It is the worst possible news. The Earl of Rutland was equipped with as many troops as he could muster and set sail for Calais at the beginning of this month. Unfortunately, the French commander, the Duke of Guise, had moved with lightning speed to move thousands of men across frozen marshland and seize the harbour from the seaward side. They took the harbour entrance and the fort and occupied it. The French bombarded the town with such force and fury that our forces were unable to enter. After a fierce and b****y battle our troops were ordered to surrender, and we lost our last European colony.
“I hear they had 30,000 men,” William Paulet says.
“Yes, we had no chance against such numbers,” Nicholas Heath adds. “And no chance of raising more than 3,000 with this influenza epidemic.”
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