England Expects: The Battle of Sluys

Few battles actually change history — but Sluys is one of them.
The Battle of Sluys was fought in 1340 and was one of the opening battles of what came to be called the Hundred Years War.
The strained relationship between medieval France and England intensified in the lead-up to Sluys. After Charles IV, the last son of French king Philip IV, died intestate in 1328, English King, Edward III had the strongest claim to the French throne, as Charles IV’s daughter Isabella had married his father, Edward II.
But the French were not willing to accept his claim, and this became the catalyst for the Hundred Years War, which lead directly to the Battle of Sluys.
It was a battle that the French should have won, but due to a grave error of judgement on their commanders’ parts they lost disastrously.
While other battles of the period — Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt, the great victories of King Edward III, the Black Prince and King Henry V — have retained their fame, not so many have heard of Sluys.
Yet had the result there gone the other way, and it easily could have, England would have been invaded and conquered, the war would have ended and we would now be part of France.
But what turned the tide for the English army?
And how could things have turned out differently if France had been victorious?
Major Gordon Corrigan examines the lead up to, and results of, this important battle in his concise history.
Praise for Gordon Corrigan:
‘Political, fluent, well-researched and extremely argumentative’ – Andrew Roberts.
'Meticulously researched and well-written' - Pennant
Major Gordon Corrigan is a retired Gurkha officer, a member of the British Commission for Military History and Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society. Fluent in the Nepali language, he is now a freelance military historian and battlefield lecturer. He is a well known figure on the History channel. He is also the author of Sepoys in the Trenches,, Loos: 1915, Douglas Haig: Defeat Into Victory , General Pershing: Winning At All Costs and Wellington: A Military Life.