The first written mention evidence of Honfleur emanates from Richard III, Duke of Normandy, in 1027. It is also proven that in the middle of the 12th century, the city was an important port of transit of goods departing from Rouen to England.
Located at the mouth of the Seine, one of the major rivers of the Kingdom of France, in contact with the sea and pressed on a relatively rich hinterland, Honfleur enjoyed a strategic position that has proved from the hundred years war. Charles V made fortifying the town to prohibit the Seine estuary to the English with the support of the port of Harfleur, situated just in front and across the estuary. This locked at the same time the entrance to the Seine at enemy ships. Honfleur was however taken and occupied by the King of England in 1357, and again from 1419 to 1450. Outside this period, its port served as starting point for multiple French shipments engaged in raids along the English coast, with including the partial destruction of the town of Sandwich in the County of Kent around 1450, after the British left the Normandy following the defeat of Formigny