The Battle of Winchelsea, also known as Les Espagnols sur Mer or "the Spaniards on the Sea", was a naval engagement fought on 29 August 1350 off the south coast of England as part of the Hundred Years War between England and France. England's ability to finance its war against France and supply its territory in Gascony depended almost entirely on seaborne trade, particularly the vast wine trade from Bordeaux, whose customs duties represented by far the largest source of royal income. With the French navy greatly weakened by English action at the Battle of Sluys in 1340 and during the Normandy campaign of 1346, France turned to hired Castilian ships to blockade English Channel ports and strangle this vital commerce. The Castilian fleet of 47 vessels, commanded by Charles de la Cerda, a soldier of fortune from a branch of the Castilian royal family, had been causing havoc since late 1349, capturing English merchant ships laden with Bordeaux wine and murdering their crews by throwing them overboard. Even after a truce was agreed in mid-June 1350 and Philip VI ceased paying them, the Castilians continued their attacks as outright pirates, joined by several hundred Flemish crossbowmen drawn by the prospect of plunder. Their assault on English shipping brought what contemporaries described as panic to English ports, and England arrayed its coastguard for the first time since the Normandy campaign.
Edward III, fully informed by intelligence sources in Flanders of the composition and movements of de la Cerda's fleet, announced his intention of confronting the Castilians on 10 August while at Rotherhithe, ordering the fleet to rendezvous at Sandwich in Kent. On 28 August he sailed from Sandwich with 50 ships, all smaller than the majority of the Castilian vessels and some considerably smaller. Edward himself sailed with the fleet, accompanied by many of the highest nobility of England, including two of his sons, and the ships were well furnished with men-at-arms and archers. By the afternoon of 29 August the English fleet was off Dungeness, where it intercepted the homeward-bound Castilian force.
The battle resulted in a clear English victory. Between 14 and 26 Castilian ships were captured and several more were sunk, while only two English vessels are known to have been lost, though there was a significant loss of life on the English side. Despite this success, the victory brought England only limited relief, as French naval harassment of English trade and ports continued through other means in the months and years that followed.
One of the most striking features of the campaign is the sheer ferocity of Charles de la Cerda's operations before the battle. He had converted his 47 merchantmen into warships by fitting wooden castles, raised fighting platforms, at the bow and stern of each vessel, and erecting crow's nest fighting platforms at the mastheads, giving his fleet a formidable height advantage over English shipping. Despite having been technically dismissed by Philip VI of France when the June 1350 truce specifically named the Castilians and stopped their pay, de la Cerda's men simply continued raiding as pirates, swelling their ranks with several hundred Flemish adventurers motivated entirely by plunder. Edward III then chose to meet this larger, better-armed fleet with 50 ships all smaller than most of the Castilian vessels, sailing in person alongside two of his sons and the flower of English nobility, in a deliberate and personal confrontation on the open sea.
Several Castilian ships sunk; significant English loss of life recorded; precise casualty figures not recorded
English: 50 ships commanded by King Edward III. Castilian: 47 ships commanded by Charles de la Cerda.
Pick any location and Aubrey pulls together everything the record actually holds about it:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in the UK — drawing on Domesday records, scheduled monuments, Victorian OS maps, geological data and archaeological archives to tell the full story of a place.