PREFACE.

XXXVII

gagement by sea in which any king of England had been per-sonally engaged. It appears also to have been one of the mostdesperate, and the first regular action recorded in history. TheEnglish fleet, consisting of two hundred and sixty sail of shipsof war, was commanded by king Edward the Third in per-son : the fleet of the French amounted to four hundred sail, ofwhich one hundred and twenty were very large vessels. Theaction was long, desperate, and bloody. As a prelude to vic-tory, the Great Christopher, formerly taken from the English,was retaken by them, and towards the evening many others. Asnight came on, several endeavoured to save themselves by flight.In one of which, (the James of Dieppe) taken by the earl ofHuntingdon, after being engaged the whole night, four hundredpersons w r ere found killed *. Numbers of the French threwthemselves into the sea, seeking refuge, in vain, from the swordsof their enemies, and preferring to encounter a certain and instantdeath, rather than risk a casual one from the hands of the English.In fine, upwards of two hundred of their ships w'ere taken, and'thirty thousand of their men, with their admiral Bahuchet killedor drowned. De Kernel, their other admiral, was taken pri-soner, and Edward the Third, as he was the first English mo-narch who had ever fought on an element new to Englishixvyalty, had the honour of obtaining a victory, than which nonewas ever more complete and decisive. It appears, that the navesrostrata, or gallies, became now r disused, except in the Mediter-ranean.

1342 Edward the Third sent a fleet under lord Walter de Munny, to theassistance of John de Mountford, duke of Bretagne. He raisedthe siege of Ilennebon, and took several ships from the French.

* A certain proof of its considerable size.

A second;