Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and CoastsNorthcote, Rosalind
History
Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and Coasts
Northcote, Rosalind
Devon (England)
In the winter of 1562-63 the Queen began openly to help the Huguenots at
Havre, and Nicholas Tremayne was sent there at the head of 'fifty
horsemen pistolliers.' In the following May Captain Tremayne's band and
some others, in a skirmish, 'repulsed the Rheingrave's whole force,
slain and taken near 400, with one ensign and seven drums. Not more than
twenty of their own were killed and wounded, none to his knowledge
taken.' Four days later Tremayne's troops, over-confident, risked too
much, and their Captain was shot, to the great grief of his
fellow-officers. Warwick wrote to Cecil: 'Whereas you write that you are
more sorry for the death of Tremain than you could be glad of the death
of a 100 Allmaynes, I assure you that there is never a man but is of the
same opinion.' The Queen was much grieved by the loss. 'She had
resented,' says Froude, 'the expulsion of the French inhabitants of
Havre ... she was more deeply affected with the death of Tremayne; and
Warwick was obliged to tell her that war was a rough game; she must not
discourage her troops by finding fault with measures indispensable to
success; for Tremayne, he said, "men came there to venture their lives
for her Majesty and their country, and must stand to that which God had
appointed either to live or die."'
Risdon concludes his account of the twins by saying that they died
together; but this is not altogether accurate, for, about a week after
the death of Nicholas, Andrew with three hundred soldiers set sail from
Berwick for Havre. It is, however, quite true that they died in the same
place, and the interval between their deaths was very short, for about
seven weeks after his twin was killed Andrew Tremayne succumbed to the
plague.
Edward Tremayne, another brother, followed the fortunes of the Marquis
of Exeter, and was 'a great sufferer for his inviolable fidelity to his
noble master.' So firm was his devotion that even torture failed to
extort from him a confession that the Marquis and 'the Lady Elizabeth'
had been involved in Wyatt's conspiracy. His 'invincible resolution'
asserted their innocence, even on the rack, and Queen Elizabeth later
recognized this splendid loyalty by making him 'one of the clerks of Her
Majesty's most honourable privy-council.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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