Original Letters, Illustrative of English History: Including Numerous Royal ...

Calais was in the hands of the English for two hundred and ten years. It was taken by King Edward the Third after a siege of eleven months in 1347, and replanted with Inhabitants chiefly from Kent. The English surrendered it to the Duke of Guize in 1557, after a siege of only eight days. The Spaniards held it from 1596 to 1598.

With the surrender of it in 1557 the long-cherished hope of recovering the English dominions in France became extinguished: and how sensible Queen Mary was of this may be gathered from her dying words. If her breast were opened, the word "CALAIS" would be found engraven on her heart.

It is remarkable that Michele, the Venetian ambassador, in his Memoir to the Senate upon his return from England, of which the Reader will know more hereafter, should say, in 1557, the very year in which Calais was retaken, that it was generally considered as an impregnable fortress, on account of the inundation with which it might be surrounded; but that there were persons skilled in fortification, who doubted that it would prove so if put to the test.

VOL. II. SER. 2.

Queen Elizabeth made several attempts to recover the possession of Calais a; her original Commission to Sir Thomas Smith to demand it in 1567, is still preserved in the Cottonian Library: b and it was at one time pressed as a stipulation when the marriage was proposed between the Queen and the Duc d'Anjou.

Although, after its conquest, Calais was entirely repeopled with what the Record calls "purs Anglois," still the new Settlement was governed by the laws of the Inhabitants whom they had dispossessed. A priest and two antient men well acquainted with the ordinances and usages being alone allowed to remain in the Town, for the purpose of giving the necessary information to the stranger colonists. d

Maud countess of Artois had granted a charter to it, creating a Community, consisting of "bailiffs, eskewyrs, and cornemans," and this Flemish constitution was not altered till the 50th of Edw. IIId. when the Burgesses presented a Petition to the King and Council in Parliament, praying that they might have a Mayor and Twelve Aldermen, with power to elect their Mayor from amongst the Aldermen "comme ils font en la Citie de Londres." Many other privileges were solicited by the same instrument, most of which were granted or confirmed by the King; and Calais became thenceforth organized as an English corporation. Many local customs, however, were retained; and except so far as related to the descent of real estates, the common law of England does not appear to have been introduced.

The Staple of Wool was fixed at Calais by King Edward the Third in 1362.

The expences of the Garrison of this place were extremely heavy, at least in the earlier period of the English possession. Sir Richard L'Escrop, in his address to both Houses at the opening of the Parliament of the 2a Ric. II. states that the annual expenditure of the Crown for the defence of Calais and the Marches, exceeded 24,000%. The request of an Aid for the purpose of defraying these charges was embodied as a matter of course in the King's speech at the opening of each new Parliament; and Commines informs us that the "Captainship" of Calais was one of the best places in Christendom. The "wages," however, both of the commander and of the garrison were very frequently in arrear; and the complaints of the misgovernment of this important Fortress are repeated, Parliament after Parliament.

In 1522, when Albany's second expedition to Scotland was made a cause of war with France, the attention of Henry the Eighth was called to the state of Calais, the fortifications of which during the earlier years

See Camd. Ann. Eliz. pp. 98, 99, 100.

• The old inhabitants went principally to St. Omers. d Rot. Parl. 50 Edw. III. 358, 359.

b Calig. E. VI. foll. 1, 2.

Froissart, vol. i. p. 147.

of his reign had gone neglected. It was probably about this time, or soon after, that the Letter here commented upon was written. Bishop Fox died at an advanced period of life Sept. 24th, 1528, having been blind for nearly ten years. The signature only to this Letter is in his own hand.

The Cottonian Manuscript Calig. E. 11. fol. 98. contains the return from the Commissioners who are mentioned in bishop Fox's Letter, after they had examined Calais; dated in the month of August. They speak of the decay of the Works, and of the neglect of the Ordinances of the Place; assuring Wolsey that they had "found the Town and Marches far out of order; and so far, that it would grieve and pity the heart of any good and true Englishman." a

It was not at this time only that Henry the Eighth turned his attention to the strengthening of Calais. In the 24th year of his reign he visited the place and formed what was called "a Device" for the further fortification of the Town and Haven, which, with the Ordinances for the Garrison, is still preserved in the same Volume with Fox's Letter. Fabyan says that Henry the Eighth began other buildings at Calais and Guisnes in 1540. b

CALAIS, like every other continental Town, retains its original features after a lapse of time, which in England would have obliterated almost every vestige of antiquity. The principal change which it has sustained since the sixteenth century, has been occasioned by the demolition of the Church of St. Nicholas, upon the site of which the Citadel has been erected. The Pier remains precisely as it is represented in a Plan in the Cottonian Library. The Southern bulwarks are yet defended by the identical bastions erected according to the orders given by Henry VIIIth and which continue unaltered within the rampart which forms the modern fortification: and the key on the north side, not far from Hogarth's Gate, retains the name, certainly not very appropriate, of Paradise, which was applied to it as early as the reign of Richard IId, e

Within the walls, the Guild Hall of the Staple, afterwards the "Hotel de Guise," exhibits a curious mixture of the well known Tudor style blended with the forms of Flemish architecture.

The Cottonian Manuscript Aug. I. vol. ii. art. 57. contains a "Platt of the Lowe Countrye att Calleys, drawne in October, the 37th. Hen. VIII. by Thomas Pettyt," followed, art. 70. by an enlarged Plat, from which the VIEW of CALAIS given as a Frontispiece to this Volume has been copied.

The following is the List of English Noblemen who had lands in Calais which had fallen to decay, about or before 1521: "The Duke of Buckingham, the Lord Marques, the Earl of Northumberland, the Earl of Kent, the Earl of Arundel, the Lord Darcy, Sir Edward Abrough." MS. Cotton. Faust. E. VII. fol. 24. Rot. Parl. 21 Ric. II. 370.

Chronicles, p. 701.

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