Henry II was crowned
king of Castile after defeating his half-brother in the
first Castilian civil war. The new
Trastámara king joined with the French under
Jean de Vienne in a series of naval attacks and incursions into
England. During these attacks, the towns of Dartmouth, Folkestone, Hastings, Lewes, Plymouth, Poole, Portsmouth, Rottingdean, Rye, Southampton, Wight, and Winchelsea[1][2][3][4] were looted, and many were burned. In 1379, Henry II died and left his throne to his son,
Juan I of Castile, who soon ordered a naval raid in 1379 against the
Kingdom of England.[5]
Sequence of events
The raiding fleet, a combined Spanish-French fleet of 20
galleys[6] under the command of
Fernando Sánchez de Tovar
, which previously departed from
Seville in late 1379/early 1380, arrived in the
Thames Estuary in early summer of 1380. Before it moved to attack the eastern English seaboard, the islands of
Jersey and
Guernsey were also subject to raids by the fleet.[7][1][clarification needed]
The fleet attacked
Winchelsea and towns in
Kent, before entering the mouth of the
River Thames and attacking
Gravesend,[8][9] with some sources even claiming that the fleet advanced to within sight of the English capital of
London. At Gravesend, Castilian soldiers disembarked and proceeded to loot the town and set it ablaze.[9][10][11][8][12][13][14][6]
^ROJO PINILLA, JESÚS ÁNGEL. CUANDO ÉRAMOS INVENCIBLES 2: DUEÑOS DEL MUNDO.
^Elorza, Juan C.; Vaquero, Lourdes; Castillo, Belén; Negro, Marta (1990). Junta de Castilla y León. Consejería de Cultura y Bienestar Social, ed. El Panteón Real de las Huelgas de Burgos. Los enterramientos de los reyes de León y de Castilla (2.ª edición). Valladolid: Editorial Evergráficas S.A.
ISBN84-241-9999-5