1557.

Baron in the person of Sir John Sturton, created Lord Sturton AN. REG.4, in the twenty-sixth of King Henry VI., and now upon the point of expiring in the person of Charles Lord Sturton, condemned and executed with four of his servants on the sixth of March, for the murder of one Argal and his son, with whom he had been long at variance2. It was his first hope that the murder might not be discovered, and for that cause had buried the dead bodies fifteen foot under ground; his second, that by reason of his zeal to the Popish religion, it might be no hard matter to procure a pardon. But the murder was too foul to be capable of any such favour, so that he was not only adjudged to die, but condemned to be hanged. It is reported of Marcus Antonius, that, having vanquished Artavasdes3, King of Armenia, he led him bound in chains to Rome, but, for his greater honour, and to distinguish him from the rest of the prisoners, in chains of gold': and such an honour was vouchsafed to this noble murderer, in not being hanged, as his servants and accomplices were, in a halter of hemp, but in one of silk. And with this fact the family might have expired, if the Queen, having satisfied justice by his execution, had not consulted with her mercy for the restoring of his next heir both in blood and honour.

1 Dugdale, ii. 229.

2 Stow, 630. Godwin, Ann. 192. Comp. Strype, Eccl. Mem. I. c. xlviii. Machyn, 355. The name was Hartgill.

Edd. 1, 2, "Artanasdes."

4 "Artanasdem [Artavasden] Armeniæ Regem, fraude deceptum, catenis, sed, ne quid honori deesset, auræis vicit [aureis vinxit] Antonius." Vell. Paterc. [ii. 82.] Author. [This quotation is omitted in ed. 3.]

AN. REG.5, 1557.

ANNO REGNI MAR. 5,

ANNO DOM. 1557, 1558.

War in
France.

1.

WE must begin this year with the success of those

forces which were sent under the command of the Earl of Pembroke to the aid of Philip; who, having made up an army of thirty-five thousand foot and twelve thousand horse, besides the forces out of England, sat down before St Quintin, the chief town of Piccardy; called by the Romans Augusta Veromanduorum, and took this new name from St Quintin, the supposed tutelary saint and patron of it;-a town of principal importance to his future aims, as being one of the keys of France on that side of the kingdom, and opening a fair way even to Paris itself. For the raising of which siege, the French King sends a puissant army under the command of the Duke of Montmorancy, then Lord High Constable of France, accompanied with the flower of the French nobility. On the 10th day of August the battles join, in which the French were vanquished and their army routed: the Constable himself, the Prince of Mantua, the Dukes of Montpensier and Longuaville, with six others of the prime nobility, and many others of less note, being taken prisoners; the Duke of Anguien, the Viscount Turin, four persons of honourable rank, most of the foot captains, and of the common soldiers to the number of 2500, slain upon the place1. The news whereof struck such a terror in King Henry II., that he was upon the point of forsaking Paris and retiring into Languedock, or some other remote part of his dominions; in the suddenness of which surprise he dispatched his couriers for recalling the Duke of Guise out of Italy, whom he had sent thither at the Pope's instigation with a right puissant army for the conquest of Naples. But Philip, knowing better how to enjoy than to use his victory, continued his siege before St Quintin, which he stormed on the 18th of that month, the

1

Stow, 631. The Escurial was built in memory of the victory of St Quentin. Robertson, Hist. Charles V., iii. 117.

7

24

1557.

Lord Henry Dudley, one of the younger sons of the Duke of AN. REG. 5, Northumberland (who lost his life in the assault) together with Sir Edward Windsor, being the first that scaled the walls and advanced their victorious colours on the top thereof1. After which gallant piece of service, the English, finding some neglect at the hands of Philip, humbly desire to be dismissed into their country; which for fear of some further inconvenience was indulged unto them. By which dismission of the English (as Thuanus and others have observed) King Philip was not able with all his Spaniards to perform any action of importance in the rest of the war2.

lose Calais.

2. But the English shall pay dearly for this victory, which The English the Spaniard bought with no greater loss than the lives of fifty of his men. The English at that time were possessed of the town of Calais, with many other pieces and forts about, as Guisness, Hamne3, Ardres, &c., together with the whole territory called the County Oye; the town by Cæsar called Portus Iccius, situate on the mouth or entrance of the English Channel, opposite to Dover, one of the five principal havens in those parts of England, from which distant not above twenty-five miles :—a town much aimed at for that reason by King Edward the Third, who, after a siege of somewhat more than eleven months, became master of it anno 1347; by whom first made a colony of the English nation, and after one of the staple towns for the sale of wool. Kept with great care by his successors, who, as long as they had it in their possession, were said to carry the keys of France at their girdle; esteemed by Philip de Comines for the goodliest captainship in the world1; and therefore trusted unto none but persons of most eminent rank both for courage and honour. A town which for more than 200 years had been such an eye-sore to the French, and such a thorn in their sides, that Monsieur de Cordes, a nobleman who lived in the reign of King Lewis the Eleventh, was

"Eo factum plerique putant, ut post prosperos adeò successus majoris molis negotium Philippus minime tentaverit, et dissolvi sensim exercitum passus sit." Thuan. xix. 11. (tom. i. p. 660.)

3 Edd. 1, 2. "Fanim." Ed. 3. "Hames."

"La plus belle capitainerie du monde, à mon advis, au moins de la Chrétienté." Mem. de Comines, 1. iii. c. 4.

[HEYLYN, II.]

P

1557.

AN. REG. 5, wont to say that he could be content to lie seven years in hell, upon condition that this town were regained from the English1. But the French shall have it now at an easier rate: the Queen had broke the peace with France, and sent a considerable body of forces to the aid of Philip, but took no care to fortify and make good this place; as if the same garrison which had kept it in a time of peace had been sufficient to maintain it also in a time of war.

3. For so it happened that Francis of Lorain, Duke of Guise, one of the best soldiers of that age, being called back with all his forces from the war of Italy, and not well pleased with the loss of that opportunity which seemed to have been offered to him for the conquest of Naples, resolved of doing somewhat answerable unto expectation, as well for his own honour as the good of his country. He had long fixed his eyes on Calais, and was informed by Senarpont, governor of Bulloign, and by consequence a near neighbour to it, that the town was neither so well fortified nor so strongly garrisoned but that it might be taken without any great difficulty. For confirmation whereof, Monsieur d' Strozzie, one of the Marshals of France, under the favour of a disguise, takes a view of the place, and hearteneth on the Duke with the feasibility of the undertaking. Philip, who either had intelligence of the French designs, or otherwise rationally supposing what was like to follow in the course of war, had often advised the Queen to have a care of that piece, and freely offered his assistance for defence thereof. But the English,-over-wisely jealous lest 2 Philip had a practice on it, it lying commodiously for his adjoining Netherlands,-neglected both his advice and proffer. Nay, so extremely careless were the Council of England in looking to the preservation and defence of this place, that, when the Duke sate down before it, there was not above 500 soldiers, and but two hundred fighting men amongst the townsmen, although the whole number of inhabitants amounted 1557-8. to 4200 persons. On New-year's day the Duke of Guise sate down before it, and on Twelfth-day had it surrendered up unto him by the Lord Deputy Wentworth, who had the chief command and government of it. The noise of the thundering cannon, heard as far as Antwerp, could not but rouse the Holinshed, iii. 495.

1557-8.

drowsy English to bethink themselves of some relief to be sent AN. REG. 5, to Calais; and they accordingly provided both ships and men to perform that service. But the winds were all the while so strong and so cross against them, that, before the English ships could get out of their havens, the French were masters of the town. Some greater difficulty found the Duke in the taking of the castle of Guisness, where the Lord Gray, a valiant and expert soldier, had the chief command. But at length the accessories followed the same fortune with the principal; both Guisness and Hamne and all the other pieces in the county of Oye being reduced under the power of the French within few days after1.

regained.

4. There now remained nothing to the crown of England Sark lost and of all its ancient rights in France, but the Islands of Guernsey and Jersey, Sark and Aldernay, all lying on the coast of Normandy, of which Dukedom heretofore accounted members. Held by the English ever since the time of the Norman Conquest, they have been many times attempted by the French, but without success; never so much in danger of being lost as they were at this present. Some of the French had well observed, that the island of Sark (an island of six miles in compass) enjoyed the benefit of a safe and commodious haven, but without any to defend it but a few poor hermits whom the privacy and solitariness of the place had invited thither. The island round begirt with rocks, lying aloft above the sea, and having only one strait passage or ascent unto it, scarce capable of two abreast. Of this island the French easily possessed themselves, dislodged the hermits, fortify the upper part of the ascent with some pieces of ordnance, and settle a small garrison in it to defend the haven. But long they had not nested there, when by a gentleman of the Netherlands, one of the subjects of King Philip, it was thus regained:-The Flemish gentleman with a small bark came to anchor in the road, and, pretending the death of his merchant, besought the French that they might bury him in the chapel of that island, offering a present to them of such commodities as they had aboard. To this request the French were easily entreated, upon condition that they should not come to shore with any weapon, no not so much as a pen-knife. This leave obtained, the Flemings2 rowed 1 Stow, 632. Godwin, Ann. 195-6. 2 Edd. "Flemming."