The fleet of fourteen hundred vessels,[1] with six thousand men-at-arms, and twenty-four thousand archers, sailed on Sunday, August 11th, and entered the Seine on the following Tuesday afternoon. It met with no resistance on the passage. Indeed, it does not appear that any considerable French force was then at sea.
Henry anchored about three miles above Harfleur, and signalled[2] to his captains to attend him at a council of war. At daybreak on Wednesday, the 14th, the landing began, most of the army reaching the shore between six and seven. Still there was no opposition. By Saturday, the 17th, siege was laid to Harfleur. The mouth of the harbour was closed by a chain drawn between two fortified towers that flanked the entrance, and by a boom of stakes and trunks of trees; and behind the obstacles lay a small French squadron, upon which many vain attempts were made by the English fleet. The navy, however, co-operated mainly by enforcing a strict blockade, and by keeping up communications across the waterways. When the town had fallen, on September 22nd, some of the prisoners, with the sick, were sent to England with the fleet, sailing on October 8th; and the army marched inland on its way to Calais. The victory of Agincourt was won on October 25th, and on Saturday, November 16th, Henry embarked at Calais, and reached Dover late on the same day.
The passage was very boisterous, and though the king did not suffer in the least, most of the French noblemen who were his prisoners were so sea-sick that they would have preferred to face again the dangers of the battle. The fleet was in part dispersed, several ships being driven into Zierikzee at the mouth of the Ooster Schelde. Two, according to one writer, went down with all hands.
While these great events were passing in France; Scots vessels were harassing the northern coasts, and two citizens of Newcastle, named Hornsey and Strother, fitted out two ballingers to cope with the foe. What success the ballingers had against the Scots we know not, but they took two Flamand vessels, laden, as was alleged, with the enemy's property, and carried them into Shields, whence a king's officer removed them to Newcastle. The captors complained of this, and obtained an order to the officer to deliver to them the cargoes, or to state to the Council his reasons for not doing so. The
