were mustered on Blackheath, and sir Anthony Oughtred, sir Edward Ickynghame, and William (father of the excellent sir Henry Sydney, and grandfather of the admir_ able sir Philip), were appointed with other gentlemen captains, for that time. On the way to the Isle of Wight a galley was lost by the negligence of the master. “The king desiring," says Hall, "to see his navy together," rode to Portsmouth, and there appointed his master of the horse, sir Thomas Knevet, and sir John Carew, of Devonshire, captains of the Regent ; and to another ship-royal, called the Sovereign, he appointed sir Charles Brandon and sir Henry Guildford ; and with them in the Sovereign were put sixty of the tallest yeomen of the king's guard; and many other gentlemen were made captains. "The king made a great banquet to all the captains, and every one sware to another ever to defend, aid, and comfort one another without failing, and this they promised before the king, which committed them to God. And so, with great noise of minstrelsy, they took their ships, which were twentyfive in number, of great burden, and well furnished with all things.' The lord admiral's force, after this junction, consisted of forty-five sail, and with these he resolved to sail and attack the enemy.* The two fleets came in sight of each other, on St. Lawrence's day, off St. Mahé, on the coast of Bretagne. The English had the advantage in number, the French in the size of some of their ships: their admiral, Le Cordelier, which belonged to the queen, carried 1200 soldiers, besides seamen, according to the French; but the English estimate the whole number at 900, their own largest vessel, the Regent, carrying 700. There was another vessel in the enemy's fleet, large enough to be called the great ship of Dieppe. "When the Englishmen,” says the chronicler," perceived the French navy to be out of Brest haven, then the lord admiral was very joyous; then every man prepared according to his duty; the archers to shoot, the gunners to loose, *Hall, 353. Holinshed, 572. Campbell, i. 260. THE REGENT AND THE CORDELIER. 177 the men of arms to fight, the pages went to the top castle with darts. Thus all things being provided and set in order, the Englishmen approached towards the Frenchmen, which came fiercely forward, some levying his anchor, some with his foresail only, to take the most advantage; and when they were in sight, they shot ordnance so terribly together that all the sea coast sounded of it." "The lord admiral made for the great ship of Dieppe, and chased her still, and she was also attacked by the Regent; while the Sovereign made with the Cordelier, and laid to that huge carrack stem to stem: but whether by the master's fault, or mishap by reason of the smoke, the Sovereign was cast at the stern of the Cordelier, and with this advantage the Frenchmen shouted for joy." Knevett was at this time ready to have boarded the great ship of Dieppe, but seeing that the Sovereign had missed the Cordelier, he made for that carrack and grappled it; and when the French saw that they could not loosen themselves, they let slip an anchor, and so with the stream the ships turned; and the carrack was on the weather side, and the Regent on the lee side. 66 The fight then was very cruel, for the archers of the English part, and the cross bows of the French part, did their uttermost;" but finally the English entered the carrack. In what manner the dreadful catastrophe was caused is variously reported, and never can be ascertained. One account says, that sir Anthony Oughtred "chased hard at the stern of the carrack, and bowged her in divers places, and set her on fire." Another, that a varlet gunner, when he saw that the English had entered the ship, desperately fired her powder.* Both ships were presently in flames; they * P. Daniel's story (T. 7. p. 314.) is, that the Cordelier was set on fire by fireworks thrown by an English vessel; that most of the men, when they saw that it was impossible to extinguish the flames, threw themselves into the sea, in hopes of swimming to the other ships; but that Primauguel resolved to perish, and at a dear cost to the enemy; il fit force de voiles, joignit l'amiral d'Angleterre, et l'accrocha sans jamais le lucher; il sauta à l'abordage, et le feu de son vaisseau, qui étoit au-dessus du vent, se communiqua à l'Anglois. He adds, that the action was très-glorieuse for the French, and that the English lost some ships. Campbell says, "It seems this accident struck both fleets with amazement, so that they separated without were now so grappled, that it was impossible for them to separate, and both were consumed. The French, fear and horror struck, fled in all haste, some to Brest, some to the isles adjoining. The English, who were also "in manner dismayed," sent out boats to save their countrymen in the Regent; but the fire was so great, that none durst approach; and except some few Frenchmen, who were picked up by the James of Hull (worthy to be named for having thus distinguished itself), all on board both ships perished,—900 in the French, 700 in the English!* وو This event is said to have been happy for the French navy, for otherwise "they would have been better assailed of the Englishmen, who were so amazed at this chance that they followed them not.’ The English fleet lay that night in the bay † where the action was fought. The lord admiral called his captains together, and exhorted them not to be abashed by this chance of war; it was the worse fortune, he said, that could happen to them, and they must now study to be revenged. So, as the enemy had dispersed, they resolved to scour the coasts of Bretagne, Normandy, and Picardy; many ships they took, and such as they could not carry away they set on fire, "to a great number, small and great, and thus they kept the sea." It was because of the loss of the Regent that Henry is said to have advised "a great ship to be made, such as was never before seen in England," and which is well known in our naval history by the name of Henry Grace de Dieu, or the Great Harry. The Grace de Dieu was (as has been seen) a name of earlier date; and there is reason to suppose, that when the ship which bore it became, through age and decay, unfit for service, a successor was built to which the name was transferred; fighting, each claiming the victory, to which probably neither had a very good title." * Hall, 534.Holinshed, 573. Campbell, 260. It is variously called by the chroniclers Bretayne Bay, Bartram and Bertram. + Hall, 535. and it was long the custom to transmit it as it were lineally and bereditarily to the principal of the king's ships. There are many ancient representations †, more or less authentic, of the Great Harry: its cost is said to have been nearly 11,000l.; and it appears that 400 men were employed during four whole days in working the ship from Erith, where it was built, into Barking creek, a circumstance which the historian of modern architecture observes, " proves very sufficiently the inexpertness of the navigators, or the unwieldiness of the vessel; not improbably both." 66 Meantime it had been determined that the king himself in person, with an army royal, should invade what was called "his realm of France," with fire and sword. The archbishop of Canterbury, who in his office of lord chancellor opened the session, began his speech with the text, Justice and mercy have kissed each other;" he said, that in proclaiming war with an enemy, we ought first to examine the justness of the quarrel, and the intention of the proclaimer; and he observed, that in those who took the field and hoped for victory, it was absolutely necessary that they should walk in the ways of the Lord, and on him alone place their dependence; that every one should keep to the post he was ordered to, and that each should be contented with his pay, and abstain from all plunder. ‡ When the king's determination was made known, no man," says the chronicler §, can doubt, but that preparation was made of harness, weapons, artillery, banners, and all other things necessary for such an enterprise." But neither were preparations for defence neglected. The commons represented that the land of Bretagne and the haven of * Charnock, ii. 27. 66 + We may learn from these," says Charnock (ii. 28.), "the derivation of many terins preserved even to the present hour, though the parts con sonant to those on which the names were first bestowed have long since become so materially altered in their form, that without this, or some similar clue, we might be at a loss to trace the true cause of its first ap plication. Among these we may number the round top, the yard arm, and, rude as its form is in the painted record, and also perhaps in the original itself, the forecastle." Hall, 535. 1 Parl. Hist. i. 479. Brest lay straight opposite the south coast of Cornwall; that the French and Bretons, by reason of their fishing upon that coast, knew every haven there, and creek and landing-place, as well as any of the king's subjects; and that seeing the said county was threescore miles and ten in length, "and the substance thereof little more than six miles in breadth from the southern to the northern sea," they knew that no great number of people could speedily be collected to oppose them at their landing, and that at many of the landing-places there was neither pile, blockhouse, nor bulwark,— considerations which gave the enemy "audacity, comfort, and courage to arrive and land there." The justices and sheriffs of the county were therefore required to visit the coast from Plymouth to the Land's End; and when this was done, every mayor and constable was ordered to see that the inhabitants repaired with proper instruments to the places appointed, and there made good and substantial bulwarks, brays, walls, ditches, and all other fortifications needful. The same precautions were to be taken to the eastward, wherever the local authorities should deem them necessary. Such works might be made upon any man's ground, of what estate or degree soever, and stones, turf, and heath taken for the purpose, without any compensation.* Such precautions were not uncalled for. The French king, after the last disastrous action, had sent for the most experienced of his naval commanders from the Mediterranean. The English say that he was a knight of Rhodes, and call him Prior John; he was a Gascon gentleman †, Pierre Jean le Bidoulx by name. He brought with him four "galleys of force, with divers foists and row-galleys, so well ordinanced and trimmed that the like had not been seen in these parts before his coming." The "great navy which the French had prepared, and which was so well furnished in all things, that no doubt it was a wonder to see," was lying in Brest harbour, * 4 Hen. VIII. s. i. + Captain Pregent, Du Bellay calls him; Pregent, the editor of the me moirs says, signifying, in the use of those times, Pierre Jean. |