| Summary : On 24 August 1217 the English met the French fleet off Sandwich in a decisive battle of the First Barons' War. In 1216 disaffected barons rebelled against King John, receiving French support in the form of Louis, son of King Phillip II Augustus of France, who landed and claimed the throne of England. Louis was initially well received but support fell away following John's death in October 1216 and Louis' defeat at the Battle of Lincoln earlier in 1217 [see 1393578]. The French fleet which set out from Calais under the renegade Eustace the Monk, comprised around 80 vessels, namely 10 fighting ships, the rest being supply and support vessels. The English fleet was outnumbered with 40 smaller vessels, but they had the advantages of manoeuvrability and not being laden with supplies. They sailed out from the north-east against the wind and tide, to intercept the French en route to the Thames Estuary. Off Sandwich a feint from de Burgh's flagship lured the French into a counter-attack, allowing the English to gain the windward advantage and attack the French with their archers and lime-pots before capturing and boarding French vessels, followed by hand-to-hand fighting. Eustace's flagship, the GREAT SHIP OF BAYONNE, was grappled and he was killed by the English. A contemporary illustration of the battle from the manuscript of Matthew Paris' Chronica Majora shows this incident, depicting bowmen, the grappling of the ship, and the slaughter of Eustace and other seamen, representing the massacre of French sailors which is said to have ensued. The outcome of the battle was an English victory, with the expulsion of Louis from England, ending his claim to the English throne. It is unclear how many French ships were taken or sunk as a result of the battle: a representative record for potential French losses sunk in ramming by English warships has been created at 1572769. St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Sandwich, was founded as a result of the battle (468215). |
More information : Documentary Evidence:
Primary Sources:
Illustration of the Parker manuscript of Matthew Paris' Chronica Majora, fol. 52r (56r) depicting the Battle of Sandwich as a definitive naval battle, in which three ships are shown. The two on the left depict the English side; the ship at left contains a bowman and a man with a catapult both shooting what are presumably the pots of lime (see below) towards the French. This vessel is overlapped by a second vessel depicting a man with a grappling iron. The third vessel is decorated with flags, presumably to distinguish it from the other two, wherein a melee shows men being put to the sword or forced overboard into the sea. This image therefore is broadly illustrative of the principal themes of the action as described in more detail below. (1)
Secondary Sources:
The context of the Battle of Sandwich (also known as the Battle of Dover) was the First Barons' War against King John, receiving support from Louis (later Louis VIII), son of King Philippe II Auguste of France. Louis claimed the English throne and was initially welcomed to England, receiving widespread support and by the time of King John's death, he 'controlled more than half the country'. Louis' support fell away following the King's death and his defeat at the Battle of Lincoln in May 1217.
The two sides joined battle off the coast of Kent on 24 August 1217 in the Battle of Dover. It is noted that Matthew Paris's account of this battle came from Hubert de Burgh himself, albeit many years later, and is a reasonably coherent narrative.
The French sailed from Calais for London where they were expecting support from the rebels, with a south-westerly wind. From Dover the English response was abortive and hesitant, but as the French sailed north, the English once more sallied forth from Sandwich under Hubert de Burgh, 'initially close-hauled to pass astern of the French'. The French under Eustace the Monk interpreted this as an attempt to attack Calais in their absence; in practice de Burgh was manoeuvring to gain the weather gage, from which he was able to bear up and attack the French. The French were hampered by their heavily-laden ships, particularly Eustace with his trebuchet: 'the English were able to defeat and capture most of the enemy fleet'.
The author notes that the principal noteworthy feature of this battle was that it was fought under way, when naval battles were at this period normally stationary. It is therefore likely that the battle took place not off Dover, but in the Downs or off Ramsgate. The outcome was to end French exploitation of the English civil war. (2)
The French set out from Calais and were set fair for London, as the English mustered at Sandwich, with Hugh de Burgh in command of the fleet itself, while William Marshal was in overall command. The size of the English fleet is discussed, and various contemporary chronicles compared: the size of the English fleet was between 16 and 22 large vessels, according to different sources, with around 20 support vessels. Roger of Wendover stated that the English had 'only a few ships, not exceeding 40 in number of galleys and ships'.
The Anonymous chronicler of Bethune on the French side and Roger of Wendover on the English side agreed on 80 ships in the French fleet, dramatically inflated by William Marshal's biographer to 300 vessels. There were approximately ten large ships with fighting men, with around 70 support and supply vessels, the flagship being the 'GREAT SHIP OF BAYONNE', which was laden with a trebuchet, horses and treasure. Since the French fleet consisted mostly of supply vessels and the French 'flagship' was so heavily laden, the two fleets were therefore approximately well matched in fighting terms.
The English went out to meet the French 'on an oblique course from the north-east, against the wind and tide', led by Hubert de Burgh, who made as if to lead a head-on attack against the French. The French then responded in kind, furling their sails, but then de Burgh and his fleet veered away to the starboard at the last moment.
It is noted that William the Breton recorded that Robert de Courtenay, leading the French fleet, then ordered the flagship the GREAT SHIP OF BAYONNE, to target the smaller English vessels, 'thinking it would be easy to capture them', but he was not followed by the remainder of his fleet, who continued with their aim of reaching London rather than diverting to fight the English.
The Romance of Eustace the Monk is quoted 'more than twenty ships past in front of him [Eustace] and they attacked his fleet fiercely.' The English now had the weather gage and were able to attack the French fleet from the rear.
The English galleys rammed into the French ships, 'sinking many instantly' although the number of casualties is unclear. The English ships, though smaller in size, were therefore more manoeuvrable, and 'were not weighed down by supplies', allowing the English to fire arrows, javelins, and pots of quicklime which, as they fell, broke and dispersed burning clouds, blinding the French crews, a tactic noted in all the principal sources. The French ships were then boarded, including the GREAT SHIP OF BAYONNE, and hand-to-hand combat ensued, resulting in great slaughter among the ordinary fighting men on the French side, some of whom fell overboard and drowned in attempting to escape. The English knights prevented the slaughter from extending to their French counterparts, with the exception of Eustace the Monk.
It is unclear how many ships were captured or sunk; many escaped back to France. One French source credits the English only with capturing the GREAT SHIP OF BAYONNE but more may have been captured since an English source reports that only 15 ships escaped the encounter. The truth is likely to lie between. (3)
Battle named as the Battle of Dover.
The slight differences between the account of the battle in the poem-biography of William the Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, and the chronicles, including those of Matthew Paris, are noted.
The emphasis in the former was the 'fine well-armed ship' of Hubert de Burgh leading the fleet. De Burgh sailed past without any apparent intention of giving battle, but then made for 'a great ship of Bayonne', which sat low in the water, because it was so heavily laden with siege engines and horses, as well as the 'treasure' of the French king. By contrast, Hubert's cog sat high in the water, allowing the pots of lime to be pitched onto the defenders of the French vessel, and a successful boarding attempt to take place. Eustace was beheaded and the French fleet was despoiled.
Matthew Paris' Chronica Majora may be based on de Burgh's own retrospective recollections. According to this source, he sallied forth with the best 16 ships of the Cinque Ports, with 20 support vessels. As they closed with the French fleet they appeared to change course for Calais. The wind dropped, but as it strengthened the English fleet once more changed course to gain the weather gage and attack the French from the rear.
De Burgh then grappled with Eustace's ship and his men cut the mast-stays to the ship, so that the sail fell down like a net to capture the Frenchmen.
The battle is interpreted as a 'boarding action' and English success attributed to 'the intelligent use of the prevailing wind conditions' and 'co-operation between mariners and fighting men'. (6)
St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Sandwich, was founded as a direct result of this battle, which took place on St. Bartholomew's Day, 24th August, 1217. The battle is described in the poem "L'Histoire de Guillaume le Marechal", in which William Marshal, leader of the English fleet, 'ordered that the booty be shared out, with a part reserved for founding a hospital at Sandwich in honour of the saint who had given them victory'. This was done, and the hospital is described in the poem as an establishment where "are harboured and entertained God's poor". An unsubstantiated account states that St. Bartholomew's had already been founded c.1190, but it was refounded by Bertine de Crawthorne and his wife, William Bucharde and his wife, and Sir Henry de Sandwich.' (5) [This is recorded at 468215.]
Location of Battle:
The battle has been variously known as the Battle of Dover or the Battle of Sandwich, but is securely known from the contemporary chronicles to have been fought as a mobile battle at sea, as shown in (2) and (3). The French set out from Calais, bound for London; (2) suggests that the English initially attempted to intercept them off Dover but that the main English fleet issued from Sandwich. (3) suggests that the English set out from Sandwich and from north-east to intercept the French, suggesting that they were lying off Sandwich, possibly in the Downs anchorage to the east, but fairly close inshore. Source (6) suggests that the battle took place off Sandwich or Dover. That it took place in the Straits of Dover is fairly certain, particularly as the English made a feint of sailing for Calais.
The battle then presumably ranged northwards as the English gained the weather gage and engaged the French fleet principally intent on continuing their course northwards towards the Thames estuary.
It is not known how far the battle ranged: it may have ranged quite extensively since it was a mobile rather than static sea battle with the English actively seeking to obtain the weather gage.
For convenience an arbitrary named location to represent this battle off Sandwich has been selected; this is not intended to represent an actual location but to best represent the current state of knowledge. (4)
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