King Edward III of England issued instructions in 1356 to fourteen sheriffs, whose authority encompassed nineteen counties, to supply arms for an expedition to the Continent. The purpose was to carry the war to France in the first phase of the Hundred Years War, a conflict whose roots included dynastic claims, the control of Gascony, and an ongoing undeclared battle at sea between French and English privateers, pirates and merchants. The request was one step in what became the usual practice in preparation for an overseas expedition requiring naval forces. Men were recruited for the army, supplies and equipment purveyed for the expedition, a port was selected to stage the operation and provide a place of embarkation, ships were requisitioned or arrested, mariners were hired or impressed, the king's ships, meaning those purpose-built for war or converted for such use, were ordered to the staging port, and the whole assemblage of victuals, armaments, including horses, men and ships was coordinated to arrive for transport abroad by the assembled ships and their crews. Thousands of men flooded port towns such as Plymouth, Southampton and Sandwich where they taxed the local capacity to address their needs for food and space to work and rest and supply items they needed.