forgot his
bigotry in his politics. He furnished these young mutineers with ships
and money and letters of marque. The Huguenots were their natural
friends; with Rochelle for an arsenal, they held the mouth of the
Channel, and harassed the communications between Cadiz and Antwerp.'

Occasionally the twins met with ill-luck, and an entry in the Acts of
the Privy Council records that: 'To be committed to several prisons, to
be kept secret, without having conference with any ... Andrew Tremayne
to the Marshalsey and Nicholas Tremayne to the Gate House, suspected of
piracy.' Afterwards they went back to their life of risks and chances on
the high seas.

But when Elizabeth came to the throne a different view was taken of
these rovers. 'Privateering suited Elizabeth's convenience,' says
Froude. 'Time was wanted to restore the Navy. The privateers were a
resource in the interval ... they were really the armed force of the
country.' So (in 1559) instructions were sent to the English Ambassador
in Paris that certain gentlemen, among whom were the Tremaynes, 'as
shall serve their country, the Ambassador shall himself comfort them to
return home. Circumspection must be used.' The postscript is
characteristically cautious.

The Queen valued Nicholas as a trustworthy messenger, where a matter
needed discreet handling, and the bearer of it was likely to be in
danger. In 1559-60 the Bishop of Aquila wrote to the King of Spain: 'The
Queen has just sent to France an Englishman called Tremaine, a great
heretic, who is to disembark in Brittany. I understand that he goes
backwards and forwards with messages to the heretics in that country.'
On one journey he was arrested when carrying letters in cipher, and
Throckmorton, the English Ambassador in Paris, wrote to the Due de
Guise, asking for his release. Nicholas was a special favourite of the
Queen, but as he loved a camp better than a court, she gave him leave
'to enter into the service of the King of Navarre, by which means he
will be better able to serve her.' The King of Navarre, however, did not
greatly appreciate Tremayne, and a short time afterwards Throckmorton
writes: 'The bearer, Mr Tremayne, came out of England with intent to see
the wars in Almain, or elsewhere, thereby to be better able to serve the
Queen. He has been here a good while to hearken which way the flame will
rise to his purpose; but now, finding all the Princes in Christendom
inclined to sit still, returns hom