October sent over Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, with a squadron conveying a considerable body of troops, to occupy the place.[1]
France at once declared all English ships good prize, so long as Elizabeth held Le Hâvre. The queen replied by declaring all French ships good prize also. In this informal war the English privateers made immense gains at sea.[2] One Francis Clarke, for example, by means of three vessels which he had fitted out, captured no fewer than eighteen ships, valued at £50,000, within three weeks.[3] But the English privateers, like the French ones, soon developed piratical tendencies; it became necessary to restrain their operations by proclamation, and an embassy was sent to France to excuse their practices.[4] Sir William Woodhouse, with a small squadron, composed of the Lion, Hope, Hart, Swallow, and Hare, was sent to sea to repress piracy, and at the same time to render such aid as might be possible to the Huguenots; and he seems to have cruised with success, lying at intervals at Portsmouth, during the winter.[5]
But Elizabeth was soon deserted by her protégés. On March 12th, 1563, the French Protestant and Catholic leaders concluded peace at Amboise; and, as the English continued to hold Le Hâvre, formal war between France and England was declared on July 7th, and the re-united parties combined to press with equal energy the siege of the town, under the direction of the Constable Anne de Montmorenci. Warwick held out until the 28th, a fleet of sixty sail, sent to succour him, arriving only in time to carry off his forces. The campaign was put an end to on April 11th, 1564,[6] by the Treaty of Troyes.[7] In virtue of this, the French queen-mother agreed to pay 120,000 crowns to England; free trade between the two countries was conceded; and French hostages in English hands were released.
Late in 1566, a little trading expedition, under George Fenner,
- ↑ Strype, i. 367; Forbes's Coll. S. P. ii.: Burleigh's Diary (Murdin), 753, 754; Leonard. ii. 571. Eleven small French vessels were taken in the port.
- ↑ Camden, i. 94; Speed, 835; Holinshed, ii. 1196.
- ↑ Stowe, 653.
- ↑ Camden, 'Ann.' i. 98.
- ↑ S. P. (Haynes), 304; S. P. (Forbes), ii. 171: Stowe, 652; Strype, i. 367; Holinshed, ii. 1197.
- ↑ This year John Hawkyns made his second voyage to the West Indies. See Chap. XVI.
- ↑ 'Fœdera,' xv. 640.
