. Dugdale only notices his presence in the French Wars of 1346 and 1347, though he speaks of his return to Gascony in 1363.40 As Edward’s Norman expedition was only of very short duration (July to November, 1355), it is always probable that some of his followers joined the Black Prince in Gascony later on, and that Chandos has perhaps named those of them who fought at Poitiers, although they did not form part of the original following.
567. Edward le Despenser is mentioned by Froissart, and is found in the Black Prince’s Household Book.41
1 Robert of Avesbury, 394.
2 Cf. also Record Office, Ancient Corr., box 10, Letter from Edward dated July 30, stating that King Philip was only three French leagues distant.
3 Philip had reached Fauquembergue by Aug. 6, as he writes from there on that date on the subject of an aid (Arch. Nat., K 44, No. 12).
4 Jean le Bel, ii. 131; Froissart, i. 264.
5 Froissart, iv. 57-63.
6 Jean le Bel, ii. 134, 5.
7 Baker of Swynebroke, 90; Annals of Melsa, 67; Henrici Knighton Chronicon, 52; Continuation of Lescot, 245.
8 Froissart, iv, p. xxv, note 1. For the opposite view see Brequigny, ‘Siège de Calais,’ in Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions, 1808.
9 Rymer, iii. 21.
10 Chronique des quatre premiers Valois, ed. Luce (Soc. de l’Histoire de France), Paris, 1882, 49. This goes on to say that Aimery was afterwards taken by Audrehem, and put to death; a deed which Froissart and others impute to Charny. Froissart, iv, p. xxxviii, and note 2. Continuation of Lescot, 91.
11 For life of Audrehem, see Molinier, in Mémoires des Savants étrangers, 1883.
12 Anselme, vi. 734, and Ferdinand de la Roche la Carelle, Hist. du Beaujolais, Lyon, 1853, i. 154.
13 Hist. de Beaujolais, i. 148.
14 Jean le Bel, ii. 147.
15 Robert of Avesbury, 408; Froissart (Panthéon Littéraire), i. 274, 277 (i.e. MS. d’Amiens). But in another version of Froissart he is only called Captain in Calais, and spoken of especially in reference to the castle only. Froissart, iv. 71, 304.
16 Lefebvre, Histoire de Calais, Paris, 1766, 2 vols., 4to, ii. 3.
17 Gascon Rolls, 22 Ed. III, m. 17.
18 Rymer, iii, pt. i, pp. 19, 25, 46. On this subject see also Brequigny, ‘Calais sous les Anglais.’ Mémoires de l‘Académie des Inscriptions, vol. 50.
19 Rymer, iii, pt. 1, p. 67. Captain of the town was then Robert Herle, 1350.
20 Baker of Swynebroke, 275.
21 Robert of Avesbury, 408; Jean le Bel, ii. 147; Froissart, iv. 304, MS. de Rome.
22 Baker of Swynebroke, 106.
23 Froissart, iv. 98.
24 Baker of Swynebroke, 104.
25 Avesbury, 409.
26 Jean le Bel, ii. 149; Froissart, iv. 80.
27 French rolls, 23 Ed. III; Rymer, lii, pt. i, p. 52; see Brequigny, ‘Calais sous les Anglais.’
28 Avesbury, 412; Villani, 95; Froissart. 93-5; Walsingham, Historia Anglicana, 274; Baker of Swynebroke, 110; see Baurel de la Roncière, Histoire de la Marine Française, Paris, 1899, i. 496.
29 Dictionary of National Biography.
30 Froissart, iv. 134.
31 Froissart, iv. 160.
32 Avesbury, 424.
33 Rymer, iii, pt. i, p. 108.
34 Beltz, Memorials of the Order of the Garter, London, 1841, App. 3.
35 Froissart, iv. 135.
36 Avesbury, 425.
37 Dugdale, i. 259.
38 Avesbury, 439.
39 Froissart, iv. 136.
40 Dugdale, i. 649.
41 Beltz, 140.