[MR] Wikipedia: French Invade England, 1545

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

On this date in 1545, a French army landed on the Isle of Wight off
England's southern coast.

The action was part of a French invasion of England, a deadly side-show to
the wars for control of Italy being fought between France and the Holy
Roman Empire. Always ready to give France a black eye, Henry VIII sided
with the Empire.

The French planned to destroy the 60 to 80-ship English fleet at
Portsmouth, then land an army on mainland England and defeat Henry's local
land forces. Their armada consisted of some 235 vessels: 150 carrack
warships, 60 shallow draft transports, and 25 heavily armed Mediterranean
galleys. Ship-wise, this was a larger fleet than the 130-ship Spanish
Armada of 1588. The galleys were key to the French plan, since rowed
vessels could close with the English ships in Portsmouth harbor without
regard to wind direction. The French fleet carried a force of some 30,000
soldiers, with cavalry horses and land artillery.

The Battle commenced on 18 July with inconclusive long-distance fighting.
The next day the winds died, and the English fleet was initially becalmed
in Portsmouth harbor. The French galleys went in and began pounding the
anchored English ships. Then a favorable wind rose and the English fleet
got underway, chasing the French back out to sea. It was during this
maneuver that the English carrick Mary Rose heeled over during a turn,
forcing her open lower deck gun ports beneath the water. The ship sank in
minutes, drowning most of her 500 crew and fighting garrison who were
trapped under anti-boarding nets or below decks. The French claimed they
sank the Mary Rose, but the actual cause seems to have been bad seamanship
and an inept English captain. The Mary Rose was the only major English loss
in the campaign.

Stymied in their attempts to draw Henry's fleet into an uneven battle, the
French decided to bait the English by invading the Isle of Wight. Largely
unopposed landings were made on 21 July, but as the French advanced inland
(burning everything in sight) they were harassed by local militia, many of
them archers using yew longbows in hit-and-run attacks. The English also
dropped volleys of arrows onto French camps at night, spreading terror
among the soldiers. In another brief fight, a scratched together cavalry
mounted on cart horses routed a larger French infantry force.

Henry was able to land some 8,000 reinforcements on Wight and the French
army found itself bogged down and taking heavy casualties. Realizing that
the winds now favored the English fleet, and their armies were in danger of
being trapped ashore, the French withdrew on 24 July.

On 25 July part of the retreating French force made another unopposed
landing at Seaford in Sussex. The invaders looted and burned the undefended
village, then pressed onward. After crossing a small wooden bridge, the
French ran into a local English force. The English destroyed the bridge
behind the invaders, then cut down the trapped Frenchmen with gunnery and
arrows. This was the last skirmish in the invasion.

The story is laid out in fair detail in Alexander McKee's 1973 book KING
HENRY VIII'S MARY ROSE  (ISBN 0812816360). Since this book isn't in print,
you can read a gloss on these Wikipedia pages:

Action on the Isle of Wight is briefly discussed at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_invasion_of_the_Isle_of_Wight .

The sinking of the Mary Rose is covered at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Rose , and has also been examined in
several other books besides McKee's.

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge 🦆