Winchelsea Sussex United Kingdom

A storm hits the southern coast of England in February 1287 with such ferocity that whole areas of coastline are redrawn.

Silting up and cliff collapses lead to towns that had stood by the sea finding themselves landlocked, while others that had been inland found themselves with access to the sea.

The city of Winchelsea on Romney Marsh is destroyed (later rebuilt on the cliff top behind).

Nearby Broomhill is also destroyed.

The father of Henry of Grosmont died when his son was in France in 1345, and the younger Henry now became Earl of Lancaster—the wealthiest and most powerful peer of the realm.

After participating in the Siege of Calais in 1347, the king had honored Lancaster in 1348 by including him as a founding knight of the Order of the Garter.

Lancaster is present at the English naval victory at Winchelsea, where he allegedly saves the lives of the Black Prince and John of Gaunt.

Castilian ships have fought against England as the allies or mercenaries of France, and there have been instances of piratical violence between the trading ships of both nations.

A Castilian merchant fleet had been loading cargoes in the Flemish ports to be carried to the Basque coast.

The ships are armed and have warships with them.

They are all under the command of Don Carlos de la Cerda, a soldier of fortune who belongs to a branch of the Castilian royal family.

On its way to Flanders, the Castilian fleet had captured a number of English trading ships, and had thrown the crews overboard.

Piratical violence and massacre of this kind is at this time common on the sea.

The king at Rotherhithe on August 10 announces his intention of attacking the Castilians on their way home.

The rendezvous of his fleet is at Winchelsea: the king travels by land, accompanied by his wife and her ladies, by his sons, the Black Prince and John of Gaunt, as well as by many nobles.

The ladies are placed in a convent and on August 28 the king embarks on his flagship, the Cog Thomas.

The English fleet does not put to sea but remains at anchor, waiting for the appearance of the Castilians.

Its strength is not known with certainty, but Stow puts it at fifty ships and pinnaces.

Don Carlos de la Cerda might easily have avoided the English if he had kept well out in the Channel, but he relies on the size and strength of his forty large ships, and in expectation of an encounter had recruited a body of mercenaries—mostly crossbowmen—in the Flemish ports.

In the afternoon of August 29, he bears down boldly on King Edward's ships at anchor at Winchelsea.

The English steer to board the Castilians.

The king's own ship is run into by one of the enemy with such violence that both are damaged, and she begins to sink.

The Castilian stands on, and the Cog Thomas is laid alongside another, which is carried by boarding.

The king and his following have barely reached the deck of the Castilian before the Cog Thomas goes to the bottom.

Other Castilian ships are taken, but the fight is hot.

La Cerda's crossbowmen do much murder, and the higher-built Castilians are able to drop bars of iron or other weights on the lighter English vessels, by which they are damaged.

The conflict continues until twilight.

King Edward is said to have captured fourteen of the enemy ships of Castille.

What his own loss was is not stated, but as his own vessel, and also the vessel carrying the Black Prince, were sunk, and from the peril of La Salle du Roi, we may conclude that the English fleet suffered heavily.

There is no pursuit, and a truce will be made with the Basque towns the next year.

The battle with the Castilians on the sea is a very typical example of a medieval sea-fight, when the ships are of the size of a small coaster or a fishing smack, are crowded with men, and when the personal prowess of a single knight or squire is an important element of strength.

The only real authority for the battle is Froissart, who is at different times in the service of King Edward or of his wife, Philippa of Hainault, and of the counts of Namur.

He repeated what was told him by men who had been present, and dwells as usual on the chivalry of his patrons.

See his Chroniques, iv. 91.