At Berwick the xviiith of May and ix o'clock within night. Your Majesty's humble subjects and most bounden servants. (Signed) E. Hertford, John Lisle, Rafe Sadleyr. [Footnote 68: _i.e._ Cardinal Beaton, leader of the French Party in Scotland.] ATTEMPTED INVASION OF ENGLAND BY THE FRENCH (1545). +Source.+--Holinshed, p. 847. The same month also the Lord Lisle Admiral of England with the English fleet entered the mouth of the Seine, and came before Newhaven, where a great navy of the Frenchmen lay, to the number of a two hundred ships, and six and twenty gallies, whereof the Pope (as was reported) had sent twenty well furnished with men and money to the aid of the French king. The Englishmen being not past an hundred and threescore sail, and all great ships, determined not to set upon the Frenchmen where they lay: but yet approaching near unto them, shot off certain pieces of ordinance at them, and thereby caused the gallies to come abroad, which changed shot again with the Englishmen. The gallies at the first had great advantage, by reason of the great calm. Thrice either part assaulted other with shot of their great artillery, but suddenly the wind rose so high, that the gallies could not endure the rage of the seas, and so the Englishmen for fear of flats were compelled to enter the main seas and so sailed unto Portsmouth where the King lay, for he had knowledge of his espials that the Frenchmen intended to land in the Isle of Wight, wherefore he repaired to that coast, to see his realm defended. After this, the eighteenth of July the admiral of France Monseiur Danebalte hoisted up sails, and with his whole navy came forth into the seas, and arrived on the coast of Sussex before Bright Hamsteed,[69] and set certain of his soldiers on land to burn and spoil the country: but the beacons were fired and the inhabitants thereabouts came down so thick that the Frenchmen were driven to fly with loss of divers of their numbers; so that they did little hurt there. Immediately thereupon they made to the point of the Isle of Wight, called Saint Helen's point, and there in good order upon their arrival they cast anchors, and sent daily sixteen of their gallies to the very haven of Portsmouth. The English navy lying there in the same haven, made them ready, and set out toward the enemies, and still the one shot hotly at the other; but the wind was so calm, that the king's ships could bear no sail, which greatly grieved the minds of the Englishmen, and made the enemies more bold to approach with their gallies, and to assail the ships with their shot even within the haven.