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Piracy or Policy: the Crisis in the Channel, 1400–1403. The Alexander Prize Essay

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

C. J. Ford
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Extract

The opening years of the fifteenth century witnessed an outburst of lawlessness at sea of such intensity that legitimate commerce between the kingdoms of France and England, and their allies, all but ceased. Official contemporary sources seem to leave no doubt as to the causes of this outburst. The truce conservators of the two kingdoms were in full agreement in placing the blame for the outrages against merchant shipping on the activities of ‘piratae’, ‘depraedatores’ and ‘banniti’, outlaws working without the sanction and beyond the control of their governments. Modern authorities have accepted this ‘official’ explanation without question.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 29 , December 1979 , pp. 63 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1979

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References

1 Rymer, T., Foedera (London, 1704–1735), viii, 274–6Google Scholar (August 1402) and 306–9 (June 1403).

2 Kingsford, C. L., ‘West Country Piracy: The School of English Seamen’, Prejudice and Promise in Fifteenth-Century England (Oxford, 1925), pp. 78–106Google Scholar. See also Nicolas, N. H., History of the Royal Navy (2 vols., London, 1847), i, 342–401Google Scholar, and de la Roncière, C., Histoire de la Marine Française (6 vols., Paris, 1899–1934), ii, 151–210Google Scholar.

3 Kingsford, , ‘West Country Piracy’, pp. 82–6Google Scholar.

4 For Anglo-French affairs in general, see Nordberg, M., Les Dues et la Royauté (Uppsala, 1964), pp. 111–51Google Scholar, and most recently, Wilson, F. C., ‘Anglo-French Relations in the reign of King Henry IV’ (Unpublished thesis, McGill University, 1973)Google Scholar.

5 For Flanders, see the articles by Pistono, S. P., ‘Henry IV and the English Privateers’, E.H.R., xc (1975), 322–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ‘Flanders and the Hundred Years’ War: The Quest for the Trêve Marckande', B.I.H.R., xlix (1976), 185–97Google Scholar; and ‘The Accession of Henry IV: Effects on Anglo-Flemish Relations, 1399–1402’, Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, lxxxix (1976), 465–74Google Scholar. For Castile, see Fernández, L. Suárez, Navegación y Comercio en el Golfo de Vizcaya (Madrid, 1959), pp. 83–93Google Scholar, and Childs, W. R., Anglo-Castilian Trade in the Later Middle Ages (Manchester, 1978), p. 44Google Scholar.

6 Archives Départementales du Nord, Lille (A.D.N.), B.534/18342L. See Latin text in the Appendix. These points have hitherto been known only from a brief, and intentionally misleading, summary, in French made by the chancellor of the duke of Burgundy in September 1403 (Archives Departementales de la Côte d'Or, Dijon, B. 1532, fo. 113) with the aim of discrediting the Anglo-Flemish talks. The summary is in A.D.N., B.528/14994'ter. That this was a proposed agreement, and not a final one as Pistono suggests (B.I.H.R., xlix, pp. 193–4), see report of the Four Members on their talks with the English (A.D.N., B.526/14468).

7 Foedera, viii, 306–9.

8 P.R.O., Issue Roll, E.403/564, mm. 3 and 12. For fears that the French would refuse to reaffirm the truce, see P.R.O., Parliamentary Proceedings, C.49/48/1.

9 P.R.O., E.403/564, m. 13 (Spicer); E.403/567, m. 5 (Hauley); Calendar of the Patent i Rolls, 1399–1401, pp. 271 and 291 (northern fleet). Hauley was assigned ‘ad custodiam I maris … ad resistendum malicio inimicorum Regis’.

10 Archives Nationales, Paris (A.N.), J.645/7.

11 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1399–1401, pp. 291, 350, 352 and 358.

12 The figures are compiled from A.N., J.645A/18 and 18bis, and J.645B/35. More complete details of these, and of the other lists that have provided the evidence for this essay, will be found in my forthcoming thesis.

13 A.N., J.645A/18 and 18bis, and Cat. Pat. Rolls, 1399–1401, p. 276.

14 Calendar of Inquisitions Miscellaneous, 1390–1422, pp. 113–15 (Prince); A.N., J.919/2 (Hogue). For Henry's intervention, J.645A/18; Calendar of the Close Rolls, 1399–1402, pp. 150–1; P.R.O., E.403/567, mm. 2 and 4; Accounts Various, E.101/128/24 and Treaty Roll, C.76/84, m. 8.

15 A.N., J.645B/36 and 36bis. Many of the French crimes are not specifically dated.

16 Ibid., and Huguet, A., Aspects de la Guerre de Cent Ans en Picardie Maritime, 1400–1500 (Mémories de la Société des Antiquaires de Picardie, xlviii, Amiens, 1941), pp. 16–20Google Scholar.

17 Vale, M.G.A., English Gascony (Oxford, 1970), pp. 42–4Google Scholar.

18 Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, MS. Français 14371, fos. 191V–192.

19 A.N., J.645A/13, clauses 3 and 4.

20 Foedera, viii, 194–5.

21 Ibid., viii, 219–20.

22 Ibid., viii, 231–2. B.L., Cotton MS. Caligula D. iv, fo. 20.

23 A.N., J.645A/19.

24 A.N., J.645A/18 and 186bis.

25 A.N., J.645B/35; Cal. Close Rolls, 1399–1402, p. 446. For the arguments over this private war, see J.919/8.

26 On three occasions only.Cal. Close Rolls, 1399–1402, pp. 428–9 and 446; P.R.O., C. 76/86, m. 1.

27 A.D.N., B.546/1509392, a list of Flemish losses from 1400 to 1411, the most comprehensive of the Flemish lists to have survived.

28 Ibid. For Hauley serving at sea, P.R.O., Privy Seal Files, E.28/9, unnumbered.

29 A.N., J.645A/18bis, item 32.

30 P.R.O., Chancery Miscellanea, C.47/32/24a; A.N., J.645B/35 (Castilian losses). P.R.O., Exchequer K.R., Council Proceedings, E.175 Roll 28; E.101/43/1 (English losses).

31 Fernández, L. Suárez, Relaciones entre Portugaly Castillo, 1393–1460 (Madrid, 1960), pp. 17–37 and 136–58Google Scholar.

32 A special enquiry was held at La Rochelle into this case (A.N., J. 1031/1).

33 Lehoux, F., Jean de France, due de Berry (4 Vols., Paris, 1966–1968), ii, 516Google Scholar; Foedera, viii, 223–4.

34 Nordberg, , Les Ducs et la Royauté, p. 120Google Scholar.

35 Vale, , English Gascony, pp. 46–7Google Scholar.

36 Isabella returned to France in August 1401 (Nordberg, Les Dues et la Royaute, p. 114).

37 A.N., J.656/29. For the aide, see Journal de Nicolas de Baye, ed. Tuetey, A. (2 vols., Paris, 1885–1888), i, 35–6Google Scholar.

38 Nicholson, R., Scotland: The Later Middle Ages (Edinburgh, 1974), p. 248Google Scholar.

39 Roncière, De La, Histoire de la Marine Française, i, 158Google Scholar.

40 A.N., J.645B/36 and 48, passim.

41 P.R.O., E.28/26, unnumbered.

42 P.R.O., E.403/571, m. 27.

43 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1401–05, p. 124.

44 A.N., J.645B/35, passim; Cal. Pal. Rolls, 1401–05, p. 133.

45 Royal and Historical Letters … Henry IV, ed. Hingeston, F. C. (Rolls Series, 1864), i. 262Google Scholar.

46 Royal and Historical Letters, i, 262–3; Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1401–05, p. 133 (Mixto).

47 A.N., J.645B/35, item 59.

48 A.N., J.645B/36, item 17; P.R.O., Early Chancery Proceedings, C. 1/69/267.

49 A.N., J.645B/48, items 2 and 3.

50 Cal. Inquisitions Misc., 1399–1422, p. 106

51 P.R.O., C.47/32/24a.

52 A.N., J.645B/35.

53 Cal. Close Rolls, 1402–05, pp. 57–8;Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1401–05, p. 276.

54 A.D.N., B.546/1509392; P.R.O., C.47/32/24D; Exchequer T.R., Diplomatic Documents, E.30/1280 and 1628. A complete chronological catalogue of Flemish losses in the reign of Henry IV is included in my forthcoming thesis.

55 P.R.O., Ancient Correspondence, S.C. 1/43/131 and 132; Handelingen van de Leden en van de Staten van Vlaanderen, 1384–1405, ed. Prevenier, W. (Brussels, 1959), pp. 236–237Google Scholar.

56 A.D.N., B.546/1509392, item 28; A.N., J.645B/35, item 22.

57 P.R.O., Ancient Petitions, S.C.8/217/10834; E.30/1280.

58 A.N., J.645B/35, item 59; Pistono, , ‘Henry IV and the English Privateers’, 326–327 and sources thereGoogle Scholar.

59 A.D.N., 8.546/1509392, item 25; A.N., J.645B/35, item 78.

60 A.N., J.645B/35, item 28; P.R.O., E.30/1280; S.C.8/217/10834.

61 P.R.O., S.C.8/335/15843.

62 P.R.O., E.30/1280.

63 Instructions to the French ambassadors, 5 July 1402, A.N., J.645A/20, clause 20; Keen, M. H., The Laws of War in the Late Middle Ages (London, 1965), pp. 113–14Google Scholar.

64 A.N., J.645B/48; J.645A/25 and 26 (letters of complaint of the English truce conservators).

65 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1401–05, p. 198; P.R.O., E. 101/43/14 (Account of the clerk of the king's ships); Kingsford, , ‘West Country Piracy’, pp. 82–6 (1403)Google Scholar.

66 Cal. Pat. Rolls 1401–05, pp. 198–9; Cal. Close Rolls, 1402–05, p. 47. The other nine incidents concerning Flemings at the end of 1402 involved nothing more than the bor-rowing of small quantities of wine and fish for the consumption of members of the royal household awaiting the arrival of Henry IV's bride, Joanna, in Brittany (A.D.N., B.546/1509392, items 34–38; P.R.O., Warrants for Issue, E.404/18/298).

67 P.R.O., S.C.8/179/8931.

68 Wilson, , ‘Anglo-French Relations’, pp. 177–229Google Scholar. Saint-Pol had armed two ships to prey on English shipping in early 1403 (A.D.N., B.553/15158, clause 1).