A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



for France, the county was to furnish ' coates of such cullours as you 

 can best provide, and to be lyned least they might be occasyned to 

 serve in the winter season.'* 



When the coming of the Spanish Armada had become a certainty, 

 Sussex was ordered to raise 4,000 foot and 260 horse, 2,500 of the foot 

 being required for the main army. Sir Thomas Palmer having orders to 

 conduct these to Croydon.'' Of the officers Thomas Lewknour had 

 served as a lieutenant both in Ireland and the Low Countries, and Captains 

 John Vaughan, the muster-master, and William Henworthe were old 

 soldiers,^ Other men of military experience belonging to the county 

 are noted by the Earl of Essex on the occasion of his expedition of 

 1596 : Sir Anthony Shirley had served in the Low Countries, where he 

 was taken prisoner, and commanded all the English horse in Brittany,* 

 where he fought divers times ; Sir Thomas Shirley the younger had a 

 company of horse in the Low Country, and Sir Nicholas Pelham had 

 been lieutenant in Sir William Pelham's company of horse, and after- 

 wards captain, ' and hath done valiantly in all encounters.'^ When this 

 last named officer returned from Flanders in February 1597, Sir Francis 

 Vere wrote to the Earl of Essex that ' he deserved exceeding well in the 

 late service, and for a man of his worth none have received so small 

 encouragement,' ° and Count Maurice of Nassau also wrote in the same 

 strain.'' The officer however who, according to his own account, did 

 most work in 1588 was Captain Humphrey Covert. He acted as 

 muster-master to the forces in camp at Brighton, and was awarded for 

 his good service a pension of a hundred pounds, which however in 

 1606 was eighteen years in arrear.^ 



Besides the troops assembled along the shore a number of small 

 batteries afforded additional protection, as for instance the blockhouse 

 at Brighton, which had been erected by the inhabitants early in this 

 reign to prevent the recurrence of such incidents as the burning of the 

 town in 1 545 by the French, who at the same time ' sought to have 

 sackt Seafoord,' but there the elder Sir Nicholas Pelham ' did repel 'em 

 back aboord,' as his epitaph testifies. In the extreme east the 

 blockhouse of Camber had a permanent garrison of some twelve soldiers, 

 which could be increased on emergency by calling in the men of the 

 two adjacent hundreds." This fort was the object of the treacherous 

 designs of the Jesuit, Father Darbysher, in France, who early in March 

 1588, suggested to Roger Walton, an English spy, that he, being well 

 known in Sussex, ' should contrive that the blockhouse between Rye 

 and Winchelsea should be given up to the Prince of Parma, which 

 would be a great piece of service, and good for the small ships of France 



> Acts of P.C. xxiv. 402. 2 Harl. MS. 703, f. 54. 



a Foljambe MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), Rep. xv (5), 40. 



* Probably in 1592 when 1,000 men were sent from Sussex to join Sir John Norreys in Brittany 

 {Jets of P.C. xxiii. 225) ; and 80 volunteers were enlisted for the same service (ibid. p. 273). 



5 Cecil MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), vi. 570. 



6 Ibid. vii. 84. 7 Ibid. p. 85. 



8 Harl. MS. 703, f. 154. 8 Jets of P.C. vi. 258. 



518 



