Coastal raids were not uncommon in fourteenth century England, with privately owned shipping and occasionally royal ships from France, Castile, Genoa, Scotland and Scandinavia all conducting nuisance attacks against coastal shipping and fishing villages throughout the era, even during periods of peace. What made the naval campaigns of 1338 and 1339 so important was that these were focused and sustained raids with a deliberate strategic aim in mind, targeting major English towns rather than isolated hamlets and doing so at a critical point in the developing war.