The chronicles write:
Still the king of France greatly reinforced the army that held the sea, and the great army of écumeurs, and ordered messire Hugues Quieret, Barbevaire and the other captains to take care to hold the borders of Flanders, and not to give the king of England any respite, nor let him take any port in Flanders; and if they failed by their own fault, they would all die by execution.

On 24 June 1340, the Battle of Sluys in the Zwin estuary (an arm of the sea, now silted up, which led to Bruges) pitched the numerically dominant French fleet against 150 English ships commanded by Edward III.
This was the first major battle of the Hundred Years' War.
Besides forty Mediterranean galleys with experienced Genoese crews led by the mercenary Pietro Barbavera, the French also had twenty 'coques' (cogs) crewed by 200 men at arms and around 130 merchant and fishing ships, each with fifty soldiers on board - this made a total of around 30,000 men.
The English fleet had 150 ships, 15,000 soldiers and an unknown number of crewmen.
The French fleet was commanded by Quiéret and Béhuchet, but they were administrators ordered in principal merely to guarantee an army's safe passage, not frontline fighting sailors.
They were ordered to stop Edward's army landing and deployed their fleet in three lines from one river bank to the other, except for four cogs and the Genoese ships; all the ships in the three rows were chained together (presumably to aid in taking advantage of their numbers and armor).

On the morning of 24 June the English appeared.
At midday, born down by the tide and wind, they attacked.
The French crossbowmen had the initiative but were quickly outmatched by the Welsh longbowmen's speed of fire.
After the fleets met there was fierce hand-to-hand fighting.
Quieret and Béhuchet tried to surround Edward's ship, the Cog Thomas, and Béhuchet was wounded in the chest.
Some sources have Quiéret drowning during the battle, but others state he was captured and immediately beheaded by the English, despite his wounds, in vengeance for the massacre he had allowed at Arnemuiden two years earlier, with his body being thrown into the sea. (
Béhuchet was also captured, and hanged.)
In the afternoon, thanks to a change in the wind direction, the Flemish fleet was able to leave the river bank and join the battle.
Panic gripped the French fleet - having no way to escape other than to swim for it, 17 to 20 thousand French soldiers were killed and only Barbavera and half the Genoese managed to escape.
The battle marked the French fleet's destruction and decisive defeat.
The chronicles write:
Still the king of France greatly reinforced the army that held the sea, and the great army of écumeurs, and ordered messire Hugues Quieret, Barbevaire and the other captains to take care to hold the borders of Flanders, and not to give the king of England any respite, nor let him take any port in Flanders; and if they failed by their own fault, they would all die by execution.
On 24 June 1340, the Battle of Sluys in the Zwin estuary (an arm of the sea, now silted up, which led to Bruges) pitched the numerically dominant French fleet against 150 English ships commanded by Edward III. This was the first major battle of the Hundred Years' War. Besides forty Mediterranean galleys with experienced Genoese crews led by the mercenary Pietro Barbavera, the French also had twenty 'coques' (cogs) crewed by 200 men at arms and around 130 merchant and fishing ships, each with fifty soldiers on board - this made a total of around 30,000 men. The English fleet had 150 ships, 15,000 soldiers and an unknown number of crewmen. The French fleet was commanded by Quiéret and Béhuchet, but they were administrators ordered in principal merely to guarantee an army's safe passage, not frontline fighting sailors. They were ordered to stop Edward's army landing and deployed their fleet in three lines from one river bank to the other, except for four cogs and the Genoese ships; all the ships in the three rows were chained together (presumably to aid in taking advantage of their numbers and armor).
On the morning of 24 June the English appeared. At midday, born down by the tide and wind, they attacked. The French crossbowmen had the initiative but were quickly outmatched by the Welsh longbowmen's speed of fire. After the fleets met there was fierce hand-to-hand fighting. Quieret and Béhuchet tried to surround Edward's ship, the Cog Thomas, and Béhuchet was wounded in the chest. Some sources have Quiéret drowning during the battle, but others state he was captured and immediately beheaded by the English, despite his wounds, in vengeance for the massacre he had allowed at Arnemuiden two years earlier, with his body being thrown into the sea. (Béhuchet was also captured, and hanged.) In the afternoon, thanks to a change in the wind direction, the Flemish fleet was able to leave the river bank and join the battle. Panic gripped the French fleet - having no way to escape other than to swim for it, 17 to 20 thousand French soldiers were killed and only Barbavera and half the Genoese managed to escape. The battle marked the French fleet's destruction and decisive defeat.
Hugues Quiéret