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XVII. Copy of an Original Letter from Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of Warwick. Exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries by Peter Renouard, Esq. F.A.S. in whose Family this curious Paper has long remained
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2012
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Queen Elizabeth, in the year 1563, appointed Ambrose Dudley, earl of Warwick, (to whom this letter is addressed) “her lieutenant and captain-general of her subjects that should in any wife pass over into Normandy.” And in the month of October he landed at Newhaven (Havre de Grace) with a body of three thousand English troops. He employed every means for putting it in a posture of defence, and was successful in several skirmislies with the enemy near the town, but was not able to retain the possession of it longer than the 28th of July following, when it was delivered up to the French, to whom it became a much eafier acquisition than was expected, in consequenee of the plague which broke out among the English soldiers, and which was afterwards brought by them to England. See Holinshed's Chron. Vol. III. p. 1195 to 1204, edit. 1587. Hume's Hist. Vol. V. p. 79, 8vo.
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page 201 note [a] Queen Elizabeth, in the year 1563, appointed Ambrose Dudley, earl of Warwick, (to whom this letter is addressed) “her lieutenant and captain-general of her subjects that should in any wife pass over into Normandy.” And in the month of October he landed at Newhaven (Havre de Grace) with a body of three thousand English troops. He employed every means for putting it in a posture of defence, and was successful in several skirmislies with the enemy near the town, but was not able to retain the possession of it longer than the 28th of July following, when it was delivered up to the French, to whom it became a much eafier acquisition than was expected, in consequenee of the plague which broke out among the English soldiers, and which was afterwards brought by them to England. See Holinshed's Chron. Vol. III. p. 1195 to 1204, edit. 1587. Hume's Hist. Vol. V. p. 79, 8vo.
Mr. Hume fays that “Warwick, who had frequently warned the English council of the danger, and who had loudly demanded a supply of men and provisions, found himself obliged to capitulate, and to content himself with the liberty of withdrawing his garrison. The articles were no sooner signed, than Lord Clinton, the admiral who had been detained by contrary winds, appeared off the harbour with a reinforcement of three thoufand men, and found the place surrendered to the enemy.” He adds that “Queen Elizabeth's usual vigour and forefight did not appear in this transadtion.” Hume's Hist. Vol. V. p. 80.
The following passage from Holinshed shews that the Queen kept her word in sending a speedy supply: “The fourteenth of July Sir Hugh Paulet, Knyght, landed at Newhaven, bringing with him eight hundred soldiers out of Wiltshire and Gloucestershire,” p. 1203, which was the lait supply the garrifon received;
A particular account of two skirmiihes with the Rhingrave and his soldiers on the 22d of May and the 5th of June, may be seen in Holinlhed, Vol. III. p. 1201,1202. It is probable that the latter is alluded to in this letter. The historian observes “that Englistimen verily in thys service shewed that they were nothing degenerated from the auntiente race of theyr nobile progenitors.”