1527. THE DOMINUS VOBISCUM. 57 



seems to have left the country in disgust, and 

 entered into the service of Spain ; from whence 

 he was probably drawn, in the reign of Edward 

 VI., on promise of the pension already mentioned, 

 or, in general terms, of the king's patronage. It 

 would seem, indeed, that although the prowess of 

 EngHsh seamen had oft-times been displayed in 

 contests on their native element with their con- 

 tinental neighbours, in " carrackes, barges and 

 balyngers," the kings of England, or their coun- 

 sellors, were not yet aware of the great advantages 

 of foreign trade and foreign enterprize towards the 

 formation of a military marine. There is, how- 

 ever, a document preserved in Hakluy t's collection, 

 in the shape of a poem, complaining of the neglect 

 of the navy in the time of Henry VI., and extolling 

 *' the policee of keeping the see in the time of the 

 marvelllous werriour and victorious prince. King 

 Henry the Fift, and of his grete shippes." 



t< 



When at Hampton, he made the Great DromonSy 

 Which passed other grete shippes of the Commons, 

 The Trinitie, the Grace de Dieu, the Holi^ Ghost 

 And other moe, which as now be lost, 

 What hope ye was th& king's grete intent, 

 Of thoo shippes, and what in mind he meant. 

 It was not ellis, but that he cast to bee 

 Lord Round-about, environ of the see."* 



At length, however, the spirit of discovery and 

 foreign enterprize burst forth in the reign of Henry 



* English Policie exhorting all England to keepe the see, &c. — 

 Hakluy t, vol. i. p. 187. 



