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 matters chiefly demanded its attention; and a tenth was quickly granted by way of general aid. The people of the Cinque Ports undertook to have twenty-one of their own vessels, and nine ships belonging to the Thames, ready by March 26th; and the Council promised to pay half the cost, not, however, as wages, but of special grace. The people of the western ports engaged to furnish seventy ships of one hundred tons' burden and upwards, they paying as much as they were able of the cost, and the Council finding the rest of the money. All vessels of that tonnage belonging to Portsmouth and the ports westward of it were to make rendezvous at Portsmouth by March 26th, with the Earl of Arundel as their admiral, a. nd the Cinque Ports fleet was to assemble at Winchelsea, under the Earl of Huntingdon The admirals were to be directed to arrest all other vessels, and to place small ones in havens secure from the operations of the enemy; and proclamation was ordered to be made for all persons enjoying pardons for crimes committed to hold themselves ready to serve the king at sea and to take his wages. Measures were taken for the special protection of Southampton, which had already suffered so much at the hands of the French; and the place was garrisoned by Sir Richard Talbot, with fifty men-at-arms, a hundred archers, and two pinnaces dispatched thither from Milbrook.

Richard Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, was appointed admiral of the western fleet on February 20th; and Sir Robert Morley was re-appointed admiral of the northern fleet on March 6th, 1340. The date of the appointment of William Clinton, Earl of Huntingdon, to the command of the Cinque Ports fleet does not appear, but was probably in February, if not before. These appointments are noteworthy, for they were preliminary to a greater success at sea than England had perhaps ever won over any opponents.

King Edward returned from Flanders, landing at Orwell on February 21st, with the intention of returning as soon as possible with the large naval force which was in process of assemblage. Vessels as small as of twenty tons' burden were equipped and