advantageous, re-formed their fleet into one body. The Bretons did the same, and the action was renewed until the English had exhausted all their missiles, and had five hundred men killed or drowned. Then forty of their ships and one carrack surrendered. Those Englishmen who had flung their weapons overboard were thrown after them by the Breton commanders. The rest, a thousand in number, were carried into Breton ports.[1]
Another notable French exploit of the year was a descent upon Haverfordwest by a hundred and twenty ships, with twelve hundred soldiers, under De Tries,[2] Admiral of France, who subsequently joined the Welsh under Owen Glendower; but after the Battle of Shrewsbury, the contingent went back to St. Pol de Léon.[3] In August a force under Du Châtel — perhaps the same squadron which had defeated the English at sea — threw a body of men ashore near Plymouth and pillaged and burnt the town, subsequently departing unhindered.[4]
In retaliation for the affair at Plymouth, a squadron, with six thousand men on board, sailed across to Brittany in November, burnt St. Mathieu, and massacred a great number of the inhabitants. A French force which assembled by the following day was defeated in a bloody battle, and most of the Breton vessels on the coast were taken, and their crews murdered. From St. Mathieu the English went to Guienne, and captured in the Gironde a number of French vessels laden with wine.[5] This English squadron seems to have been commanded by a gentleman named William Wilford; but its success did not free the coasts of England from the attacks of French pirates, and in September, when Winchester appeared to be threatened, special means were adopted to provide for its defence.[6] On November 5th, Thomas, fifth Lord Berkeley,[7] was appointed
- ↑ Monstrelet; Chron of St. Denis; Des Ursins; Guérin, 'Hist. Marit. de France,' i. 315.
- ↑ Some authorities say, under Châteaubriand and De la Jaille.
- ↑ Monstrelet, xv.
- ↑ Walsingham, 412; Chron. of St. Denis, iii, 113; Fabian (Ellis), 571; Otterbourne, 245. Many French historians appear to confuse the various attempts made at about this time.
- ↑ Des Ursins, 157; Chron. of St. Denis, iii. 112, 113.
- ↑ Close Rolls, 4 Hen. IV.
- ↑ His ancestors had been barons by tenure since the Conquest. He succeeded his father Maurice in 1368, being then fifteen. He subsequently served ashore in France and Wales. This seems to have been his only naval command. He died in 1415. His daughter Elizabeth married Richard, Earl of Warwick.
