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SURREY, HIGH ADMIRAL.

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had;" another was, that if the emperor came at the time which he appointed, it was foreseen that he and the king "would be enforced to labour in Palm Sunday week; which was not convenient," said Wolsey, for princes, nor for meaner personages, but rather to be occupied in prayer and contemplation." He thought the emperor's hasty movement was intended to accelerate the king's declaration against France, which Henry was not bound to make till Charles should be in England. Wolsey's reasons were approved, and the visit was deferred for six weeks. The cardinal being less skilled in nautical affairs than in the intrigues of diplomacy, had proposed that the Peter Pomegranate* and the Mary Gonson should be despatched for the emperor; but the king was of opinion, that these ships were "of too great portage for those straits, and could not, by reason of their bigness, approach either to the one coast or to the other. The great galley and two row-barges, he thought, were better fitted for the business, and sufficient for it."+

The earl of Surrey, then high admiral of England, put to sea, "with all the king's navy," giving out that his only object was the safeguard of the emperor; but, having landed him in Spain, he made, according to his

This ship was of 400 tons' burden. Four years later, Wolsey writes thus concerning this ship to sir Thomas More. "It is somewhat to my marvel that the king's highness maketh_difficulty for the lending of the Peter Pumgarnet to the ambassador of France, considering the manifold good deserts of the said ambassador, and the great profit and commodity that shall arise unto his grace thereby. It is not to be suspected that she may be used against the king's highness in any hostility, considering that the sureties shall be bound as well for that point, as for her redelivery at the year's end, and that there is more likeness of stricter conjunction with France, than of any breach. And whereas your letter purporteth that the king may have 500 marks for the loan of the said ship, besides the advan tage of his customs of his own subjects: thereto it is to be considered, that the customs of the strangers amounteth far above the customs of his own subjects; for, for 1007. paid by the Englishmen, the stranger payeth 9007. Besides this, I suppose if the king have, for the loan of her, 500 marks, his grace must, at his own cost and charge, new rigg, trim, and tackle her, which, percase, would surmount the sum of the said 500 marks; whereas the ambassador offereth to do the same at his own proper expense.' State Papers, 174.

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+In a report of this year's date, the great galley is said to be of portage 800 tons. Charnock (ii. 108.) observes, that its name never occurs in any other place. He had not seen Dr. Sampson's letter (now printed in the State Papers); and I suspect that the amount of tonnage in the report, as he has stated it, must either have been miswritten or misread.

Holinshed, 94, 95. 97.

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instructions, for the coast of Bretagne; commanded "the wisest masters and mariners" to buoy the haven of Morlaix, and moored his whole fleet in that haven the next night. All men were then commanded "to harness," and to advance their standards; and all soldiers to give their attendance to their captain; fourteen falcons were landed, and drawn forth by strength of men; and Surrey, at the head of about 7000 soldiers, marched towards the town in good order of battle, with banners displayed. July The alarm soon spread, and "the gentlemen of the country showed themselves pricking; but when they heard the guns, they fled," says the chronicler, they had never used war." Morlaix was five long miles from the landing place; the inhabitants had closed their gates, and “laid ordnance where was most jeopardy;" and the contest was carried on by the archers on one side, and the arbalasters on the other; but the master gunner, Christopher Morrice, who had brought three falcons against one of the gates, and saw that it was well defended with haebusses, cried, "Have at the wicket, and in the smoke of the guns let us enter!" A well-aimed shot struck the lock, the wicket flew open, and through the smoke the assailants entered, put the defendants to flight, and opened the great gate for their companions. When the Bretons on the walls saw that the town was entered, they fled, each as he could. Surrey displayed his banner in the market-place, and called to him certain squires, whom, for their hardiness and noble courage, he made knights. As the gentlemen suffered the soldiers to do what they would, they fell to pillaging the chests and warehouses of the merchants, for the town was very rich, and “specially in linen cloth." When they had "taken their pleasure of the town, and laden themselves with as much, for a truth, or more, than they could bear away, the lord admiral commanded the trumpets to blow, and all men to set fire to all parts of the town, the holy places excepted; the fair market-place," says Hall, was set on fire, and the suburbs burnt ardently." They were

66

SIR WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM.

193 then ordered to their standards; burnt houses and vil lages as they withdrew; lay that night ashore, as if braving the enemy; and the next day, with honour (such honour as such an exploit may be thought to deserve), they took to their ships, with little or no loss. They burnt some sixteen vessels in the haven; then proceeded to St. Pol de Leon, anchored before it, and, when they attempted to land, found the Bretons too strong for them, so that all they could do there was to burn one ship of 200 tons and some smaller craft. The whole fleet next sailed into Brest haven, where the boats landed, and set some houses on fire near the castle. This wasteful war Surrey continued for more than a fortnight, till he was recalled to the Isle of Wight. "The king commended him greatly for his pains and hardiness, and praised his guard, especially fifty of them who abstained from pilfering, and never went from the lord captain.”

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Soon after the imperial visit, a Spanish fleet had arrived at Portsmouth: the force consisted of 4000 men embarked in sixteen ships, well equipped, and "with five months and a half of wages.' Meantime the French had not been remiss in their preparations : it was known from some prisoners, whom the Rye-men had taken at the commencement of hostilities, that they had eighteen or nineteen ships ready to sail from Havre de Grace (then called the New Haven) and from Dieppe, with the intention either of attacking Jersey, or Guernsey, or of landing 2000 adventurers in Scotland. It was proposed that the Spanish admiral, Lestano, should send some part of his fleet to sea, to form a junction with the English vice-admiral, sir William Fitzwilliam, and perform some great exploit upon the expedition on its voyage northward. But the Spaniards were slow in their proceedings; and when Fitzwilliam, some two months afterwards, was about to make an attempt against the enemy's force in Boulogne, his fleet suffered so greatly in a storm that few or none of the ships could be refitted for any service that year, either for *Hall, 644. Holinshed, 678.

guarding the passage, or annoying the French in their fishery. The first was an object of considerable moment, inasmuch as an English army had taken the field from Calais; the other was deemed so, Wolsey being of opinion, that "to keep the Frenchmen from their fishery was one of the greatest annoyances and displeasures that could be done unto them." Such was the temper in which war was carried on in that age; projects of extensive ambition were entertained, and yet petty mischief was pursued with as much eagerness as if it were to affect the issue of the contest. Gonson, therefore, (who was afterwards surveyor of the navy,) was ordered to take such small ships as could be found at Calais and the Cinque Ports, and with these, and such as had escaped the storm, to guard the passage, and "impeach the fishery," till a force should be prepared, "for the tuition of the sea," that winter.* A. D. In the following year, the senseless project of de1523. stroying the haven at Calais was renewed; the French supposing that, if this were effected, they should easily take the town "for fault of rescue." The scheme was craftily designed and executed: they loaded an old ship of 400 tons "with great Caen stone," in the port of Dieppe, and brought her out with a foresail and no masts; so that, as she came before Calais, all who saw her supposed "she had been weather-driven, and had May lost her mast by tempest." It was about ten at night when she came to the mouth of the harbour, as if making thither for shelter; but she missed the channel, and turned to the sands towards Risebank, when the men on board, supposing that they were in the very channel, set her on fire, took to their boats, and so escaped by the shore. The people in Calais saw the fire, and were moved with compassion for the supposed sufferers. When the tide fell, they perceived the ship consumed, and the goodly Caen stones lying whole. They were speedily removed into the town, and the lord deputy, and the other lords in office at Calais, sent by their pursuivant

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* State Papers, 98, 99, 100.-12. 21. 23.

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a letter to the captain of Boulogne, desiring him to communicate their thanks to M. Lodowyk, captain of Di ́eppe, for sending so fair a ship and so much goodly stone to Calais. The stone, they said, they had taken into the town, where it was of much use to them for the fortifications; and, if the French would send more, they would gladly receive it at the same price.*

At this time Albany, the regent of Scotland, who had gone to France to solicit men, money, and stores for the war against England, was preparing to return with the reinforcements which he had obtained. Fitzwilliam was therefore sent with a fleet of thirty-six sail to watch the French coast, while one smaller squadron cruised in the western, and another in the northern seas. Impatient of inaction while he hovered on the coast, Fitzwilliam and his captains determined upon a descent, that they might " do some harm to Treport," which was the seaport of the neighbouring town of Eu. Their intention was perceived; the townsmen fired the beacons, aid came to them in good time from all the fortresses in that quarter, and they erected bulwarks to defend the landing. Nevertheless the English persisted in their design: 700 men made for the shore in their boats; and though the French "shot out ordnance, quarrels, and stones," they made good their landing, stormed their bulwarks, and, crying "St. George! to the gates of Treport!" pursued the fugitives. Morrice, the master-gunner, was neither so fortunate nor so well provided as he had been at Morlaix: he attempted to force an entrance by using a broken mast, which he found by the way, as a battering ram. Anthony Knivett and Francis Newdigate, with their men, ran with it to the gate; but the gate was so strong that it could not be broken, and "at every loop lay a piece o1 ordnance," which was well plied, so that the assailants found it expedient to retreat. They set fire to the

suburbs, "which was a fair street, and all was burnt." While the flames were raging there, they made for the

* Hall, 658. Holinshed, 687.

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