THE TUDORS 



with heavy loss of life. This disaster appears to have daunted both 

 fleets, who retired from an indecisive action. The captain of the French 

 Cordelicre, who undoubtedly handled his ship in an extraordinarily 

 gallant fashion, is variously described as Portzmoquer Piers Morgan and 

 Primoguet, but it is as the last named that he is honoured by a cruiser 

 in the modern French Navy. 



Lord Edward Howard. 



Lord Edward Howard, who had been appointed Lord High 

 Admiral in spite of the fact that he was the younger of the two brothers, 

 was at sea in the following year and blockaded the French in Brest, 

 although he had positive information that a fleet of galleys was coming 

 up from the Mediterranean. He did splendid work against the port and 

 its land defence, but he was at the very end of his stores when reinforce- 

 ments arrived. These reinforcements had sighted the French galleys 

 under Pregent, but apparently had done nothing to counter them, with 

 the result that, lacking nothing in dash, they were able to make a sudden 

 descent on the blockading fleet and inflict a good deal of damage. At 

 last Howard determined to dislodge them from their position, and made 

 a very gallant cutting-out attack with such ships and boats as were suit- 

 able for the work. But by bad management he was left on board the 

 French flagship with only a handful of men who had followed him, while 

 the two ships drifted rapidly apart. The boarding party of seventeen 

 made a heroic stand on the deck of the Frenchman, but were forced 

 overboard, the admiral standing on the bulwark and throwing into the 

 sea his gold whistle of office in order that the enemy should not have 

 the satisfaction of capturing it as a trophy. Then he himself was forced 

 overboard and drowned. The attack was discontinued, and a few days 

 gfterwards the blockade of Brest was raised. It was an example of the 

 danger of putting soldiers pure and simple, however gallant, into the 

 command of a fleet to do work of which they had no knowledge. 



Lord Thomas Howard. 



The death of Lord Edward Howard caused his elder brother 

 Thomas to be appointed Lord High Admiral, and he carried on the 

 campaign with vigour, but the French galley commander Pregent had in 

 the meantime made the most of his successes by laying waste a large 

 part of the South-East Coast. Howard retaliated by carrying out a 

 similar campaign on the French coast, and a series of raids and counter- 

 raids was commenced. 



Discipline in the Navy. 



The reports that we have of the Navy in the early days of King 

 Henry VIII do not suggest that it was at all an efficient one, for after 

 Lord Edward Howard's defeat it was declared that the discipline was 

 very lax and many of the captains at sea were quite unworthy of their 

 position, that the seamanship of the fleet was poor, and that many of the 

 rowers had abandoned their posts in contact with the enemy and should 

 have been chained to their benches. Even making allowance for the 



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