Regarding the extent of the Pale of Calais I dug up a link I'd saved to an
old thread over on soc.history.what-if that talks about this.
David Tenner said:
[QUOTE="Allen W. McDonnell]How much territory was included with Calais?
20 miles by 6 miles, according to
http://web.archive.org/web/20080906143642/http://lindaporter.net/lloydslistreview.htm which suggests an interesting scenario for retaining Calais:
"But a new biography of Mary suggests that part of the reason for the loss of Calais was due to a wish not to spoil the beer brewed in an enclave just 20 miles by 6 miles.
"Author Linda Porter explains in detail how the French forces, numbering 20,000, surprised the English occupiers by advancing over the frozen marshes when military activity was not expected during the winter months.
Winter was not the time for warfare.
"The English defenders made the fatal mistake of not deploying their most important weapon - the ability to flood the marshes that completely surrounded the town.
"Mary held an inquest after the fall of Calais and one of the reasons for not flooding put forward by the English commander was his fear of contaminating the town's water supply.
"The defeated commander wrote to Mary: 'If I had flooded the marshes I would also take in the salt water about the town, but I cannot do it, by reason I should also infect our own water, wherewith we brew: and notwithstanding all I can do, our brewers be so behindhand in grinding and otherwise, as we shall find that one of our greatest lacks.' "
According to a 1908 book by G. A. C. Sandeman, *Calais Under English Rule*, p. 114:
"The boundaries of the Pale of Calais are difficult to define at any given period. Roughly, the Pale comprised some twenty square miles, stretching from Gravelines nearly to Wissant along the coast, and from six to nine miles inland. But this boundary continually changed. On the south-west especially the French were always annexing small pieces of territory, and this 'Picardy encroachment' is often mentioned in State documents.
Frequent Commissions were appointed to determine the proper boundary, but the surrender in 1550 of the territory around Boulogne increased rather than diminished the vagueness of delineation."
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=oy5LAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA114&redir_esc=y [/QUOTE]