THE LOGISTICS FOR EDWARD I'S ILL-FATED CAMPAIGN IN FLANDERS (1297-1298) by Bryce and Mary ( t) Lyon Edward I ascended the throne of England on 23 November 1272, the day when Edmund, king of the East Angles (855 to 20 November 870) achieved his martyrdom. Consequently each regnal year of Edward began on 20 November and ended on 19 November the following year. It was in his twenty-fifth regnal year (20 November 1296 to 19 November 1297) that Edward made preparations for his campaign to be launched from the county of Flanders against Philip the Fair of France and that he, his household staff, and army were in Flanders during the autumn of 1297 and winter of 1298. The military strategy of Edward copied that of his grandfather John who had planned a two-front offensive against Philip Augustus, one from Gascony in southwestern France and the other from Flanders. John's strategic plan had ended in failure, with the defeat of his allied Low Country and German forces at Bouvines in 1214. Despite his alliance with Count Guy de Dampierre of Flanders and pledge of military assistance against Philip the Fair, Edward was slow in fulfilling his promise because of English baronial resistance to foreign military service and exorbitant taxes and the time needed in assembling a force, ships for trans­ portation, and supplies. Edward and his force transported by a total of 273 ships from Sandwich and Wynchelsea finally sailed on 24 August 1297, the destination being the Zwyn estuary. But it was too late to reverse previous Flemish defeats by Philip the Fair. Edward, therefore, arranged a truce with Philip the Fair on 9 October at St. Baafs Vijve that was extended into 1298. In January Philip and Edward parleyed at Tournai and agreed to a final peace treaty concluded at Montreuil-sur-Mer on 27 July 1298. Guy and Flanders had been abandoned by Edward and were at the mercy of Philip who planned to incorporate Flanders into his realm. Only the striking Flemish victory at Courtrai in 1302 preserved the independence of Flanders. With nothing accomplished, Edward and his force embarked at Sluis in the middle of March 77 BRYCE AND MARY (t) LYON and returned to Sandwich. Unencumbered with supplies taken to Flanders, a fleet of only 100 ships was required for the transportation back to England.l The ill-conceived alliance between Edward and Guy de Dampierre with its unfortunate political consequences for Guy has received considerable schol­ arly attention by Belgian and French historians. Most British historians, how­ ever, have paid slight attention to Edward's campaign, treating it primarily as a major cause of the constitutional confrontation between Edward and a majority of his barons. In 1297 because of his heavy military commitments, Edward was compelled for the fourth consecutive year to demand a high tax on personal property. Most of the barons and numerous prelates opposed this tax and demonstrated in force. With Edward already enroute to Flanders, his son and chief officials summoned the barons, prelates, and knights from the shires to discuss a solution. An agreement was reached for a lighter tax in return for the royal confirmation of Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forest. Known as the Confirmation of the Charters, it stipulated in its most enduring clause that henceforth Edward would levy no tax without the consent of those taxed. This agreement was confmned by Edward on 5 November at Ghent. 2 Some of the earliest Belgian historians to discuss the Flemish campaign of Edward I were E. Varenbergh, Histoire des relations diplomatiques entre le comte de Flandre et l'Angleterre au moyen age, Brussels, 1874; Kervyn de Lettenhove, Histoire de Flandre, Bruges, 1853, Vol. I, and "Comptes de l'expedition d'Edouard 1er en Flandre", Bulletin de La Commission Royale d'Histoire, Xlll, 1872, pp. 185-198. See also H. Pirenne, Histoire de Belgique, 5th ed., Brussels, 1929, I, 365 ff.; Algemene Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, ed. H. Van Werveke et al., Antwerp, 1950, Vol. II; J. De Studer, Les relations politiques et les echanges commerciaux entre le duche de Brabant et l'Angleterre au moyen age, Paris, 1936, and "Deux comptes 'enroles' de Robert de Segre, receveur et agent payeur d'Edouard Jer, roi d' Angleterre, aux Pays­ Bas (1294-1296)," Bul. Com. Roy. Hist., CXXV, 1960, pp. 561-612. For some of the French historians see F. Funck-Brentano, "Documents pour servir a l'histoire des rela­ tions de la France avec l' Angleterre et l' Allemagne sous le regne de Philippe le Bel," Revue Historique, XXXIX, 1889, pp. 326-348, and Philippe le Bel en Flandre, Paris, 1897; J. Favier, Philippe le Bel, Paris, 1978. For a different view of Philip the Fair see J.R. Strayer, The Reign of Philip the Fair, Princeton, 1980. For other pertinent works see G. Barraclough, "Edward I and Adolf of Nassau," Cambridge Historical Journal, VI, 1940, pp. 225-262; F. Bock, "Englands Beziehungen zum Reich unter Adolf von Nassau," Mitteilungen des Osterreichischen Instituts for Geschichtsforschung, Erg.­ Band XII, 1932; and F. Trautz, Die Konige von England und das Reich, 1272-1377, Heidelberg, 1961. For a royal clerk's sketch of Edward I and Philip the Fair talking at Tournai which is depicted on the Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer, Memoranda Roll 69, membrane 54 in the Public Record Office (Document E.368/69 M54) see B. Lyon, "What Made a Medieval King Constitutional?" in Essays in Medieval History Presented to Bertie Wilkinson, Toronto, 1969, pp. 157-175. 2 One British historian who has not slighted Edward's Flemish campaign is M.C. Prestich whose studies are most valuable for the campaign and also for the con­ stitutional crisis of 1297. Among them are War, Politics and Finance Under Edward /, Totowa, N.J., 1972, Documents Illustrating the Crisis of 1297-98 in England, in Camden Fourth Series of Royal Historical Society, London, 1980, Vol. 24, Edward /, Berkeley, 1988 (especially chap. 15, pp. 376-400), English Politics in the Thirteenth Century, London, 1990, and The Three Edwards: War and State in England, 1272- 1377, New York, 1980. See also F.M. Powicke, The Thirteenth Century, 1216-1307, 2d. ed., Oxford, 1962. 78 THE LOGISTICS FOR EDWARD I'S ILL-FATED With this background let us now see what the wardrobe book for the twenty­ fifth regnal year of Edward tells us about his preparations for the campaign, the transportation across the North Sea, the payments to various fighters and sailors, the preparations for Edward's stay in Ghent, and the provisions for food and wine and their storage. The shear bulk of this record makes it almost certain that it will never be completely edited and published. Larger even than the wardrobe book of Edward III (12 July 1338 to 27 May 1340) edited some years ago, it comprises 152 parchment folios recto and verso measuring approximately 13 inches (.325 centimeters) in length and 8 inches (.160 cen­ timeters) in width. It is drawn up in the typical chancery hand of the late thir­ teenth century and filled with numerous abbreviations for Latin words. All dates are in Roman numerals as are the wages, various expenses, and totals of such personnel as soldiers and sailors. 3 This wardrobe book consists of fifteen categories of expenses, receipts, and accounts rendered by various officials: alms and oblations; necessary sundry expenses; expenses for food, provisions, wine, and their storage; fiefs and wages for household knights; wages of bannerets and knights; wages of cross­ bowmen, men-at-arms, and squires; wages of foot soldiers, archers, and labor­ ers; wages of sailors and expenses for the fleet; expenses for messengers; wages and expenses for falconers and hunters; grants of dona; money for the clothes of members of the king's household; jewels bought, received, and given by the wardrobe; jewels received by the wardrobe from divers individ­ uals; and purchases by the great wardrobe. The following is an example of one of the titles for these categories: "Titulus de necessariis diversis emptis et pro- · visis pro rege Edwardo filio regis Henrici liberatis suis vallettis de hospicio suo et aliis et de equis emptis pro ipso rege, diversis officiis hospicii sui ver­ sus partes Flandrie et pro ducissa Brabancie et comitissa Hollandie filiabus regis contra passagium earum versus partes proprias una cum expensis nun­ cio rum sollempnium missorum usque Cameracum et alibi in nuncium regis predicti et una cum vadiis quorundam qui non sunt ad vadia dicti regis in 3 The wardrobe book was formerly in the British Museum and listed as B.M. Add. MS, 7965. Since the reorganization of the British Museum and the Library this record is listed as B.L. Add. MS, 7965. Subsequently this record will be cited as Ward. Bk. Ed. I. For the functions of the wardrobe and its records see T.F. Tout, Chapters in the Administrative History of Mediaeval England, Manchester, 1920-1933, Vols. I-VI; E.B. Fryde, The Book of Prests of the King 's Wardrobe for 1294-5, Oxford, 1962; Charles Johnson, "The System of Account in the Wardrobe of Edward I," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, VI, 1923, pp. 50-72; J.H. Johnson, 'The King's Wardrobe and Household," in J.F. Willard and W.A. Morris, eds., The English Government at Work, 1327-1336, Cambridge, Mass., I, pp. 250-299; M.C. Prestwich, "Exchequer and Wardrobe in the Later Years of Edward 1," Bulletin of the Institute for Historical Research, XLVI, 1973, 1-10; and the Introduction by B. Lyon in B. and Mary Lyon, eds., The Wardrobe Book of William de Norwell (12 July 1338 to 27 May 1340), Brussels, 1983.