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Edward III Earl of Salisbury, and others to make alliance with foreign powers, giving them authority, in spite of the interests of the English merchants, to make arrangements about the wool trade (ib. p. 966;, i. lO8). Lewis, count of Flanders, was inclined to the French alliance, but his people knew their own interest better, for their wealth depended on English wool, and the year before, when the count had arrested English merchants, the king had seized all their merchants and ships (Fœdera, ii. 948). James van Artevelde, a rich and highly connected citizen of Ghent, and the leader of the Flemish traders who were opposed to the count, entered into negotiations with Edward and procured him the alliance of Ghent, Bruges, Ypres, and Cassel (, p. 1327; ,i. 394). Edward also gained the Duke of Brabant as an ally by permitting staples for wool to be set up in Brussels, Mechlin, and Louvain (Fœdera, p. 959), and made treaties for supplies of troops with his brothers-in-law the Count of Gueldres and the margrave of Juliers, and his father-in-law the Count of Hainault (ib. p. 970). Further, he negotiated with the Count Palatine about his appointment as imperial vicar, and on 26 Aug. made a treaty for the hire of troops with the Emperor Lewis of Bavaria (ib, p. 991). This highly displeased Benedict XII, who was at deadly feud with Lewis, and was besides quite in the hands of Philip, and he remonstrated with Edward, who replied courteously but without giving way. Edward tried hard to gain the Count of Flanders, and proposed a marriage between the count's son and his little daughter Joan (ib. pp. 967, 998), though at the same time he offered her to Otto, duke of Austria, for his son (ib. p. 1001). In March the French burnt Portsmouth and ravaged Guernsey and Jersey (ib. p. 989; ). The king made great preparations for war; on 1 July he took all the property of the alien priories into his own hands; pawned his jewels, and in order to interest his people in his cause issued a schedule of the offers of peace he had made to Philip, which he ordered should be read in all county courts (Fœdera, p. 994). On 7 Oct. he wrote letters to his allies, styling himself 'king of France' (ib. p. 1001). Count Lewis, who was now expelled from Flanders by his subjects, kept a garrison at Cadsand under his brother Sir Guy, the bastard of Flanders, which tried to intercept the king's ambassadors and did harm to his allies the Flemings. Edward declared he 'would soon settle that business,' and sent a fleet under Sir Walter Manny and Henry of Lancaster, earl of Derby, against it. They gained a complete victory on 10 Nov., and brought back Sir Guy prisoner. Then two cardinals came to England to make peace, and Edward promised that he would not invade France until 1 March 1338, and afterwards extended the term (ib, pp. 1009, 1014).

Philip, however, continued his aggressions on the king's French dominions, and war became imminent. In February parliament granted the king half the wool of the kingdom, twenty thousand sacks, to be delivered at Antwerp, where he hoped to sell it well, and on 16 July he sailed from Orwell in Suffolk with two hundred large ships for Antwerp, for he intended to invade France from that side in company with his allies. He found that they were by no means ready to act with him, the princes who held of the emperor being unwilling to act without his direct sanction, and he remained for some time in enforced inactivity, spending large sums on the pay of his army, and keeping much state at the monastery of St. Bernard at Antwerp. Meanwhile some French and Spanish galleys sacked Southampton and captured some English ships, and among them the 'cog' Christopher, the largest of the king's vessels (Cont. ;, Political Songs, i. 64 sq.) At last on 5 Sept. a meeting took place between Edward and the emperor at Coblentz. The interview was held in the market-place with much magnificence (, c. 2571;, i. 425). Lewis appointed Edward imperial vicar, and expected him to kiss his foot, which he refused to do on the ground that he was 'an anointed king' (, i. 223). Edward now held courts at Arques and other places, heard causes as the emperor's representative, and received homages. Still his allies did not move, though they agreed to recover Cambray for the empire in the following summer. Influenced probably by the pope's remonstrances (ib. i. 208 seq.), Edward in October sent ambassadors to treat with Philip, and though he at first forbade them to address Philip as king, he afterwards allowed them to do so, probably at Benedict's request (Fœdera, ii. 1066, 1068). Nothing came of their mission. In 1339 he was in want of money, pawned his crowns, and borrowed fifty-four thousand florins of three burghers of Mechlin (ib. pp. 1073, 1085). After many delays he and his allies laid siege to Cambray (cannon are said to have been used by the besieging army,, Royal Navy, i. 184; it is also said by , iii. 136, ed. Pinkerton, that 'crakys of war' had been used by Edward in Scotland in 1327; this, however, is highly doubtful, , Ancient Cannon in Europe, pt. i.) Finding Cambray difficult to take, the allies gave up