英法百年战争时期英属加来作用探析

Analysis of the Role of British Calais in the Hundred Years' War

爱德华三世出于军事战略和对外羊毛贸易安全考虑，率重兵夺取了加来。为确保英格兰在此的有效统治，他对加来采取了不同于其它大陆领地的治理方法，清理原住居民，赋予数千名英国商人、海员特权，以鼓励他们移居加来，填补原住民迁出后的空缺。居民的变化彻底改变了这座城市的“国别”属性，英语成为加来的通用语言，英格兰法律也成为该城的法规。1379年，英格兰还趁教会大分裂之际，将加来由原来的thérouanne教区，划归坎特伯雷教区。至此，加来在很多方面都被英格兰化了。此后两百多年间，它一直处于英国的统治之下。

然而对爱德华三世不惜血本夺取的加来，史学界却一直认为英格兰占有它得不偿失。这主要有以下三方面的理由：加重了英国王室财政负担；阻碍了英国近代民族国家的诞生；加来的战略意义甚微。但这些观点有商榷之处。

首先，英属加来在财政方面的贡献卓著，为英国的百年战争提供了巨额经费。加来羊毛商人向王室政府缴纳了大量关税和补助金，还提供了大量应急借款。这些税收和借款几乎全部用于英格兰对法战争，是战争经费的重要来源。其次，占有加来有利于英国民族国家的形成。根据加来战事创作的文学作品，加强了英国的民族意识。第三，加来作为英格兰嵌入法国的军事要塞，具有重要的战略地位。一方面，它既是英格兰进攻法国的军队集结地，是迷惑法国、创造出其不意战机的进攻点，也是英格兰的战略退却据点；另一方面，加来也是英格兰抵御法国入侵的屏障，还是抵御海盗骚扰南部临海地区的军事重镇。

Edward III captured Calais for military strategy and foreign wool trade safety. To ensure England’s effective rule in Calais, he took measures different from those of mainland territories, by cleaning up its original residents and encouraging thousands of English merchants and seamen who had been granted many privileges to settle in Calais instead. The change of residents led to the fact that the city of Calais belonged to England, with English as the official language, the city following England’s laws. England also transferred Calais from Thérouanne to the Diocese of Canterbury in 1379 by taking advantage of the Great Schism. So far, Calais had been greatly Anglicized and it remained under the English rule for the following 200 years.

Although Edward III spared no effort to capture Calais, historians have been holding the view that occupying Calais brought more loss to England than gains. Their idea is based on the three reasons: Calais aggravated the financial burden of the English royal family; it hindered the birth of England as a nation; it had little strategic significance. These views are rather one-sided.

Firstly, England’s Calais made great contribution to England’s finance through providing huge sum of funds in the Hundred Years’ War. The Calais’s wool merchants, authorized by the royal government, monopolized wool exports, and paid large tariffs and subsidies to the royal government in return. It also provided a large amount of emergency loans. These taxes and loans went almost entirely for England’s war against France, covering more than half of the war funding. Secondly, the occupying Calais promoted the birth of England as a nation. England’s national consciousness was strengthened by the literature works on Calais warfare. Last but not least, Calais，as an England’s military fort embedded into France，boasted of important strategic position. On one hand, it was the place where England assembled its army to wage war against France, the place from whose strategic point England could launch unexpected attack, and the place to which England army could retreat strategically. On the other hand, Calais was also the military center to shield England from French invasion and from the pirates who often harassed the southern coastal area.

张殿清  河北大学