Medieval France
. The naval and maritime history of medieval France dates from the Roman occupation of Gaul. Roman vessels utilized the rivers and coastal waters to transport merchandise and military personnel. The early Franks developed fleets for use in trade and war. Their vessels were propelled by oars and probably a single square sail. Charlemagne used a fleet against the Slavs, Saxons, Avars, and others. Because of their Italian interests, the Franks also maintained a small Mediterranean fleet in the 9th century.
The Vikings, who settled in Normandy, influenced the construction of large sailing warships. The Norman invasion of England in 1066 was possible only because Duke William organized a large fleet of Viking-style ships with a single square sail. He shipped horses across the Channel for use by knights in battle against the Anglo-Saxons.
The marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henry II of England stimulated trade between Gascony and northern Europe after 1154. The English possessions in France led to Anglo-French warfare in the 13th and 14th centuries. The French pieced together a navy for use in the Atlantic and the Channel, often hiring Genoese galleys to fight the English, especially in the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453). France also built a naval base and shipyard, the Clos des Galées, at Rouen. While the French used galleys in warfare, their Castilian allies fought with tall sailing ships that used their advantage in height to rain arrows and stones on their enemies.
Naval power in the Middle Ages did not make possible command of the seas. The ships were few, poorly provisioned, and difficult to keep at sea for long periods, given navigational techniques and weather. The French lost a major naval battle to the English at Sluys in 1340 but were raiding England’s south coast in the following few years. In 1350, the English defeated a large Castilian fleet in the Battle of L’Espagnols-sur-Mer off the southeast coast of England, but the Castilians won an important battle off La Rochelle in 1372, a victory that aided the French reconquest of Poitou.
France eventually won the Hundred Years’ War, driving the English from all but the port town of Calais by 1453. French fleets consisted mainly of merchant vessels recruited for royal service. Galleys were built or hired to fight, but by the 15th century these were replaced by large sailing ships over a hundred feet in length with carrying capacities of up to 1,000 tons. These included carracks with one or two square sails on a main and foremast and a lateen sail on a mizzenmast. Caravels carried two lateen sails, later a square sail, and were important for Atlantic seafaring.
Ships throughout the medieval period were armed with a combination of weapons. Early open rowing or sailing boats could serve as platforms for shooting arrows or throwing spears. Ships were sometimes used as amphibious assault vessels. During his crusades, Louis IX had towers built on ships so they could be used to bridge town or castle walls adjacent to the water. These evolved into fore-castles and aftercastles, which became integrated into a ship’s lines over the next two centuries. Topcastles were added to the masts. Guns and cannon appeared aboard ships as they developed in the 14th century. By the early 16th century, gun ports were cut into the hull of a ship so that heavy cannon could be carried lower in the vessel for better stability.
Heading the French navy was an admiral who often was an Italian or an important French noble. The crown long avoided building ships at its own expense and preferred to employ foreigners or rely upon merchant vessels for military service. Advancing technology, however, finally required purpose-built men-of-war with cannon, and these in turn prompted the establishment of a royal navy with a professional officer corps in the 16th century.
Timothy J.Runyan
[See also: ADMIRAL OF FRANCE; HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR; SHIPS AND SHIPPING]
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Haywood, John. Dark Age Naval Power: A Reassessment of Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Seafaring Activity. London: Routledge, 1991.
La Roncière, Charles de. Histoire de la marine française. 5 vols. 3rd ed. Paris: Plon-Nourrit, 1909–32.
Mollat, Michel. Le commerce maritime normand a la fin du moyen âge. Paris: Plon, 1952.
——. La vie quotidienne des gens de mer en Atlantique, IXe–XVIe siècle. Paris: Hachette, 1983.
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