Checking the small print

In November 1297 Lord Robert de Scales, a Knight Templar in the English army in Flanders, was paid his wages for service to date:

To lord Robert de Scales, knight, for his wages from the sixth day of October when he first raised his standard before Damme and for his one knight made a knight on the same day and six of his squires, until the eleventh day of November, each of whom are credited for 37 days; with the aforesaid Robert at 4 shillings per day, his knight at 2 shillings per day, and for all the squires 12 pence per day by his own hand.

Robert had 'raised his standard' before the walls of Damme, a port town that controlled direct access to the Channel, on 6 October. This contradicts the chronicle account of the Minorite of Flanders, a Flemish annalist who loathed the English. The Minorite claims the English marched to attack Damme on 10 October.

So what of it? Edward I had signed a truce with his enemy, Philip le Bel, on 9 October. By pushing forward the allied assault on Damme by four days, the Minorite made Edward and the English look like oath-breakers. In reality the attack began on the 6, three days before the truce was signed.

The moral of this lesson hath been: always check the small print, forsooth.

 *Thanks to Rich Price for checking my translation.