September, and again in November, he was severely reprimanded for permitting Scots, Flemish, and French vessels to pass to Scotland with stores;[1] and after the close of he year he does not seem to have been employed at sea.
But, at about he same time, commendable activity was displayed by other officers, and a most gratifying success was obtained. Off Sluis there then lay an island, now an inland village, called Gadzand.[2] This had been for some time past held by a company of Flamand freebooters, who had inflicted much damage upon English trade, and whom it was most desirable to dislodge. An expedition against the place was organised under Henry, Earl of Derby, and Sir Walter Manny, who embarked at London with five hundred men-at-arms and two thousand archers,[3] dropped down the river, and, having arrived off Margate, crossed from thence to the mouth of the Scheldt. The expedition made Gadzand on November 10th, and, wind and tide being favourable, attacked immediately, "in the name of God and St. George." The Flamands, to the number of five thousand, were under Guy of Flanders, brother of Count Louis, and were drawn up on the shore and on the dykes above it. The English squadron sailed directly into the harbour, clearing the sands with flights of arrows, and then throwing ashore all available hands. A close and furious fight ensued; and although the Flamands behaved most stubbornly, and lost a thousand men, they were at last defeated, and Guy was taken. Gadzand was stormed, sacked, and burnt, and Sir Walter Manny, returning, reached Orwell about November 20th, to the great satisfaction of the king.[4] On the 24th, orders were sent down to Manny to use his discretion as to putting again to sea, but, in any event, not to remain absent from Orwell or Sandwich for more than three weeks.[5]
In January, 1338, two of the king's galleys, respectively commanded by John de Aurea and Nicholas Glaucus, convoyed a flotilla of storeships to the army in Scotland;[6] and Nicholas Ususmaris, who had returned from his cruise, and who had been made
- ↑ Scots Rolls, i. 498, 513.
- ↑ Also Kadlzand, or Cadsand.
- ↑ De Nangis says they had sixteen ships.
- ↑ Froissart, i. 62, 63. Walsingham give a somewhat different account of what seems to have been the same affair.
- ↑ 'Fœdera,' ii. 1005.
- ↑ Ib., ii. 1008. The galleys and crews were probably hired from Genoa.
