When Henry VIII. having waged an inglorious war in France, was outwitted by Charles V. of Germany, and left to struggle alone with the high-minded Francis I. of France, there came one of the best recorded attacks upon the coast at Brighthelmstone. Boulogne, it is true, had been captured by the English, and was regarded as by them as "the apple of the eye;" on account of which , the Rex Fidissimus demanded from his good English subjects , a benevolence, to discharge the debts incurred by this "glorious victory."
Eager to recover Boulogne, Francis I. levied a numerous army for carrying on the siege of that city, and equipped a considerable fleet to prevent the English from succouring it by sea. This armament was put under the command of Claude D' Annebalte, High Admiral of France, who having scoured the British Channel, presented himself before the Isle of Wight.
The English fleet, under the command of Lord Lisle, the admiral, had lately entered the mouth of the Seine, and xchanged some shots with the French fleet; but in consequence of the unfavourable state of the weather, and the inability of their gallies to endure a tempestuous sea, they had returned to Portsmouth, hwere they were at anchor when the French squadron off St. Helen's Point. The King himself was present, directing the defence of the southern coast
"After this, the eighteenth of Julie, the admerale
of France, Monsieur Danebalte, hoised up sailes, and with his
whole nauie, came foorth into the seas, and arrieued on the coast of Sussex,
before Bright Hamsteed, and set certeine
of his soldiers on land to burne and spoile the countrie ; but the beacons
were fired, and the inhabitants thereabouts
came downe so thicke that the Frenchmen were driuen to flie with losse of
diuerse of their numbers, so that they did
little hurt there. Immediatlie hereupon, they made to the point of the Isle
of Wight, called St. Helen's Point, and there, in good order, upon their
arrival, they cast anchors, and sent dailie, sixteen of their gallies to
the verie hauen of Portsmouth. The English nauie lieing there in the same
hauen, made them readie, and set out toward the enimies, and
still the one shot hotlie at the other; but the winde was so calme that
the king's ships could beare no saile, which greatlie grieued the minds
of the Englishmen, and made the enemies more bold to approach with their
gallies, and to assaile the ships with their shot, euen within the hauen.
The twentith of Julie, the whole nauie of the Englishmen made out, and purposed
to set on the Frenchmen, but in
setting forward, through too much follie, one of the king's ships, called
the Marie Rose, was drowned in the middest of
the hauen, by reason that she was overladen with ordinance, and had the
ports left open, which were very low, and the
great artillery vnbreached ; so that when the ship should turne, the water
entered, and suddenlie she sunk. In this was Sir George Carew, Knight, and
four hundred soldiers under his guiding. There escaped not paste fortie
persons of the whole number. On the morrow after, about two thousand of
the Frenchmen landed in the Isle of Wight, where one of their chiefe capteins,
named ie Cheualier Daux, a Prouencois, was slaine with manie other, and
the residue, with losse and shame, driuen backe againe to their gallies.
The king perceiuing the great Armada of the Frenchmen to approach, caused
the beacons to be fired; and by letters sent into Hamptonshire, Summersetshire,
Wiltshire, and into diuers other countries adjoining, gaue knowledge to
such as were appointed to be readie for that purpose, to come with all speeede
to encounter the enimies. Whereopon they repaired to his presence in great
numbers, well furnished with armor, weapons, vittels, and all other things
necessarie; so that the isle was garneshed and all the frontiers alongest
the coasts fortified with exceeding great multitudes of men.
The French capteins having knowledge, by certain fishermen whom they took,
that the king was present, and so huge a power readie to resist them, they
disanchored, and drew along the coast of Sussex; and a small number of them
landed again in Sussex,* of whome few returned to their ships: for diurse
gentlemen of the countrie, as Sir Nicholas
Pelham, and others, with such power as was raised upon the sudden, tooke
them up by the waie, and quicklie distressed them.
When they had searched euerie where by the coast, and saw men still readie
to recciue them with battle, they turned
sterne, and so got them home againe, without anie act atchieued worthie
to be mentioned. The number of the Frenchmen was greate, so that diuerse
of them that were taken prisoners in the Isle of Wight and in Sussex, did
report that they were threescore thousand." **
* Stow says that the whole fleet removed from the Isle of Wight to Newhaven, in Sussex, and landed with a large force. This, we have no doubt, is correct; for Sir Nicholas Pelham, mentioned immediately after, is known to have been actively employed in preventing their descent at Seaford, but a few miles distant.
** Holinshed, Anno 1545
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