whom they had often met and accompanied during campaigns in Prussia,
Granada and elsewhere.^158 They called down to them imploringly, saying:‘Ah!
In God’s name, sir knights, come up here and save us from those pitiless men
who will kill us, like all the others, if they catch us!’When Sir Thomas heard this
and recognized them he was overjoyed, as were their other former companions.
They climbed up to join them in the gatehouse, and the constable and [the lord of
Tancarville]...surrendered as their prisoners. Sir Thomas and his companions
accepted them most gladly and strove to protect them, and placed strong guards
around them to prevent anyone from doing them harm.
This proved to be a wise precaution. The city was thoroughly sacked
amidst horrific scenes of slaughter, rape and pillage. Indeed, the English
did not even spare the nuns in the Abbaye aux Dames, founded by
William the Conqueror and his queen.^159
It is difficult to overstate the importance of plunder in sustaining the
English war effort. If a soldier was very lucky, it was possible to make
one’s fortune in a single day’s campaigning–and Sir Thomas Holland, at
Caen, is perhaps the supreme example of this. He sold his chief prize, the
constable of France, to King Edward for the enormous sum of 80,000
florins.^160 Thomas was later able to convert much of this into another
form of hard currency: to secure a prestigious marriage to the king’s
young cousin, Joan of Kent.^161 As might have been expected, the sack of
Caen did much to galvanize Philip VI into action. He had little choice,
other than to seek a direct confrontation with Edward III. Although a
number of scholars have claimed that Walter VI took part in this cam-
paign, what little evidence there is suggests that he was serving elsewhere,
perhaps in Aquitaine.^162 The end result of the manoeuvring in northern
France was, of course, the battle of Crécy (26 August 1346), in which
King Philip was fortunate to escape from thefield. By the end of 1347,
however, Edward III could boast a magnificent collection of prisoners
lodged, in honourable captivity, in the Tower of London. These included
not only Raoul and the lord of Tancarville but much more important
figures, such as the French claimant to the duchy of Brittany, and David
II of Scotland.^163 It would seem that, during thefive years that Raoul
spent in custody, his loyal followers back in France did what little they
could to help and support him–such as, for instance, the monks of
(^158) A little chivalric licence seems to have crept in here.
(^159) Adapted fromThe True Chronicles of Jean le Bel, ch. 71.
(^160) Calendar of the Patent Rolls: Edward III, vii, 337, 538–9.
(^161) See esp. Stansfield’s article on Thomas, which can be found in theODNB.
(^162) See M. Livingston and M. Witzel,The Road to Crécy: The English Invasion of France,
1631346 (Harlow, 2005), 31.
See the brief summary in Ormrod,Edward III, 289–90.
The Fall of the House of Eu 175