There were yet remaining also diuerse other of the French ships (besides those which the Englishmen had sunke and taken) which were drawne vp further into the land ward. The earle of Flanders therefore, and the English capteins iudged, that it should much hinder the French kings attempts, if they might win those ships also with the towne of Dam, wherin the king had laid vp a great part of his prouision for the furniture of his warres. Héerevpon the Englishmen were set on land, and ioining with the earls power, they marched strait towards Dam. This was vpon Whitsun éeuen, on the which day, as they were most busie in assaulting the towne and ships which laie there in the hauen, the French king being come awaie from Gaunt, suddenlie set vpon them, and though in the beginning he found sharpe resistance, yet in the end, the Englishmen and Flemings ouerset with the great multitude of the Frenchmen, were put to flight, and chased to their ships, with the losse of two thousand men, besides those that were taken prisoners, amongst the which were found to be 22 knights.
The French king burneth his ships.
The earle of Flanders with the earles of Bullen and Salisburie, doubting to lose their ships, and late gotten bootie, sailed strait into one of the Iles of Zeland called Walkeren. Then the French king constraining them of Gaunt, Bruges, and Ypres, to deliuer vnto him pledges, caused the towne of Dam, and his ships lieng there in the hauen to be burned, doubting least they should come into the hands of his enimies. This doone, he returned into France, leauing his sonne Lewes and the earle of S. Paule in garrison at Lisle and Doway, and for great sums of monie, which by agréement he receiued of the townes of Gaunt, Bruges, and Ypres, he restored vnto them their pledges. Thus saith Meire: and Matthew Paris differeth not much from him touching the successe which chanced to the Englishmen by land. ¶ Héere will I staie a while in the further narration of this matter, and touch by the way a thing that happened to king John about this present time.
An hermit named Peter of Pontfret, or Wakefield as some writers haue.
Sée M. Fox, tome first, pag. 331.
There was in this season an heremit, whose name was Peter, dwelling about Yorke, a man in great reputation with the common people, bicause that either inspired with some spirit of prophesie as the people beléeued, or else hauing some notable skill in art magike, he was accustomed to tell what should follow after. And for so much as oftentimes his saiengs prooued true, great credit was giuen to him as to a verie prophet: which was no good consequence that therefore his predictions comprised vndoubted euents. Naie rather, sith in this pseudoprophet or false foreteller of afterclaps, these necessarie concurrents (namelie,
Si sensus atq; affectus compresserit omnes,
Si spernens prorsus mortalia gaudia, sese
Abdicet a curis terrenis, assiduóq;
Conetur studio ad superos extollere mentem,
Tunc etenim sapiens fiet, poterítq; futura
Cernere, vel vigilans vel somno oppressus inerti,
Hoc pacto cecinêre olim ventura prophetæ)
The heremit and his sonne hanged.
were wanting, and that he was contrarilie qualified to that which this heptastichon comprehendeth, necessarilie it foloweth, that he was not as he was taken, but rather a deluder of the people, and an instrument of satan raised vp for the inlargement of his kingdome: as the sequele of this discourse importeth. This Peter about the first of Januarie last past, had told the king, that at the feast of the Ascension it should come to passe, that he should be cast out of his kingdome. And (whether, to the intent that his words should be the better beléeued, or whether vpon too much trust of his owne cunning) he offered himselfe to suffer death for it, if his prophesie prooued not true. Herevpon being committed to prison within the castell of Corf, when the day by him prefixed came, without any other notable damage vnto king John, he was by the kings commandement drawne from the said castell, vnto the towne of Warham, & there hanged, togither with his sonne.
The people much blamed king John, for this extreame dealing, bicause that the heremit was supposed to be a man of great vertue, and his sonne nothing guiltie of the offense committed by his father (if any were) against the king. Moreouer, some thought, that he had much wrong to die, bicause the matter fell out euen as he had prophesied: for the day before the Ascension day, king John had resigned the superioritie of his kingdome (as they tooke the matter) vnto the pope, and had doone to him homage, so that he was no absolute king indéed, as authors affirme. One cause, and that not the least which mooued king John the sooner to agrée with the pope, rose through the words of the said heremit, that did put such a feare of some great mishap in his hart, which should grow through the disloialtie of his people, that it made him yéeld the sooner. But to the matter againe.