Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

haven; and being unable, owing to the state of the tide, to bring out seven fair ships which were lying there, they set fire to them and reimbarked, carrying off twenty-seven pieces of good cannon from the bulwarks, not without imminent hazard of losing those who were the last on shore ; nor "without some loss and damage of men both hurt and slain; as it often happeneth," says Holinshed, "where those who are unadvisedly assailed are found not unprovided." The king, however, was singularly well contented with this valiant acquittal of Fitzwilliam and his company, as a thing much redounding to the honour of his grace and the nation, with high reproach and rebuke of his enemies ;" and he directed that letters of thanks might be sent them; "by which they might, to their comfort and for their courage, understand how acceptable their good service was to him." Soon afterwards Fitzwilliam got sight of twelve French ships, aboard one of which was the archbishop of Glasgow, with other persons of rank: he chased them into a French harbour; two were lost, and Albany relanded his stores, and spread a report that the expedition was deferred till the spring. Deceived thereby, the English admiral returned to his own port, and Albany then put to sea, and effected his passage safely.*

The English were more alert in annoying the enemy's coast than in protecting their own. Six well. appointed French ships met with the Katharine galley off the coast; the galley was only of forty tons, and many of the crew ashore: but the captain, "one John Mariner, so encouraged his men, that all fear was set aside; and ever as the Frenchmen approached they beat them off with arrows and fighting, and still they continued from four in the morning till nine. By that time she had spent her arrows with shooting, and her bills with hewing, and her pikes with keeping them off from coming aboard; and almost all the company were sore hurt, and the captain wounded to the death." Then, having no other remedy, they sought to escape; and captain Mark❤

Hall, 660. Holinshed, 687. Pinkerton, 222. State Papers (Sir T. More to Wolsey), 125.

[blocks in formation]

ham, of the bark of Sandwich, seeing the chase, manfully called his men out of Sandwich haven, and made, with a fair wind, to the assistance of the galley. When the enemy left their pursuit, and prepared to attack him, he comforted his men, and made the quarters of his ship defensible. "The French set on fiercely, and their tops were higher than the top of the English ship. Out went the ordnance, quarrel, and darts of the French; the English shot fiercely again, and when the French proffered to enter, beat them off with bills." At length the enemy with a great gun beat down the top of the bark, and slew those who manned it; lastly they struck down her mast. The conflict had now continued from ten of the clock till two. Markham strove then to regain the harbour, "and ever the English shot arrows while they had any left." The enemy durst not enter, till the arrows were all spent, so that they came aboard all at once and entered her. No action was ever maintained against greater odds; and the French, when they carried the bark into Dieppe, said they had never bought prize so dearly; it cost them twenty-seven in slain, and eighty sore hurt: the number of English who fell was twenty-three.* Soon afterwards four French ships chased the Rye fisher-boats to the very shore, and were repulsed when they landed with intent to carry them off. Some English men of war came up as they were departing, and two of the enemy were captured.†

A. D.

It was surprising, at a time when maritime war was confined to predatory attacks upon the coast, that 1527. points of considerable importance should have been left without due means of defence. When Wolsey, on his return from the Continent, landed at Dover, "he found it in no little disorder," he said, "and for lack of reparation in marvellous decay, clearly unfurnished of timber, stone, board, and of every other thing requisite; greatly unpurveyed of victual, and the poor soldiers far behind, and unpaid of their wages." Wolsey's unstable politics had now changed: he repre

* Hall, 673.

+ Ib. 674.

State Papers, 123.

sented to Henry that the wars between England and France "had been in a manner the ruin of both realms ;" and that the perpetual peace which by the king's high wisdom and providence was now to ensue, would be to his "eternal honour, glory, and renown, and to the repose, enriching, and tranquillity of his realm and his subjects for ever. "'* The king was easily guided by a minister who had not yet been shaken in his favour, and war was declared against the emperor as the first consequence of a new alliance with France. But this was a most unpopular measure; with the common people, because "the emperor's dominions had holpen them with corn, and relieved them with grain," whereas they could have little or none from France: with the merchants and clothiers, because all broadcloths, kerseys, and cottons † lay on their hands, insomuch that when the clothiers of Essex, Kent, Wiltshire, Suffolk, and other shires that used clothmaking, brought cloth into Blackwell Hall, in London, to be sold, as they were wont, few merchants or none bought any. When the clothiers lacked sale then they put from them their spinners, carders, tuckers, and such others that lived, by clothworking, which caused the people greatly to murmur, especially in Suffolk; and if the duke of Norfolk had not wisely appeased them, no doubt but they had fallen to some riotous act. The king had seized upon all ships in the ports that belonged to any of the emperor's subjects; and this was much talked of by those who frequented the emperor's dominions, and they openly said that this interruption of commercial intercourse would lead to the great loss of the respective princes; "but yet Englishmen were content to obey the king and his council." English property was in like manner seized in the Low Countries; and "if this war was displeasant to many in England, surely it was as much, or more so, to the towns and people of Flanders, Brabant, Holland, and Zeeland, and especially to Antwerp and Bruges, where the marts were kept, and where the resort of Englishmen was; † What were these?

* State Papers, 250.

INTERCOURSE WITH THE NETHERLANDS.

199

for they said that their marts were undone if the Englishmen came not there; and if there were no mart, their ships, hoys, and waggons might rest, and all artificers, hosts, and brokers might sleep, and so the people should fall into misery."

[ocr errors]

The age was past in which war brought with it no other evils than those of its direct infliction; when barbarous kings went to battle with as little reflection and as little foresight as they went to the chase, and their subjects followed them with as much alacrity to the one as the other. It was now beginning to be felt what complicated interests were affected by public disputes; and when some of those empty and rash advisers, who are often found in cabinets and councils, represented to Henry that he was strong enough and rich enough to make war upon any prince in Christendom, while no prince could hurt him by war or invasion, others more sagely set before him the extent of the emperor's dominion, who was "lord of all Spain, Naples, Sardinia, and so southward to Epuskaia(?), and north-eastward from Gravelines to Riga and Revel; so that English merchants passing on those coasts were ever in danger.” To this opinion the king, as a wise, well learned, and far-casting prince," gave ear, and, "leaving the glory of war, he took mercy on his subjects." The lady Margaret, who ruled in the Netherlands, entreated him to persevere in" his godly mind and appetite of peace; and however it might hap to fall between him and Spain, yet to consider his ancient amity, and continue his good and gracious favour towards Flanders and those Low Countries, which, of all folk living, loatheth war and to have any enmity with him and his people."+ A renewal of friendly intercourse was soon effected with those countries, both parties seeing their mutual interest so clearly; and how confidently the Flemings relied upon it was shown by an occurrence in the river Thames, such as was never heard of before or since. A French crayer of thirty tons lay at Margate, watching to make Hall, 747. State Papers, 284

* Hall, 644–646. Holinshed, 735.

66

66

prize of some Fleming that might come down the river. A crayer from Arnemuiden, which was appointed to protect the fishing-boats between Gravelines and Ostend, had come up to Gravesend to take in bread; and, having victualled, made to the seaward. Espying the French vessel, which hove toward them under a sail, the Zeelanders suspected mischief, and made themselves ready. There was little difference in the size of the vessels, the Zeelander being twenty-eight tons, but a considerable disparity in the crew; the French were thirty-eight in number, and the Zeelander only twenty-four. When they came near enough to hail the French, the Frenchman, by way of reply, “ shot a piece of ordnance, and with that laid the Fleming aboard and there was sore fighting, for the Frenchmen had cross-bows, and the Flemings had hand-guns." The French, however, when they had sufficiently tried the enemy's mettle, fell off, and would fain have been gone. "That seeing," says the chronicler," the Fleming whistled, and after the Frenchman made sail. Now, the wind was so strainable east that the Frenchman could sail no whither but into the Thames, and so he did, and the Fleming followed, and before Gravesend the Fleming boarded the Frenchman, and there they fought again; but away again went the Frenchman, and the Fleming after with all his sails; and so far sailed the Frenchman, that he ran along the Towerwharf as though he would have riven his ship; the Fleming set on, and entered the ship for any thing the Frenchman could do, and cried, I have taken the thief!' Sir Edmund Walsingham, lieutenant of the Tower, was on the wharf, and seeing them fight, called his men, and entered the ships, and took both the captains and their men. The Fleming boldly challenged his prize, for he said that open war was between France and Flanders, and said, further, that the Frenchman was a pirate. The king's counsel took up the matter, and made an end between them."*

* Hall, 748. "This chance was much talked of, that two ships should sail in chase from Margate to the Tower-wharf, because that, before time, such a like thing had never been heard."

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »