CINQUE PORTS

The method of fighting at sea in the Middle Ages was much the same as on land, the vessels carrying soldiers armed with bows and arrows. When they were close enough to the enemy, the armoured knights and squires on deck attacked each other over the sides, each trying to board and capture the other's ship.

The ships also acted as transport vessels for the king's armies, and when there wasn't any fighting or patrolling to be done, the Portsmen used their boats for fishing. The last of the Saxon Kings, Harold, knew that William, intended to invade England, and so he concentrated his navy of ships near the Isle of Wight, but the Normans were delayed. After waiting many months, the English sailors dispersed and the Channel was left unprotected and thenWilliam made his crossing in 1066.

Hastings, Romney, Hythe, Dover and Sandwich, are harbours which for nearly a thousand years have been known as the Five Ports, or Cinque Ports.William the Conqueror probably joined the Cinque Ports into a federation, though long before 1155 each harbour had its own separate importance.

CHARTERS

In return for supplying men and ships free for fourteen days in the year, Charters were given to the Ports. The Charters listed things the Cinque Port citizens might do that people in other parts of the country were not allowed to do. For instance, they paid no taxes or tolls anywhere they went in England or Normandy; they paid no Customs duties; Portsmen had the right of den and strond " (dune and shore) at Yarmouth, for drying their fishing-nets. By Charter they also controlled the fish-sales and fishing rights, including those of Yarmouth, which even in those days had become a flourishing herring port - though not one of the important five. The Ports also had their own special flag and horn.

The Portsmen earned these privileges, as each Port had been burnt down by the raiding French more than once, except Dover with its nearly impregnable castle.Edward the Confessor realised how valuable they were, and once the five were linked together they became not only useful but powerful. They grew more powerful still when " Two Ancient Towns." Winchelsea and Rye were added to the original five, and about thirty fishing villages were included in the federation, and these villages were known as " limbs." They worked with the Ports, sharing their responsibilities and privileges.

The Ports provided fifty-seven ships with twenty men in each ship, to defend the south-east coast of England, for fourteen days a year. They did this without pay, but any defensive work they did over the fourteen " free" days was paid for by the king.

The Ports were at the peak of their usefulness during the thirteenth century. King John. (who lost his crown in the Wash,) lost all the Norman dominions except Gascony. This meant the English coast was wide open to attack. King John had infuriated the Barons and Portsmen due to his refusal to accept the new Archbishop whom the Pope had appointed to Canterbury, but in the face of great danger from France, they forgot their quarrel with the King, and mustered their boats and crews. The French King had plans for conquering Flanders (Belgium), and from there invading England. King John however in 1213, sent a fleet of 500 vessels to attack the French fleet at Damme, a small town just south of Bruges. As they drew near the city, the English took to their boats and attacked the enemy ships while they were still at anchor. So many ships were burned by the English, "it seemed as though the sea were ablaze". The French lost 400 vessels, either captured or destroyed. As a result of this success, John awarded himself the title of "Governor of the Seas", and demanded that all foreign ships in the Channel should salute the English flag.

When King John died in 1216, Prince Louis the son of the French King, accepted an invitation to take over the English throne. But other barons supported the nine-year-old King Henry III as the rightful heir to the throne. When he heard about this disagreement, the French King sent a large fleet to his son's aid.

In 1217 Hubert de Burgh, Chief Baron and Constable of Dover Castle, gathered together forty ships from the Cinque Ports in order to fight the French. Before embarking, Hubert told the officer left in charge:

'' If I be taken, I beseech you, in God's name, let them hang me before your eves, rather than give up this key of England to any Frenchman born."

The French fleet of eighty ships was commanded by Eustace the Monk, said to be a magician who could make both himself and his ship invisible. Magic. however, was of no avail. the French fleet was routed, and Eustace beheaded. There was much rejoicing in Dover; Eustace's head was exhibited up and down the country, and Prince Louis went quietly home.

In gratitude, Henry III granted the Cinque Ports further privileges. They, in turn, agreed to supply when necessary 57 ships and 1,200 seamen.

Yarmouth men, jealous of the Portsmen's privileges, so infuriated the men from the Ports that, at Sluys, instead of fighting the mutual enemy, the French, Portsmen attacked their own side. There, right in front of King Edward III., they burned twenty of the Yarmouth ships and killed nearly all the crews.

When Henry V came to the throne he decided that something must be done about extending England's sea forces. He saw that the Ports not only could not build big enough ships, but that they couldn't provide enough men to sail them, and so he chose Southampton as his chief naval base, but allowed the Ports to keep their Charters.

The Ports continued to provide ships during the Hundred Years' War, which began in 1338, they were involved in the Siege of Calais for which 710 ships gathered in Sandwich harbour. This was the only Port large enough to hold the fleet, though only 105 of these were actually Ports' ships, manned by Portsmen. After this, owing to larger ships being needed, and also because of storms and cross-currents bringing in great sand-shoals, the harbours gradually grew too shallow and tricky for bigger ships to come and go, and other ports, became more important.

Each Port had its own Captain known as Baron, and under him they were allowed to govern themselves, much as a Borough Council to-day controls a town's affairs. The Baron was an important person allowed special honours at Court, such as attending as canopy-bearer to the king and queen at coronations, and being allowed to sit on their right at the banquet afterwards. There was only one man more important than a Baron, and he was the Warden of the Cinque Ports who lived at Dover Castle. If a Baron had a problem concerning his Port or the fishing villages also under him which he couldn't settle himself, he took it to the Warden. If the Warden couldn't solve it, then it was taken straight to the King himself.

There are still Barons of the Cinque Ports, and a Warden, even at Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation the Barons were reserved special seats in Westminster Abbey and they wore historic costume, and of course a very special seat indeed was reserved for the Warden of the Cinque Ports - Sir Winston Churchill.

THE BOATS

The long-shaped boats seventy to eighty feet long, weighed twenty to thirty tons; all the boats were open; they had one mast and a square sail. If there was no wind the men rowed, and shields were slung along the side of the ship to protect them. The steering was managed, not with a rudder, but with one big oar on the right of the boat, our modern word starboard comes from the fact that this oar or "steerboard" was always on the right of the ship. This was the type of vessel which carried troops to one of the Crusades, and the Ports provided thirty-three ships for this. The Cinque Ports Standard is half-lion, half-ship

You can see a model of this type of boat in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Kensington.

A later type of ship, had turrets built round a platform at each end of the ship, just like those of a castle. From these the archers could shoot down on to the deck of enemy craft whilst remaining protected themselves. Later ones still, in the fourteenth century, had several "modern improvements." The hull became more tubby, and though there were still the raised parts at bows and stern, they lost their castle-like protective screens; these had been changed for a fence made of hurdles, for shelter from the enemy. There was now a huge hawse-hole for the anchor's cable, and instead of steering oars, rudders were used. This "improved" ship was the sort that was sent from the Cinque Ports to the French Wars.

PRIVILEGES OF THE PORTSMEN

The Portsmen were looked on for years as first-class sailors - even though their harbours were becoming useless, all other vessels were ordered to dip their topsails when passing one of the Ports or a Port ship. This was done as a mark of respect in remembrance of the days when the Ports really had guarded England and the English Channel .
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