14 - Mastery of the Channel (1347–1350)

Summary

After concluding the Truce of Calais, Edward returned to England. En route he was again caught in a horrific storm. Several ships were lost, though Edward’s own vessel limped into port on 12 September. Despite Edward’s certainty that his cause was favoured by God, his ill luck with natural phenomena had become proverbial. His subjects believed the weather could be predicted by whether he was travelling to France or returning. It was fortunate for his cause that he was usually caught on his return journey. Edward was now used to such inconvenience and spent the next day organising corn supplies for Calais. Some historians have portrayed Edward as content to rest on his laurels after the siege of Calais. His military achievements had won him considerable fame. When the Holy Roman Emperor, Ludwig VI, died on 11 October, Edward was elected emperor by the German princes. The offer was genuine but Edward turned it down, William Bohun having advised him that it was a French provocation intended to distract him with Imperial politics. Edward was certainly content with the strategic situation. Careful regulations were posted in November and December 1347 to prevent routiers, errant knights and soldiers of fortune crossing to France to disrupt the truce. There was even a ban on the manufacture of armour. His court’s Christmas feast was a magnificent celebration of his successes.

The government used the respite offered by the truce to consider new innovations in naval administration. Although the admirals were back in England, Montgomery having been replaced as Captain of Calais, they were now excluded from the arrest system. Admirals had proven an obvious focus for discontent and defiance for mariners. Instead, for the next decade ships and mariners were arrested by sergeants-at-arms. Sergeants could violently coerce mariners and were sometimes ruthless and brutal. One sergeant involved in shipping, Richard Imworth, was considered a ‘tormentor without pity’. Using sergeants for this purpose reduced the resentment felt against the nobility. Two days after Christmas, plans were announced that a forty-ship fleet would take Princess Joan from Plymouth to Bordeaux, from whence she would be taken to Castile to seal the marriage alliance with Castile. Negotiations had also commenced with the queen of Navarre, and separate peaces were also expected with Portugal and Aragon.