Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/83

Manny to guard the frontiers. He was rewarded with grants of land, the governorship of Merioneth (1332), and the custody of Harlech Castle (1334) (, Baronage, ii. 148-149). He was probably chiefly employed in Scotland until his appointment on 11 Aug. 1337 as admiral of the fleet north of the Thames (Fœdera, ii. 988), for there can hardly be any truth in the story that he took part in the embassy which went to Flanders in April (, ii. 526;, p. 60; cf. Fœdera, ii. 747-8). Some months after his appointment he took prisoner Guy de Rickenburg, bastard brother of Count Louis of Flanders, in a sharp skirmish with the garrison of the island of Cadzand, at the mouth of the Scheldt. The English authorities describe it as an accidental conflict (, Hist. Angl. i. 222 ;, p. 80). Froissart (ii. 430) represents it as an organised expedition, dates the attack on the night of St. Martin, and gives the chief command to the Earl of Derby, whose life Manny saves. He may be here anticipating the earl's later association with Manny. To Sir Walter the king, after releasing Guy of Flanders on 26 Jan. 1340, granted the 8,000l. paid for his and the other prisoners' ransom (Fœdera, ii. 1107, 1 123). Two of the ambassadors accredited by Edward to Philip of France and Louis of Flanders on 3 Oct., the Bishop of Lincoln and the Earl of Suffolk, are said by some writers to have been on Manny's fleet when Cadzand was attacked (ib. pp. 811-813; Froissart, ed. Luce, i. 1348; Chronicles of Edward I and Edward II, ii. 133). On 24 Nov. 1337 Manny was sent to sea with orders to attack the king's enemies, if he thought it advisable, but to return within three weeks (Fœdera, ii. 1005). On 24 Feb. 1388 he was ordered to provide ships by a fortnight after Easter for the passage of the king to the continent, but was not able to do so in time (ib. pp. 1015, 1027). In April he had to convoy Brabant merchants to and from Ipswich and Orwell (ib. pp. 1031, 1041). The king gave him about this time the manors of Oveston in Northamptonshire and Aber in North Wales' (Abbrev. Rotul. Original. ii. l26). He probably conveyed Edward to Antwerp in July.

Before leaving England Manny, with many other knights, is said to have taken the 'Vow of the Heron,' at the instance of the fugitive Robert of Artois, undertaking to burn a town held by Godemar de Fay (, Political Songs, i. 13). Froissart's version is that he bound himself to be the first to enter France and take a town or castle. Immediately after the defiance of the French king in 1339 he rode hastily, says Froissart, with only forty lances, through Brabant and Hainault, and entering France took a castle called Thun l'Evéque, in which he left a garrison under his brother, Gilles Grignart, who was slain next year before Cambray. After which he returned to Edward at Malines (, ed. Lettenhove, ii. 487-93, iii. 83). He took part in all the operations of the campaign and returned to England with the king in February 1340 (ib. iii. 8, 9, 12, 27, 53, 71). In June he is said by Froissart to have eclipsed all his companions in valour at Sluys; he was present at the siege of Tournay in August, and joined in wasting the surrounding country (ib. iii. 197, 235 ; Beltz, p. 113 n.) Manny accompanied the king when he 'stole home' to surprise his ministers on 30 Nov. (, p. 116). He is said to have taken part in the Scottish campaign of (, iii. 428, 464).

Early in 1 342 Edward sent him to Brittany to help the heroic Countess of Montfort against Charles of Blois, empowering him to receive and keep towns and castles belonging to the Duke of Brittany (, p. 125; Fœdera, ii. 1181, 1189). Froissart gives a glowing description of his valour and deeds of chivalrous daring, in the relief of the countess at Hennebon, in a naval victory over Louis of Spain at Quimperlé, and in the siege and defence of several Breton towns and castles (iv. 38,44-50, 54-6, 70-96, 102-9, 147-79). Murimuth says that after making a truce with Charles of Blois early in July, subject to the king's consent, he returned to England, and that Edward, not approving of the truce, sent the Earl of Northampton to Brittany (cf. Fœdera, ii. 1205). Froissart speaks of Manny as present with Edward in Brittany in the later months of the year (iv. 192-7, 447). In June 1345 he was sent to Gascony with the Earl of Derby, as one of the two marshals who had command of the vanguard, according to Froissart, who largely ascribes to Manny the success of the two brilliant campaigns in which fifty or sixty towns and castles were captured (, pp. 189, 248 ;, p. 356 ; , p. 77 ; , iv. 214-372, v. 89-96). Froissart (v. 97-108) has a circumstantial story relating how, on hearing of the victory at Crecy, Manny obtained from the Duke of Normandy, son of King Philip, then besieging Aiguillon, a safe-conduct to go to the English king by land, but was arrested at Orleans, taken to Paris and thrown into the Chatelet, whence he was only released on the indignant remonstrance of the Duke of Normandy with his father. But the siege of Aiguillon was raised six days before Crecy, and Derby in a despatch preserved by Avesbury (p. 372)