r to the deceased admiral, succeeded to the
command of the English fleet; and little memorable passed at sea during
this summer.

* It was a maxim of Howard's, that no admiral was good for
any thing that was not brave even to a degree of madness. As
the sea service requires much less plan and contrivance, and
capacity, than the land, this maxim has great plausibility
and appearance of truth; though the fate of Howard himself
may serve as a proof, that even there courage ought to be
tempered with discretion.

** Stowe, p. 491. Herbert.

*** Holingshed, p. 816.

Great preparations had been making at land, during the whole winter,
for an invasion on France by the way of Calais; but the summer was well
advanced before every thing was in sufficient readiness for the intended
enterprise. The long peace which the kingdom had enjoyed had somewhat
unfitted the English for military expeditions; and the great change
which had lately been introduced in the art of war, had rendered
it still more difficult to inure them to the use of the weapons now
employed in action. The Swiss, and after them the Spaniards, had shown
the advantage of a stable infantry, who fought with pike and sword, and
were able to repulse even the heavy-armed cavalry, in which the great
force of the armies formerly consisted. The practice of firearms was
become common; though the caliver, which was the weapon now in use, was
so inconvenient, and attended with so many disadvantages, that it had
not entirely discredited the bow, a weapon in which the English excelled
all European nations. A considerable part of the forces which Henry
levied for the invasion of France consisted of archers; and as soon as
affairs were in readiness, the vanguard of the army, amounting to eight
thousand men, under the command of the earl of Shrewsbury, sailed over
to Calais. Shrewsbury was accompanied by the earl of Derby, the lords
Fitzwater, Hastings, Cobham, and Sir Rice ap Thomas, captain of the
light horse. Another body of six thousand men soon after followed under
the command of Lord Herbert the chamberlain, attended by the earls of
Northumberland and Kent, the lords Audley and Delawar, together with
Carew, Curson, and other gentlemen.

The king himself prepared to follow with the main body and rear of
the army; and he appointed the queen regent of the kingdom during his
absence. That he might secure her administration from all