the revenue which they should lose by a breach with France.
The more to ingratiate himself with Henry and the English nation, he
gave to Surrey, admiral of England, a commission for being admiral of
his dominions; and he himself was installed knight of the garter
at London. After a stay of six weeks in England, he embarked at
Southampton, and in ten days arrived in Spain, where he soon pacified
the tumults which had arisen in his absence.[**]

* Guicciard. lib. xiv.

** Petrus de Angleria, epist. 765.

The king declared war against France; and this measure was founded on so
little reason, that he could allege nothing as a ground of quarrel, but
Francis's refusal to submit to his arbitration, and his sending Albany
into Scotland. This last step had not been taken by the French king,
till he was quite assured of Henry's resolution to attack him. Surrey
landed some troops at Cherbourg, in Normandy; and after laying waste the
country, he sailed to Morlaix, a rich town in Brittany, which he took
and plundered. The English merchants had great property in that place,
which was no more spared by the soldiers than the goods of the French.
Surrey then left the charge of the fleet to the vice-admiral; and sailed
to Calais, where he took the command of the English army destined for
the invasion of France. This army, when joined by forces from the Low
Countries, under the command of the count de Buren, amounted in the
whole to eighteen thousand men.

The French had made it a maxim, in almost all their wars with the
English since the reign of Charles V., never, without great necessity,
to hazard a general engagement; and the duke of Vendome, who commanded
the French army, now embraced this wise policy. He supplied the towns
most exposed, especially Boulogne, Montreuil, Terouenne, Hedin with
strong garrisons and plenty of provisions: he himself took post at
Abbeville, with some Swiss and French infantry, and a body of cavalry:
the count of Guise encamped under Montreuil with six thousand men. These
two bodies were in a situation to join upon occasion; to throw supply
into any town that was threatened; and to harass the English in every
movement. Surrey, who was not provided with magazines, first divided
his troops for the convenience of subsisting them; but finding that
his quarters were every moment beaten up by the activity of the French
generals, he drew together his forces, and laid siege to Hedin. But
neither did he