The Battle of Damme

Not much of a fair fight this one. In 1213 an English fleet of 500 ships, carrying about 700 knights, retainers and a sizable force of mercenaries arrived in the joint Zwyn estuary of the rivers Rey and Lieve in modern Belgium. Here they found the French invasion fleet of King Philip II of France and attacked it. In the lead up to the attack, Philip had been preparing to invade England and the news of this had reached the English. William de Longspee (Longsword) was sent by King John to assist Count Ferrand of Flanders and stop the invasion and upon his arrival in the estuary he found the entire French invasion fleet of 1,700 ships, lightly guarded and heavily laden. In one of those cruel twists of fate that have protected the Britannic islands for almost a thousand years, Philip was absent. Having left his invasion fleet for the time being he was busy punishing Ferrand for his refusal to join in a league with him against England and generally pillaging the neighbourhood. Initially the French army, having marched into Bruges, offered Ferrand terms and Ferrand accepted, but once the moneys had been paid, the French broke the deal and attacked anyway.

When Longsword’s fleet arrived in the Zwyn estuary they immediately attacked the French ships and took 300 of them in prizes and sank a further 100.
The ships of this time were probably a mixture of styles that defy accurate description. Most were probably cogs or something similar. Northern cogs were clinker built which limited the size a ship could be built and remain watertight and they would have been, mostly, smaller vessels, with a single mast bearing a square sail and probably with a large crows nest that could be used as a firing platform for a crossbow or two. Illustrations from the period indicate that these ships were armoured fore and aft with highly decorated ‘castles’, which were mounted as high as possible in order to get a height advantage over other ships. Whether or not the decorations shown in illustrations are actual shields hanging from the side of the ‘castles’ or are a fixed detail is not certain, but it seems that each ship displayed the heraldry of the knights aboard.

The English could have withdrawn, victorious at this point, but carried on the wings of success they sent their prizes home and remained and the next day they attacked the French again. Thus far the English had taken the ships moored in the estuary, but a good proportion of the French fleet was moored in the harbour at Damme and Longsword ordered his smaller boats in to grapple with the French. The English attacked those ships that were farthest from the town and which were pretty well guarded. Once the English had engaged them, the French put up solid resistance. They also called upon their foraging forces to return and assist the fleet and soon the English found themselves paying a heavy price for the French ships. Longsword had kept back reserves of his forces however and he landed these on either side of the harbour to catch the French in an out flanking move. After a bitter fight, the surviving Frenchmen surrendered.

Now Longsword turned his attention on to the ships in the inner harbour at Bruges. These were protected by the town itself and the considerable French force garrisoned there. As the remains of the captured French shipping was torched the English were joined by Count Ferrand and his forces. Together the two sides launched an assault on the town but now the French were better prepared and the return of King Philip tipped the scales against the English and Flemish troops who were now forced to retreat after losing over 2,000 men. Longsword returned to England, where he was covered in glory and praise. The return of so many prizes was considered the greatest influx of treasure in England since the days of King Arthur!
So angered by the loss of his invasion fleet was King Philip that he torched the town of Bruges in his wrath.

William de Longspée. 3rd Earl of Salisbury is an atypical English noble of the period in that he seems to have remaind loyal to King John when all others weren’t. As such he held numerous official positions in John’s court over the years, including Warden of the Welsh Marches, Warden of the Cinque Ports (Hastings, New Romney, Hythe, Dover, and Sandwich.), Sheriff of Wilshire, Lieutenant of Gascony and Constable of Dover. Judging by these titles he was no stranger to martime warfare, nor even land based combat as prior to leading the fleet at Damme, he had been a commander in the king's Welsh and Irish expeditions of 1210-12.
The battle of Damme, which is sometimes considered Englands first great maritime victory, is his most famous acheivement, but his military adventures on the continent carried on as the year after Damme he was sent to assist the Holy Roman Emporer, Otto IV in an attempted invasion of France. Alas for Longsword he was captured by the French whilst leading the right flank at the Battle of Bouvines.

Eventually he was released. In those days captured enemy nobility were almost always assured of a safe return home if they could afford to pay a ransom. Upon his return he found England in turmoil. The nobility were tired of King John and after Magna Carta they rebelled. Longsword stayed loyal to John until the French Prince Louis (later King Louis VIII) landed as an ally of the rebels at which point he surrendered to the inevitable. Henry III, despite his youth, was crowned King of England and Longsword swore allegience to him. For a while Longsword served in the young kings government but eventually he found his way back to the European main land, fighting to secure Englands possesions. This was the last chapter of his life. Upon his return to England he died, possibly poisoned and was buried at Salisbury Cathedral. There is a macabre epilogue to Longswords story: 500 years after his death his tomb was opened (for what ever reason) and the well preserved body of a rat was discovered inside Longswords skull.