The confiscation of Gascony by Philip VI precipitated the war in 1337. In response, Edward's strategy was for the English in Gascony to hold their position while his army would invade France from the north. The English forces would be supplemented by a grand alliance of continental supporters whom he promised payment of over £200,000, valued at £65,000,000 in 2018. To pay for the war Edward had to raise large amounts of money for his own forces and also his allies on the continent. It was unlikely that the
English parliament could raise the requisite sums quickly, so, in the summer of 1337, a plan was developed to make virtually all of the nation's wool stock available to help finance the war. 30,000 sacks would be sold by the English merchants, and the sum (estimated at £200,000) would be lent to Edward. To pay the fees promised to his allies, Edward was also forced to borrow heavily from the great banking houses of
Bardi and
Peruzzi. Late in 1338, when he had exhausted the funds from the banking houses,
William de la Pole, a wealthy merchant, came to the king's rescue by advancing him £110,000. Much of the money that de la Pole lent was raised from other English merchants. Edward also borrowed money from merchants in the Low Countries, who charged extortionate
rates of interest and demanded more solid guarantees of repayment. In 1340 the
Earls of Derby and
Northampton were held as surety for the repayment of loans. In the summer of 1339, Edward had asked the
Commons for a grant of £300,000. In early 1340 they offered the grant in return for concessions from the king. Edward, delayed by his money-raising efforts, was temporarily unable to proceed with his invasion plans. Meanwhile, the delay in invasion meant that the French government could use its resources elsewhere. In December 1338, Gascony was invaded by the French, who took
Saint-Macaire and
Blaye. The Englishman charged with the defense of Gascony was the
seneschal of Gascony,
Oliver Ingham, who had been in and out of favour with Edward III and his father Edward II. He had proved himself to be an able soldier being a "remarkable improviser". As the English strategy was to invade France from the north, Ingham received neither troops nor funds from England, but had to rely entirely on local resources. These were very scarce, so ultimately his strategy was for the English to wall themselves up in their castles and hold on as best they could. He was able to persuade the
lord of Albret to switch sides from the French in 1339 and with his help conduct a raid into French territory. The English parliament, in February 1339, had called up ships from the various ports around the
English coast to provide for two naval fleets. This had not happened so the French who had hired
galleys and crews from
Genoa were able to strike almost at will upon the English coast.
Portsmouth was raided,
Southampton sacked, and
Guernsey captured. The
French campaign at sea continued in July 1339 when the French fleet set sail for the south coast of England where they intended a great raid on the
Cinque Ports. Their first objective was
Sandwich, in
Kent. However, the Kent
levies were waiting for them in force along the coast so the fleet continued onto
Rye where they landed some men and proceeded to raid the area. However, the English had finally put together two fleets and both of them under
Robert Morley arrived to confront the French. The French, with their Italian mercenaries believing that the English fleet was larger than it actually was, re-embarked in their ships and headed for the
French coast. They escaped into the harbors without there being a naval engagement. In August, the French naval campaign came to an abrupt end when, after quarrelling over pay, the Genoese crews mutinied and taking over their galleys they returned to
Italy. Apart from a few notable exceptions, such as unwalled
Hastings, which was burnt to the ground, the English coastal defenses had been fairly successful against the French raiding. Threatened with the immediate collapse of his plans, Edward desperately needed some positive military results. In September, Edward assembled an army consisting of about 12,000 men in the Low Countries. His army included elements from his various allies.
Cambrai was an ally of the king of France, so, on 20 September, Edward's army marched into the
bishopric. A two-week
siege of Cambrai ensued. The whole area was laid waste but Cambrai was not taken, then on the evening of 9 October, Edward's army gave up and advanced into France proper. While Edward had been besieging Cambrai, the French king had time to call up his army. On Edward's invasion, the French army advanced to Péronne, close to the border. While Edward's army laid waste to a twenty-mile-wide strip of French countryside, plundering and burning hundreds of villages, Philip's army shadowed Edward's army. On 14 October, Edward advanced toward the French army and battle appeared imminent. Edward moved away again plundering more territory. The French continued to shadow the English. Ultimately battle lines were drawn in the province of
Picardy between
La Capelle and
La Flamengrie, both now in the
Vervins arrondissement just inside northern France. With both sides facing each other a battle was expected to take place on 23 October, but nothing happened. At nightfall Edward marched his troops out of France, the French did not pursue Edward, this resulted in the campaign coming to an abrupt end. The Flemish ruler had remained loyal to the French king, consequently, Edward placed an embargo on all English goods to Flanders. In 1337, this precipitated a revolt in Flanders, because of the lack of English wool and food supplies. The leader of the revolt
Jacob van Artevelde arranged for Flemish neutrality, in return for the lifting of the English embargo. By December, the Flemings were ready to formally join the anti-French coalition. The civic authorities of
Ghent,
Ypres, and
Bruges proclaimed Edward King of France. Edward's purpose was to strengthen his alliances with the
Low Countries. His supporters would be able to claim that they were loyal to the "true" king of France and not rebels against Philip. In February 1340, Edward returned to England to try and raise more funds and also deal with political difficulties. English defenses in Gascony had been severely strained for some time, relief came when two of the nobles who supported the French king pursued a family feud against each other rather than fighting the English. The two nobles involved were the
Count of Armagnac and the
Count of Foix. Also, further assistance was provided by the
Albret family, with Bernard-Aiz, Lord of Albret declaring for Edward in 1339. The Albrets held one of the most important lordships in English Gascony and had been
courted by both the English and French crowns. Albret financed Edward's campaign in Gascony and also with his family connections was able to find much-needed additional manpower for Edward's army. In 1340, the French put together an invasion fleet containing French,
Castillian, and Genoese ships. The 400 or so ships were squeezed into the
Zwyn estuary. The English had no purpose-built warships, so had to make do with deep-
draught,
round-hulled merchant ships, known as
cogs, that were converted for naval duties. Edward assembled a combined fleet at Orwell, in Kent and set up his headquarters on the
cog Thomas. Although he knew that the French fleet was a far superior force to his own he sailed with his fleet on 22 June to confront the French fleet a day later. The French fleet assumed a defensive formation off the port of
Sluys, possibly trying to prevent Edward from landing his army. The English fleet apparently tricked the French into believing they were withdrawing. However, when the wind turned in the late afternoon, the English attacked with the wind and sun behind them. Edward sent his ships against the French fleet in units of three, two ships crammed with archers and one full of
men-at-arms. Because the ships of the French fleet were so close together it limited their maneuverability. The English ships with the archers would come alongside a French ship and rain arrows down on its decks, the men-at-arms would then just mop up. The French fleet was almost completely destroyed in what became known as the
Battle of Sluys. England dominated the English Channel for the rest of the war, preventing French
invasions. In spring of 1340, Philip VI had planned to smash the anti-French coalition by attacking Edward III's allies. French forces invaded
Hainaut in May. But when news reached him about the disaster at Sluys, he turned his attention to counter the new threat. Edward III split his army in two. The first, led by Robert of Artois invaded the
province of
Artois. But in
a battle with the garrison of
Saint-Omer 26 June, most of this army was destroyed, and Robert was forced to retreat. On the same day Edward III appeared before the walls of
Tournai. (Although these days it is in
Belgium, then it was one of France's largest cities.)
The siege dragged out, and in September, Philip VI arrived with the main French army. Philip VI again refused to meet the English in battle. Both sides running out of money led to a temporary truce (
Truce of Espléchin, 25 September 1340). Grand alliances could no longer be afforded and some allies could no longer be relied on. The
German princes all backed out of the anti-French alliance, only the
burghers of Flanders remained. In England; opinion was turning against Edward, his gains on the continent had been at a large cost and most of Scotland had been lost. Essentially bankrupt, Edward was forced to cut his losses. Those whose support he could not afford to lose were repaid, others were not. The contemporary
Florentine chronicler
Giovanni Villani suggested that the banks of Bardi and Peruzzi failed because Edward III
defaulted on the loans. Villani was not an independent source, his brother was a member of the Peruzzi company. Villani said that Edward owed the Bardi 900,000 gold
florins (£135,000) and the Peruzzi 600,000 (£90,000). But the Peruzzis' records show that they never had that much capital to lend Edward III. In reality, the English crown had forced the companies to accept a smaller amount of debt and repaid some with cash and others with royal grants of wool, a principal export of the
English economy at the time. Further, at the same time Florence was going through a period of internal disputes and the third largest financial company, the
Acciaiuoli, also went bankrupt, and they did not lend any money to Edward. What loans Edward III did default on are likely only to have contributed to the financial problems in Florence, not caused them. ==Brittany (1341–1345)==