0 and used
till about 1405. From the tomb of Edward III.]

9. =Battle of Sluys. 1340.=--Edward had not yet learnt to place
confidence in those English archers who had served him so well at
Halidon Hill. In =1340=, however, he found himself engaged in a
conflict which should have taught him where his true strength lay. The
French navy held the Channel, and had burnt Southampton. The fleet of
the Cinque Ports was no longer sufficient to cope with the enemy.
Edward proudly announced that he, like his progenitors, was the lord
of the English sea on every side, and called out every vessel upon
which he could lay hands. The result was a naval victory at Sluys, in
which well-nigh the whole French fleet was absolutely destroyed. It
was by the English archers that the day was won. So complete was the
victory that no one dared to tell the ill news to Philip, till his
jester called out to him, "What cowards those English are!" "Because,"
he explained, "they did not dare to leap into the sea as our brave
Frenchmen did."

10. =Attacks on the West of France. 1341--1345.=--If Edward was to
obtain still greater success, he had but to fight with a national
force behind him on land as he had fought at sea; but he was slow to
learn the lesson. Personally he was as chivalrous as Philip, and
thought that far more could be done by the charge of knights on
horseback than by the cloth-yard shafts of the English bowmen. For six
more years he frittered away his strength. There was a disputed
succession in Brittany, and one of the claimants, John of Montfort,
ranged himself on the side of the English. There was fighting in
Brittany and fighting on the borders of Edward's lands in Aquitaine,
but up to the end of =1345= there was no decisive result on either
side. In Scotland, too, things had been going so badly for Edward that
in =1341= David Bruce had been able to return, and was now again
ruling over his own people.

11. =The Campaign of Crecy. 1346.=--Surprising as Edward's neglect to
force on a battle in France appears to us, it must be remembered that
in those days it was far more difficult to bring on an engagement than
it is in the present day. Fortified towns and castles were then almost
impregnable, except when they were starved out; and it was therefore
seldom necessary for a commander--on other grounds unwilling to
fight--to risk a battle in order to save an important post from
capture. Edward, however, does not appear to have thoug