While he was parading to no good end on French soil, the French squadrons were working havoc against us in the Channel. In the spring of 1360, panic reigned at Southampton, Portsmouth, and Sandwich, at each of which places a descent of the enemy was expected. Fleets should have been sent against the foe; but the creation of fleets, and their maintenance, required large sums of money, and Edward had nearly emptied the coffers of the state that he might pay for his continental adventures. All that could be done by way of defensive precaution was to levy troops the threatened points, and to draw ships high up on the shore, in hopes that the enemy, when he came, would overlook them.[1] To such a pass was the power of England reduced.
The French did not strike where they had been expected, but they raided Rye and Hastings, and on Sunday, March 15th, they landed in great force at Winchelsea.[2] Villani says that they had a hundred and twenty ships; Knighton, that they had twenty-nine thousand men. These numbers are probably exaggerated, but the point is immaterial. They made their onslaught while the people were at Mass, spared neither age nor sex, fired the town, committed unspeakable atrocities, and carried away a number of the best-looking women. At length, it is true, they were driven off with a loss of upwards of four hundred men, and thirteen of their vessels were taken by the seamen of the Cinque Ports; but the moral effect of this bloody insult to the coast was nevertheless tremendous, and was remembered for many a year afterwards.[3] So great was the number of slain that Winchelsea churchyard had to be enlarged to receive them, and to this day the road on that side is known as Dead Man's Lane.
On the very day of the landing, which must have occurred early in the morning, the news reached the council, which was sitting at Reading. Something had to be done at all cost. At once every large ship and barge fit for war was ordered to be impressed; such English shipping as was in Flanders was sent for,[4] and on March 26th, the regular admirals, Morley and Bryan, being apparently in attendance on the king in France, Sir John Paveley, Prior of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in England, was appointed admiral
