Chronicle and Romance | Page 3

anchor six days. In that space the king had other counsel by
the means of sir Godfrey Harcourt: he counselled the king not to go
into Gascoyne, but rather to set aland in Normandy, and said to the
king: 'Sir, the country of Normandy is one of the plenteous countries of
the world: sir, on jeopardy of my head, if ye will land there, there is
none that shall resist you; the people of Normandy have not been used
to the war, and all the knights and squires of the country are now at the
siege before Aiguillon with the duke. And, sir, there ye shall find great
towns that be not walled, whereby your men shall have such winning,
that they shall be the better thereby twenty year after; and, sir, ye may
follow with your army till ye come to Caen in Normandy: sir, I require
you to believe me in this voyage,'
The king, who was as then but in the flower of his youth, desiring
nothing so much as to have deeds of arms, inclined greatly to the
saying of the lord Harcourt, whom he called cousin. Then he
commanded the mariners to set their course to Normandy, and he took
into his ship the token of the admiral the earl of Warwick, and said now
he would be admiral for that viage, and so sailed on before as
governour of that navy, and they had wind at will. Then the king
arrived in the isle of Cotentin, at a port called Hogue Saint-Vaast.[4]
[4] Saint-Vaast-de la Hogue.
Tidings anon spread abroad how the Englishmen were aland: the towns
of Cotentin sent word thereof to Paris to king Philip. He had well heard
before how the king of England was on the sea with a great army, but
he wist not what way he would draw, other into Normandy, Bretayne or
Gascoyne. As soon as he knew that the king of England was aland in
Normandy, he sent his constable the earl of Guines, and the earl of
Tancarville, who were but newly come to him from his son from the
siege at Alguillon, to the town of Caen, commanding them to keep that
town against the Englishmen. They said they would do their best: they
departed from Paris with a good number of men of war, and daily there
came more to them by the way, and so came to the town of Caen,
where they were received with great joy of men of the town and of the
country thereabout, that were drawn thither for surety. These lords took

heed for the provision of the town, the which as then was not walled.
The king thus was arrived at the port Hogue Saint-Vaast near to
Saint-Saviour the Viscount[5] the right heritage to the lord Godfrey of
Harcourt, who as then was there with the king of England.
[5] Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte.

HOW THE KING OF ENGLAND RODE IN THREE BATTLES
THROUGH NORMANDY
When the king of England arrived in the Hogue Saint-Vaast, the king
issued out of his ship, and the first foot that he set on the ground, he fell
so rudely, that the blood brast out of his nose. The knights that were
about him took him up and said: 'Sir, for God's sake enter again into
your ship, and come not aland this day, for this is but an evil sign for
us.' Then the king answered quickly and said: 'Wherefore? This is a
good token for me, for the land desireth to have me.' Of the which
answer all his men were right joyful. So that day and night the king
lodged on the sands, and in the meantime discharged the ships of their
horses and other baggages: there the king made two marshals of his
host, the one the lord Godfrey of Harcourt and the other the earl of
Warwick, and the earl of Arundel constable. And he ordained that the
earl of Huntingdon should keep the fleet of ships with a hundred men
of arms and four hundred archers: and also he ordained three battles,
one to go on his right hand, closing to the sea-side, and the other on his
left hand, and the king himself in the midst, and every night to lodge all
in one field.
Thus they set forth as they were ordained, and they that went by the sea
took all the ships that they found in their ways: and so long they went
forth, what by sea and what by land, that they came to a good port and
to a good town called Barfleur, the which incontinent was won, for they
within gave up for fear of death. Howbeit, for all that, the town was
robbed, and much gold and silver there found,