As soon as contact had been lost with Edward’s army as it headed north for the Burnt Candlemass campaign, panic had gripped the country. On 6 January 1356, long before galleys could put to sea, the array of militia forces commenced. As ever when Edward was absent, the exact nature of the threat was unclear, but taken very seriously. John Paveley, the Prior of the Hospitallers and an increasingly influential ally of the king, headed to Southampton to take up the order’s accustomed role as the town’s garrison. By the middle of the month the citizens of London were polishing rusting hauberks, while the sheriffs gathered thousands of longbows into the Tower. However the French fleet did not take to the sea for some months. In the midst of the hubbub, John Beauchamp took over as Captain of Calais. His indenture, or contract of service, demonstrated the extent to which the maritime aspect of the captaincy had already declined. Eight hundred knights, soldiers and craftsmen made up the vast permanent garrison there. The Italian Amerigio de Pavia had long since been killed, and five arbalesters were the last remnants of his galley crew. Beauchamp could only command twenty mariners, enough for the small barge to carry messages and to scout local waters, which had replaced de Pavia’s galley.

While Edward was preparing his Scottish expedition, the Black Prince had sailed from Plymouth on La Christopher of Southampton, a ship belonging to the town’s merchants and commanded by the mayor. He arrived in Bordeaux on 20 September 1355. In October, the prince’s army, accompanied by Burghersh, Reginald Cobham and the Earl of Oxford, wasted French territory up to the walls of Toulouse and Carcassone, before returning to Bordeaux in January with considerable plunder. On 15 March 1356 orders were given in England to reinforce the prince’s force with 500 archers from England. A transport fleet for them was ordered from the Admiralty of the West to depart in April. In the event it did not leave until 19 June. The new delay was because simultaneous operations had produced a shortage of arrows, which was eventually remedied by forcing fletchers to work overtime.