This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
448
MILITARY HISTORY, 1485-1603.
[1511.

side. The duke, on his surrender, was sent to the Tower. The king died at Richmond on April 22nd, 1509.

Henry VIII. came to the throne, a handsome and accomplished young man, in his eighteenth year. He was as able as his father, but in every other respect utterly unlike him. Generous, genial, and fond of amusement and display, he was also intensely ambitious; and, as his treasury was full, and the state of Europe was troubled, he was able to indulge his inclinations.

In the second year of his reign he joined Ferdinand of Spain and Maximilian of Germany in the Holy League against Louis XII. of France; and, about the middle of May, dispatched a body of a thousand archers under Thomas, Lord d'Arcy, to co-operate with Ferdinand against the Moors. The expedition left Plymouth, escorted by four men-of-war, and landed at Cadiz on June 1st. Its mere appearance was sufficient to secure the objects for which it had been demanded. The Moors made terms with the king, and the English, dismissed with presents, returned, without fighting, about August.[1]

In July of the same year, another force of fifteen hundred men, under Sir Edward Poynings, was sent into Flanders to assist the Duke of Burgundy against the Duke of Gelderland. After effecting the desired ends, it returned with small loss and much honour.[2]

But by far the most important naval event of 1511 was the action off the Goodwin with the famous Scotsman, Andrew Barton. Barton had obtained from his sovereign letters of marque and reprisals against the Portuguese, who were alleged to have killed his father, and seized his father's ship, and who had afforded no satisfaction for the outrage. Barton had thereupon equipped two vessels, the Lion, carrying thirty-six, and the Jennet Perwyn, a "pinnace" or tender, carrying thirty guns, if we may trust the popular Elizabethan ballad on the subject.[3] The one seems to have had upwards of three hundred, and the other, one hundred and eighty men on board. But, under pretext of cruising against the Portuguese, Barton seized and plundered many neutral vessels, including English ones, under the pretence that they had Portu-

  1. Holinshed, ii. 802; Hall, 11.
  2. Grafton, 958; Cooper, 274; Stowe, 488.
  3. Their gun strength, unless the guns were extremely small, must be greatly exaggerated in the ballad, for the tonnage of the vessels was but 120 and 70 respectively.