Under Prince Thomas, the fleet experienced as many difficulties as under less exalted admirals. A squadron under the Marshal de Rieux, Renaud de Hangest, and others, was reported to be meditating an invasion; but the prince, who seems to have been anxious to proceed against it, had to write from Sandwich to the Council, on May 6th, that from the day of his appointment until then he had been at great and unbearable costs and expenses; that he had personally paid nearly the whole wages of his people; that he had himself received neither wages nor reward, and that he could not believe that the king, his father, intended that he should be thus inconvenienced. Nor could he sail, he added, unless suitable sums were assigned to him.[1] Money must have been sent to him, for he sailed in June, and proceeding to Sluis, burnt four large ships there and landed some troops;[2] but his attack upon the castle was repulsed, and he re-embarked upon learning of the approach of a relieving force under the Duke of Burgundy.[3]
Cruising southward, the fleet fell in with three carracks, one of which endeavoured with much gallantry to run down Prince Thomas's flagship. But the English pilot or master averted the shock, receiving only slight damage. A smart action followed, the carrack was overmatched, and when the Earl of Kent's ship came up she surrendered. Her two consorts were also taken. The vessels seen to have been Genoese. One of them was afterwards burnt by accident off Camber Castle. The fleet subsequently burnt La Hogue, Harfleur, and thirty-eight other towns, and pillaged the coast of Normandy inland for thirty miles.[4]
De Rieux and De Hangest, however, were not intercepted, and they arrived at Milford at the beginning of August with a hundred and forty ships and a large army. This was an invasion which could scarcely have been more serious had a formal state of war prevailed; and it excited great alarm, and led to the levy of troops throughout England.[5] But the voyage of so considerable a fleet was not unattended with disaster. Fifteen of the French ships were cut off and burnt by a division under Lord Berkeley and the renowned Harry Pay; and fourteen more were taken by Lord Berkeley, Sir Thomas Swinburne, and Pay.[6] The situation
