rbors
as the seat of their naval preparations, and might more easily, from
that vicinity, than from Spain or Portugal, project an invasion of
England. She concluded, therefore, a new treaty with Henry, in which she
engaged to send over three thousand men to be employed in the
reduction of Brittany; and she stipulated that her charges should, in a
twelvemonth, or as soon as the enemy was expelled, be refunded her.[*]
These forces were commanded by Sir John Norris, and under him by his
brother Henry, and by Anthony Shirley. Sir Roger Williams was at the
head of a small body which garrisoned Dieppe: and a squadron of ships,
under the command of Sir Henry Palmer, lay upon the coast of France, and
intercepted all the vessels belonging to the Spaniards or the leaguers.

The operations of war can very little be regulated beforehand by any
treaty or agreement; and Henry, who found it necessary to lay aside the
projected enterprise against Brittany, persuaded the English commanders
to join his army, and to take a share in the hostilities which he
carried into Picardy.[**] Notwithstanding the disgust which Elizabeth
received from this disappointment, he laid before her a plan for
expelling the leaguers from Normandy, and persuaded her to send over
a new body of four thousand men, to assist him in that enterprise. The
earl of Essex was appointed general of these forces; a young nobleman,
who, by many exterior accomplishments, and still more real merit, was
daily advancing in favor with Elizabeth, and seemed to occupy that place
in her affections, which Leicester, now deceased, had so long enjoyed.
Essex, impatient for military fame, was extremely uneasy to lie some
time at Dieppe unemployed; and had not the orders which he received from
his mistress been so positive, he would gladly have accepted of Henry's
invitation, and have marched to join the French army now in Champagne.
This plan of operations was also proposed to Elizabeth by the French
ambassador, but she rejected it with great displeasure; and she
threatened immediately to recall her troops, if Henry should persevere
any longer in his present practice of breaking all concert with her, and
attending to nothing but his own interests.[***]

* Camden, p. 561.

** Rymer, vol. xiv. p. 116.

*** Birch's Negotiations, p. 5. Rymer, tom. xiv. p. 123,
140.

Urged by these motives, the French king at last led his army
into Normandy, and laid siege to Rouen,