secure the safety of the sea. Not content with this, the Commons desired to withdraw what they had previously granted; but the king declared that he himself, with the advice of his Council and the admirals, would provide for the keeping of the sea, and would see that the whole of the grant should be applied for that object.[1]
In January, 1384, a provisional truce was concluded with France; but it was quickly broken by a barge of Dieppe which captured a ship belonging to York off Great Yarmouth, and, apparently, also by a French attempt upon the Isle of Wight. In April, the Mayor of Southampton was ordered to seize the French craft in his port by way of reprisals for the first-mentioned breach of the convention.[2]
In January, 1384, there was an impressment of ships for an expedition to Portugal, and Portuguese vessels, seamen, and goods in English ports were arrested. Sir Thomas Percy was in the same month appointed to the Northern, and Sir John Radyngton, Prior of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, to the Western fleet.[3]
The year was a critical one for England. Charles VI. of France, advised by Jean de Vienne, assembled at Sluis a fleet of six hundred sail and an immense army for the invasion of England.[4] Richard, conscious of his weakness, attempted to negotiate, and in March secured a partial truce for two months; but the delay benefited him but little, and enabled Charles to complete his preparations. Nor did the truce cover operations by sea.[5] The English admirals more than once sighted the French fleets in the Channel, but, deterred either by fear or by internal dissensions, dared not attack them. Some private ships of Portsmouth and Dartmouth, however, set an example to the navy by entering the Seine and taking four and sinking four French vessels which they found there,[6] and at length some rather spiritless efforts against the French at Sluis were made, but without important results.[7]
The scheme of the enemy involved the dispatch to Scotland of
