FOURTEENTH CENTURY
The animosity between the French and English also continued into the 14th Century.

1308 The Ports’ ships conveyed King Edward II and his Court to France for his marriage to French Princess Isabella in Boulogne.

1310 Inquiry into Ports’ piracy against Flanders.

1323 Scottish campaigns ended and France allied with Scotland - balance of power for the Portsmen changed.

1325 Queen and Court carried to France by Portsmen - this actually led to civil war and the murder of King Edward II in 1327.

1329 saw the first of a series of murage grants for the building of walls and a ditch for Rye; with three large gates,- of which the Landgate is the only one left.

As part of The Hundred Years War (1337-1453), many mutual raids involving burning and pillaging took place; the danger of invasion was ever present and the Ports bore brunt of attack. The Portsmen could be relied upon to fight to the death and to massacre the crews of the French ‘quicker than it takes to eat a biscuit’. However, they could not be relied upon to make careful discrimination between friend or foe!

1337-39 French Fleets improved dramatically and now the small ships of the Ports had to be joined by large ships from elsewhere to fight them. The Ports themselves were attacked by the French - this included the following ports of Hastings, Rye, Folkestone, Winchelsea, Dover, Romney and Hythe.

1340 The Portsmen assembled a small fleet of 21 small ships to retaliate, with 9 from the Thames. They beat off French ships attacking Rye and Hastings and chased them to Boulogne causing great damage. 70 more English ships, with King Edward III, then arrived and the main French Fleet was defeated in the Battle of Sluys.
This action began a change in sea warfare tactics, from small raids to large sea battles. The small Ports’ ships with crews of 20/21 men and limited days of Sea Service, became only a part of larger forces in future.

1346 Rye ships ferried over men, horses and supplies for the Battle of Crecy.

1347 The siege of Calais had 700 ships fighting, but only a quarter were Portsmen. The vital role of The Ports’ ships then became surprise raids, repelling and chasing pirates and raiding parties,

1348/9 The Black Death - ‘That time fell great dethe of men in all the worlde wyde’.

1350 Edward III and the Black Prince fought the Spanish in Rye Bay with 50 ‘good ships and pinnaces’ against 40 much larger ones. 14 Spanish ships were sunk and the rest fled. The Queen watched from Udimore.

1350-1356 Seven French raids against Winchelsea.

Many tit for tat raids occurred across the Channel e.g..

1377 Rye destroyed by the French five days after Richard II came to the throne. Only the four stone buildings of the Church, the Monastery, the Rye Castle and the Friars of the Sack, were left standing within the town.

1378 Rye and Winchelsea retaliated and burned French towns. They found the stolen church bells and one of them was not returned to the Church, but erected at the end of Watchbell Street, to be rung in warning if the town was attacked.

1385 Bodiam Castle was built on the Rother as part of the coastal defences.

1394 Rye men involved in transporting King Richard II and his men to Ireland.

1396 Rye men involved in transporting the King and his men to Calais.

FIFTEENTH CENTURY
1405 Rye ships and men went to Wales with Henry IV to help put down the rebellion of Owain Glyndower.
Rye ships continued to carry men, horses, supplies etc. to the English armies fighting on the Continent when the the Hundred Years’ War continued, after Henry V revived it, upon his accession to the throne in 1413.

1415 Rye ships ferried troops and supplies to Agincourt.

1416 Portsmen, including Rye’s, were called out by Henry V to defend Calais. He had made piracy high treason.

1422 They transported Henry V’s body back to England from France.

1449 Tenterden became a Corporate Limb of Rye in the Cinque Ports after years of association.

1453 England lost all its possessions in France, except Calais - the end of ‘The Hundred Years War’.

1453-1558 Rye’s ships continued to provide vital supplies to Calais.

1459 The ‘Wars of the Roses’ began.
Henry VI’s wife, Margaret of Anjou, gained the support of France (and Scotland) for the Red Rose side, and the possibility of invasion was present, until Edward IV secured truces with both countries in 1463.

Edward’s sister Margaret married Charles of Burgundy, who was based in the Low Countries and much trade was secured between the two places - especially for cloth and wool and large quantities went out through Rye. France looked enviously at this trade and there was an uneasy peace along the Channel coast.

The French again supported Margaret when she and Warwick (The Kingmaker, who had changed his allegiance to HenryVI) invaded and took back the throne in 1470. The ‘Readeption’ of Henry VI only lasted a few months, as Burgundy came out on the side of Edward IV of York, and he was back on the throne in 1471.

1475 Edward IV assembled a huge army to invade France – estimated to be 30,000 to join the Duke of Burgundy, 10,000 to go to Normany and 6,000 for Gascony, The Calais contingent actually got to France - they were transported across our coast. The King eventually made a Treaty and got huge pension form the King of France - for not fighting!
Trade then flourished across our coast.