Page:Royalnavyhistory01clow.djvu/331

 relatively small force, its object being to draw Richard to the north; and the subsequent descent upon the south and east coasts of England of the main body. In pursuance of this, Jean de Vienne sailed in May with sixty ships, and in due course entered the Forth. The Scots, though hostile to England, did not particularly welcome their French allies; and the behaviour at the Scots court of the Admiral of France is said to have seriously offended King Robert II. But the plan worked as had been intended; and Richard, with an army of about 70,000 men, hurried northwards. Had the invasion from Sluis been then attempted, it would probably have been successful, for the English fleet was mismanaged and demoralised, and the flower of the English army had been drawn away. But, the energetic influence of Jean de Vienne having ceased to supervise the preparations in the Netherlands, the French fleet was not ready when it was wanted; and so, for the time, the project fell through. The ships were ordered back to their various ports in September, to be laid up for the winter; and while they were dispersing, they suffered in more ways than one.

One division of them was overtaken by a storm in the Channel, many vessels being driven ashore near Calais. On September 14th, eleven French craft foundered in sight of Calais, and their crews were taken prisoners. On the 17th, seventy-two French ships, while passing the Strait of Dover, were attacked by the garrison under Sir William Beauchamp, and a large barge and eighteen other vessels were captured. Again, on the 20th, after an action of six hours with forty-five very large French vessels, the Calais flotilla took two ships and a cog, together with two French admirals, and killed or took two hundred and twenty-six men. On yet another occasion, Sir John Radyngton took two richly laden carracks. In short, before the end of the year, a great number of vessels, estimated by Knighton at forty-eight and by Walsingham at more than eighty, became English prizes; and, if only the navy had been properly handled, the French fleet should have been entirely disabled.

Unhappily the Government starved the fleet as usual, and