MARITIME HISTORY 



Scarborough by a Rye fishing-boat, whose crew were equal to an opportunity, and, later in the year, 

 someone wrote that 'the town of Rye has all this year had three or four vessels abroad, and gained 

 much by it.' l One of these Rye owners was John Fletcher, whose name also occurs as one of 

 those acting at sea in the previous wars of the reign ; he was sent for to London, and directed to 

 bring with him three or four of his men capable of pilotage on the French coast. 2 The French, on 

 their side, were of the same mind, for later, when Francis I was about to take the offensive, the 

 constable of Bosham hundred reported that two French boats had been observed taking soundings in 

 Chichester Harbour. 3 They may have mistaken it for Portsmouth, but in any case they might 

 have been left in peace to pursue their harmless inquiries. Rye must still have had some reputation 

 for shipbuilding, for the Grand Mistress, a 300 or 400 ton man-of-war built at Smallhythe in 1545, 

 was constructed under the superintendence of a shipwright from Rye. 4 



The English fleet was under the command of Lord Lisle, better known afterwards as duke of 

 Northumberland, a wretchedly incapable admiral. In June, 1545, he was off Havre, and after 

 exchanging shots with the French fleet retreated to Portsmouth because he heard that the French 

 intended coming to the Isle of Wight. The Admiral of France, Claude D'Annebault, put to sea 

 in July and was off the coast of Sussex on the i8th, when some men were sent ashore at Brighton. 

 The attack was so easily repulsed that it gives the impression that it was only made because 

 Brighton was the French landfall and the habit of ravage was too strong to be broken, but that 

 D'Annebault would waste no time in any systematic shore operations when he knew where to find 

 his enemy's fleet. 5 He proceeded to the Isle of Wight, and about the end of the month was again 

 on the Sussex coast, where a landing party which came ashore between Seaford and Newhaven was 

 beaten off by Sir Nicholas Pelham. Here, again, the weakness of the attack suggests that 

 D'Annebault knew better than to entangle himself in earnest in landing operations with an 

 unbeaten English fleet at his heels. If so he was wise, for a few days later Lisle was following 

 along the coast of Sussex, and writing to Henry that he trusted ' the goodness of God ' would serve 

 instead of the skill and seamanship he knew he lacked." About 1 1 August the French were off 

 Rye Bay, and on the i5th Lisle was in sight of them off Shoreham. An indecisive action followed; 

 the French went over to their own coast and Lisle lost touch of them, thus ending the movements 

 in the eastern Channel. 



The Cinque Ports had long ceased to count militarily, and their ambiguous position in 

 retaining privileges without being able to render services was beginning to provoke question. In 

 1546 the collectors of the fifteenths were demanding payment within the liberties, as elsewhere. 

 An appeal to the Privy Council caused the matter to be laid before Henry ; apparently it was 

 decided that no destructive innovation should be made, for the archbishop of Canterbury was 

 requested to persuade the Portsmen to submit to the same taxation as the rest of the country, but 

 there was no hint of any compulsion. 7 Beyond the coasting traffic probably the fishery was nearly 

 the only legitimate trade left for any of the Sussex ports, except perhaps Chichester and Rye, 

 which latter had still a considerable vogue as a place of export for woollen goods from Southwark 

 and elsewhere. 8 In 1528 Hastings sent 30 ' crayers ' to the North Sea fishery, and Rye and 

 Winchelsea 50 ;' at some later date, when the paper was endorsed by Cecil, the numbers had fallen 

 to 10 for Hastings and 16 for the other two towns. The question of the French use of the Sussex 

 fishing grounds was as acute in the sixteenth as in the following three centuries. In 1549 French 

 men-of-war, under colour of convoying their fishermen, were taking English coasters and fishing 

 boats on the Sussex coast, and a squadron of six men-of-war under Sir Thomas Cotton was sent to 

 capture both conveyers and convoyed. 10 There was at this time no defined limit to territorial 

 waters, and it was not uncommon to exchange safe-conducts for fishing fleets even in war time ; in 

 1543 Francis I requested such a guarantee for nearly 1,000 boats and the Sussex fishermen at 

 least must have been well pleased when Henry refused it. 11 The fishing industry seems to have 

 improved somewhat during the second half of the sixteenth century. An incomplete return of 

 1565 gives details of some of the coast towns. 13 Bulverhythe had ceased to exist as a port, Seaford 

 had I fishing boat, Eastbourne 4, Hastings 25, Selsey II, Pagham 3, Bosham I, Arundel 2, 

 and Rye 66 vessels of all kinds. In 1581 the Trinity House sent in a certificate of the 



I L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xix, pt. i, 1010 ; pt. ii, 560. ' Acts of P. C. 12 June, 1543. 



* Ibid. 21 July, 1545. ' L. and P. Hen. Vlll, 20 Aug. 1545. 



6 A contemporary drawing of the landing at Brighton (Cott. MSS. Aug. I. i, 1 8), assigned to 1545, 

 perhaps really relates to the attack of 1514. See Mr. Jas. Gairdner in Trans. Roy. Hist. Soe. for 1 907. 

 6 L. and P. Hen. PHI, 12 Aug. 1545. ' Acts of P.C. 1 1 June, 1546. 



' Customs Accts. j^l^j. 9 L. and P. Hen. Vlll, iv, 5101. 



10 S.P. Dom. Edw. VI, vii, 12. 



II L. and P. Hen. VIII, xviii, pt. ii, 259. Henry told the emperor's ambassador 1,000 boats, but it 

 sounds a deliberate exaggeration. 



11 S.P. Dom. Eliz. xxxviii, 28 ; xxxix, II, 12. See also/w/, p. 151. 



2 145 '9 



