Immediately after the receipt of this despatch, the news of the victory was publicly announced by a proclamation which was nominally addressed by the king to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and which expressed gratitude to God fur the mercy vouchsafed to the country, and ordered general prayer and thanksgiving. This was dated "in the fourteenth year of our reign of England, and in the first of our reign of France."[1] On July 9th, the king wrote to Parliament, requesting an aid, and referring the Peers and others, for details of the victory, to Huntingdon, Arundel, Gloucester, and Trussell. Parliament met, after adjournment, on the 13th, and intelligence of the victory was then formally communicated to it. The royal demands were willingly granted, and provisions and wine were ordered for the refreshment of the fleet.[2]
Nicolas[3] is is of opinion that in many particulars the Battle of Sluis did not surpass, even if it equalled, Hubert de Burgh's victory off the South Foreland in 1217. De Burgh certainly displayed high strategic and tactical ability, as well as extraordinary bravery; whereas Edward, beyond manœuvring for the wind, and, as some of the historians say, to avoid having to fight with the sun in his eyes, employed both strategy and tactics but little. And it must be admitted that the record of Sluis seems to suggest that the division of Bocanegra, which escaped, may have failed in its duty. Yet both victories were gained against superior forces; and from the point of view of completeness, the second scarcely fell short of the first: while, on both sides, there were far larger forces off Sluis than at the South Foreland.
The failure of the French, whose gallantry upon the occasion has never been impeached, may he attributed, among other causes, to the fact that, cæteris paribus, an allied fleet can never be as strong as a homogeneous one, and to the circumstance that they waited to accept battle in comparatively narrow waters instead of going out and obtaining plenty of sea room. They should, undoubtedly have assumed the offensive. Jealousy between the two French admirals, incompetence on the part of Béhuchet, and unsatisfactory personnel, have been alleged by French authors as additional explanations of the result; and these writers also lay great weight upon the assistance
