[Footnote 46: The good king of Navarre--was of so indolent a character that his queen, a woman of high spirit, told him, 'Had _you_ been mademoiselle Catherine, and _I_ don John, we had never lost our realm.' Henault.] [Footnote 47: Henry VIII. was the dupe of Ferdinand of Arragon. The english forces landed at Guipi-coa, under the command of the marquis of Dorset, but were never joined by the Spaniards to unite in the siege of Bayonne. The English returned, having gained nothing but disgrace, while Ferdinand possessed himself of the kingdom of Navarre.] [Footnote 48: The lord admiral,--sir Edward Howard. Sir Edward Knivet commanded the Regent.] [Footnote 49: In Henry's Hist. of England, it is said that both ships took fire, and perished, with all on board, to the number of seventeen hundred men; that the rest of the fleets, consisting of twenty-five sail English, and thirty-nine French, separated in consternation, as if by mutual consent, without further fighting.] CHAP. XXIX. THE KING OF ENGLAND DISEMBARKS WITH HIS WHOLE ARMY AT CALAIS.--THE FRENCH ARE DEFEATED BY THE SWISS, AT NOVARA. When the king of England had completed his preparations, he put to sea with his army, disembarked at Calais, and thence, with part of it, marched strait for Flanders. Had he then been attacked, the perplexities that ensued afterwards would have been avoided. At the same time, the king of France had collected an army for the recovery of the Milanese, under the command of the lord de la Trimouille, Jean Jacques de Trivulce, sir Robert de la Marche, the lord of Albany and others,--but the lord de la Trimouille was commander in chief. This army crossed the Alps, and entered Piedmont, where it halted for the arrival of the rear and baggage, and then pushed forward toward Novara, in which place was a body of Swiss. The French, supposing them not very numerous, determined to attack them, which they did; but the evening before, a very large reinforcement of Swiss had joined their countrymen in Novara, which the French were ignorant of. A battle, however, ensued, when the French defeated the van of the enemy; but such numbers of Swiss now poured in on all sides, the French were thunderstruck, and hastily retreated to Turin: some, however, of their infantry, stood their ground, and died valiantly,--and the son of the lord de la Marche shone pre-eminent for his valour. The Swiss gained a considerable park of artillery, which the lord de la Marche had brought thither, and great part of the baggage. The king of France, on hearing of this event, ordered the remainder of the army home, and sent part of it into Guienne, where the illustrious lord of Bourbon had the command of an army, with many nobles and able captains under him, to carry on the war in Navarre. He had there a fine camp, and a variety of skirmishes took place on both sides.