Henry VIII, Part Six

Victory at Boulogne was offset by the fact that Henry hadn’t joined Charles V for a march against Paris. Charles’ campaign against the French capital, weakened by the absence of his ally, fizzled, and he was forced to make peace with France. The Emperor and his armies were ousted from the conflict; Henry and his forces were alone against France, and now France could afford to shift more forces from Italy to oppose the English invaders. King Francis resolved to pay Henry back for his multiple incursions onto French soil by commissioning an invasion of England. He readied his navy, and the ships set sail for the English coast, determined to visit deprivations upon the English dogs. 

The Battle of the Solent

In 1545 Francis launched an invasion of England with thirty thousand soldiers in more than two hundred ships, an armada larger than the Spanish Armada that would attempt a similar invasion forty-three years later. The English seemed ill-prepared with a meager twelve thousand soldiers and eighty ships, most of which were refashioned merchantmen. The French campaign opened with a bad omen: the flagship Carraquon perished on 6 July in an accidental fire while at anchor in the Seine. Admiral Claude d’Annebault transferred his flag to La Maistresse, but this second flagship ran aground as the fleet set sail. Leaks were patched and the fleet carried on, crossing the Channel and entering the Solent with one hundred fifty warships, twenty-five galleys, numerous transports, and eager French troops ready to attack Portsmouth and the English coast. Henry and his Privy Council had moved to Portsmouth to oversee the defense from Southsea Castle. The outnumbered fleet sheltered in the heavily defended Portsmouth Harbour, but on 18 July the English fleet sailed forth to hammer the French at long range. The French Admiral’s flagship came close to sinking due to leaks sustained upon setting out across the Channel, and though she avoided floundering, he was forced to transfer to yet another ship (his third in the debacle). The French counter-attacked the long-range English by sending their oared galleys, each with a single cannon in the bow, towards the English fleet. The English responded with oared row-barges that forced the French galleys to seek shelter amid their warships. Little damage was done on the 18th, and Henry dined aboard the Great Harry with Admiral John Dudley to plan the next day’s engagement.

The Sinking of The Mary Rose

The 19th was calm, and the lack of wind made it difficult for the sailed English ships to maneuver. The French sent their oared galleys in once again; this time they could easily outmaneuver the English warships that were practically crippled by the lack of wind. The galleys fired rounds into the English fleet without causing much damage, and come evening a breeze sprang up that allowed the English sailed ships to maneuver. The Mary Rose, flagship of Vice Admiral George Carew, boldly advanced only to founder and sink; out of a crew of at least four hundred, fewer than thirty-five escaped. The French claimed credit for the sinking, adamantly stating that a cannonball fired from a galleon holed her under the waterline; most historians, however, believe The Mary Rose’s crew forgot to close the lower gunports after firing a broadside, so that when she heeled over in the breeze, water poured through the gunports and the ship sank. Though the wreck of The Mary Rose has been discovered and meticulously researched, it was so corroded that all clues to her demise were lost. The Mary Rose, raised from the Solent seabed in 1982, is now on display at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard; artifacts from the ship are on display at the nearby Mary Rose Museum.

Despite the sinking of The Mary Rose, the English repelled the French attack, and the French Admiral decided to try a different tact: rather than vanquishing the English fleet to make way for the invasion force, he’d drop the invading French soldiers at different points along the Isle of Wight and hope they could make inroads the fleet could not. Though the island’s population numbered only about nine thousand, the occupants were well-versed in dealing with invaders. The oldest among them remembered the frequent French raids and invasions of the Hundred Years War, and those in the prime of their life had been raised in an environment catered to repelling invasion. All the men underwent compulsory military training, and even women were trained as archers. On 21 July the French attempted to divide the English defense by landing at three different sites, but they failed in that they didn’t venture far inland or link up. The largest French force landed at Bonchurch, and the invasion went well: the French advanced inland, and though they were checked for a moment by Bonchurch’s local militia, they were able to scatter the resistance – though they didn’t follow up victory by pushing farther inland, and when the English rallied, they were pushed back to their ships. The English commander at Bonchurch, Captain Robert Fischer, was too fat to run and reportedly offered a hundred pounds to anyone who could bring him a horse. He perished in the battle, and some speculate that his last words inspired William Shakespeare’s infamous line in Richard III, ‘A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!’ The third landing site was at Sandown; the cannon at the small fort of St. Helens had bombarded the French fleet but was easily captured, and the remaining English forces retreated while the French laid waste to the villages of Bembridge, Seaview, St. Helens, and Nettleston. The English militia rallied and attacked the French before they could dig in on the beach; a fierce battle broke out on the beaches and cliffs around the fort of St. Helens. The French leaders were wounded, and the invading soldiers retreated to their ships. A plaque in Seaview reads, ‘During the last invasion of this country, hundreds of French troops landed on the foreshore nearby. This armed invasion was bloodily defeated and repulsed by local militia 21st July 1545.’ To the north of Sandown, a French force had ventured inland but was pushed back to the ruins of Bembridge. They dug in and held off the English, but they knew their position was futile: the other two invasions had been repulsed, and it was only a matter of time before they, too, suffered defeat. The French decided to retreat, and they returned to their ships. The next day, on the 22nd of July, the French Admiral decided to abandon the invasion. This was unfortunate for another group of French invaders who, on the 23rd, landed 1500 troops near the town of Seaford forty miles to the east. They attempted to pillage a nearby village but were repulsed by local militia armed by longbows. They returned to their ships, and thus ended the last foreign invasion of English soil.

Francis I’s plan to invade England was foiled by both sea and land at the Battle of the Solent. France and England made peace in June 1546 with the Treaty of Camp, in which Henry secured Boulogne for eight years. Henry then ransomed the city back to France for two million crowns; he needed the money more than the city, for the French campaigns had been costly and England was bankrupt.