First Edrl of Pembroke of the Present Creation. 115 



catholic party had not a soldier among them, Pembroke himself went 

 over in command with reinforcements and supplies, in time to save 

 Calais for a few more months. The date of his departure, we learn 

 from Strype, was November 25th, " The Earl of Pembroke took his 

 parge for Calais." 



In March, 1557, Philip paid his last visit to England for a few 

 weeks, not for the pleasure of seeing the queen, but to make arrange- 

 ments for an English contingent to join his forces in an attack on 

 the French. The council gave their reluctant consent, and seven 

 thousand men were to cross the Channel and join Pembroke in the 

 Low Countries. The outward show of the "pomp and circumstance '? 

 of war, was not disregarded. Heralds belonging to the sovereign 

 receive gowns of the colours of the livery of the generals, upon 

 whom they were ordered to attend, at the expense of the crown. In 

 a warrant to the Wardrobe, in 1557, in which same year Chester 

 Herald and Portcullis Pursuivant had blue guarded with red, being 

 then appointed to attended upon the Earl of Pembroke, Captain- 

 General of the army against France. 1 



Philip prepared for the campaign at Brussels; he had collected 

 a large army, which he placed under the command of Philibert, 

 Duke of Savoy, this was to be joined by the English contingent. 

 Philibert, after having succeeded in distracting the attention of the 

 enemy, and leading them to expect him in Champagne, turned 

 suddenly into Picardy, and invested the town of St. Quentin. The 

 French, under the Constable Montmorency, were taken at a dis- 

 advantage ; before they could recover themselves their defeat had 

 become irretrievable. The Constable himself, the Duke of Mont-, 

 pensier, several hundred gentlemen — some of the best blood of 

 France — and thousands of soldiers, were taken in a victory almost 

 bloodless for the victors. The English do not seem to have taken any 

 part in the battle, they only arrived in force two days after the en- 

 gagement. They now eagerly coveted the opportunity for distinction 

 which had been denied them at the battle of St. Quentin, but there 

 was little more to be done than to share, with the allied armies, the 



1 Anstis' Order of the Garter, vol. i., p. 446. 



I % 



