In December a Spaniard named Ferdinando Lygons was commissioned to raise 300 mounted archers in the city of London and county of Middlesex.(1461) At the opening of the new year (2 Jan., 1558) the queen wrote to the corporation desiring to be at once furnished with 500 men out of the 1,000 men the city had been ordered to keep in readiness since July. As the matter was urgent they were not to wait to supply the men with coats.(1462) The force was required for the defence of Calais, which was now in a critical position. On the 9th January another letter was sent by Mary marked, _Hast, Hast Post, Hast, For lief, For lief, For lief, For lief!_ demanding the full contingent of 1,000 men.(1463) Calais had fallen two days before,(1464) and Mary was determined not to rest until the town had been recovered. Diligent search was at once instituted throughout the city for all persons, strangers as well as freemen, capable of wearing harness;(1465) and the livery companies and fellowships were called upon to provide double the number of men they had furnished in July last.(1466) On the 13th the queen wrote to say that a violent storm, which had occurred on the night of the 10th January, had so crippled the fleet that her forces could not be conveyed across the channel; the civic authorities were therefore to withhold sending their force to the sea-coast until further orders, but to keep the same in readiness to start at an hour’s notice.(1467) On the 19th January the citizens were informed by letter that Philip’s forces were on their way to Flanders, under the Duke of Savoy, and that the channel was being kept open by a fleet under Don Luis Carvaial. One half of the force of 1,000 men, furnished with armour and weapons and coats of white welted with green and red crosses, was to be despatched to Dover by the end of the month, thence to sail for Dunkirk for service under the Earl of Rutland. The City was to take especial care that the contingent should be chosen from the handsomest and best picked men, and superior to those last sent.(1468) The force mustered at the Leadenhall, the 24th January, for inspection by the mayor, and at five o’clock in the evening were delivered over to the captains for shipment.(1469) Three days later the lords of the council instructed the mayor to make a return of the number of foreigners residing still within the city, and to make proclamation on the next market day that it should be lawful thenceforth for anyone to seize the persons of Frenchmen who had not avoided the city pursuant to a previous order, and to confiscate their goods and chattels to his own proper use.(1470) (M736)