22 - Edward III’s Final Years (1373–1377)

Summary

When parliament convened in November 1373, the Chancellor was for once able to give an upbeat assessment of the navy’s performance, praising the contribution of the ‘good and gracious ports’. Three hundred and seventy-two vessels had put to sea in the face of weak French and Castilian opposition and William Montague’s aggression as admiral had been worthy of his famous father. The town barges arrived at an erratic pace and some without equipment and with too few crew, but they had visibly made a difference to English fortunes. A great deal of booty was gathered in various English ports, mostly detectable to historians because much of it was from neutral shipping. Petitioners in the Commons tried to make some political mileage from the success, again complaining about the length of arrests. With the exception of the small fleet which took Nicholas Tamworth to Portugal, the vast majority of impressed shipping had only been at sea for a couple of months. Meanwhile the forces which were supposed to be at sea the longest, the king’s ships and town barges, had been away for seven to eight months. However it was the period before that which again bothered shipowners. They had failed to force the king to concede compensation in 1372 and now tried a new tack, arguing that wages should be paid from when ships were arrested. This made sense from their perspective but they could not know how expensive the summer’s triumphs had been. Putting the fleets to sea had cost Edward £40,000. For this reason the Commons’ request was quickly rebuffed, the king arguing that he was not obliged to pay for ships that he was not using. A second request for additional ‘regards’ (bonuses erratically paid to captains who had kept their forces in the field for a specific length of time or for other reasons) was rejected in apparent bafflement.

While the fleet’s performance was cause for some satisfaction, the strategic situation was parlous. Due to the lack of shipping, the only way to get Gaunt’s army to Gascony was to march them across France. Although an impressive feat of human endurance, the army which finally reached Bordeaux after fighting its way through hostile terrain from Calais was desperately reduced in numbers from disease, battle casualties and starvation.