前言
    亲爱的弟兄们，
    你可能会被告知可能是没有好处从战斗和流血的故事获得 - 有没有道德必须从这样的历史教训。相信不是。战争有其教训以及和平。您将学习从这样的故事的决心和热情能够完成的奇迹，真正的勇气是普遍的宽容和温柔的陪同下，在本身，如果不是美德极高，它是几乎所有的人父，但自其中一些可实行离不开它。我们的祖先创造了勇气周围小，本身寂寂无名的小岛，在世界上最大的帝国，如果这个帝国是丢失，这将是由他们的后代胆怯。
    在任何历史时期，她没有英国的立场，使高在欧洲的眼睛中的事件是在本书中记录的时间。甲骑士国王和一个更加侠义王子已经感染了他们的武术精神，全国人民，结果是，他们的军队是不可战胜的时候，最惊人的成功，获得了对数字将出现压倒性的。在克雷西胜利和普瓦捷可能会在一定程度上占了优势将军并建立对征服者的自律，但这将不会占很大的上空的苏塞克斯，一场胜利更令人惊讶的海岸西班牙舰队海军的胜利赢得了更大的可能性比对是，在同一水域世纪后获得了在西班牙无敌舰队。故事的历史事实都来自Froissart和其他当代历史学家，如整理和詹姆斯先生在仔细比较，文字记载的历史。因此，他们可能完全依赖在每个重要的准确。
    此致，
    湾答亨蒂。
    ====
    PREFACE
    MY DEAR LADS,
    You may be told perhaps that there is no good to be obtained from tales of fighting and bloodshed, - that there is no moral to be drawn from such histories. Believe it not. War has its lessons as well as Peace. You will learn from tales like this that determination and enthusiasm can accomplish marvels, that true courage is generally accompanied by magnanimity and gentleness, and that if not in itself the very highest of virtues, it is the parent of almost all the others, since but few of them can be practised without it. The courage of our forefathers has created the greatest empire in the world around a small and in itself insignificant island; if this empire is ever lost, it will be by the cowardice of their descendants.
    At no period of her history did England stand so high in the eyes of Europe as in the time whose events are recorded in this volume. A chivalrous king and an even more chivalrous prince had infected the whole people with their martial spirit, and the result was that their armies were for a time invincible, and the most astonishing successes were gained against numbers which would appear overwhelming. The victories of Cressy and Poitiers may be to some extent accounted for by superior generalship and discipline on the part of the conquerors; but this will not account for the great naval victory over the Spanish fleet off the coast of Sussex, a victory even more surprising and won against greater odds than was that gained in the same waters centuries later over the Spanish Armada. The historical facts of the story are all drawn from Froissart and other contemporary historians, as collated and compared by Mr. James in his carefully written history. They may therefore be relied upon as accurate in every important particular.
    Yours sincerely,
    G. A. HENTY.