The Battle of Margate

Tony Dalton
January 24, 2023

Have you ever heard of the naval battle of Margate, where the rewards of this victory were over 2 million gallons of wine!

More interestingly, I believe that it took place by mistake. You see on the 24^th and 25^th March 1387, the English fleet thought they were fighting the might of the French Navy, actually they were fighting a Franco-Castilian-Flemish wine fleet, however, it was still of huge significance in British history.

In the previous year the French, under the instructions of Philip the Bold, the ruler of north France and Flanders, had assembled an army of 30,000 men and a fleet of 1,200 ships ready to invade England. However, in the autumn Philip the Bold suddenly fell ill and the expedition was delayed,

King Richard wanted him out and replaced by someone who was pro-English, because even though the invasion had been delayed, he knew the fleet remained, or so he thought.

Therefore, the King gave Richard, The Earl of Arundel, sixty ships to end the threat.

On 24th March 1387 he sighted 300 French vessels, in fact they were carrying wine from La Rochelle to Sluis in the Flanders. Richard immediately attacked this much larger fleet, which was, of course, was totally unprepared, having neither manpower and armaments.

The battle took place in the Southern North Sea, where the Franco-Castilian-Flemish fleet was defeated, then those ships not sunk were then chased all the way to the port of Sluis, where seven ships were captured, and while the rest were burnt or sunk. The seven captured ships still had thier cargo of win, which was naturally qucikly saved by the Earl, who then followed up by put landing parties ashore to burn and plunder coastal villages.

The campaign succeeded in its aim, it destroyed France’s chance to invade England for at least the next decade. That is why it is such a significate battle.

But, what about the wine you may ask, well, all the barrels were bought to London and sold very cheap, which made the Earl of Arundel an extremely popular Earl!

That is the story of the forgotten Battle of Margate.