Genoese galleys, also escaped;[1] but, with these exceptions, the fleet of France was almost entirely taken or destroyed. The fourth division was pursued by a detached force, said to have been commanded by John Crabbe; but, though losing heavily, it beat off its assailants, and even took or destroyed two of them, one being a ship containing the king's wardrobe, and the other a vessel belonging to Hull. Part, however, of the force, stated at twenty-four ships, which thus temporarily got away, was captured a few days after the battle, so that the catastrophe was as nearly as possible complete. The action lasted for ten or twelve hours, and in that time the French and their allies lost about twenty-five thousand,[2] and the English about four thousand men.[3] Hugues Quiéret appears to have fallen;[4] Béhuchet was taken, and, perhaps in revenge for the atrocities which he had committed on the coasts of England, was killed, and hanged to the mast of one of his own ships.[5] The only person of importance killed on the English side was Sir Thomas de Monthermer, first cousin to the king.[6] All authorities agree that the battle was one of the most bloody and desperate on record.
It is interesting to note the names of some of the nobles and others who, by their conduct on June 24th, 1340, contributed to the gaining of this great victory. Among them are Henry, Earl of Lancaster (then Earl of Derby), Lawrence, Earl of Pembroke, Richard, Earl of Arundel, Humphrey, Earl of Hereford and Essex, William, Earl of Huntingdon, Hugh, Earl of Gloucester, Sir Robert Morley (Lord Morley), Reginald, Lord Cobham, Henry, Lord Percy, Roger, Lord de la Warr, Sir John Beauchamp, Sir Richard Stafford, Sir Walter Manny, Sir John Chandos, Sir William Felton, Sir Thomas Bradeston, Sir William Trussell, Robert, Count of Artois, Henry of Flanders, and probably Henry, Lord Ferrers of Groby. For conspicuous valour during the battle, a young esquire, Nele Loring, afterwards K.G.[7] received his knighthood. Loring
- ↑ Hemingford, ii. 321. From what Knighton says, more than half these may have been barges, and only twenty-three galleys or ships.
- ↑ Knighton, 2578; but Avesbury and others say 30,000.
- ↑ Ann. Rer. Fland., 141.
- ↑ Cont. of De Nangis says that Quiéret was taken.
- ↑ Ib., iii. 102: but, according to Knighton, 2578, he was killed in the fight.
- ↑ Hemingford, ii. 321. Sir Thomas was son of Ralph de Monthermer, Earl of Gloucester and Hereford, by Joan, daughter of Edward I.
- ↑ He was one of the Knights Founders of the Order, and was an ancestor of Lady Jane Grey, de facto Queen of England.
