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england_n	earl_n	lord_n	sir_n	21,670	5	6.9416	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64847	The commentaries of Sr. Francis Vere being diverse pieces of service, wherein he had command / written by himself in way of commentary ; published by William Dillingham ...	Vere, Francis, Sir, 1560-1609.; Dillingham, William, 1617?-1689.; Dorislaus, Isaac, 1595-1649.; Ogle, John, Sir, 1569-1640.	1657 (1657)	Wing V240; ESTC R219854	108,031	242

and foot of the army was to attend at the crosse way to favour my retreat My hors-men about noon gave the enemy the alarm and according to their directions made their retreat no enemy appearing whereupon I also retired with the rest of the troop till I came to the crosse way where I found the Count Maurice with his troops In the head of which towards the way of the cawsey with some distance betwixt his troops and mine I made a stand in a little-field by the side of the way where they were at covert We had not been here half an houre but our scouts brought word the enemy was at hand which the Count Maurice's horsemen hearing without any order as every one could get formost to the number of seven or eight hundred they made withall speed towards the enemy I presumed and said they would return faster and in more disorder as it fell out for the enemy coming as fast towards them but in better order put them presently in rout and the greater the number was the more was the amazement and confusion Thus they passed by us with the enemy at their heels laying on them I knew not what other troops they had at hand nor what discouragement this sight might put into the mindes of our men and therefore whereas I purposed to have let the enemy passe if this unlooked for disorder had not happened amongst our horsemen I shewed my troops on their flanks and galled them both with shot and pikes so that they not onely left pursuing their chase but turned their backs Which our horsemen perceiving followed and thus revenged themselves to the full for they never gave over untill they had wholly defeated the troop which was of eight hundred horse of which they brought betwixt two and three hundred prisoners whereof diverse were Captains as Don Alphonso d' Aualos Fradill● and others with diverse Cornets and about five hundred horses This defeat so troubled the Duke of Parma that being so forward on his siege and having filled part of the ditch of the fort he retired his army thence and passed the river of Wael a little above Nimmeghen with more dishonour then in any action that he had undertaken in these warres The Calis-journey IN the year of our Lord one thousand five hundred ninetie six I was sent for into England at that time when the journey to the coast of Spain was resolved on which because of the taking of Calis was after commonly called the Calis-journey and returned speedily into the Low Countreys with letters of credence to the States from her Majestie to acquaint them with her Majesties purpose and to hasten the preparation of the shipping they had already promised to attend her Majesties fleet in those seas withall to let them know her Majesties desire to have two thousand of her own subjects as well of those in their pay as her own to be imployed in that action and to be conducted by me to the Earl of Essex and the Lord Admirall of England Generalls of that action by joynt commission The fleet set sail shortly after and my Lord of Essex leaving his own ship imbarqued himself in the Rainbow with my self and some few of his ordinarie attendant servants of purpose as I suppose to conferre with me at the full and at ease of his journey After two dayes sailing his Lordship landed at Beachim near Rye with diverse other Noblemen that he had attending him so far on his journey He took me along with him to the Court and thence dispatched me to Plymmouth whither most of the Land-forces were to march to see them lodged provided of necessaries and trained and ordered which I did accordingly to the great contentment of the Generalls when at their coming they saw the readinesse of the men which were then exercised before them During this stay of the armie about Plymmouth which by reason of the contrarietie of wind was near a moneth it pleased my Lord of Essex to give me much countenance and to have me alwayes near him which drew upon me no small envie in so much as some open jarres fell out betwixt Sir Walter Raleigh then Rear-admirall of the navie and Sir Conniers Clifford Sergeant-major-generall of the armie and my self which the Generall qualified for the time and ordered that in all meetings at Land I should have the precedence of Sir Walter Raleigh and he of me at Sea Sir Conniers Clifford though there were grudging there could be no competition yet being a man of a haughtie stomach and not of the greatest government or experience in Martiall discipline lest ignorance or will might mislead him in the execution of his office and to give a rule to the rest of the high officers which were chosen rather for favour then for long continuance in service to the better directing of them in their duties as also for the more readinesse in the Generall himself to judge and distinguish upon all occasions of controversie I propounded to my Lord of Essex as a thing most necessary the setting down in writing what belonged properly to every office in the field which motion his Lordship liked well and at severall times in the morning his Lordship and my self together he with his own hand wrote what my industrie and experience had made me able to deliver which was afterwards copied delivered severally to the officers and took so good effect that no question arose in that behalf during the journey The wind serving and the troop shipped I imbarqued in the foresaid Rainbow as Vice-admirall of my Lord of Essex his squadron The one and twentieth day after being as I take it the first of July the fleet arrived early in the in the morning before Calis-Malis and shortly after came to an anchor as near the Caletta as the depth would suffer us In the mouth of the Bay thwart of the rocks called Los puercos there lay to our judgement fortie or fiftie tall ships whereof were four of the kings greatest and warlikest Gallions eighteen Merchant ships of the West-Indian fleet outward bounden and richly laden the rest private Merchants Because it was thought these could not escape us in putting to fea the first project of landing our men in the Caletta went on and so the troops appointed for that purpose were imbarqued in our barges and long boats But the wind blowing hard the landing was thought too dangerous the rather for that the enemie shewed themselves on the shore with good troops of horse and foot Notwithstanding in hope the weather would calm the men were still kept in the boats at the ships sterns This day the Generalls met not together but the Lord Admirall had most of the sea officers aboard with him as the Lord of Essex had those for land service and Sir Walter Raleigh was sent to and fro betwixt them with messages so that in the end it was resolved and agreed upon to put the next tide into the Bay

that my Lord Mountjoy or any subject of England could be thrust upon him without his desire and procurement That therefore as I had good cause to judge that his Lordship had withdrawn much of his favour from me so I humbly desired his Lordship that as by a retrenchment of the condition I was to hold in this journey I held it rather a resignment to his Lordship again of the honour he had given me the last yeare so farre as concerned my particular respect to his Lordship unsought for of me then a service to him so hereafter he would be pleased not to use me at all in any action wherein he was to go chief he would seem to take these speeches of mine as proceeding rather of a passionate discontentment then of a resolution framed in cold bloud and that it would in time be digested and so without any sharpnesse on his part the matter rested The purpose and designe of this journey was to destroy the fleet that lay in Faroll by the Groyne and upon the rest of the Spanish coasts to that end to land our forces if we saw cause as also to intercept the Indian fleet Part of our land-forces were shipped at the Downs we did put into Weymouth to receive those which were to meet us there In that place the Generall called my self and Sir Walter Raleigh before him and for that he thought there remained some grudge of the last years falling out would needs have us shake hands which we did both the willinglier because there had nothing passed betwixt us that might blemish reputation From thence we went to Plymmouth and so towards Spain Where in the height of six or seven and fourty degrees we were encountred with a storme against which the whole navy strove obstinately till the greater part of the ships were distressed amongst which the Generalls mine and Sir Walter Raleighs and Sir George Caryes my main mast being in the partners rent to the very spindell which was eleven inches deep in so much as to avoid the endangering of the ship the Captain and Master were earnest with me to have cast it over-board which I would not assent unto but setting men to work brought it standing to Plymmouth and there strengthened it so that it served the rest of the voiage The Lord Thomas Howard Vice-Admirall with some few ships got within sight of the North-Cape where having plyed off and on three or four dayes doubting that the rest of the fleet was put back because it appeared not he returned also to our Coast. Our stay at Plymmouth was about a moneth more through want of wind then unwillingnesse or unreadinesse of our ships which with all diligence were repaired In the mean time our victuals consuming it was debated in Council whether the journey could be performed or no without a further supply of victuals It was judged extream dangerous and on the other side as difficult to supply the army with victuals which being to come from London and the East-parts of the Realm and be brought up at adventure there being no sufficient store in readinesse would hardly be ministred unto us so fast as we should consume them And therefore it was first resolved to discharge all the land-forces saving those thousand I brought out of the Low-countreys with the shipping they were imbarqued in Then it was further debated in Council how to employ the fleet the purpose of landing the army at the Groyne being dissolved A West-Indian voiage was propounded whereupon every one in particular being to give his advise it was assented to by them all only my self was of opinion it could not stand with the honour profit and safety of her Majestie and the State the fleet being so slenderly provided of forces and provisions that nothing could be exploited there answerable to the expectation would be generally conceived and yet in the mean time through the want of her Majesties Royall navy and other principall shipping of the Realm with the choice Commanders both for sea and land the State might be endangered by an attempt made by the Spaniards upon our own coast whom we certainly knew to have then in readinesse a great power of sea and land-forces in the North-parts of Spain Things thus handled the Lord Generall posted to the Court After his return no more speech was had of the Indian voiage but a resolution taken to attempt the firing of the fleet at Faroll and on the rest of the coast of Spain and to intercept the Indian fleet as in our discretions we should think fittest either when we came upon the coast of Spain or by going to the Islands With this resolution we set forwards directing our course to the North-Cape with reasonable wind and weather yet the fleet scattered for in a manner all the squadron of Sir Walter Raleigh and some ships of the other squadrons followed him who for a misfortune in his main-yard kept more to seaward The Lord Generall whilest he and the rest of the fleet lay off and on before the Cape attending Sir Walter Raleighs coming who with some speciall ships had undertaken this exploit of firing the fleet suddenly laid his ship by the lee which because it was his order when he would speak with other ships I made to him to know his Lordships pleasure He spake to me from the poupe saying I should attend and have an eye to his ship in which at that instant there was an extream and dangerous leak though he would not have me nor any other of the fleet know it Which leak being stopped he directed his course along the coast Southward and about ten leagues from the Groyne called a Council in which it was resolved to give over the enterprise of Faroll which as it was difficult to have been executed on a sudden so now that we had been seen by the countrey it was held impossible and not to linger upon the coast of Spain but to go directly to the Islands the time of the year now growing on that the Indian fleet usually returned And to advertise Sir Walter Raleigh diverse pinnaces were sent out that till such a day the wind and weather serving the Generall would stay for him in such a certain height and thence would make directly for the Azores At this Council his Lordship made a dispatch for England I do not well remember where Sir Walter Raleigh and the rest of the fleet met us but as I take it about Flores and Corvo the westerliest Islands of the Azores where we arrived in seven or eight dayes after we had put from the coast of Spain We stayed there some few daies and took in some refreshing of water and victuals such as they could yield which being not so well able to supply us as the other Islands it was resolved in Council to put back to them and the squadrons for the more commodity of the fleet appointed unto severall Islands The Generall with his squadron was to

yet was the bulwark it self unmountable by armed men and they might easily have been conceived to have gotten intelligence that there were thirteen Cannon in the counterscarp and other convenient places charged with chained shot and rusty iron to scowre Sand-hill if need should require Besides all this all was to be done at a running-pull for when the coming in of the tide should sound a retreat off they must or be utterly lost and they easily saw that the muskettiers in the half-moon of the counterscarp were like to give them such a welcome as would make many of them forget to return again unto the camp Notwithstanding all these great difficulties no advice of the old Captains could prevail against the obstinacy of the States of Flanders who to keep life in the siege spared not to undertake the paiment of a million of crowns to the Archduke rather then he should draw off from the town So that he took up a resolution not to stirre and as his fugitives reported once he swore that he would not rise from the table at which he sate before they of the town were made to serve him but then they on the other side laid a wager they would give it him so hot that it should burn his fingers Not long after the Lord of Chastillon met with an unhappy mischance for being upon the high bulwark of Sand-hill with Colonel Utenbruch and other Gentlemen and men of Command he had his head struck off with a Cannon-shot above the teeth and his brains dasht upon the Colonels left cheek Which possibly might receive its direction from the self-same hand that did more then once during this siege shoot a bullet into the mouth of a charged Cannon which because it would not be too long indebted for such a courtesie taking fire with the blow returned the bullet instantly back again attended with another of its own As good a marks-man was he if he did it of designe who when a souldier of the town having bought a loaf of bread was holding it up in a boasting way with a shot took away the uppermost half leaving the other in the souldiers hand who finding that he had received no hurt said it was a fair-conditioned bullet for it had left him the better half behinde however I believe he would rather have been contented with the lesser half then run the hazzard of dividing again On the nineteenth of September Generall Vere being cured of his hurt returned from Zeland into the town where he found two thousand English and twenty ensignes of French Walloons Scotch and Frisons that had arrived in his absence Soon after his arrivall he took care for the thickning and strengthening of divers of the works and uniting of those outworks on the South and West the better thereby to secure their relief and preserve them from the injury of the waters in the winter season Which the enemy perceiving and that the town grew daily stronger and stronger resolved to attempt it by treachery taking the old verse for their warrant dolus an virtus quis in hoste requirat To that purpose an English man named N. Conisby as the French diary relates who had served them long in the quality of a Captain of foot in their army returned through France into England where he prevailed so much by means of his friends that he obtained letters of recommendation to Sir Francis Vere unto whom presenting himself he desired to be admitted one of his Company which the Genenerall could not refuse he being a Gentleman and so effectually recommended This traitor having thus scrued himself into Ostend quickly began his practise for he received letters and other things weekly from the enemy giving them intelligence of all that passed within the town of the best means to annoy it managing his practises and projects according to the instructions which he received from them For the better conveyance of his letters to the enemy he carried thē into a broken boat which in the beginning of the siege had been sunk by the enemy and lay upon the dry ground betwixt the town and the camp under the colour of gratifying nature and there disposed them in a place appointed whence the enemy fetched them by night with the help of a little boat and upon certain dayes brought him answers and sometimes monie for his reward which he failed not to fetch at the place appointed When he was discovered he had drawn four men into his conspiracy among others a Serjeant who was the means of revealing it This Serjeant coming out of prison where his Captain had caused him to be laid some dayes in irons being all malecontent chanced to meet with Conisby who told him he was glad to see him out of prison withall asking him the reason of his so great and grievous punishment to whom the Serjeant railing upon his Captain sware earnestly that he would be revenged for the wrong he had received though it cost him his life Conisby supposing he had found a man fit for his purpose told him he might easily finde the means to be revenged without losing his life and with his own profit and advancement and that if he would follow his counsel he should want no monie The Serjeant began to listen to his words and seemed inclinable enough to so advantageous a designe and ready to follow his advice Whereupon Conisby having first made him swear secrecy discovered himself to him and presently asked him if he had the resolution to set fire on one of the Magazines for which purpose himself had prepared a certain invention of powder lead match this the Serjeant undertook to perform which he said could not be difficult for him to do being often sent to fetch powder for the souldiers Conisby assured him that he had practised more associates and that when he should have made the number up twenty he would then put the designe in execution which was that one of the Magazines being set on fire he would so work it as to have the guard of a sluce in a bulwark near the enemy who should then give on and be admitted into the town The Serjeant seemed to hug the device demanding onely of Conisby some assurance under his hand that he should have his recompence when the work should be performed which having once obtained away he goes to the Generall and discovers the practise to him whereupon Conisby being apprehended and put to the rack confessed all and that he came to Ostend with that purpose and intent as also what instructions and promises he had received and what complices he had made who were likewise apprehended and put in prison This plot failing the enemies onely hope of taking the town was by stopping up the haven and so hindring the coming in of supplies to this purpose the old haven on the West of the town having been made dangerous and uselesse and the defendants constrained to make a new one out of the

littore obvias habuêre Frisiorum cohortes serum et i●●ne auxilium quae neque turbatis constantiam addidêre et alieni pavioris contactu in fugam auferebantur At Verii cedentis equut pluribus in pugna vulneribus suffossus multâ tandem morte procumbens pondere herum toto cadavere implicuitineque militum quis neque famulorum praestò erat ferendae opi propè hostis aberat ferociâ ardens successu Insignem dies illa virum vidit Thomain Highamium domo non obscurum sed civis Ducisque servati gloriâ nobilem is è familia Roberti Drurii equitis Angli inter palantes Domino suo comes simul equo hosti incumbentibus subreptum Ducem imposuit in tergum equi quo Drurius vehebatur Sic advectus sub Tormenta Verius fratrem ibi reperie Horatium non indecorem fratri multis in bello Belgico palmis saepe memorandum Adstabant cum illo centuriones Angli lanienae superstites accisae reliquiae pedites trecenti lo●o certè nondum spe animis excussi ●rma quippe suprema victis solati● 〈◊〉 Hos immoto gradu consistere p●o Tormentis ipsa in hostem toto ●am ●ittore ●olita● tem explodi Verius jubet Veoterat huo for●●●a ferme eodem momen●o duas equi●●m ●urmas quarum una proprius Verii miles al●eram Balenius decurio praesens regebat acer clarus militiâ his imperat prorumpere in hostem pilarum turbine ●●●onirum misso statim fratre qui equestrem impe●um pedestri impressione subsequeretur Redîerat jam fortuna virtúsque victis tantâque vi pedi●um equitumque manus numero exigua animas ingens incubuit in hostem ut quantò ferociùs ille fiduciâ victoriae accurrerat tantò acriùs pulsus in fugam disjiceretur Ingens ibi strages plurimum sanguinis persultante planitiem equite ardente in caedem haerentésque fugacium tergis victores in fuffugia collium irrupêre planáque edita pari terrore exitio permiscebant At hostium acies quae sub signis vexillísque summa collium expertes praelii insederant admonitae periculis excitabantur nec ulturorum commilitones ille motus erat sed consulentium fibi debántque se incautos indefensos telis Verianorum qui fastigiis suis immoti in hostem apertum expofitum atroci procellâ detonabant Simul ceteri Anglorum excîti prospero clamore insigni ferociâ victoriae se miscentes incursabant nutantes hostium acies impellebántque fulgentes quidem signis sed nudatas infrequentes milite abducto jam antè attrito in subsidia pugnae sclopetariorum robore quorum locis inaequalibus praecipuus usus est Inclinatâ demum spe hostium sēcundam aciem equitem juxtà peditémque in consternatos invehi Mauritius jubet At hostis fugam circumspectans pulsu sonitúque nube ipsâ invadentium superfundebatur Tum verò atrox ubique spectaculum fugere capi vulnerare trucidari passim arma corpora laceri artus cruenta humus Fortissimus quisque ex Hispanis quantum peditum erat funduntur Rapta signa vexilláque centum viginti modico equitum sanguine Apud Mauritianos dispari fato cruentati equites duae peditum acies propè illaesae Asperrima Anglorum fortuna fuit octingenti milites in pugna occisi trucidati octo Centuriones reliqui duobus exceptis vulnerati Et ferè nemo in illis cohortibus vel ordine vel animo ante vulgus fuit quem non dies ista sicuti virtute sic teste virtutis vulnere insigniverit FINIS Adde this Page 161. after line 21. Concerning what was done within the town during the Treaty Henry Hexham gives us this further account upon his own knowledge THe next day towards evening the enemies Commissioners Cerano and Ottanes returned again Generall Vere his last entertainment of them was better then his first for he then feasted them made them the best chear he could drank many healths as the Queen of England's the King of Spain's the Archduke's Prince Maurice's and divers others and discoursed with them at the table before his brother Sir Horace Vere and the chief Officers of the town whom he had invited to keep them companie and having drunk freely led them into his own chamber and laid them in his own bed to take their rests The Commissioners going to bed the Generall took his leave of them and presently after went to the old town where he found Captain Dexter and Captain Clark with their men silently at work and having been with them an houre or two to give them directions what they should do returning to his lodging he laid him down upon his quilt and gave me charge that an houre before day I should go to Ralph Dexter and command him from him not to draw off his men till the dawning of the day but that they should follow their work lustily And coming to him at the time appointed according to my Lords command after the break of day we looked out towards the sea and espied five men of War come out of Zeland riding in the rode which had brought foure hundred men and some materials for the sea-works and coming home I wakened my Master and told him the first news of it He presently sent for the Captain of the shallops and long-boats which lancing out landed them on the strand by our new middle-haven and notwithstanding the enemy shot mightily upon them with their Cannon from their foure batteries on the East and West-side to sink them and hinder their landing yet did they no other harm but onely hurt three Mariners These pieces of Ordnance rouzed Cerano from his naked bed who knocking asked me what was the reason of this shooting I answered him in French Il y avoit quelque gens d' Armes des nostres entres dans la ville whereat he was much amazed and would hardly give credit to it till Captain Potley who came with these ships and whom he knew well was brought before him and assured him it was so FINIS In the mapp of the Low-countreys the graver hath set the Fort of Mardyck on the wrong side of Dunkerk In the Epistle to the Reader an 8. read in the. 1600.