Fire and sword

Lacy’s war. At the end of the campaign season of summer 1296, Henry de Lacy led his troops out from the ducal citadels in Gascony on a large-scale raid - or chevauchée - into the Toulousaine in southeast France. It was the usual grim work: destruction of villages and slaughter of non-combatants, meant to destroy the enemy’s economic base and terrorize his peasantry into submission.

Robert Wace, writing in the twelfth century, described the way of war:

“Go through this country with fire,
destroying houses and towns,
take all booty and food,
pigs and sheep and cattle.
Let Normans find no food
Nor any thing on which to live.”

Lacy also needed to restore the morale of his soldiers after the defeats and failures earlier in the year. The season ended for the English on a relative high, since they had lost no more ground to the French and showed they still had teeth. The French, meanwhile, despite their numerical and strategic superiority, had proved incapable of wiping out the last English enclaves in the duchy.

Toulouse

In September, once the campaign season was over for the year, a number of soldiers were repatriated or ‘demobbed’ back to England. Only two knights were sent home; one was Sir William Vescy, who was sick, and the other Sir William Martin. The rest were infantry, some of them criminals on a strictly-limited service obligation in return for a royal pardon. One of the felons was William le Fevre, outlawed for robbery in Southampton, another John Semot, outlawed for robbery in Devon, and a third Roger de Penteney, outlawed for homicide.