PREVIEW： Epochs #197 ｜ Edward III
Episode Stats
Summary
Edward III was an English monarch who came to the throne in the early 16th century and ruled for 50 years. He was a great warrior king, but there were many things wrong with him, including his marriage with Isabella of France, his affair with a French noblewoman and his refusal to pay homage to the King of France. This led to him being deposed by his own wife, and his son becoming King Edward III.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome to another episode of Epochs where I have finished my series all about the
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late Roman Republic and I shall be changing the topic entirely now. I'll be going back to my
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series all about the British monarchy, English monarchy. If you remember back in episode 147
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I'd got up to the age of Edward II so I shall be carrying on from there talking about all about
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Edward III. It's easy to remember if you ever try and commit all the monarchs to memory you've got
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three Edwards in a row. Longshanks, Edward II and then Edward III so three Edwards in a row.
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The grandfather is great, Edward I, Edward II not so great, pretty ignominious actually and then
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Edward III is great again, great in inverted commas. He's got a shout for being perhaps one of the
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greatest English monarchs of all time but some people do pick him as the best English king of
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all time. There's a few up there, depends how you measure it, doesn't it? But he ruled for a very
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long time, 50 odd years. He came to the crown quite young and although he didn't live to be
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spectacularly old, he did have a good innings, fairly good innings for the early middle ages
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and there's lots of martial achievements. He was a great warrior king but there are also some stains
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on his memory as well but he's certainly up there with one of the best, you know, with Edward I or
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Richard or Henry V, one of those guys. He's one of my favourites. I probably won't put him first but
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he's definitely a great story because there's so many events that go on. One thing I would say if
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you've been watching my previous series all about the late Republic and Caesar and Pompey, I went
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into that story in lots and lots and lots of detail. This one I'm going to zoom out a bit and try and do
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the whole of Edward III's life in one episode here. So be zoomed out a bit, so a bit more of a whistle
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stop tour of things. There's a lot going on, many many battles in France and the Black Death and any
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number of things. So let's just kick off the story. I should be mainly reading from a professor, Sir
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Charles Oman, who was a very eminent historian, a late 19th century, early 20th century professor of
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history at All Souls College, Oxford. So sort of a gold standard type historian, long before the age
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of wokeism, so we're free from any of that in his narrative. And I happen to think that the Edward III
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chapter in his book is a particularly good one, covers all the main events. So I'll be reading from
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that. So a bit of a recap then before we just dive in. If you've watched the last one or you know
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anything about Edward II, I'll have to do a small recap on that because the transition between Edward
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II and Edward III was a very, very messy one. Just to recap then very quickly, Edward II had got himself
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deposed by his own wife. He was a very, very unpopular king. He'd had lots of favourites like
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Piers Gaveston and later the Dispensers, father and son, and he had alienated himself from his own
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ruling class, his own baronage, and even his own wife, Isabella of France. In the end, they'd been
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estranged and she'd gone off to France to live in France in the court of her brother, the King of France.
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And Edward II had owed fealty for his holdings in Normandy and Gascony to the King of France.
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And he didn't want to pay that homage in person for political reasons, maybe out of pride as well,
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but more likely actually for political reasons. So he sent his son, his young son, who was only about,
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I think, 13 or 14 at the time, soon to be, in a few years' time, to be King Edward III. He sent his son
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over to France instead to pay fealty to the King of France for the Duchy of Normandy and the Duchy
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of Aquitaine in his stead. But that was a bad move because it then meant that the heir to the throne
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was now in the hands of the French and his mother, Isabella of France, and they weren't going to
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relinquish him. So politically, that was sort of a poor move by Edward II. But Edward II made many,
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many poor moves. Anyway, to cut ahead on this, because we want to talk about Edward III, not
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Edward II. Eventually, Isabella of France, backed up by a legitimate claimant to the throne, i.e. her
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son, Edward III, invades England with her new lover, Mortimer, who was an exiled English knight,
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baron, living in exile in France, because, as I said, Edward II had alienated so many of his own
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ruling class with a lot of other... They had a whole party of anti-Edward II people that they
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invaded England with and took Edward quite easily, in the end, prisoner, forced him to abdicate formally,
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legally, made the 14, 15-year-old Edward III, made him king, coronated him, again, legally, and then
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put Edward II in prison. And then what happened after that, whether he was starved to death or,
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you know, very brutally murdered, some say with a red-hot poker thrust inside of him, or not. That
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story's probably apocryphal, but we don't know. I think serious historians think that he was probably
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actually just starved to death. Anyway, he dies in captivity. Edward II dies in captivity. So now we're
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in a new world where we've got this young king, Edward III, on the throne, but actually he's so young
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that his mother and her lover, her new partner, Mortimer, they're the real power. The cockpit of
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power sits with them. They control all policy. So the boy king is kind of a puppet or a front man
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for their regime. But soon enough, Edward becomes old enough, by the time he's sort of 18 or 19 years
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old, he becomes old enough to sort of take the reins for himself. But as is often the way,
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people don't like giving up power if they don't have to. So he had to sort of wrestle the reins
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of power from his own mother and her lover. So I'll pick up the story there or let Sir Charles
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Oman pick up the story there. So Oman tells us this, quote,
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shameful as the state of the realm had been under the rule of Edward of Carmarthen, that's Edward II,
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and his favourites, a yet more disgraceful depth was reached in the years of minority of his son.
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The young king was only 14 and the government fell into the hands of those who had set him on the
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throne, his mother and her parable, Roger Mortimer. A council headed by Henry, Earl of Lancaster,
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was supposed to guide the king's steps. But as a matter of fact, he was in Queen Isabella's power,
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while she was entirely ruled by Mortimer. They were surrounded by a guard of 180 knights and
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acted as they pleased in all things. It was only gradually that the nation realised the state of
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affairs, for the murder of Edward II was long kept concealed. In fact, there was a persistent
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rumour that he wasn't dead. We'll get to that in a moment. And the relations of the queen and
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Mortimer were not at first generally known, because that also was a bit scandalous. A queen,
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a queen consul, even a widowed queen, shouldn't really marry someone as lowly as Mortimer. Not
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that he was a peasant, far from it. But still, it would have been a bit of a scandal if everyone
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knew about it. The first blow to the new government was the renewal of the Scottish War. So if you
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remember, Edward Longshanks had hammered the Scots here and there, lost a battle here and there,
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but basically sort of hammered them. And as soon as he died, literally as soon as he died,
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he was on campaign when he died against the Scots, Edward II takes over and loses and kind of keeps
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losing to the Scottish. So now all the Scottish question comes up again. So the renewal of the
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Scottish War. In 1328, Robert Bruce broke the truce that he had made six years before. He was now
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growing, advanced in age and was stricken by leprosy. But he sent out under James the Black
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Douglas, a great host, 4,000 knights and squires and 20,000 moss troopers, all horsed on shaggy
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Galloway ponies. They hurried England as far as the T's and successfully eluded Mortimer, who went
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out against them, taking the young king with him. In fact, this was quite a disastrous military
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campaign, really quite badly. Edward III is known as a great military king, again, among the greatest
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ones, like Richard or Henry V. But this early one, he wasn't really in command. I mean, nominally,
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he would have been, but he wasn't sort of the battlefield general. And it's one of the few times
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where he got into a really sticky situation. Omar doesn't tell us about it in fantastic detail. But
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at one point, the Scottish armies sort of got into his camp and even cut down some of the guide ropes to
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the king's tent. So about as close as you can get to being captured or possibly killed without being
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captured or killed. So really quite bad. Humiliating, really. But I'll let Omar continue here saying,
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Outmarching the English day by day, Douglas, that is the Black Douglas, the leader of the Scots,
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Douglas retired before them across the Northumbrian fells, occasionally harassing his pursuers by night
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attacks. He returned home with much plunder, leaving not a cow unlifted, nor a house unburnt
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in all of Tyndale. The English host came back foiled and half starved, and Mortimer, not daring
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to face another campaign, advised the queen to make terms with the Scots. Accordingly, the shameful
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peace was signed at Northampton, by which England resigned all claims of suzerainty over the Scotch
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realm, sent back the crown and royal jewels, which Edward I had carried off to London, and gave the
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king's sister, Joanna, to be wed to Bruce's eldest son. And all of that was in 1328. So pretty bad,
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really. You know, one of the lowest ebbs in this period of the Middle Ages in relations between
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England and Scotland, as far as England is concerned. This is a very low ebb, basically beaten in the field,
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soundly by the Scottish, and forced to sign a pretty humiliating treaty, giving up more or less
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everything that Edward I, the hammer of the Scots, had won. You know, just giving up any claim of
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suzerainty over the, i.e. lordship, over the Scottish crown. I mean, there you go, right there.
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That's the whole, that's the whole ballgame, the whole kit and caboodle, as far as the English
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monarchy was concerned. But it shan't last for too much longer. Oman continues, Mortimer's failure led to
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insurrections against him. So in the early medieval period, if you lose on the battlefield, your whole
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political position is undermined. It's like God has abandoned you. God doesn't want you to be
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successful. So Mortimer's failure was pretty bad. But they were mere baronial risings, not efforts of
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the whole people. Henry of Lancaster, who headed the first, was put down, the first of these risings,
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was put down and heavily fined for his pains. Edmund, Earl of Kent, then took up the same plan,
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announcing that he would free his half-brother, Edward II, who, as he was persuaded, had still
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survived. See, there was that rumour that Edward II hadn't been murdered, that he was just being
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kept prisoner very quietly somewhere, which wasn't true. But he, this Earl of Kent, Edmund,
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Earl of Kent, but he fell into Mortimer's hands and was beheaded. It was the young king himself who was
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destined to put an end to the misrule of his mother and her minion. When he reached the age of 18,
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and realised the shameful tutelage in which he had been held, he resolved to free himself from it by
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force. While the court lay at Nottingham Castle in October 1330, he gathered a small band of
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trustworthy adherents and, at midnight, entered the Queen's lodgings by a secret stare and seized
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Mortimer in spite of his mother's tears and curses. The favourite was sent before his peers,
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tried and executed. Isabella was relegated to honourable confinement at Castle Rising,
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where she lived for many years later." So that's a big thing there. I told you I'm going to sort of
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whiz through a bit of an overview of all the events, but that's a massive thing there. That's a real game
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changer. So the reins of power have shifted then from Isabella and Roger Mortimer over to Edward III now.
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And so that's a big thing, isn't it? Some people, someone like Henry VI, for example, will talk about,
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or Hamlet, obviously a fictional character, Hamlet, but lots of kings, Henry III, it's a real, real struggle
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for them to sort of take power away from the people or various peoples that held it for them while they
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were young. Well, Edward III is decisive. He does it in one swift movement, rather than the whole process
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being drawn out for years. And they're having to be all sorts of recriminations and factions,
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maybe even a civil war. No, Edward III, just boom, done. He's just taken it for himself. Very decisive
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and clean, right? It's quite a clean cut, clean break. Isabella of France just stowed away in a castle
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somewhere. Just keep quiet for the rest of your life now. And Mortimer himself killed. So, and it sets the tone
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of how Edward III goes on to reign, at least until he's an old man, decisively. An 18, 19-year-old,
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you know, like Alexander, say, who's prepared and capable to rule a kingdom and rule it competently.
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So much more in the mould of his grandfather, Longshanks, than in his father. So let's continue.
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Oman talks about the character of Edward III now. And although I've said a lot of people think he's
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the greatest king, and he's certainly got a shout to be the greatest, he did have some character faults.
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And Oman pulls no punches. So he says this, quote,
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King Edward now himself assumed the reins of government. He was still very young,
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but in the Middle Ages, men ripened quick, even if they did often die early. And Edward,
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at 19, was thought both by others and himself, old enough to take charge of the policy of the realm.
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He was in his youth a very well-served and well-loved sovereign, for he had all the qualities
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that attract popularity. A handsome person, pleasant and affable manners, a fluent tongue,
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and an energy that contrasted most happily with the listless indolence of his miserable father.
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It was many years before the world discovered that he was selfish, thriftless,
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reckless of his country's needs, and set on gratifying his personal ambition and love of warlike feats to
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the sacrifice of every other consideration. He was a knight-errant of the type of Richard
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Cur de Leon, not a statesman and warrior like his grandfather, Edward I. So he's saying he was a great
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knight, he was a great fighter, but he wasn't as much of a statesman. So, you know, fairly big criticism,
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actually, Omar makes that. In his later years, his faculties showed a premature decay. He may have
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suffered from strokes or maybe dementia, we don't know, but we'll get to it. But in his last years,
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there was something wrong for a fair few years of his life, but we'll get to that in due course.
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And he fell into the hands of favourites. This is in the last few years of his life. And he fell into the
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hands of favourites, male and female, who were almost as offensive as the gavistons and dispensers of the
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previous generation. Edward's reign fell into three well-marked periods. The first, 1330-39,
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is that of his Scottish wars. The second, 1339-60, i.e. the vast majority of his reign really,
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is that in which he began the famous and unhappy Hundred Years' War with France, and himself conducted
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it up to the brilliant but unwise piece of Bretigny. The third, 1360-77, was of his declining years,
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in a time of trouble and misgovernment gradually increasing till Edward sank,
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unregretted, into his grave." So there's this idea of the old king, the problem of the old king.
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If a king rules for too long, or rather just lives too long, his own children, they grow up and become
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middle-aged themselves. And if you've got lots and lots of sons, they're totally old enough to start
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squabbling and warring amongst themselves. You may even have a mass of grandchildren who are old
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enough to get involved in politics and fighting and war. And it just brings problems in Middle Ages
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or ancient times, where there's hereditary monarchies. If you've got a very, very old king
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with a bunch of children, which Edward has loads of children, quite a few boys who themselves have
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loads of children, it can cause dynastic problems. But once again, we'll get to that in due course.
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So continuing the narrative about the wars, the interminable wars with the Scots, we're told,
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quote, Robert Bruce, the terror of the English, had died in 1329, leaving his throne to his son,
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David II, a child of five years, five years old. The government fell into the hands of regents,
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who ill supplied the place of the dead king, and their weakness tempted the survivors of the English
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party in Scotland to strike a blow. Edward Balliol, the son of the long-dead John Balliol,
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accordingly made secret offers to Edward III that he would do homage to him for the Scottish crown
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and reign as his vassal. So the idea of Scotland becoming a vassal of the English crown again is back
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on the table. And the old rivalry between the Bruce's and the Balliol's going back to the age of
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Edward Longshanks again, it's sort of all happening again, a whole new tranche, a whole new generation of
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them, but it's the same thing over again. With Edward's connivance, the young Balliol gathered
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together the earls of Buchan and Athol and many other Scottish refugees in England and took ship
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to Scotland. He landed in Fife, was joined by his secret friends, beat the regent, the Earl of Mar,
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and seized the greater part of Scotland. He was crowned at Scone and forced the young David Bruce to flee
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overseas to France to save his life. Of course, the French, the old alliance, the French always would
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help out the Scottish. They've got, of course, they've got a common enemy, the English. So annoying
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from the English point of view that the Scots and the French will team up and help each other out
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wherever possible. Well, in the age of Edward III, that is put to bed for a while. I'll let Oman continue
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here saying, but soon the National Party of Scotland, he's talking about, rose against Balliol, expelled
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him and chased him back to England. Edward then took the field in his favour and met the Scots at
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Hallidon Hill near Berwick. This battle of Hallidon Hill is massive. It's bigger than, more important
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than Bannockburn. It's the most important battle between the Scots and the English, I would say,
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for a good generation. So this is a big one. It's not often known, it's not often talked about,
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rather, but it's a very decisive battle. I mean, it's kind of up there with Cressy or Aginc or,
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you know, very, very important one and not often talked about. Here at Hallidon Hill,
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he inflicted on them a crushing defeat, which the English celebrated as a fair revenge for the blow
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of Bannockburn. For the regent, Archibald Douglas, four earls and many thousand men were left on the
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field, left dead, that is. They fell mainly by the arrows of the English archery,
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for, having drawn themselves out on a hillside behind a marsh, they stood as a broad target for
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the bowmen, whom they were unable to reach. The intervening marshy ground prevented their heavy
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columns of pikemen from advancing, and they were routed without even the chance of coming to hand
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strokes. That was in July 1333. So there you can see this idea that the English bowmen, a lot of them
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Welsh, were able to just rain down arrows on their enemy, usually from a bit of higher ground,
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a hill or a crest, and that that was devastating. Well, this Hallidon Hill is one of the first
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examples of it, and it shan't be the last. For quite a few generations now, the English used exactly
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that tactic to beat armies way bigger than them again and again and again in France and all over
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the place. And it seems that their enemies, the enemies of the English, don't really learn the lesson.
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It takes them a long time to learn the lesson that the English longbow is sort of the most fearsome
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ranged weapon of the age by far. It's so much more powerful than any sort of crossbow or any other
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designs of bow. So yeah, it's first really shown at Hallidon Hill, or it'd been done before Hallidon
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Hill, but this is the first really, really famous example of it. And Edward III is completely in
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control. He's the, you know, he's the undisputed king now, and he gets a reputation after this for
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being, starts to get the reputation for being a great military commander, because it was so decisive.
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And he only keeps burnishing and polishing that reputation as the years go on. We're told, quote,
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this victory made Edward Balliol king of Scotland for a second time. He did homage to his champion,
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Edward III, and ceded to him Tweeddale and Harthlovian. But the crown won by English help
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sat uneasy on Balliol's brow. After several years of spasmodic fighting, he was finally driven out of
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his realm and took refuge again in England. This time he found less help, for Edward III was now plunged
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deep into schemes of another kind, because basically Hallidon Hill was so decisive that
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the Scottish question had been answered for a while from the English point of view. So now Edward can
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turn his attention to affairs on the continent, or in France, basically, which he does. And, you know,
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it isn't really settled finally, one way or another, during his life, even though he's got many decades
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left to rule. We're told this. Nine years of comparative quiet had done much to recover
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England from the misery it had known in the last reign. The baronage and people were serving the
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young king loyally, taxation had not yet been heavy, and the success of Hallidon Hill had restored the
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nation's self-respect. Edward himself was flushed by victory and burning for fresh adventures. Hence it
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came that, neglecting the nearer but less showy task of restoring the English suzerainty over Scotland,
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he turned to wars over sea. One of the usual frontier quarrels between French and Gasconnes
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had broken out in 1337 on the borders of Aquitaine. In consequence, Philip VI of France had, like so many
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of his predecessors, taken measures to support Edward's Scottish enemies, the Old Alliance, and given shelter
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to the exiled boy king, David Bruce. War between England and France was probably inevitable, but
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Edward chose to make it a life and death struggle by laying claim to the throne of France and branding
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Charles VI as a usurper. So, as again, Charles Oman doesn't go into a fantastic amount of details, but
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that area of Gascony and Aquitaine in central southern France, modern-day France, they'd been fighting on and
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off between those people, the native Gasconnes and the king, the king of France, on and off, sort of
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kind of always, it would always been a bit of an issue. Now, it's a power struggle, a real power
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struggle, but Edward III uses, uses that situation to, as a case of Bella, to go to war. It's not like
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suddenly a Philip VI was suddenly much, much more aggressive and bellicose and Edward III is just
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reacting to it. No, not really. You could choose to take offence at something, you know. You can choose
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to turn a blind eye, or not, for political reasons. And anyway, Edward, the young Edward III decides
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that enough is enough, and he's going to go the whole hog. Like Omar says, make it a matter of
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life and death. Edward III basically says, I've had enough of this. I just don't recognise
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your claim to the throne of France, because there had been quite a lot of succession problems with
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France, the Kingdom of France. You could make the argument, if you wanted to, that the current king
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was not necessarily the legitimate king. I mean, it's a bit of a dodgy, shaky argument to be made,
00:24:09.140
but there is one there. And Edward III says, going back generations, that if anything, somebody else
00:24:16.660
should take the throne, this Philip is a usurper. Why not me, i.e. Edward III? Because he was descended
00:24:23.220
in a slightly less direct way to the French throne himself. Like his mother was Isabella of France,
00:24:29.540
for example. So, a princess of France. So, technically, Edward doesn't have the greatest
00:24:34.980
claim, but there is a claim. And anyway, it's more about realpolitik than strict family trees.
00:24:41.380
So, okay, this is what kicks off the Hundred Years' War. Oman tells us about it, saying, quote,
00:24:45.860
The question of the French succession dates from some years back. In 1328, died Edward's uncle,
00:24:52.580
King Charles IV, the last of the direct male descendants of Philip IV. The problem that cropped
00:24:58.660
up for the first time, whether the French crown should descend to females, or whether the next male
00:25:04.020
heir should be chosen, although he was but the cousin of the late king. So, there you go,
00:25:08.420
Edward III was cousin of the old king, but through a woman, i.e. his mother. Which is a pretty damn
00:25:16.020
good claim, but there's a better claim out there, right? But there you go. Professor Sir Charles Oman
00:25:21.380
goes on to say exactly that. The peers of France are judged that by the Salic Law, an old custom
00:25:27.540
ascribed to the ancient Franks, only male descent counted in tracing claims to the throne. Accordingly,
00:25:34.180
they are judged the kingdom to Philip of Valois, who was crowned as Philip VI. Edward, as own nephew
00:25:41.380
through his mother to Charles IV, had protested at the time, but he had practically withdrawn his protest
00:25:48.020
by doing homage to Philip for the Duchy of Aquitaine, and thereby acknowledging the justice of the award.
00:25:54.260
There you can see it's about power dynamics and realpolitik there, rather than true right. Edward
00:26:00.820
had already accepted this Philip as king of France, but now the political and military situation was
00:26:05.860
sort of in his favour, so he's going to go back on that, basically. Now, in 1337, Edward began to
00:26:12.100
think of reviving his dormant pretensions to the French crown, though they had two fatal defects.
00:26:18.340
The first, that there had never been any precedent in France for a claim through the female line.
00:26:24.180
The second was that, even if such dissents could be counted, one of his mother's brothers had left
00:26:30.180
a daughter, the Queen of Nevers, and the son of that princess had a better female claim than Edward
00:26:35.780
himself. The only way in which this defect could be ignored was by pleading, like Bruce in 1292,
00:26:42.900
that England was a generation nearer to the old royal stock than his cousin, Charles, King of Nevers.
00:26:48.660
On this rather futile plea, Edward laid solemn claim to the French crown, and declared Philip of Valois
00:26:55.060
a usurper. Perhaps there may be truth in the story which tells that he did not do so from any strong
00:27:00.900
belief in his own theory, but because the Flemings, vassals to the French crown, had declared that they
00:27:07.300
could not aid him, though willing to do so, on account of oaths of fealty swung to the King of
00:27:13.380
France. So the Flemings, the people from the Low Countries, modern-day Belgium and Southern Holland
00:27:18.660
and stuff, getting involved, they actually play a fairly big part politically in all of this, though
00:27:23.780
Oman doesn't talk about them at great length, but they are a key element in it all. Bear that in mind.
00:27:29.620
If Edward claimed to be King himself, they said, their allegiance and help would be due to him. So
00:27:35.540
hey, without their help, he might not have done this, but they said they would help him, and therefore
00:27:40.180
the whole adventure looks much more likely to succeed, and therefore gets green-lit. Therefore,
00:27:46.340
Edward does actually pull the trigger on it. It may well have been the Flemings' help which decided that
00:27:52.260
decision. Whether the tale be true or not, he at any rate made the claim. In reliance on the assistance of
00:27:58.260
the Flemings and of their neighbours, the Duke of Brabant and the Count of Holland, and with the
00:28:03.700
countenance of the Emperor, Louis of Bavaria, that's the Holy Roman Emperor, King Edward determined
00:28:09.780
to land in the Low Countries and attack France from the north. He called out great bodies of soldiery
00:28:15.540
and took advantage of the devotion that the nation felt for him to raise illegal taxes for their pay.
00:28:22.420
Violating his grandfather's engagements, he took a tallage – a tax – from the towns and levied a
00:28:29.300
maltot, an extra custom duty, on the export of wool. In the excitement of the moment,
00:28:34.900
little opposition was made to these high-handed measures. One thing to note is that Parliament
00:28:40.340
is still very much in its early days at this point, still in the first half of the 14th century.
00:28:47.940
Parliament hasn't got the power that it will have in a couple of hundred years' time, where it can
00:28:52.260
sort of force the King to make concessions. I mean, it can to some extent, but not massively.
00:28:58.180
And in this period, as Oman just told us, public opinion was just with him, which counts for a
00:29:04.260
great deal, or it counts for everything really, in this period. Oman goes on,
00:29:08.180
But Edward's campaign against France proved utterly unsuccessful. His Netherland allies were of
00:29:14.180
little use to him. King Philip refused to risk a battle in the field, and an attack on Cambrai was
00:29:20.180
defeated. One of the main things there is that the King of France, Philip, refused battle. So that's a
00:29:26.340
big thing when you really need a set-piece battle in order for any sort of decisive victory. If the
00:29:31.700
enemy just refused to do that, then you're in a bit of a sticky situation. I mean, you can maybe claim
00:29:37.540
the moral high ground, or claim that your enemy is a coward or something, but if you haven't defeated
00:29:42.660
his armies, because he refuses to let you do so, then you haven't defeated his armies, right? Kind of
00:29:48.820
as simple as that. Edward had to return to England to raise more money, while at home he heard that a
00:29:54.580
great French fleet had been collected for the conquest of Flanders, and a subsequent attack on
00:29:59.940
England. The Royal Navy, there was a very, very minimal Royal Navy at this point. Of course, in
00:30:05.780
centuries to come, the Royal Navy is famous for being gigantic and all-powerful, so not that long
00:30:11.700
ago in the scheme of things, that any sort of navy was put together. So we have got a Royal Navy,
00:30:17.220
but it's far from completely dominant or ruling the waves in any real sense. It's not until Henry VIII,
00:30:23.220
or, well, Elizabeth really, that all that starts to get dialed up in earnest, which is a long way
00:30:30.100
off still. Hastily raising all the ships he could gather from London and the kink ports, the king set
00:30:35.780
sail to seek the enemy. He found them in harbour at the Flemish port of Sloys. I may be pronouncing
00:30:42.420
that wrong. It's spelled S-L-U-Y-S, and I've seen many, many people pronounce that word in many,
00:30:48.740
many, many different ways. If there's anyone from Belgium or Holland who wants to correct me on
00:30:53.700
exactly how that's pronounced, but I think it's Sloys, okay? It's the battle of Sloys. And there
00:30:59.940
brought them to action, i.e. a big naval engagement. If you would like to see the full version of this
00:31:04.340
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