further vessels were ordered to Scotland in September, and some were dispatched in search of Scots cruisers, which were endeavouring to intercept sea-borne supplies destined for the English army.[1] Nor did the Scots confine themselves to the defensive. A force of them landed in Suffolk, and two officers were specially appointed to levy troops to drive them off.[2] In the same month there was general arrest of ships of forty tons and upwards; but the foreign vessels then arrested were soon afterwards released.[3]
The admirals appointed at the beginning of 1335 were Sir John Norwich, for the North Sea, and Sir Roger Hegham, for the western fleet;[4] but in April, Sir John Norwich appears to have been superseded by Sir John Howard,[5] senior, and Sir Robert Holland[6] was made admiral of the fleet on the coast of Wales, and westward as far as Carlingford. The best ships in the northern ports were impressed in February; and in the same month the two largest ships of war at Bristol were ordered to proceed to Dumbarton. against a large, armed vessel, full of stores, which was reported to have arrived there from abroad; and Sir Roger Hegham, for whom twelve ships were levied firm the Cinque Ports, Bristol, Falmouth, Southampton, and Plymouth, was directed to send four of them to cruise to the westward, and to station the remaining eight where they would be most likely to intercept supplies destined for the Scots.[7]
In April men-at-arms were requisitioned for Ireland; and the Irish ports were instructed to provide vessels for their conveyance to Scotland, and to send them to Carlingford. To the command of this flotilla Sir John de Athy was appointed.[8]
It is unfortunate that we do not know what success attended the Bristol ships in their expedition to Dumbarton. We are left similarly in the dark as to the results of another minor expedition
- ↑ Scots Rolls, i. 277–279.
- ↑ Ib., i. 299.
- ↑ Ib., i. 305–309, 311.
- ↑ Pat. Rolls, 8 Edw. III. pt. ii. m. 4.
- ↑ Scots Rolls, i. 335. Sir John Howard, son of Sir John Howard by Joan Cornwall, was the ancestor of one of the most distinguished of British naval and noble families. He served as admiral in 1335 and 1347. He married Alice, daughter of Sir Robert Boys. His great-great-grandson was the first Duke of Norfolk of the present creation.
- ↑ Scots Rolls, i. 336. Sir Robert Holland, or Holand, son of Robert, first Baron Holland, was summoned to Parliament, as second Baron, in 1342. He died in 1373.
- ↑ Ib., i. 317, 320, 322.
- ↑ Ib., i. 337, 338.
