1338 French Raid on Southampton

On 5th October 1338 a French fleet landed several thousand men at Southampton, Hampshire [Map] and assaulting it from both land and sea. The entire town was burned including churches and priories, thousands of pounds worth of goods and shipping back to France: 192 tuns of wine¹, and 270 sarplars and 136 sacks of wool.²

Note 1. a tun of wine holds 252 gallons. 192 tuns = 48,384 gallons.

Note 2. A sarplar of wool is 2,240 lbs, a sack = 224 lbs. 2,240 * 270 = 604,800 lbs, 136 * 224 = 30,464 lbs. Total = 635,264 lbs i.e. 288 tons. The definition of a sarpler is subject to debate; it may be half or a quarter of this number.

Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke [-1360]. Moreover, on Friday after the feast of Saint Michael,¹ fifty galleys, fully loaded with armed men, arrived around the ninth hour at the port of Southampton, and plundered the town, which at that time was unfortified. The locals fled in panic, and the pirates spent the night in the town.

Item, feria VJ proxima post festum sancti Michaelis, quinquaginta galee armatis bene stipate, circa horam nonam, ad portum Hamptonis applicuerunt, et villam, que tunc non fuit armata, depredaverunt; villanis pre vecordia fuge dilapsis, ipsi in villa pernoctarunt.

Note 1. Other sources describe the attack taking place on Monday 5th October 1338. See Murimuth 87, Stow Annales 365, Knighton 2573 and Froissart 74.

Baker's 'feria sexta' appears to mean the same thing: the sixth day after the feast. He would thus place the event on the 5th October, a date followed by others. The son of the king of Sicily, who is here said to have been slain by the undiscriminating rustic, may have been a natural son of Robert of Anjou, king of Naples. As Minot says, p. 8:.

Sum was knokked on the hevyd

That the body thare bilevid;

Sum lay stareand on the sternes,

And sum lay knoked out thaire hernes.

Adam Murimuth Continuation. And on Monday [5th October 1338] after the feast of Saint Michael, fifty galleys, full of armed men, arrived suddenly around the ninth hour (approximately 3 p.m.) at Southampton, and that day they plundered the town, carrying off everything they could to their galleys and ships. They remained in the town for the entire night, having either killed or driven off all who had been in the town. And on the following day, perceiving that the countryside was gathering against them, they set fire to five parts of the town and returned to their galleys.

Et die Lunæ post festum sancti Michaelis venerunt subito l. galeæ, plenæ hominibus armatis quasi hora nona, apud Suthamptonam, et illo die villam deprsedaverunt, et quicquid poterant ad galeas et naves suas portaverunt; et per un totam illam noctem in eadem villa manserunt, fugatis et interfectis omnibus qui in villa fuerunt. Et in crastino, percipientes quod se patria congregavit, posuerunt ignem in quinque locis ejusdem villæ et ad galeas redierunt.

Chronicle of Henry Knighton. [5th October 1338] And so they landed at Southampton and killed all whom they found there, plundered, and hanged many of the town's more noble inhabitants in their own homes. Then, with immense cruelty, they delivered the entire town to the flames of fire all around. But when the local countrymen came running, they boarded their ships and fled to the open sea.

Et sic applicucrunt apud Suthamptoniam et interfecerunt in ea quos repererunt et rapuerunt et plures de nobilioribus villæ in domibus propriis suspenderunt, et in flammam igrtis totam villam in circuitu immani crudelitate deSerunt ; set accurrentibus compatriotis naves ascenderunt et altum mare petierunt.

Annales of England by John Stow. The fourth of October [1338]¹ fiftie gallies, well manned and furnished, came to Southhampton about nine of the clocke, and sacked the towne, the townsmen running away for feare. By the break of the next day they which fled, by helpe of the countrey thereabout, came against the pyrats and fought with them, in the which skirmish were slaine to the number of three hundred pyrates, togither with their captaine, a young souldiour, the king of Sicils sonne. To this young man the French king had given whatsoever he got in the kingdome of England. But he, being beaten downe by a certaine man of the countrey, cryed "Rancon"; notwithstanding, the husbandman laid him on with his clubbe, till he had slaine him, speaking these words : "Yea (quoth he), I know well enough thou art a Francon, and therefore .shalt thou dye," for he understood not his speech, neither had he any skill to take gentlemen prisoners and to keepe them for ransome. Wherefore the residue of those Gennowayes, after they had set the towne a fire and burnt it up quite, fled to their galleyes, and in their flying certaine of them were drowned. And after this the inhabitants of the town compassed it about with a strong and great wall

Note 1. Other sources describe the Raid on Southampton taking place on Monday the 5th of October.

Calendar Fine Rolls 1337-1347. 12th October 1338. Kennington. Commission to John de Scures and Thomas Coudray to keep during pleasure the town of Southampton, which the king has resumed into his hand, against invasions and for the good government thereof, so that answer be made to the king for the issues and all other profits of the town and the liberty thereof which in this case are acknowledged to belong to the king; and order to all arrayers and keepers of the seacoast in those parts and to the sheriff of the county, knights and other men of those parts and the men of Southampton to be intendant to them; and power to the said John and Thomas to take and commit to prison all whom they find rebellious, to be detained until further order; the mayor, bailiffs and men of that town, holding it at fee farm to be kept safely to the king's use, having abandoned it on the coming. of certain aliens in galleys, so that the latter invaded the town, plundered and occupied the same, to the dishonour of the king and realm and to the great peril of the realm, as such enemies will be rendered the bolder for lack of resistance, invading the realm and committing worse or like evils. By K. and the guardian and council.

Calendar Fine Rolls 1337-1347. 10th November 1338. Commission to John de Palton and John de Boklond to keep during Kennington. pleasure the town of Southampton, in lieu of a like commission to John de Scures and Thomas Coudray [p. 97], who have no leisure therefor. By the guardian and council. Order to the said John de Scures and Thomas to deliver the same to them, with the issues received by them.

Close Rolls 1339-41. 22nd March 1339. To the prior of St. Swithin's, Winchester, collector in the diocese of Winchester of the triennial tenth granted by the clergy of the province of Canterbury. Order to permit the rectors of Holy Rood, St. Michael's and All Saints' churches, Southampton, and the prior of St. Denys near Southampton to have respite until St. Peter ad Vincula next for the sums of that tenth due from them since Southampton was burned by the king's enemies, so that in the meantime the council may ordain what is to be done, as the houses and buildings in the said parishes and the churches are burned, and the issues do not now suffice to pay for the maintenance of a priest at any of the churches or the pensions due therefrom or any other charges, and the prior, to whom the churches owe pension (pensionare existunt), has besought the king to order the rectors and himself to be discharged of the said tenth

Close Rolls 1339-41. 15th June 1339. Berkhamstead. To the same. Order to allow to Michael Mynyot, late the king's butler, 192 tuns of wine, as the king lately caused a certain number of tuns of wine to be purveyed by him at Southampton, and part to be laded in ships there to be taken to the king to parts beyond the sea; and afterwards at his suit showing that a quantity of the wine had been plundered and consumed by alien enemies who invaded the town and stayed some time there and that part of the wine remained after the departure of the enemies, and was carried away by the men of the town, the king appointed Edmund de la Beche, the abbot of King's Beaulieu, and Robert Daundele to take an inquisition on the matter by men of co. Southampton, and by the inquisition taken by Edmund and Robert it is found that on Monday after Michaelmas last Michael had 194 tuns of red wine at that town, purveyed for the king's use by Peter Pageham, supplying his place, whereof 152 tuns were loaded in a ship called la Nicholas' of Great Yarmouth, to be taken to the king, and that 42 tuns were in divers houses of the town and that the said wine was plundered by the king's enemies who invaded the town on that day and burned it on the following Tuesday, except two tuns of the wine, which remained in the town after their departure and came into the hands of Robert Rypon, Peter's serjeant; and now Michael has besought the king to order the lost tuns to be allowed to him. By C.

Close Rolls 1339-41. 30th July 1339. Kennington. Memorandum that Nicholas Mundelard, late one of the collectors of custom in the port of Southampton - imprisoned in the Tower of London because he permitted certain wool and other merchandise to be laded in that port without paying custom, to be taken to parts beyond the sea, and he permitted other wool to be so laded and taken, taking part of the custom and concealing a part, and retaining it for his own use, and committed certain other excesses in that office of which he was convicted before Sir William la Zouche, dean of York, then treasurer, and Sir Henry de Ferariis, Sir Geoffrey Lescrop, Sir John de Stonore, Sir Richard de Wylughby and other lieges, deputed to enquire into the premises and determine them came to Westminster on Saturday before the Translation of St. Thomas, being brought before the council, and made fine with the king before the council by £40, by the mainprise of Sir Nicholas de la Beche and Roger Norman of Southampton, to be paid for the works in enclosing the town of Southampton and in wages to the men staying in garrison there, or otherwise at the king's will, to have pardon of the imprisonment and his excesses, and restoring to the king what pertains to him.

Close Rolls 1339-41. 24th October 1339. To the abbot (sic) of St. Swithun's, Winchester, collector in the diocese of Winchester, of the triennial tenth granted by the clergy of the province of Canterbury. Order to permit the rectors of the churches of Holy Rood, St. Michael and All Saints, Southampton, and the prior of St. Denis near Southampton, to whom the churches are pensionary, to have respite until the quinzaine of Michaelmas next for the sums for the said tenth from the time of the burning of those churches and the houses in the parishes thereof by the raid of the king's enemies on Southampton, so that what is necessary to be done in the matter may be ordained in the meantime by the council, as the rectors and prior have besought the king to discharge them of the said tenths, as they have nothing except the oblations brought by the parishioners for the maintenance of the priest of any of those churches, for paying the pensions due thereon and for maintaining other charges. By C.