Between Two Worlds: Europe 1531-1606 O Thompson (2015)
By the spring of 1577 war was clearly returning to Europe. Tha Navia Nina scandal had blown wide-open the Spanish conspiracy in the low countries the previous year, and the Bruges blockade by the Imperial Navy only inflamed tensions further. In July 1577 a summit was held in Amiens, hosted by Edward of Oudenburg, the Imperial Constable, and attended by Edward VI and Phillip II as well as representatives from the Netherlands and the Catholic low countries. It was an ill-tempered meeting; the Protestant delegation demanded the immediate removal of Spanish soldiers and material from Brussels, Ghent, Liege and Luxembourg, threatening war.
These demands fell on death ears. The low country delegation led by Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle used the very threat of war to justify the Spanish presence. Granvelle is an interesting character; a comte as well as a Cardinal, he was born in France but was by 1577 Archbishop of Liege and on the Spanish payroll. In short the Cardinal had his fingers in many pies, all of them belonging to the Catholic establishment; he was either their pawn or the glue which held them together. Regardless of his motives, de Granvelle was a master diplomat and frustrated any attempts to solve the disputes diplomatically. Not to be deterred, and hoping to preserve peace, Oudenberg persisted into August by which time the Throckmorton plot and the Mendoza letter had been discovered.
With incontrovertible proof that the Spanish were conspiring within the Empire to bring down King Edward VI and his father, the Amiens conference descended into threats and recrimination before finally the Catholic delegation departed for Brussels in disgust at the Protestant’s outrageous demands. It was here that the Union of Brussels was formed in September 1577. Superficially led by Cardinal de Granvelle, Phillipe de Croy and Juan de Austria, the Union comprised the Duchy of Luxembourg, the four french-speaking cities of Brussels, Bruges, Liege and Ghent, and the German cities of Mainz and Trier. Their stated goal was the collective defence of the low countries and the westrn bank of the Rhine from Protestant aggression.
In reality the Union of Brussels was a Spanish backed alliance designed to instigate and facilitate a war against the League of Copenhagen. The presence of Bruges, and absence of Antwerp are worth noting. Bruges was a Catholic city, and the main entrepot to the Union, but it had enjoyed close relations with the English crown for almost a century. It is thought that the leaders of the city were bribed or coerced into joining the Union, it was a good deal less viable without the maritime city. In contrast, Antwerp was able to resist the pressure to join the Union. Almost predominantly Catholic and a vital entry point, Antwerp differed in its proximity to the Netherlands. A large amount of the city’s trade was supplied by the Netherlands and the Protestant Lords up the Rhine, allowing them enough external influence to rebuff Phillip’s tentacles.
The response to the Union in Britannia was to be expected. Edward VI issued an ultimatum for the Union to disband, and again for Phillip to withdraw from the low countries, when this was ignored the Empire declared war on the Union and Spain on New Year’s Day 1578, immediately preparations for war in the coming season began. Despite a generation of peace, the Empire was still equipped for war. Between the 20 named companies from England and Picardy Edward VI could command over 60,000 men of which 10,000 were light cavalry and another 10,000 were heavy. Between them these companies could boast 120 siege guns and 240 lighter guns. The recently created Welsh companies could also provide 12,000 men between them, though of lesser quality, as Brittany too brought 6,000 and Ireland 9,000.
Edward VI ordered Richard the Younger, master of arms and horse and Earl of Pembroke and Gloucester, to command and organise the army with himself and Edward of Oudenburg as deputies. The army was ordered to assemble between Ostend and Calais, on the border with Bruges, for Palm Sunday. Given defensive measures, not all companies were present, but by April 1578 we know that the Imperial army had the following order of battle:
Piacenza: William Hartson
Calais: Riker (Richard) of Oudenberg, Earl of March
Marck: Arthur Hartson
London Martin Grey, Lord Bath
Aldgate Andrew, Lord Cobham
Norwich Charles Howard, Lord Cromer
Coventry Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond
Micklegate Magnus of Pembroke-Gloucester
Ludlow Sir Robert Williams
Bristol Sir Edmund Chatham
Winchester Edward, Prince of Wales
Lincoln Lord William Hastings
Nottingham Sir Martin Langborough
Exeter Sir Ambrose Fortescue
Stafford Sir Richard Bray
Rennes: Edward Danglais, Lord of Rennes (heir to Brittany)
Glamorgan: Thomas Stanley, Lord Monmouth
Gwynedd: Sir Arthur Cairns
Powys: Sir Edward Wright
Leinster: Sir Thomas Lucan
To these names were added the retinues of King Edward VI, Michael I of Ireland, the Oudenburg and Hartson houses as well as Robert Dudley, Earl of Newcastle, the Earl of Huntington, Earl of Arundel, Lord Hastings and another 15 or so Lords. With the 60,000 from the companies and another 15,000 from the retinues, Edward VI decided to dispatch 5 of the companies (Marck, Gwynedd, Exeter, Stafford and Powys)to the border with France. Little intelligence had been available, but Edward was taking no chances. Alongside this host came another 15,000 from the Netherlands and 10,000 from the Rhineland (Hesse and the Palatinate) to guard their respective borders. The plan was simple: attack the Union cities one by one, subjugate them, and destroy the Spanish army in the field if given the chance.
In Spring 1578 it was estimated that there were 15,000 Spaniards in the Union of Brussels under the Duke of Parma, with another 12,000 native soldiers. With the Imperial Navy blocking the channel, there was no way any Spanish ships could get east of the Isle of WIght, the route for reinforcements appeared shut off.
Initially the campaign went well; Bruges capitulated without a fight, it had been undefended, and perhaps was indefensible. Marching east, Ghent barred the gates and refused to surrender, and a siege ensued. By late June very little of note had happened; Britannic scouts went out every day but never spotted the Catholic army. Then on the 4th of July word reached the army that the Spanish were east of Brussels and marching towards Ghent with an army of 25,000 men led by the Duke of Parma. Spotting his chance for a quick victory, Edward VI left Richard the Younger outside Ghent, and took 35,000 men east to crush the Catholic resistance. The two armies met outside the village of Ninove on the 7th of July 1578.
Like much of the low countries, Ninove sits on a flat plain along the River Dender running north to south (or thereabouts). Parma had drawn his army up almost a mile away at Neigem with streams protecting his front and flanks, especially the right. Parma knew that all he had to do was hold Edward, with the King being obliged to advance across the open ground cut with drainage ditches and small streams. This was because Phillip had laid a trap for the Imperial army. Parma’s men numbered 25,000 true, but 15,000 were the best soldiers in the Spanish army, the rest being professional mercenaries from the Union of Brussels, especially Trier and Mainz. However Phillip had another 15,000 men in northern France, along with another 20,000 professional soldiers commanded by King Henri III.
Unbeknownst to all but a few people, Phillip and Henri had agreed an alliance in order to regain Brittany, Normandy and Picardy for France, and the Low Countries, including Ostend, for Habsburg Spain. Initial troop mobilisation in France had been low and masked to prevent discovery and it had paid off; Walsingham had some inkling of French movements but with the Throckmorton and Babbington plots, had his hands full. Now in early July, with Edward near Brussels, Pembroke outside Ghent with Phillip and Henri bearing down on him, and a smaller French army under Henry Duke of Guise invading Normandy, the Spanish King’s plan had worked to a tee.
Edward became aware of the trap the night before the battle of Ninove, but did not know Henri and Phillip’s exact position. He could also not adequately retreat with Parma less than a mile from him. Leaving Parma’s army intact was asking to be pincered between it and the Franco-Spanish force. In traditional Yorkist style, Edward VI was forced to attack.
Thankfully the Yorkists had already crossed the Dender and so did not have to waste time with a river crossing. Before dawn the Britannic army formed up facing south-east towards Neigem. Edward of Oudenburg controlled the vanguard, Edward VI in the centre, and on the left was Robert Dudley, the Earl of Newcastle. To the rear came William Hartson and the Piacenza Company, one of the most experienced, prestigious and storied companies to ever serve the House of York. Across the field Parma had adopted Tercios formation with his Spanish Empresas on the left flank, whilst Phillipe de Cloy held the small village itself with his Germans and Walloons.
The Battle of Ninove was not particularly pleasant, nor tactically sophisticated: Edward VI needed to break the Catholic army, and quickly, in order to allow him to withdraw and regroup with the rest of the army. As dawn rose, the Imperials advanced as swiftly as they could over the ground split by irrigation ditches, taking them almost an hour to cover the mile to the Catholic line. Here was the problem with the Hutton Square: it was almost invulnerable in a static defensive position, but over difficult terrain it was almost impossible to maintain a coherent formation and good order. The gulf between the Anglo-French and ‘Celtic’ companies became clear as the Glamorgan Company in particular struggled to maintain good order forcing Newcastle to stop and reorder his rearguard on the left flank. Consequently, this formation was out in the open for longer and so was more vulnerable to the Catholic artillery in the village of Neigem. Finally Oudenberg’s vanguard hit home with the Calais company in the vanguard led by his son Riker, Earl of March [Riker is a German version of Richard, officially he was born Richard Plantagenet, but as this would make him the 4569th Richard ITTL, he is known as Riker - his mother was German after all].
The Calais Company were one of the finest companies in the entire army, they had drilled almost daily for years in anticipation of battle, and through their well-honed techniques with Pike and Polearm were able to make large gaps in the Spanish line. Even fighting across a ditch, and against the cream of the Spanish army, the men of Calais fought like beasts possessed and were making excellent headway. In the centre the London companies under Lords Bath and Cobham were making way too, although struggling with a deeper incline. It seems that the Snelbus was still superior to any weapon which the Catholics possessed and was firing 4 shots for every 3 the Spanish could manage.
Nevertheless, by early afternoon, the earlier momentum had begun to wane, and Parma had identified Newcastle’s battle as the weakest and slung his own reserve at it to try and weaken the Imperial left flank. He had partially succeeded; Edmund Chatham, commander of the Bristol Company, had fallen and his extreme left flank had collapsed. The Imperial Cavalry had been locked in roving skirmishes all morning with their Catholic counterparts and so it fell to William Hartson and his Piacenza cavalry to wheel around the entire rear of the battle into Parma’s flank.
Around mid-afternoon a dusty rider arrived at the rear of Edward’s army to report that Henri and Phillip were only 12 miles away at Ronse to the south-west, and they genuinely threatened the King’s retreat if they could reach the River Scheldt before he did. The retreat was immediately ordered, and three things happened in quick succession. Firstly, either through stubbornness or poor communication, the entire Imperial line disengaged save for the Calais Company, who continued to fell Spaniards even as their allies retreated. Second, Parma sensed blood and ordered a further charge on his own wing where de Cloy’s men had been freshest, here the retreat turned into a rout as the Glamorgan once more fell behind and was broken by the Mainz heavy cavalry which had waited in reserve. Finally, seeing all of this, Hartson and the Piacenza cavalry moved south behind the Catholic line and attacked the Spanish from the rear to allow the Calais men to disengage. This was successful, but it cost William Hartson, heir to Giovanni Il Nero his life.
Exhausted, and harried, the English army marched swiftly north west through the night making for the Scheldt and the relative safety of Pembroke’s army. Ninove had been a technical victory for Edward VI; over 10,000 Catholics lay dead, and Parma’s men were too beaten and bloodied to mount a sustained chase. However, the loss of Hartson, and over 9,000 men to death, injury or exhaustion was a crucial blow against the Britannic Empire.
Dawn of the 8th of July was red and raw. Edward’s army stumbled across the Scheldt at Gavere victorious, but not feeling it. After a whole day’s fight and night’s march, very few were in a state to fight, and the French had arrived. Richard the Younger had 25,000 fresh soldiers and a further 25,000 who were bloodied and exhausted. However he was sandwiched between the Franco-Spanish army and Ghent to south and north, and the Rivers Scheldt and Leie to east and west: he could not move in any direction until he had defeated Henri and Phillip. The French and Spanish had between them 35,000 men, but these were some of the best that they could field, to the east across the Scheldt came a further 9,000 men led by Parma, although these were as exhausted as Edward VI’s men. Finally to the north, 2000 cavalry had readied for battle in Ghent led by Juan de Austria.
The Battle of Biesen began on the 8th of July around mid-morning. Henri and Phillip had delayed in order to allow Parma’s force to recover and get into position to attempt to force the Scheldt at Gavere. In any event they fortified the town with light cannon to act as a distraction to Pembroke’s left flank. This task the English commander gave to the Earl of Richmond, Henry Tudor, though on paper Edward VI was also in attendance. Pembroke held the centre himself whilst the right fell to his brother Magnus and the Micklegate Company supported by Oudenburg and the fittests elements of his force from Ninove.
Biesen was similar to Limberg in that the Imperial army merely had to hold the field and had the advantage of protected flanks. However many years had passed since Limberg, and the French and Spanish had their own mobile cannon, which were used at the start of the battle.
Thus the Catholics, though outnumbered in total, were able to pin the Protestants using cannon and then strike in overwhelming numbers at certain locations. After a general probing attack, the main thrust came around noon when the entire Catholic army engaged the Protestants but Francois of Anjou led a shocking charge of heavily armoured Frenchmen into Tudor’s flank, whilst Parma poured fire into them from across the River. The results were devastating; Tudor fell and was taken prisoner, and would succumb to his wounds, leaving the exhausted Edward VI to turn the flank out of range of Parma’s men and in the process surrender it to Anjou.
In a feat of bravery or stupidity, Magnus of Pembroke left his own battle and with a force of 1000 northern heavy cavalry sallied down the shallows of the River Leie and into Phillip’s own flank, evening the score and rotating the entire battle line by 90 degrees. The Imperial army was now fighting with their left flank pointing to the city of Ghent and their back to the Leie, but they had held. In the ensuing brutal melee, another English sally, this time led by the Earl of Huntington, crippled the Catholic centre where Henri III fought. But this gap was immediately filled by Parma’s men now riding across the River Scheldt.
As the day wore on, the superior Britannic numbers began to tell. Even Juan de Austria’s charge out of the city had been blunted by quick thinking from King Edward who took personal control of Tudor’s remaining company and formed a pike wall just in time to meet the sally. Across the field, Henri and Phillip held a hasty parley in the ruins of a shattered pumphouse and decided that they had done enough damage for one day; the balance of power was shifting towards the Protestants as time passed, and they decided to cut their losses and order the retreat. The Imperial army was too exhausted to give chase, save for Henry de la Pole who led a collection of the surviving light cavalry in harassing attacks with Schragbus earning himself an ennoblement to the Earldom of St Albans in the process.
Utterly exhausted, the Imperial army pulled back to the north west and reached the channel on the 10th of July Biessen had claimed the lives of Tudor and another 12,000 Britannic soldiers, bringing their forces on the continent to less than 40,000. The only saving grace was that the Catholics had lost 18,000 men meaning that the armies in the Low Countries could manage half of that. The deciding factor was that this land was effectively hostile terrain to the Protestants and so there was now little they could do but hold the border and send for reinforcements from England, Germany, the Netherlands and the Colombias.
The news back in Calais was rather grim. Giovanni, on the news of his son’s death at Ninove, had himself died leaving Arthur Hartson the new Duke Of Normandy. This was rather fitting for a man who had spent his summer pursuing French partisans across Normandy and Picardy. Whilst his Lord had invaded the low countries, Henri de Montmerency had led a disparate band of some 10,000 French Catholics into English territory burning and pillaging. Centuries of fighting the French had taught the English well: fortifications and walled towns made lucrative spoils hard to find, and Montmerency had to content himself with mere Brigandry. Nonetheless the new Duke of Normandy, de facto commander of 18,000 men, had acquitted himself well. Out of recognition, or possibly guilt, Arthur decided to sever his titles, making his Uncle Phillip Earl of Amiens whilst retaining the more prestigious Normandy title for himself.
Further bad news came from Ireland where King Michael learned that the fort at Castlebar had been destroyed, although further information about what would become the Connacht Rising was at this stage hard to come by. Michael naturally wanted to return home, but Edward VI forbade this. The cousins, under Wyatt’s legal provisions, were technically equals, but with the Emperor absent, it was clear to all present who was calling the shots. Michael opted to remain in Calais for what turned out to be a fateful month.
After a fortnight to recover, Edward VI was anxious to be on the march again. There were still almost two months of the summer campaign season remaining and he knew that he had to achieve more to show for the deaths of Tudor, Hartson and their 20,000 or so countrymen. With the new Duke of Normandy, the Duke of Brittany, and the new Earl of Amiens patrolling the border with 20,000 men between them, Edward took his 40,000 men and once more marched on Ghent. What they discovered at the field of Beissen only deepened hostilities. The Protestant dead had been left to rot for two weeks in the summer sun, with no burial rights. The Catholic force had at least buried their own dead before the retreat towards Paris.
The English King was filled with wrath and after a day of heavy bombardment of the walls of Ghent, he demanded their surrender and the protection of property, which was hastily accepted. Having used this time to finally give their dead the burials they deserved, Edward now faced a choice. He could call it a season, with August only a few days old, or he could move on Brussels and seek a greater prize. Given his Yorkist blood, Edward probably favoured the latter option, but in the end his decision was made for him.
After Beissen, Henri and Phillip had retreated to Paris to regroup, where they were joined by Montmerency and Parma. France had actually stayed peaceful during a war. Henri III had spent the early years of his reign subjugating unrest, and with the Huguenots removed to Norland, a major threat to his authority had gone. Therefore when news reached the two Kings of Edward’s march on Ghent, they were ready with their 39,000 men and a further 6,000 new recruits from the south, giving them the slight number advantage over Edward’s 40,000, they made the decision to ride north.
Edward VI was taking on supplies in Ghent from Antwerp when he heard of the Catholic army’s approach. Simultaneously he learned that his desperate plea after Beissen had been heard. William I arrived with 15,000 men and his second in command Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, a veteran of the Palatinate War. Approaching from the north-east, the two armies met north of Brussels in mid August 1578 and camped at Lebeke allowing for resupply up the Scheldt from Antwerp. Here they stayed as the Catholics approached.
Phillip and Henri by now knew that they were once again outnumbered, and so waited at Ronse for Phillip’s new forces to arrive from Spain. Having had to march across France, a further 15,000 men were in Paris by the 17th of August when Edward VI learned of their presence. Edward VI knew he would have to abandon his well chosen position and advance on the Catholics before their reinforcements arrived. Initially Phillip and Henri stood their ground, but eventually realised that Edward meaned to attack them, and so they retreated as far as Mons where they finally formed up for battle.
William I was reluctant to march so far south, but Edward VI was able to convince him that between them they could defeat Henri and Phillip in the field, before their reinforcements arrived. On the 23rd of August, the two armies finally confronted one another to the west of Mons, Phillip’s reinforcements under Francisco Verdugo still 20 miles away. Nonetheless the Protestant army decided to give battle trusting in their superior numbers and leadership. Today a canal runs west to east across the battlefield at Mons, but in 1578 this was nothing but boggy ground, though dried out through the long hot summer. Henri and Phillip drew up on the low ridge to the south of this ground, the town of Mons to their right. Henri held this flank with Anjou and Montmerency in the centre with Phillip on the left and Parma holding reserve. The Franco-Spanish army was around 40,000 men largely equipped as Tercios, although 8,000 were cavalry which Parma led. They also had a number of cannon dug into prepared redoubts facing north, allowing them to fire over the heads of their line until the final moment.
Across the narrow defile stood the Protestant army. As a mark of courtesy, and perhaps remembering his skill at Limbeg, Edward VI allowed William I to lead his entire force as a roving reserve, himself commanding the 3,000 Cavalry and van Oldenbarnevelt the 9,000 infantry. The newly enobled St Albans (Henry de la Pole) commanded a 3,000 strong light cavalry screen and the remaining 40,000 men formed up in line, or so it appeared. Edward had arrived before dusk the previous day and seen how the Catholic monarchs had arranged their forces. The obvious route would be to attack directly south, straight into the Catholic artillery, and so Edward hatched a plan. He gave Pembroke some 8,000 of his best men, including the Calais and Piacenza companies and sent them on a march to the west to approach Phillip II’s flank from the west, behind his guns. Meanwhile he gave Pembroke’s banner, and command of the right flank to Edward of Oudenburg whose ‘15,000’ men were in fact half made up of squires, camp followers, cooks and other orderlies marching in the rear ranks. Their job would be to look convincing until Pembroke attacked and nothing more.
In the centre stood two Kings; Edward and Michael with another 15,000 men including Riker, Earl of March and Lord’s Cobham and Bath. Finally the left flank Edward gave to his Uncle the Earl of Huntington who had the job of holding Magnus of Pembroke on a leash until he could be most used. This army may have been battered earlier in the summer, but they were ready for battle once more. The day began hot and clear, excellent line of sight for the French and Spanish gunners, and Edward move the army swiftly forward. Less than half a mile away, a new formation appeared on the ridge to the East of Phillip’s flank: Pembroke and his men had completed their circuitous march and had appeared unexpected through a dense copse almost behind the Spanish King’s flank. Parma immediately tried to drive them off, but found his cavalry vulnerable against the Hutton Squares of Piacenza, Calais and Norwich. From this position, a handful of small cannons successfully planted within the Square for the first time in History, Pembroke had easy targets on the Catholic flank.
At this moment Oudenburg’s fake soldiers fled to the rear, guarded by the Dutch, and his remaining 7,000 charged up the last few yards of slope as Pembroke’s did from the West. This envelopment maneuver worked beautifully and Phillip was forced to turn his flank and abandon half of his own guns to the English. Across the rest of the line, the French fared rather better: Anjou, Montmerency and their King were all able to manipulate mismatches and areas where they had dominance. Anjou once again used his hit squad to tear the Nottingham company apart, forcing Oldenbarnevelde to commit some reserves to the gap. On th right flank Henri III was able to isolate and surround Huntington’s command, and was only driven off by another nigh-suicidal charge by Magnus of Pembroke. The majority of the Lincoln company were saved but Hungtinton died in the melee, leaving Magnus to take command.
The Catholics stood their ground for a number of hours. The flanks were so snarled up that St Albans was unable to make his light cavalry count, and they spent much of the battle searching for weak spots which did not exist. Very slowly, the Catholic left folded inwards and risked jeopardising the entire line, and infantry charge by Parma was able to stem the damage for a time but not indefinitely.
Then just past noon the storm clouds began to gather and a torrential thunderstorm began. The hard, baked ground was impermeable to this deluge, and instead the bog at the foot of the ridge began to slowly reappear. This gave the Protestant Cavalry problems as they struggled to navigate around their own rear, and Orange’s reserves were hampered as well. Yet the battle continued, with both sides fighting almost to a standstill. Henri slipped and fell in the mud, and was dragged to the rear giving Magnus a foothold on the eastern end of the ridge. In the centre Lord Cobham died, but in the process had carved an opening for the Prince of Wales’ guard to drive a wedge between Anjou and Montmerency. The slog continued, but just like at Beissen, the Protestants were slowly taking the day. And then Verdugo arrived.
The Spanish Maestre de Campo had run his army at almost double time for 20 miles in searing heat and torrential rain, and around a quarter would never reach Mons in time, half of them trickled in over the late afternoon. But Verdugo himself, knowing the stakes, had taken his cavalry wing and arrived on the field in a triumphant clatter into the side of the Piacenza company. Perhaps any lesser force would have folded then and there, but the Pizacenza’s were chosen for their ambition and honour, and they stood their ground. Nonetheless Verdugo’s forces were able to reinforce the line, driving the Prince of Wales back down the slope.
AS the battle slowly swung back towards the Catholics the rain finally stopped. The field was by now slick with the dead and dying, all of them lying in the mud. Most of the Catholic cannon had either been taken or made worthless whilst every man was reaching exhaustion. With two exceptions. St Albans and William I had struggled in the rain, and although it had stopped the ground was still treacherous. But they had seen a vulnerability in Henri’s battle. The French king was still receiving treatment in the rear, and Verdugo’s reinforcements had not yet reached his side of the field. Taking all their remaining men, the Dutch roared up the ridge in support of Magnus the Red (the title this battle would earn him) whilst St Albans’ lancers looped around the rear just as Giovanni’s men had done at Limberg.
Henri III spied the danger, but had no more reserves with which to stem the tide. For fear of being overrun he ordered the retreat, and this time his army obeyed him. Anjou and Montmerency in the centre were crucial in protecting the orderly retreat, as was Verdugo and his force. The Battle of Mons was the bloodiest of the Low Countries War so far. The Catholics left over 20,000 men on the field, whilst the Protestants lost somewhere around 18,000 men, the consequences of fighting uphill all day against an entrenched foe. The sheer brutality and mindlessness of it all could not be comprehended.
Once again the Protestants had won the field, and almost all of the Catholic canon, although most had been spiked. Although it again did not feel like a victory: Huntington and Cobham were dead, as well as Lords Hastings, Keyes and Holland. Furthermore, Edward was again aware that he was in enemy territory and marched immediately for Lille in his own lands.
On arriving in Calais there was once again bad news. King Michael was devastated to hear of the fall of Limerick and this time Edward allowed him to take the Leinster Company and head for home. On the other hand the frontier had remained quiet; it seemed like all the Catholic anger had been spent at Mons. The 1578 was by no means a tragedy; Bruges and Ghent had been subdued, and there had been three narrow victories. But the costs had been incredibly high.
By the autumn it was clear that Ireland was in a state of Civil War, and Edward sent the Chester and Carmarthen companies to aid his cousin Michael. Furthermore it was evident that the war in Europe was far from over: France and Spain still had 35,000 men, and the capacity to call on more. The Union of Brussels was still relatively intact, Bruges and Ghent had been peripheral members at best. But worst of all, Ferdinand of Austria and William of Bavaria had both sent pledges of support. Only time would tell if they were worth the paper they were written on.
Edward VI could not rest easy across Winter of 1578, there was plenty of preparation to do. The Old World was engulfed in flame, and it would fall to the New World to come and put them out.