That Britain has never been invaded since the Norman Conquest is an immutable ‘fact’ lodged in the national psyche and yet it’s completely untrue. Leaving aside such major historical landmarks as the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands, for centuries the coastal towns of southern England had to put up with countless incursions by our enemies.
And Poole was no exception. One of the most destructive was that of September 1405 when a flotilla of three Spanish galleys and four French ships mounted an attack on the town in retaliation for the marauding activities of one Harry Paye, or Arripaye as he was known to them.
Celebrated in recent times as the original Poole pirate, Paye used the town as a base for a broad spectrum of maritime activities that ranged from ferrying pilgrims to Galicia to visit the shrine of Santiago de Compostela in his ship the Mary, to raiding French and Spanish coastal towns, hijacking their ships and holding their crews to ransom.
Paye was given leave by King Henry IV “to sail the seas with as many ships, barges and ballingers of war, men-at-arms and bowmen properly equipped to do all the hurt he can to our enemies and for the safety of our realm.”
With the line between patriotism and piracy being so perilously thin, such a licence effectively placed him beyond the law.
‘It certainly gave him enormous lee-way, although these were uncertain times and the King’s enemy one day might be this ally the next,’ explains Poole Museum’s history manager David Watkins, an archaeologist and historian who has researched the legends of Harry Paye at home and abroad.
‘Periodically Harry Paye and others would be called to account for some action or other that had overstepped the mark. They would be fined or ordered to make some recompense, but it was more so the King could be seen to be taking action.’
The Mary was licenced to carry 80 pilgrims – a sizeable ship for its time as a payload of pilgrims often travelled with animals to transport them and there would have to be room for the crew as well. Even the most reluctant opportunist would realise what could be gained from not returning with an empty hold.
On one such trip Paye and his crew found further employ in the service of the Count of Gijon who was in conflict with his brother the King of Castile. Ever the rogue, Harry availed himself of the countess and burned the walled city to the ground (possibly under her orders to cover her escape from the besieging king). He also attacked the town of Finisterre and stole a cross from the Church of St Mary.
In 1404 there’s an account of a Norman barge capturing Harry and his ship. As the French sailors bound their English foes and searched the ship, Harry Paye’s war cry broke the air, a signal to his crew to shake off their restraints and set about their would-be captors. Having dispatched the French and taken their barge, Paye then sailed up the Seine under French colours raiding as he went.
Seeking revenge the French King Charles VI approached his Castilian counterpart Henry III and between them they mustered a flotilla to attack towns along the south coast of England. In September 1405, having raided the Isle of Purbeck where they plundered sheep, the armada arrayed off Poole.
According to a contemporary account – El Victorial written by Gutierre Diez de Games, standard bearer to Don Pero Niño, Count of Buelna, like Harry a licenced corsair – the Spanish believed Poole to be the town that belonged to “the knight Arripaye” and attacked in force. Instructed not to take plunder they torched the town but were later driven back to their ships by the townsfolk augmented by riders and archers sent from the Manor of Canford. The Spanish regrouped and, joined by knights on horseback from the French ships, resumed the attack.
The Pooleites made their last stand in a warehouse on the Quay – in all probability the old wool house that today houses the oldest part of Poole Museum – before escaping through a back door and retreating as far as Canford Heath. However, for all that El Victorial records that “arrows fell so thick upon the ground that no man could walk without treading on arrows in such number that they picked them up in handfuls” the account mentions only two deaths – a Castilian knight called Juan de Murcia and an unnamed brother of Harry Paye, “a good soldier who did very fair deeds before he died.”
Vengeance taken, the invaders left soon after and made for Southampton. Harry, who missed the action having been away from Poole at the time, was not a man to let such an affront lie and in 1407 exacted his own ‘Paye-back’, returning to Poole with a captured fleet of 120 French vessels and their cargo of iron, salt, oil and, most importantly, claret wine from Rochelle.
‘Harry gave his booty to the people of Poole in recompense for their privations,’ says David Watkins, going some way at least to explaining the annual Harry Paye Day charity event, which celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2016. ‘Harry Paye is a great way to open the door to history for young people. We know very little about him for certain, but we can take the evidence that does exist and try to understand it.’
Tradition has it that Harry Paye was born in a house at the junction of Hill Street and Carters Lane where there is now an electricity substation, but although there is some record of his father, the Paye name is not otherwise linked with Poole. Harry lived out his life in Kent where he married, had a son, Simon, and died on 14 March 1419. He is buried in Faversham.
‘However, he was a contemporary of Poole’s earliest known mayor Thomas Canawey, who’s only known about because he was named as a suspected pirate in 1408, and it’s exciting to think they would have known and probably visited this building, which was used as a stores, primarily for wool for export. One wall has been dated to around 1300 and the other to about 1400, so it was partly rebuilt, possibly as a result of the devastation brought about by the raid of 1405, in which case it would have been rebuilt fairly swiftly so that export tax revenues could begin to flow once more. We cannot be certain of this of course, but it’s great fun to speculate isn’t it?’
Harry Paye, Poole Pirate
Although he is relatively unknown outside Poole in this country, Harry Paye is recorded as “the most famous pirate of these times” in Spain’s national history encyclopedia.
‘I was tremendously pleased when I read that,’ says David Watkins. ‘The Spanish are very aware of Harry and very sure he was a pirate not an adventurer.’
In an effort to make amends for Harry’s dirty deeds in 2008 David was among a delegation from the Pirates of Poole charity group who took a replica cross back to the church of St Mary in Finisterre to replace the one stolen by Harry.
‘They were very happy to welcome us and accept the cross, although they were also quite puzzled especially the priest who said they already had an ancient cross from before that time. It’s another mystery – perhaps Harry later ransomed it back to them? We’ll never know.’
• First published by Dorset Life – The Dorset Magazine.