formidable and undefeated fleet, belonging to an enemy, was "potential"[1] in the same waters. Knowing, as he certainly did, of the hostility of John, he should not have essayed the naval expedition to Damme without having first defeated or shut up in port the fleet commanded by the Earl of Salisbury. The omission cost him not only the ships which were taken or destroyed by his enemy, but also the ships which, when he realised that the success of the English had given them command of the sea, and had enabled them to blockade Damme, he destroyed himself. Nay more: it cost him the evacuation of the country by his army. Most of his sea-borne supplies had been taken or burnt; he could hope for no further supplies by water; and the English, free to act from the sea upon his left flank, threatened his communications even on land. Yet, plain though the lessons now look, the French had apparently not learnt them when, nearly six hundred years later, Nelson took the place of Salisbury, and Aboukir Bay did duty for Damme.
John was desirous of pushing his advantage, and proposed to embark for Poitou with a large army; but his barons and knights pleaded lack of money; and although the king started, attended only by his personal followers, in August, he thought better of the project, and went no farther than Jersey, whence, finding himself still almost entirely unsupported, he returned presently to England.[2] He did not, however, cease his efforts to collect an adequate force. In November, the Archdeacon of Taunton was directed to prepare for sea all the king's galleys then in his charge.[3] A few weeks afterwards they were sent to Portsmouth;[4] and, about February 9th, 1214, John, having appointed the Bishop of Winchester Justiciary of England, sailed from the Isle of Wight, accompanied by the queen and by his bastard son Richard, and, with a large army, landed at La Rochelle before the 15th of the month.[5] But the expedition was unfortunate. The king gained, at first, a few small successes. Later, he lost everything that he had previously gained, and his allies, the Emperor Otho and the Count of Flanders, being crushingly defeated at Bouvines, near Lille, he deemed it wise to secure the mediation of the Papal Legate for the conclusion of a
