On the EDGE OF HISTORY

Local historian and author Duncan Cameron details the forgotten French bid to seize the English throne – with Sussex on the front line

- Duncan Cameron

The Sussex coast today conjures up images of peaceful towns with Victorian railway stations, trendy resorts, picturesque villages, a national park and a heritage coastline.

But the term “Cinque Port” reminds us that in the Middle Ages towns such as Hastings and Seaford were locations of real strategic importance. Much later, of course, the Battle of Britain was fought over the south-east of England. Much less familiar is the fact that for several decades during the 14th century Sussex was right on the front line of a long-term French military campaign against England, the English, and, very importantly, against English royalty in the form of King Edward III and his grandson King Richard II.

On more than 50 occasions during these years the French enemy, assisted often by allies from Spain, sometimes by paid support from Genoa and Monaco, landed on English territory ready to do their worst – which included murder, rape, looting, and wholesale destruction of property and even entire settlements by burning. These have often been dismissed as “piracy”, which is quite misleading.

It wasn’t just raids. On maybe eight or nine occasions full-scale invasions of England were planned with the intention of removing English royals and replacing them with a more pro-French leadership. Some of them never had a chance of success. For example, a Franco-Welsh invasion army set out from France bound for a Fishguard landing in December, and did not, unsurprisingly, even manage to get round a gale-swept Land’s End peninsula.

Again and again just across the water from Sussex and its neighbours, French ships, horses, provisions and fighters were gathered ready to cross the narrow seas, disembark and drive out the hated English royals.