to their bases. 25 September: The Great Council opens at Notthingam, Edward III having arrived the day before. With Southern England gripped by invasion fever they grant a tax of one tenth and fifteenth and prepares to levy more than 80 000 men in coastal defence. September: English agent John Thrandeston is sent on a diplomatic mission to the counts of Hainault, Juliers and Guelders. In France English merchants and travellers are arrested and their goods seized. The English retaliate in kind. October: Edward III seizes the treasure gathered at St Mary's Abbey at York for the crusade. Sir Andrew Murray captures and destroys Dunnottar, Kynnef and Lauriston, and lay waste to Gowrie, Angus and Mearns to deny their use to the English. John Thrandeston visits the court of William I, Count of Hainaut at Valenciennes. 18 October: Edward III marches to Bothwell. 22 October: The English government disbands the fleet of the western Admiralty. 26 October: The English government disbands the fleet of the northern Admiralty. 8 November: The mass recruitment of coastal militias ordered by the Council of Nottingham is cancelled. December: Edward III leaves Scotland to pass Christmas at Hatfield. 26 December: Philip VI formally demands from the English Seneschal in Gascony the extradition of the exile Robert III of Artois from England. 1337: 5 January: Representatives of the ports of the western and northern Admiralties assembles in London to hear the services in the coming year: three months of service without compensation. 10 January: Edward II obtains the consent of a Council of magnates to issue writs requiring free service from the ports with the seamen's consent or not. All ships are to assemble at Portsmouth on 15 March. January: Robert Ufford and William Montagu are appointed admirals. February: Philip purchases Cambrai and four other castles in the Cambrésis for his son John of Normandy. Etienne le Galois de la Baume, the French Master of Crossbowmen arrives in the south-west where he makes a failed attempt to capture the town of Saint-Macaire. In England the day of assembly for the northern Admiralty is moved forward one month with orders to proceed at once to Orwell. 20 ships of the western Admiralty at Southampton are ordered to leave immediately for Bordeaux. In Scotland Andrew Murray takes Kinclaven Castle before invading Fife with William Douglas, Lord of Liddesdale. Falkland tower and Leuchars fall to the Scots. 28 February: