The Battle of Sandwich and Eustace the Monk

English Historical Review: v.27 (1912)

Abstract

The battle of Sandwich, 24 August 1217, followed so closely upon the fair of Lincoln, 20 May 1217, that the careful analysis of authorities made some years ago by Professor Tout for the Lincoln contest is, in point of time, almost equally good for the other event. His discussion of the battle of Lincoln itself likewise furnishes an excellent introduction to the battle of Sandwich. Before proceeding directly to the consideration of that topic, however, we may well trace with some care the circumstances of the career of Eustace the Monk, who as Louis’s admiral had seemed endowed with diabolical ingenuity in working havoc among his former friends the English.

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The points of his biography which we shall narrate go far, in our opinion, to indicate the bravery, the readiness of resource, and the other qualities requisite for success in the rough work that fell to the lot of a Channel ‘master-pirate’ of those days. To such a career as this the sanguinary battle of Sandwich brought a fitting close.

The birthplace of Eustace was not far from Boulogne, the Romance tells us at ‘Cors’; and there is a document of 1243 relating to the neighbouring abbey of Samer which mentions a ‘Guillaume le Moine, seigneur de Course’, thus apparently bearing out the tradition of such a family in that vicinity.

The Battle of Sandwich and Eustace the Monk