Battle of Damme [SEP] end time
Battle of Damme
The Battle of Damme was fought on 30 and 31 May 1213 during the 1213–1214 Anglo-French War. An English fleet led by William Longespée, Earl of Salisbury accidentally encountered a large French fleet under the command of Savari de Mauléon in the vicinity of the port of Damme, in Flanders. The French crews were mostly ashore, pillaging the countryside, and the English captured 300 French ships at anchor, and looted and fired a further hundred beached ships. The main French army, commanded by King Philip
France.
By the end of 1212, Philip II was preparing an invasion of England. Philip aimed to crown his son, Louis, king of England, and at a council at Soissons in April 1213, he drafted a possible relationship between the future France and England. On 30 May, William Longespée, Earl of Salisbury, succeeding in crushing the French invasion fleet in the Battle of Damme and preventing French invasion. In February 1214, John landed in La Rochelle after creating alliances headed by the Holy Roman Emperor,