1
CSP Spain
, vol. 2, p.165.
4
Henry commissioned a translation of the life of Henry V in 1513 by Titus Livius who urged the king to emulate his predecessor (see
First English Life of King Henry the Fifth . .
. , Charles Kingsford (ed.), Oxford, 1911, p.4). In December 1509, the Doge and Senate of Venice, in vainly urging Henry to attack France while her troops were devastating Venetian possessions on the Italian mainland, pointed out that an English invasion would be ‘so great an opportunity for the conquest of a crown whose title he bears’ and that an expedition against ‘his capital and natural enemy, the King of France’ would win him ‘as much praise and glory as have ever fallen to the lot of any other King of England’ (
CSP Venice
, vol. 2, p.24).
6
BL Cotton MS
Titus B I
, f.104v; reprinted in Allen & Allen,
Letters of Richard Fox
, p.54.
7
Allen & Allen, ibid., p.54.
8
Hughes & Larkin, no. 61, pp.83 – 4. Its preamble referred to the ‘peace which, blessed by Jesus, has long continued in this his realm’ and acknowledged that Englishmen ‘be not so well appointed and provided with horse, harness [armour] and weapons convenient for the war as they have in the time past’.
9
Scarisbrick,
Henry VIII
, p.28.
11
LP Henry VIII
, vol. 1, 2nd ed., p.400.
12
TNA SP 1/2/40. Letter from Warham to Darcy, 24 March 1511.
13
Hall, p.522. Ferdinand met some of the cost of the expedition and Henry forgave a loan of £1,000 to Darcy, but he was still financially embarrassed. In January 1514, he complained to Wolsey of his penury, saying that the Spanish expedition and his subsequent military service in France had cost him £4,000 and he was forced to sell his lands and plate ‘but only the king [and Wolsey] shall know it’. Loyally, he
volunteered for more military service: ‘I was never so meet [ready] for any business and in my life my purse never so weak’ (TNA SP 1/7/80).
14
LP Henry VIII
, vol. 1, 2nd ed., p.449. The papal galleys carrying over this cargo were to collect English tin with which to roof St Peter’s in the Vatican.
15
‘Sanuto Diaries’, vol. 5, xiv, pp.334ff.
16
Scarisbrick,
Henry VIII
, pp.29 and 326.
17
Henry hired German mercenaries to stiffen his forces. In March 1512, one of his Spears, Guyote de Heull, was paid £13 6s 8d for ‘retaining Almains [Germans] for the war’; the soldiers were paid four pence a day and their two captains four shillings. Payments of £40,000 were made to John Daunce, treasurer, for ‘the wars’ in February 1513 and a further £51,000 for the ‘victualling and conveying over sea of the army’.
18
From the thirteenth century, the Church taught that those who died without sin – predominantly saints – were believed to enter Heaven immediately after dying. Those who died in mortal sin went straight to Hell. Unbaptised souls were held in Limbo. The souls who still had sins to atone for were held in Purgatory until Judgement Day, unless they worked out their penance in the interim, in which case they too entered Heaven. Indulgences promised a reduced time in Purgatory, normally measured in days and months.
19
‘Sanuto Diaries’, vol. 5, xiv, p.239.
21
William Knight to Wolsey, King’s Almoner; ‘from our pavilions beside Reinteria, Ipusqua, 14 June 1512’ (
LP Henry VIII
, vol. 1, 2nd ed., p.362).
22
Scarisbrick,
Henry VIII
, p. 29. Wolsey reported to Fox in August 1512 that a Spaniard – ‘a man full of words’ – had ‘lately come to the king … excusing [Ferdinand] his master that his army has not joined with [Henry’s] army hitherto, alleging that the danger of Navarre … [was] the cause of this long delay’ (see Allen & Allen,
Letters of Richard Fox
, p.57).
23
LP Henry VIII
, vol. 1, 2nd ed., pp.571 – 2.
24
Fuentarrabia, a city and port on the mouth of the River Bidassoa, near the French frontier.
25
Thomas, Lord Howard, to Wolsey; 8 July 1512 (TNA SP 1/2/119).
26
‘The flux’ was dysentery, which is spread through food contaminated with human faeces and was common in areas of poor sanitation.
29
John Stile to Henry VIII; 5 August 1512 (BL
Vespasian CI
, ff.65 – 77).
30
Dr William Knight to Wolsey; Fuentarrabia, 5 August 1512 (BL
Vespasian C I
, f.79).
31
Dr William Knight to Wolsey; San Sebastian, 4 October 1512 (BL
Vespasian CI
, f.81).
32
J. S. Brewer, vol. 1, p.20.
33
The Guyenne region corresponds to the modern
département
of Gironde.
34
CSP Spain
, vol. 2, pp.68 – 9.
35
Poynings to Henry VIII; Brussels, 14 October 1512 (BL
Galba B III
, f.51).
36
Henry VIII to Poynings and other ambassadors, November 1512 (BL
Galba B III, f.54).
37
Martin de Muxica to Ferdinand of Spain; London, 19 November 1512 (BL Add. MS 32,091, f.92).
38
LP Henry VIII
, vol. 1, 2nd ed., p.578.
39
Hall, p.525; Hutchinson,
House of Treason
, p.7.
40
Mary Rose
, 600 tons, and her sister ship
Peter Pomegranate
, 450 tons, were laid down in January 1510 and completed in the summer of the following year. They were the first English warships to be fitted with gun ports (Moorhouse, p.106).
41
St Lawrence was a priest who was martyred by the Roman Emperor Valerian in AD 258, traditionally by being roasted on a gridiron.
42
A carrack was a large merchant ship armed for naval operations.
44
Hutchinson,
House of Treason
, p.8.
45
Allen & Allen,
Letters of Richard Fox
, p.58.
47
Three days later, Howard’s body was recovered from the sea by the French. It was disembowelled, embalmed and buried nearby. His gold whistle also washed up and was found. It was sent to the French queen, Anne of Brittany, in Paris and his armour given to Princess Claude as a war trophy. In his will, Howard had left the whistle to Henry VIII.
48
BL Cotton MS
Caligula D VI
, ff.106 – 7.
50
BL Cotton MS
Caligula B IV
, f.76 and Doran, p.74.
51
BL Cotton MS
Caligula B IV
, f.83.
52
Scarisbrick,
Henry VIII
, p.33.
53
‘Sanuto Diaries’, vol. 5, xv, p.305; London, 18 September 1512.
54
A first payment of 35,000 crowns (£8,750) was due to Maximilian within one month of his declaration of war on France and a similar amount fell due once he began hostilities. A further 30,000 crowns were payable after three months of fighting (
LP Henry VIII
, vol. 1, 2nd ed., p.940).
55
CSP Spain
, vol. 2, pp.79 – 82. The treaty cementing the attack plans is in BL Cotton MS
Vespasian C VI
, f.375.
56
Allen & Allen,
Letters of Richard Fox
, p.70.
57
LP Henry VIII
, vol. 1, 2nd ed., p.637.
59
LP Henry VIII
, vol. 1, 2nd ed., p.919.
60
Hughes & Larkin, nos.65 – 8, pp.94 – 101.
61
BL Cotton MS
Vitellius B II
, f.34.
62
‘Sanuto Diaries’, vol. 5, xviii, p.445.
63
Hughes & Larkin, no.69, p.101. The previous August, Sir Edward Poynings (who had succeeded Henry as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports) was ordered to muster forces ‘when required’ to defend against the ‘expected invasion of the French’ and to erect warning beacons and maintain watches along the Channel shoreline (TNA SP 1/2/146).
65
There was no trial, although the earl had been attainted in 1504.
66
BL Cotton MS
Faustina E VII
, f.6. Stowe MS 692, f.12 provides the names of the commanders of the three divisions.
68
Grafton, vol. 2, p.269.
69
Hatfield House MS CP 147/1.
70
BL Cotton MS
Cleopatra B V
, f.64. The gunfire was heard across the Channel in Dover, twenty-two miles (35.41 km) away.
72
Carew (1464 – 1513) was another of Henry VII’s loyalists who fought with him at Bosworth (where he was knighted) and drove Perkin Warbeck from Exeter in 1497.
73
BL Cotton MS
Cleopatra BV
, f.64.
74
A contemporary sketch of Calais can be found in BL Cotton MS
Augustus I III
, f.70.
77
BL Cotton MS
Cleopatra B V
, ff.64 – 95.
78
Hughes & Larkin, no.73, pp.106 – 21.
79
Bill men were armed with a variety of long pointed, hooked, spiked and bladed staff or hafted weapons, including partisans, glaives, gisarmes, lugged spears and halberds, some of which were probably developed from agricultural tools. They were particularly useful for infantry in defending against cavalry attacks, but were equally efficacious in hand-to-hand combat on foot.
80
BL Lansdowne MS 818, f.2v. As the troops were falling in, some of the cavalry’s horses stampeded and the Captain of the Royal Guard, Sir Henry Marney, had his leg broken when his horse kicked out. Several other gentlemen were hurt.
81
BL Cotton MS
Cleopatra B V
, ff.64 – 95.
82
Shakespeare,
Henry V
, Act 4, prologue, line 47.
83
BL Cotton MS
Caligula D VI
, f.92.