ars of age, an
army which comprised, according to Froissart, seven earls, more than
thirty-five barons, a great number of knights, four thousand men-at-arms,
ten thousand English archers, six thousand Irish, and twelve thousand
Welsh infantry, in all something more than thirty-two thousand men,
troops even more formidable for their discipline and experience of war
than for their numbers. When they were out at sea none knew, not even
the king himself, for what point of the Continent they were to make, for
the south or the north, for Aquitaine or Normandy. "Sir," said Godfrey
d'Harcourt, who had become one of the king's most trusted counsellors,
"the country of Normandy is one of the fattest in the world, and I
promise you, at the risk of my head, that if you put in there you shall
take possession of land at your good pleasure, for the folk there never
were armed, and all the flower of their chivalry is now at Aiguillon with
their duke; for certain, we shall find there gold, silver, victual, and
all other good things in great abundance." Edward adopted this advice;
and on the 12th of July, 1346, his fleet anchored before the peninsula of
Cotentin, at Cape La Hogue. Whilst disembarking, at the very first step
he made on shore, the king fell "so roughly," says Froissart, "that blood
spurted from his nose. 'Sir,' said his knights to him, 'go back to your
ship, and come not now to land, for here is an ill sign for you.' 'Nay,
verily,' quoth the king, full roundly, 'it is a right good sign for me,
since the land doth desire me.'" Caesar did and said much the same on
disembarking in Africa, and William the Conqueror on landing in England.
In spite of contemporary accounts, there is a doubt about the
authenticity of these striking expressions, which become favorites,
and crop up again on all similar occasions.

For a month Edward marched his army over Normandy, "finding on his road,"
says Froissart, "the country fat and plenteous in everything, the garners
full of corn, the houses full of all manner of riches, carriages, wagons
and horses, swine, ewes, wethers, and the finest oxen in the world." He
took and plundered on his way Barfleur, Cherbourg, Valognes, Carentan,
and St. Lo. When, on the 26th of July, he arrived before Caen, "a city
bigger than any in England save London, and full of all kinds of
merchandise, of rich burghers, of noble dames, and of fine churches," the
population attempted to resist. Philip had sen