On June 24, 1340, the English fleet under Edward III and the Earl of Huntington annihilated a Franco-Genoese fleet at the Battle of Sluys in the Flemish estuary. This was the opening naval battle of the Hundred Years' War and gave England command of the English Channel. The victory was secured by the effective use of archers on board ships, a tactic that heralded a new era in naval warfare.

The Battle of Sluys was celebrated in English chronicle poetry and ballads, reinforcing the myth of English naval supremacy. It appears in the works of Jean Froissart and other contemporary chroniclers, who praised the heroic conduct of the English archers. The battle's narrative of a ragtag English fleet defeating a much larger enemy influenced later naval poetry and patriotic verse, becoming a touchstone for English maritime identity.