[1] [2] These noble men being thus assembled, they tooke councell which waie they might passe to giue battell to the Englishmen: it was thought the best waie had beene through Flanders, but the Flemings in fauor of the king of England denied,The Flem|ings besiege Aire. not onelie to open their passages to the Frenchmen, but also had leuied an armie of an hundred thousand men of one and o|ther, and laid siege to Aire, and burnt the countrie all about. Ia. Meir. Wherepon there were manie sharpe bicke|rings and sore incoun [...]ers betwixt the Flemings and such Frenchmen as king Philip sent foorth a|gainst them both, now, whilest the French armie laie about A [...]ens, and also before, during all the time that the siege lay at Calis. For all the French towns vpon the frontiers were stuffed with strong garri|sons of souldiers, as Lisle, saint Omers, Arras, Bul|longne, Aire and [...], and those men of war were euer readie vpon occasion to attempt sundrie exploits. After this, when the armie of the Flemings was broken-vp,The French K. cõmeth to|wards Calis. and returned home, or rather diui|ded into parts, and lodged along on the frontiers, the French king with two thousand men one and other came forward, taking his way through the countrie called la Belme, and so by the countrie of Franke|berge, came streight to the hill of Sangate, betwixt Calis and Wisant.