at least two of their best ships were sunk; but the result was glorious and decisive. The only Englishman of rank reported to have been killed was Sir John (or Sir Richard) Goldesborough. Among other distinguished persons who, in addition to some already mentioned, took part in the fight, were Richard, Lord Scrope of Bolton, Sir William and Sir Henry Scrope, Sir John Boyville, Sir Stephen Hales, Sir Robert Conyers, and Sir Thomas Banestre, the last, in consequence of the service, receiving a pardon for a homicide which he was alleged to have committed previously.
At night the English fleet anchored at Rye and Winchelsea, and the king, the Prince of Wales, and the Earl of Richmond returned to the queen, who had remained in a state of great anxiety in an abbey about six miles from the shore.[1]
Such was the Battle of Winchelsea, or, as it has been more generally called, "L'Espagnols sur Mer." If the English fleet was numerically the larger, the Spanish ships were the more formidable as regards both size and complements, so that, upon the whole, the victors had no material advantage in their favour. Yet they crushingly asserted their superiority over a gallant foe whom they then encountered for the first time in a general action. The presence of the king and the two princes, and of a very considerable body of the higher nobility of the realm, added special brilliancy to the affair, and seems to have inspired the English participants to the display of more than ordinary valour; yet Nicolas was the first of British naval historians to pay much attention to it, and many a history of England that has pretentions to a character for seriousness and accuracy does not mention it at all. Indeed, it may rank as one of the many almost forgotten glories of a race whose later triumphs have made its memory shorter than it should he. It gained, however, for Edward III. the appellations of "Avenger of the Merchants," and "King of the Sea."[2]
Soon after the battle, the king sent word to Bayonne that the remnants of the Spanish squadron were at sea, and desired his subjects there to disregard the truce, and to despatch a force against the enemy. Again, in October, a special convoy was provided for ships going to Gascony for wine, it being supposed that they might he intercepted by the fugitives.[3] But it appears that the enemy
