‘Worthy Man of English Blood’: William of Cassingham, A Forgotten Hero
The French invasion of England in 1216 is a relatively neglected event in English history. Had it succeeded, England’s then-ruling dynasty, the Plantagenets, would have been extinguished and the country as thoroughly conquered as it was by the Normans in 1066. The invasion was led by Prince Louis, son of the French King Philip Augustus, and he was invited over to take the English crown by English barons sick of the misrule and oppression of King John (1199-1216).
John did not put up much of a fight and retreated instead of opposing the French landing, but there were those who were prepared to resist. One of these was William of Cassingham (now Kemsahm, a town between Rovendon and Sandhurst) a lowly but pugnacious country squire. The contemporary chronicler Roger of Wendover reports William’s appearance as the French army entered the south-east and conquered all in their path: “A certain youth, William by name, a fighter and a loyalist who despised those who were not, gathered a number of archers in the forests and waste places, all of them men of the region, and all the time they attacked and disrupted the enemy, and as a result of their intense resistance many thousands of Frenchmen were slain”
The archers that William gathered were local men from the forest of the Weald, the great expanse of forest that once stretched unbroken across Sussex and Kent. Under the leadership of William, who assumed the nickname of ‘William of the Weald,’ they soon became a terror to the invaders.
William and his band of volunteers formed a core of stubborn resistance to the otherwise triumphant Prince Louis, ambushing French troops and inflicting fatal casualties on them. William’s efforts, along with the heroic defence of Dover Castle by Earl Hubert de Burgh, were the only sparks of resistance against the invasion in the south-east as King John wandered the midlands and south-west, desperately trying to raise support.
By October 1216 it seemed that Dover must fall, which would leave nothing except William’s band of guerrillas to fight the French in the south-east. It was doubtful they could resist the invaders alone, but then King John performed the best service he could for his country: he died at Newark, leaving his little son Henry to succeed him as Henry III.
English fortunes now changed, as many barons who hated John had no quarrel with his son, and by early 1217 Louis decided to return to France for reinforcements. Louis was obliged to fight his way to the coast as the forests were swarming with loyalists, and part of his army was ambushed by William of Cassingham and his band near Lewes. The French were routed and the rest of their army pursued to Winchelsea, where only the arrival of a French fleet rescued them from starvation.
Still determined to conquer, Louis soon returned to England with fresh troops, but again his plans were spoiled by the efforts of William. As the invasion fleet approached Dover William’s men attacked and burned the French camp outside the castle, and in fear Louis turned aside to land at Sandwich instead. His cause was further shattered by defeats at Lincoln in May and the destruction of his fleet in August, and he was forced to sign a peace treaty at Lambeth and return to France.
The war over, William of Cassingham was rewarded for his efforts with a pension and made warden of the Weald. He lived another forty years, quietly drawing his pension and performing lowly tasks such as fetching logs for the king’s household. He died in 1257, a humble Kentish man but one who the chronicler Holinshed was moved to laud as ‘O Worthy man of English blood’