Edward failed even more signally in his efforts to defeat Philip by diplomacy.  He had left no effort unspared to build up a great coalition against the French king.  He “sent a great quantity of sterling money beyond the sea,” and made alliances with all the princes and barons that he could find.[1] At first it seemed that he had succeeded.  Adolf of Nassau, the poor and dull, but strenuous and hard-fighting King of the Romans, concluded a treaty with England, and did not think it beneath the dignity of the lord of the world to take the pay of the English monarch.  Many vassals of the empire, especially in the Netherlands, the Rhineland, and Burgundy followed Adolf’s example.  Edward strengthened his party further by marrying three of his daughters to the Duke of Brabant, the son of the Count of Holland, and the Count of Bar as the price of their adherence to the coalition.  He made closer his ancient friendship with Guy of Dampierre, the old Count of Flanders, by betrothing Edward of Carnarvon to his daughter Philippine.  At the same time he sought the friendship of the lords of the Pyrenees, such as the Count of Foix, and of the kings of the Spanish peninsula.  But nothing came of the hopes thus excited, save fair promises and useless expenditure.  Before long Philip of France was able to build up a French party in appearance as formidable-in reality as useless as Edward’s attempted confederation.  Edward’s most important ally, Guy of Flanders, was forced to renounce his daughter’s marriage to the heir of England and hand her over to Philip’s custody.  The time was not yet come for effective European coalitions; the real fighting had to be done by the parties directly interested in the quarrel.

    [1] See a contemporary notice printed by F. Funck-Brentano in
    Revue Historique, xxxix. (1889), pp. 329-30.

The command of the sea continued to be a vital question.  The Norman sailors were eager to avenge their former defeats, and Philip saw that the best way to preserve his hold over Gascony was to be master of the Channel and the Bay of Biscay.  Edward prepared to meet attack by establishing an organisation of the English navy which marks an epoch in the history of our admiralty.  He divided the vessels told off to guard the sea into three classes, and set over each a separate admiral.  John of Botecourt was made admiral of the Yarmouth and eastern fleet; William of Leyburn was set over the navy at Portsmouth; and the western and Irish squadron was put under a valiant knight of Irish origin.  Meanwhile the French planned an invasion of England, and promised James of Aragon that, when England was conquered, its king should be considered his personal prize.  Galleys were hired at Marseilles and Genoa for service in the Channel, and Sir Thomas Turberville, a Glamorganshire knight captured at Rioms, turned traitor and was restored to England in the hope that he might obtain the custody of some seaport and betray