chains, had been disposed of, Sir Philip d'Albini dispatched to the king an account of the victory. Why the report was not made by De Burgh is not easly explained. Besides Robert de Courtenay, William de Baris, Ralph de Tornellis, and other persons of distinction, the English captured, in the battle of the South Foreland, one hundred and twenty-five knights, and upwards of a thousand soldiers of inferior rank.[1] It is to be supposed that the number of French slain or drowned was a least twice as great. Some French knights, rather than be taken, leapt into the sea. The English loss is unknown; but it is nowhere suggested that it was very considerable.
The 24th of August, 1217, saw the first great naval victory gained at sea by an inferior English force over a superior French one; and the date deserves to be remembered, for the victory was decisive, and it ended the war. Louis retired, and a treaty of peace[2] with France was concluded in less than a month from the day of the action. The treaty did not contain any stipulation on the subject, but it appears certain that Louis gave a personal undertaking that, when he should come to the throne of France, he would restore to England all the continental provinces which had belonged to John.[3] The fulfilment of this undertaking was often urged in later years, but never granted.
In 1218, as again in 1227 and other years, English nobles took part in Crusades to the Holy Land, but as no naval operations of importance were performed by them, only the mere fact requires mention here.
The peace concluded with France in 1217 was a very precarious one. There were apparently apprehensions that it would be broken in 1221, for on March 6th of that year the barons of the Cinque Ports were ordered to guard the coasts so strictly that no one who was likely to injure king or realm could land or embark.[4] And in July, 1222, galleys were directed to be stationed in every port in Ireland, for the defence of that country.[5] But not until Louis the Lion succeeded his father Philip Augustus in July, 1223, was the peace actually broken. Louis was then called upon to fulfil his
- ↑ Mailros (Gale), ii. 193; Lanercost Chron., 24. There is a metrical account of the battle in 'Eustace le Moigne' (Michell), 82. In Cott. MSS. Nero, D., V. f. 214, there is a picture, wholly imaginative, of the action.
- ↑ 'Fœdera,' i. 108.
- ↑ Lingard, iii. 104.
- ↑ Pat. Rolls, 5 Hen III. m. 6.
- ↑ Ib., 6 Hen. III. m. 2.
