+Source.+--Holinshed, p. 847.
The same month also the Lord Lisle Admiral of England with the English
fleet entered the mouth of the Seine, and came before Newhaven, where
a great navy of the Frenchmen lay, to the number of a two hundred
ships, and six and twenty gallies, whereof the Pope (as was reported)
had sent twenty well furnished with men and money to the aid of the
French king.
The Englishmen being not past an hundred and threescore sail, and all
great ships, determined not to set upon the Frenchmen where they lay:
but yet approaching near unto them, shot off certain pieces of
ordinance at them, and thereby caused the gallies to come abroad,
which changed shot again with the Englishmen.
The gallies at the first had great advantage, by reason of the great
calm.
Thrice either part assaulted other with shot of their great artillery,
but suddenly the wind rose so high, that the gallies could not endure
the rage of the seas, and so the Englishmen for fear of flats were
compelled to enter the main seas and so sailed unto Portsmouth where
the King lay, for he had knowledge of his espials that the Frenchmen
intended to land in the Isle of Wight, wherefore he repaired to that
coast, to see his realm defended.
After this, the eighteenth of July the admiral of France Monseiur
Danebalte hoisted up sails, and with his whole navy came forth into
the seas, and arrived on the coast of Sussex before Bright
Hamsteed,[69] and set certain of his soldiers on land to burn and
spoil the country: but the beacons were fired and the inhabitants
thereabouts came down so thick that the Frenchmen were driven to fly
with loss of divers of their numbers; so that they did little hurt
there. Immediately thereupon they made to the point of the Isle of
Wight, called Saint Helen's point, and there in good order upon their
arrival they cast anchors, and sent daily sixteen of their gallies to
the very haven of Portsmouth. The English navy lying there in the same
haven, made them ready, and set out toward the enemies, and still the
one shot hotly at the other; but the wind was so calm, that the king's
ships could bear no sail, which greatly grieved the minds of the
Englishmen, and made the enemies more bold to approach with their
gallies, and to assail the ships with their shot even within the haven.
The twentieth of July, the whole navy of the Englishmen made out, and
purposed to set on the Frenchmen, but in setting forward, through too
much folly, one of the King's ships called the _Marie Rose_ was
drowned in the midst of the haven, by reason that she was overladen
with ordinance, and had the ports left open, which were very low, and
the great artillerie unbreeched so that when the ship should turn, the
water entered, and suddenly she sank. In her was Sir George Carew
knight and four hundred soldiers under his guiding. There escaped not
past forty persons of all the whole number. On the morrow after about
two thousand of the Frenchmen landed at the Isle of Wight, where one
of their chief captains named le Chevalier Daux, a Provençois, was
slain with many other, and the residue with loss and shame driven back
again to their gallies.
The King perceiving the great Armada of the Frenchmen to approach,
caused the beacons to be fired, and by letters sent into Hamptonshire,
Summersetshire, Wiltshire, and into divers other countries adjoining,
gave knowledge to such as were appointed to be ready for that purpose,
to come with all speed to encounter the enemies. Whereupon they
repaired to his presence in great numbers well furnished with armour,
weapon, vittels, and all other things necessary, so that the Isle was
garnished, and all the frontiers along the coasts fortified with
exceeding great multitudes of men. The French captains having
knowledge by certain fishermen, whom they took, that the King was
present, and so huge a power ready to resist them, they disanchored
and drew along the coast of Sussex, and a small number of them landed
again in Sussex, of whom few returned to their ships; for divers
gentlemen of the country, as Sir Nicholas Pelham, and others, with
such power as was raised, upon the sudden, took them up by the way and
quickly distressed them.
When they had searched everywhere by the coast, and saw men still
ready to receive them with battle, they turned stern, and so got them
home again without any act achieved worthy to be mentioned. The number
of the Frenchmen was great, so that divers of them that were taken
prisoners in the Isle of Wight and in Sussex did report that they were
three score thousand. The French king advertised the emperor most
untruly by letters, that his army had gotten the Isle of Wight with
the ports of Hamton, and Portsmouth, and divers other places.
[Footnote 69: _i.e._ Brighthelmstone = Brighton.]