Battle of Sandwich (1217)
Depiction of the naval battle of Sandwich from the Chronica majora of Matthew Paris, 13th century.
| date | August 24, 1217 |
|---|---|
| place | before Sandwich / Kent |
| output | Royal victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
barons loyal to the king |
French knight |
| Commander | |
|
|
|
| Troop strength | |
| approx. 80 ships | |
The Battle of Sandwich was a 13th century military clash between English and French ships on the English Channel . It took place on August 24, 1217 off the coast of County Kent near the town of Sandwich not far from the Isle of Thanet . It occurred as part of the First Baron's War, which was held in England .
background
On June 15, 1215, King John of England was forced by a fronde consisting of twenty-five powerful English barons in Runnymede to sign the Magna Charta . In it the barons were guaranteed far-reaching freedoms and political say on the part of the English crown. But King John then sought, with papal support, a revision of the Magna Charta , which led him into a civil war against his barons. The barons went so far as to declare the kingdom of John ended and instead to invite the French Crown Prince Louis VIII to become the new King of England. Prince Ludwig was married to Blanka of Castile , who was a niece of Johann and thus could assert claims to the English throne.
Prince Ludwig landed on the coast of England in 1216 with an army of French knights and entered London unhindered , where he received the oath of allegiance from the barons in St. Paul's Cathedral, although there was no coronation on this occasion. In the weeks that followed, Ludwig subjugated most of the English east, and his triumphant advance seemed unstoppable. But then King John died on October 26, 1216 in his hiding place in Newark, which led to a decisive change in the situation. Because the famous knight William Marshal , who was one of the last faithful to Johanns, immediately let his underage son, Heinrich III. to be crowned the new king. The present papal legate presented Henry III. under the protection of the Roman Church and pronounced the excommunication on the rebellious barons and Prince Ludwig. Several supporters of the prince then switched to the side of Henry III. because their opposition was primarily directed against the person of Johann, and the new child king turned out to be a more favorable alternative to Prince Ludwig for them. The Pope's support for Henry III. was justified in preventing the threatened unification of England with France and thus preventing the formation of a superior power in Western Europe, which could also be dangerous for the Church.
In order to force the decision in the battle for England, Prince Ludwig decided in spring 1217 to split his army. While he himself wanted to take the strategically important seaport of Dover , Count Thomas von Le Perche was to move with the other part to the north. Because Heinrich III. was under the protection of the Pope, Louis VIII could not expect any support for his ambitions from his father, King Philip II August , which is why he led his commitment primarily at his own expense and efforts.
The battle
On May 20 and 21, 1217, the Count of Perche was defeated by the supporters of Henry III at the Battle of Lincoln . Prince Ludwig then broke off the siege of Dover on May 25 and withdrew to London. In order to gain time, he started negotiations with his opponents through the mediation of a papal legate. During this time his wife gathered a new army in Calais to support him, which was to be transported across the canal to London on about eighty ships of the pirate Eustache le Moine (the monk).
William Marshal, the victor of Lincoln and regent of the underage Henry III, reached the coastal town of Sandwich on August 24, 1217, before the French had reached the mouth of the Thames . He entrusted the command of the hastily constricted intercepting fleet to Hubert de Burgh , the defender of Dover. In order to be able to take full advantage of the wind, the English ships had to bypass the French fleet and attack them in their rear, which they also used to block the escape routes back to France for the enemy. The disadvantage was that because of the speed associated with the wind, the English ships had to hit the interception points to the French ships exactly if they didn't want to drift past them. Especially the small, light and therefore more agile transport ships of the surprised French were able to take advantage of this to be able to get back to the safe French coast, even against the wind. The larger ships, however, which were loaded with siege equipment, horses and heavy armor, could not escape the English and had to face the battle. Eustache le Moine also had the sails of these ships hauled in so that they would not interfere with the upcoming boarding battle.
The English concentrated their main forces entirely on the flagship of the French, which, manned by only thirty-six knights, could not long withstand the superior force. The main French military leaders were captured. Eustache le Moine was immediately beheaded for his past raids on England's coast.
consequences
News of the defeat reached Prince Ludwig in London on August 26th, and two days later William Marshal blocked all access routes to the city. Inferior to the military and isolated from any support, Ludwig had to give up. On September 11, 1217, in the Peace of Lambeth , he accepted his renunciation of the claim to the throne of England, in return was acquitted of excommunication and reimbursed for his expenses. The page of King Henry III. additionally confirmed the validity of the provisions of the Magna Charta as a condition for the return of the rebel barons under the sovereignty of the young Plantagenet king. Together with this, Prince Ludwig swore the treaty on September 20 and three days later left England for good.
literature
- Henry L. Cannon: The Battle of Sandwich and Eustace the monk. In: English Historical Review 27. Longman, London 1912.
- David A. Carpenter: The minority of Henry III. University of California Press, Los Angeles 1990, ISBN 0-520-07239-1 .
- David Crouch: William Marshal. Knighthood, war and chivalry, 1147-1219. Pearson Education, Harlow 2002, ISBN 0-582-77222-2 .
swell
- Roger von Wendover , Flores Historiarum , ed. by JA Giles: Roger of Wendower's Flowers of History (1849), Vol. 2, pp. 398-400
- Matthäus Paris , Chronica Majora , ed. by Henry Richards Luard in: Rolls Series 57 (1876), Vol. 3, pp. 26-29
Coordinates: 51 ° 16 ′ 13 ″ N , 1 ° 25 ′ 12 ″ E