1340-1349 Plague and Crecy

On 24 Jun 1340 King Edward III of England (age 27) attacked the French fleet at anchor during the Battle of Sluys capturing more than 200 ships, killing around 18000 French. The English force included John Beauchamp 1st Baron Beauchamp Warwick (age 24), William Bohun 1st Earl of Northampton (age 30), Henry Scrope 1st Baron Scrope of Masham (age 27), William Latimer 4th Baron Latimer of Corby (age 10), John Lisle 2nd Baron Lisle (age 22), Ralph Stafford 1st Earl Stafford (age 38), Henry of Grosmont 1st Duke Lancaster (age 30), Walter Manny 1st Baron Manny (age 30), Hugh Despencer 1st Baron Despencer (age 32) and Richard Pembridge (age 20).

Thomas Monthermer 2nd Baron Monthermer (age 38) died from wounds. His daughter Margaret succeeded 3rd Baroness Monthermer.

Froissart Book 1 Chapter 41. [24 Jun 1340] This battle of which I speak to you was very fierce and most horrible, for battles and assaults at sea are harsher and more difficult than on land; for there one cannot retreat nor flee, but must sell oneself dearly and fight, and await one's fate, and each person must show his courage and prowess wherever he stands.

On 30 Sep 1342 Edward Despencer (age 32) was killed during the Siege of Vannes.

On 30 Sep 1342 the French army attacked the English besiegers of Morlaix forcing the English to retreat to the nearby woods. William Bohun 1st Earl of Northampton (age 32) commanded, John de Vere 7th Earl of Oxford (age 30) and Hugh Despencer 1st Baron Despencer (age 34) fought.

On 23 Apr 1344. The date somewhat unclear; it may have been before. King Edward III of England (age 31) formed the Order of the Garter. The first reliable record occurs in autumn of 1348 when the King's wardrobe account shows Garter habits being issued. The Order may have been formed before then with some traditions such as the mantle, and the garter and motto, possibly being introduced later. The Garter refers to an event at Wark Castle, Northumberland [Map] at which King Edward III of England picked up the Countess of Salisbury's fallen garter and saying to the crowd "Honi soit qui mal y pense" ie Shame on him who thinks badly of it, or possibly, he brings shame on himself who thinks badly of it. The Countess of Salisbury could refer to his future daughter-in-law Joan "Fair Maid of Kent" Princess Wales (age 15) or her former mother-in-law Catherine Grandison Countess of Salisbury (age 40). The event has also been described as taking place at Calais [Map].

Catherine Grandison Countess of Salisbury: Around 1304 she was born to William Grandison 1st Baron Grandison and Sibylla Tregoz Baroness Grandison at Ashford, Herefordshire. Around 1320 William Montagu 1st Earl Salisbury and she were married. She by marriage Baroness Montagu. On 23 Nov 1349 Catherine Grandison Countess of Salisbury died at Bisham Abbey [Map].

Around 25 Aug 1345 Henry of Grosmont 1st Duke Lancaster (age 35) commanded the English forces at Bergerac, Dordogne during the Battle of Bergerac. The English army including Walter Manny 1st Baron Manny (age 35) won a decisive victory over the French with Henri Montigny captured.

After 22 Sep 1345 Henry Plantagenet 3rd Earl of Leicester 3rd Earl Lancaster (deceased) was buried at Church of the Annunciation of our Lady of the Newark [Map], or possibly the Hospital Chapel, at a ceremony attended by King Edward III of England (age 32) and his wife Philippa of Hainault Queen Consort England (age 31). His son Henry of Grosmont 1st Duke Lancaster (age 35) subsequently moved had his remains moved to St Mary de Castro Leicester, Leicestershire [Map].

On 21 Oct 1345 Henry of Grosmont 1st Duke Lancaster (age 35) commanded an English army including Walter Manny 1st Baron Manny (age 35) at Auberoche, Perigueux during the Battle of Auberoche. The battle was a significant victory for the English with the French forces being heavily defeated. The ransoms alone made a fortune for many of the soldiers in Derby's army, as well as Derby himself, who was said to have made at least £50,000 from the day's captives, and sealed his reputation as 'one of the best warriors in the world'.

On 12 Jul 1346 King Edward III of England (age 33) landed at La Hogue [Map] with army of around 10,000 men including John Lisle 2nd Baron Lisle (age 28).

On 26 Jul 1346 the English army attacked and took Caen [Map] killing around 5000 French soldiers and militia. Otho Holland (age 30) fought.

On 03 Sep 1346 King Edward III of England (age 33) commenced the Siege of Calais. It lasted eleven months with Calais eventually surrendering on 03 Aug 1347.

In or after 03 Sep 1346 John Savile of Shelley and Golcar (age 21) took part in the Siege of Calais.

On 17 Oct 1346 at the Battle of Neville's Cross at Neville's Cross, Durham [Map] the English inflicted a heavy defeat on the Scottish army that had invaded England in compliance with their treaty with the French for mutual support against England.

The English army included: William Deincourt 1st Baron Deincourt (age 45), Henry Scrope 1st Baron Scrope of Masham (age 34), Ralph Hastings (age 55), Ralph Neville 2nd Baron Neville of Raby (age 55), Archbishop William Zouche, Henry Percy 10th and 2nd Baron Percy (age 45) and John Mowbray 3rd Baron Mowbray (age 35).

Of the Scottish army King David II of Scotland (age 22), John Graham Earl Menteith (age 56) and William "Flower of Chivalry and Knight Liddesdale" Douglas 1st Earl Atholl (age 46) were captured and imprisoned in the Tower of London [Map].

Neil Bruce, John Randolph 3rd Earl of Moray (age 40), David Hay 6th Baron Erroll (age 28) and Edward Keith of Sinton (age 66) were killed.

John of Fordun's Chronicle. 165. Battle of Durham fought.

In the month of October 1346 [17 Oct 1346], David, king of Scotland, gathered his army together, and marched, in great force, into England. On the 17th of October, a battle was fought at Durham, with the English, and King David was defeated and taken prisoner; while all his nobles were taken with him, or killed — except Patrick of Dunbar, Earl of March, and Robert, steward of Scotland, who took to flight, and got away unhurt. Together with the king, were there taken the Earl of Fife; Malcolm Flemyng, Earl of Wigtown; the Earl of Menteith, who was afterwards drawn by horses in England, and was put to death, racked with divers tortures; William of Douglas; and many other barons, nobles, valiant knights, and picked squires. The killed were John of Randolph, Earl of Moray (age 40); the Earl of Stratherne; the constable of Scotland; the marshal of Scotland; the chamberlain of Scotland; and numberless other barons, knights, squires, and good men. The same year, just after the aforesaid battle, the castles of Roxburgh and Hermitage (near Castleton) were surrendered to the English; and Lothian was consumed by fire.

On 09 Apr 1347 Edward "Black Prince" (age 16) attended a Tournament at Lichfield. John Lisle 2nd Baron Lisle (age 28), Hugh Courtenay 10th Earl Devon (age 43) (or possibly his son also Hugh Courtenay (age 20) ) and Robert Ferrers 3rd Baron Ferrers of Chartley (age 38) took part in the Tournament.

On 20 Jun 1347 Charles "Saint" Chatillon Duke Brittany (age 28) was captured by Thomas Dagworth 1st Baron Dagworth (age 71) at La Roche Derrien during the Battle of La Roche Derrien.

On 03 Aug 1347 the English captured Calais [Map] providing England with a French port for the next two hundred years. Thomas Beauchamp 11th Earl Warwick (age 34) commanded, John Lisle 2nd Baron Lisle (age 29), Richard Vache and Henry of Grosmont 1st Duke Lancaster (age 37) fought during the year long siege.

In Jun 1348 the 1348-1350 Black Death Plague Outbreak arrived in England. The first of many occurrences. It is estimated to have killed between 25 to 60 percent of the population of around six million. The outbreak lasted through 1349 recurring in 1362, 1369 and regularly thereafter until its last significant outbreak in The Great Plague of 1666.

On 11 Sep 1349 Bonne Luxemburg Queen Consort France (age 34) died of plague in Maubisson, Pontoise.

In 1348 John Savoy (age 10) died of plague during the 1348-1350 Black Death Plague Outbreak.

In 1348 John Barcelona (age 31) died of plague.

On 06 Jun 1349 William Harcourt (age 49) died of plague at Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire [Map].

On 20 Sep 1349 Archbishop Simon Islip was elected Archbishop of Canterbury. His two predecessors Archbishop Thomas Bradwardine (deceased) and Archbishop John de Ufford having died of plague in quick succession during the 1348-1350 Black Death Plague Outbreak.

Before 21 Sep 1349 Hugh Fitzhugh Fitzhenry (age 15) died. Possibly by plague given the 1348-1350 Black Death Plague Outbreak occurring at this time.

On 29 Sep 1349 Margaret Wake Countess Kent (age 52) died of plague. Her son John (age 19) succeeded 4th Baron Wake of Liddell and inherited her dower lands and the estates she had inherited from her brother Thomas Wake 2nd Baron Wake of Liddell.

On 26 Mar 1350 Alfonso "Avenger" XI King Castile (age 38) died of plague. His son Peter (age 15) succeeded I King Castile.

John of Fordun's Chronicle. 167. Pestilence among men.

In the year 1350, there was, in the kingdom of Scotland, so great a pestilence and plague among men (which also prevailed for a great many years before and after, in divers parts of the world — nay, all over the whole earth), as, from the beginning of the world even unto modern times, had never been heard of by man, nor is found in books, for the enlightenment of those who come after. For, to such a pitch did that plague wreck its cruel spite, that nearly a third of mankind were thereby made to pay the debt of nature. Moreover, by God's will, this evil led to a strange and unwonted kind of death, insomuch that the flesh of the sick was somehow puffed out and swollen, and they dragged out their earthly life for barely two days. Now this everywhere attacked especially the meaner sort and common people; — seldom the magnates. Men shrank from it so much that, through fear of contagion, sons, fleeing as from the face of leprosy or from an adder, durst not go and see their parents in the throes of death.

In 1349 Parlament enacted the Ordinance of Labourers in response to the shortage of labour caused by the 1348 Black Death Plague Outbreak. The Ordinance introduced

• a requirement for everyone under 60 to work,
• wages to remain a pre-plague level,
• food must be reasonably priced, and
• no-one, under the pain of imprisonment, was to give any thing to able-bodied beggars 'under the color of pity or alms'.

In 1349 King Edward III of England (age 36) created new Garter Knights:

26th William Fitzwarin (age 32). The date may be earlier.

27th. Robert Ufford (age 50).

28th William Bohun 1st Earl of Northampton (age 39).