In a harangue full of honied words for Philip the Chancellor set forth the poverty of the country, the need for a strong force on the Scottish border to defend the north from a French incursion, the undefended condition of Ireland, and, above all, the danger of the Isle of Wight and Portsmouth, now that eighty French ships were collected at Dieppe with, it was feared, hostile intent. What they proposed was to fit out a hundred English vessels with fifty victualling smacks for service in the Channel, carrying an army of some fifteen thousand soldiers, ready, if Philip needed it, to land upon any spot on the northern French coast as a diversion. They were in fear, too, of a league of Denmark and the Free Cities to attack the northern coast of England in the interests of France; and they knew of no other means of raising a force to defend that part of the country than to beg the King to choose for them some good German mercenary leader who would engage to come over in their service with some three thousand Germans, to embark in Amsterdam for Newcastle. When they had found the money for all this, they said, they did not see how they could do more even to recover Calais. These proposals, which had indeed been suggested first by the Queen and Philip, were exactly those which suited the latter. Under the guise of defending the English south coast a large English fleet and army would be practically at his orders, to alarm and divert the French wherever he needed. Lord William Howard,[119] the Lord Admiral, a great-uncle of Elizabeth’s, and little in Philip’s favour, was by Feria’s intrigues superseded by Clinton, who was his obedient servant. The great difficulty, of course, was money. Everyday Feria urged the need for raising large sums at once. Parliament was sitting, and it was believed would vote liberal supplies in view of the national danger; and Mary herself once complaisantly told Feria that she believed Parliament would vote her a larger amount than had ever been granted to her father. “That is not to the purpose,” replied Feria, “but to get all the money you want in the circumstances.” The Earl of Sussex when in Flanders had given the King an idea that the nobles in England might still be induced, as Spanish nobles were, to supply feudal contingents of mounted men on the Sovereign’s demand; but when Feria suggested this to the Queen she told him flatly that all the nobles of England together would not contribute a hundred horse.