HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 265 



that kept the rebellion of Flanders in life : and that 

 if it pleased the king to besiege it by sea, he also 

 would besiege it by land, and so cut out the core of 

 those war . 



The king, willing to uphold the authority of 

 Maximilian, the better to hold France in awe, and 

 being likewise sued unto by his merchants, for that 

 the seas were much infested by the barks of the Lord 

 Ravenstein; sent straightways Sir Edward Poynings, 

 a valiant man, and of good service, with twelve ships, 

 well furnished with soldiers and artillery, to clear 

 the seas, and to besiege Sluice on that part. The 

 Englishmen did not only coop up the Lord Raven- 

 stein, that he stirred not, and likewise hold in strait 

 siege the maritime part of the town, but also assailed 

 one of the castles, and renewed the assault so for 

 twenty days space, issuing still out of their ships at 

 the ebb, as they made great slaughter of them of the 

 castle ; who continually fought with them to repulse 

 them, though of the English part also were slain a 

 brother of the Earl of Oxford s, and some fifty more. 



But the siege still continuing more and more 

 strait, and both the castles, which were the principal 

 strength of the town, being distressed, the one by the 

 Duke of Saxony, and the other by the English ; and 

 a bridge of boats, which the Lord Ravenstein had 

 made between both castles, whereby succours and 

 relief might pass from the one to the other, being on 

 a night set on fire by the English, he despairing to 

 hold the town, yielded, at the last, the castles to the 

 English, and the town to the Duke of Saxony, by 



