The Romans in Britain, harried by Saxon raiders, have by 250 established nine defensive coastal forts from Kent west to …

Æthelred’s new fleet is ready by 1009, and is sent to Sandwich to defend the land against attacking forces.

Æthelred had instituted an ambitious shipbuilding program following the departure of Forkbeard from England in 1007, but the new fleet breaks up in chaos in 1009 amid charges of treason.

The Danes now launch a full-scale invasion.

Thorkell the Tall, a son of the Scanian chieftain Strutharald and the brother of Sigvald Jar, arrives in Sandwich later this year, landing unopposed, to plunder a relatively undefended and thoroughly disorganized southeast England.

Thorkell the Tall, having landed unopposed in Sandwich late in 1009 at the head of a Danish army, has passed three profitable years plundering a relatively undefended and thoroughly disorganized southeast England.

The most formidable force to invade England since Æthelred became king, it harries England until it is bought off in April 1012 by forty-eight thousand pounds.

The Danegeld has doubled in ten years.

The English employ their efficient administration system to supply these bribes without apparent difficulty, but English morale is steadily eroding.

Emma of Normandy, in exile in Bruges, had plotted to gain the English throne for her son Harthacnut.

She has sponsored the Enconium Emmae Reginae, which eulogizes her and attacks Harold, especially for arranging the murder in 1036 of her son, Alfred Atheling, by Æthelred.

The work describes Harthacnut's horror at hearing of his brother's murder, and was probably influential in finally persuading the cautious Harthacnut to invade England.

According to a later edition of the Enconium, the English took the initiative in communicating with Harthacnut in 1039, possibly when it was known that Harold had not long to live.

Harthacnut travels to England with his mother.

The landing at Sandwich on June 17, 1040, is a peaceful one, though he has a fleet of sixty-two warships.

Even though he has been invited to take the throne, he is taking no chances and comes as a conqueror with an invasion force.

The crews have to be rewarded for their service, and to pay them, he levies a geld of more than twenty-one thousand pounds, a huge sum of money that makes him unpopular, although it is only a quarter of the amount his father had raised in 1017-1018 in similar circumstances.

The first sign of real trouble for Harold comes from his exiled brother, Tostig.

According to the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, Tostig lands on the Isle of Wight in May 1066 with a fleet he had recruited in Flanders, later joined by other ships from Orkney, before ravaging the south coast of England, and ending up at Sandwich, Kent.

At Sandwich, Tostig is said to have enlisted and impressed sailors.

Threatened by Harold's fleet, …

Eustace the Monk had once belonged to a monastic order, but he had broken his vows and became a pirate along with his brothers and friends.

His early successes at this endeavor had attracted many lawless men and his pirates had become a menace to shipping in the English Channel.

Eustace from 1205 to 1208 for King John I of England, with whose blessing he had seized the Channel Islands and was allowed to hold them for John, while using Winchelsea as his English base.

Eustace had switched his allegiance to France in 1212 and was chased out of England.

The year 1215 saw his ships transporting war engines to the English barons who opposed John.

When Prince Louis sailed for London, he traveled in Eustace's fleet.

It was thanks to Eustace's help that Louis was able to quickly capture London and the Cinque Ports.

After Louis’s lieutenants were badly defeated at the Battle of Lincoln on May 20, 1217, Prince Louis had raised his siege of Dover Castle and retired to London.

Signaling his willingness to negotiate an end to the struggle, he had agreed to meet at Brentford with adherents of the boy-king Henry III of England.

The victor of Lincoln, William Marshal, first Earl of Pembroke and Louis came close to an agreement.

However, in order to pardon the bishops who had gone over to Louis' cause, Pope Honorius III's acquiescence was required.

Since this was not possible without a long journey to Rome, the negotiations had broken down.

Louis has received the news that reinforcements and supplies will soon arrive from France.

Encouraged, he resolves to fight on.

The French fleet sets south from Calais on August 24, in clear weather.

Eustace the Monk has equipped the ships but command of the knights and soldiers is held by Robert of Courtenay.

The wife of Prince Louis, Blanche of Castile, is also an important organizer of the relief effort.

Opposing the French is Philip d'Aubigny, commander of the southeastern coast.

The Earl of Pembroke had arrived at New Romney on August 19 and summoned the sailors of the Cinque Ports.

The English mariners had complained bitterly of bad treatment at the hands of King John, but Pembroke has convinced them to fight with the promise of great spoils should they defeat the French.

These consist of nine hundred troops and supplies on board ten warships and seventy small craft.

De Burgh has a fleet of sixteen large ships and about twenty appropriated merchant vessels; he sails out from Dover to intercept the French before they could land.

De Burgh, in a novel move, attacks from upwind, first launching a shower of crossbow bolts, followed by quicklime dust to blind the French.

After this, the ships close for the usual boarding and hand-to-hand combat, in which the English are able to destroy or capture three-quarters of Eustace's ships.

Eustace is able to get away, but in the naval Battle of Sandwich in August he is captured and beheaded.

Queen Margaret still considers Warwick a threat to the throne, and has cut off his supplies.

A French attack in August 1457 on the English sea port of Sandwich, however, sets off fears of a full-scale French invasion.

Warwick is again funded to protect the garrison and patrol the English coast.

War having resumed between the Lancastrian and Yorkist factions vying for control of the English throne, the Earl of Warwick and Edward, Earl of March, land in England with an army on June 26, 1460 and, after establishing themselves in Kent, where the local men, always ready to revolt, rise to join them.…