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{{Redirect|Battle of Sluis|other meanings|Siege of Sluis (disambiguation){{!}}Siege of Sluis}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2018}}
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{{Campaignbox Hundred Years' War}}
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The '''Battle of Sluys''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|l|ɔɪ|z}}; {{IPA
Edward sailed from the [[River Orwell]] on 22 June and encountered the French blocking his way to Sluys harbour. The French had bound their ships into three lines, forming large floating fighting platforms. The English fleet spent some time manoeuvring to gain the advantage of wind and tide. During this delay the French ships were driven to the east of their starting positions and became entangled with each other. Béhuchet and Quiéret ordered the ships to be separated and the fleet attempted to move back to the west, against the wind and the tide. While the French were in this disorganised state, the English attacked.
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In March 1338, the English town of [[Portsmouth]] was captured and razed by French galleys. Five English ships carrying wool were captured off [[Walcheren]] in September after a fierce fight known as the [[Battle of Arnemuiden]]. The lost ships included two of Edward's three warships: the [[Christopher (Medieval ship)|''Christopher'']] and the "great cog" ''[[Cog Edward]]''. In October the major port of [[Southampton]] was captured and burnt down. The following year it was the turn of [[Hastings]].{{sfn|Rodger|2004|pp=96–97}}
In 1339, there had been discontent among the Genoese mercenaries hired by the French, whose commander had not been passing on their pay. Believing the fault lay with their French paymasters, a deputation sought an audience with the French king in August. The deputation was jailed, causing the Genoese crews to mutiny and return to the Mediterranean.{{sfn|Sumption|1990|p=265}} When the mutinous sailors arrived back
The loss of their galleys reduced the threat posed by the French to the English south coast and freed the English ships for offensive operations. During the winter and the spring of 1340, the French ports of [[Dieppe]], [[Le Treport]] and [[Mers-les-Bains|Mers]] were successfully raided. The French fell back on the English expedient of requisitioning merchant ships. Philip ordered the collection of 200 ships, mostly [[Normandy|Norman]], into a "Great Army of the Sea".{{sfn|Sumption|1990|pp=321–322}} Contemporary French documents record the fleet's size as 202 vessels: 6 galleys, 7 royal warships, 22 oared barges and 167 merchant vessels. The crew complement was over 19,000, but they only included 150 [[men-at-arms]] and 500 [[crossbow]]men.{{sfn|Sumption|1990|p=323}} It was commanded by the Breton knight [[Hugues Quiéret]], the [[Admiral of France]], and [[Nicolas Béhuchet]], the [[Grand Constable of France]], the senior figure in the French military hierarchy. The six galleys were commanded by [[Pietro Barbavera]], who had learnt his trade in the Mediterranean as a [[Privateer|corsair]].{{sfn|Rose|1998|p=24}}{{sfn|Dickie|Dougherty|Jestice|Jörgensen|2009|p=64}}{{sfn|Rodger|1999|p=99}}
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Edward sent his ships against the French fleet in units of three, two ships carrying archers flanking one with men-at-arms. The English ships with the archers would approach a French ship and loose arrows at a rate of more than ten per minute from each archer onto its decks; the men-at-arms would then board and take the vessel.{{sfn|Rose|1998|p=24}}{{sfn|Prestwich|2007|pp=311–312}}{{sfn|Neillands|2001|pp=83–84}}{{sfn|Hardy|2010|p=68}} The modern historians Jonathan Sumption and Robert Hardy separately state that the English archers, with their longbows, had a rate of fire two or three times greater than the French [[crossbowmen]] and significantly outranged them:{{sfn|Sumption|1990|p=532}} Hardy reckons the longbows had an effective range of {{convert|300|yd|m|abbr=off}} compared with {{convert|200|yd|m|abbr=off}} for the crossbows.{{sfn|Hardy|1999|pp=161, 180}}
The battle resembled a land engagement at sea. Two opposing ships would be lashed together and the men-at-arms would then engage in hand-to-hand fighting while supporting troops
Late at night the French rear line attempted to break out. Apart from the galleys only 17 other French ships escaped.{{sfn|Rodger|2004|p=99}} The English captured 166 French merchant ships. The remaining 24 ships of the French fleet were sunk or burnt.{{sfn|Cushway|2011|p=98}} Few, if any, prisoners were taken and the water was thick with blood and corpses. French losses were between 16,000 and 20,000 killed,{{sfn|Rodger|2004|p=99}}{{sfn|Davies|2014|p=420}} a high proportion of these by drowning. The two French commanders were both captured and Béhuchet was hanged from the mast of his own ship, while Quiéret was beheaded, in vengeance for the massacre they had overseen at Arnemuiden two years earlier and for their raids on the English coast. Frenchmen who managed to swim ashore were clubbed to death by Flemish spectators. Only four English knights were killed, along with a larger number of other English combatants;{{sfn|Hattendorf|Navy Records Society (Great Britain)|1993|p=22}}{{sfn|Hannay|1911|p=246}} chroniclers of the time estimated 400–600.{{sfn|Cushway|2011|p=99}} The English joked that if the fish in Sluys harbour could speak, it would be in French, from the feast of French bodies they had dined on.{{sfn|Prestwich|2007|p=312}} For days the tides washed up bodies.{{sfn|Sumption|1990|p=327}} Edward was wounded in the thigh by either an arrow or a crossbow bolt.{{sfn|Hannay|1911|p=246}} Sumption summarises: "The French had suffered a naval catastrophe on a scale unequalled until modern times".{{sfn|Sumption|1990|p=327}}
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