Walter Dawes of Broadgate, Collier “for goyng away from his Captian.” – 30 June 1594
Finding No. (copy and paste references into search box) - QM/SRc/1594/12
This case is an interesting one, for me, as it crosses over into my other
passion for the era: military History.
It would appear Walter had been recruited for service in Brittany but, was somewhat reluctant to go. I am pretty certain he was on his way to Brittany because of the very helpful (and free to download) article “Levies from Kent to the Elizabethan Wars(1589—1603)” by J.J.N. McGurk in Archaeologia Cantiana - Vol. 88 1973.
So what was going on in Brittany in 1594 that involved sending English troops? Well, it was quite complicated but, put simply: the English Government decided to back the Protestant French King Henry IV in fighting Catholic rebels to secure the English Channel ports; the main reason being the Catholic Rebels were allied to Spain and Spanish troops were roving northern France with an eye on securing Brest, or some other deep water port, to act as a spring board for another Armada attempt on England. The ‘Invincible Armada’ had of course failed in its task back in 1588, but at least half of the ships made it back to Spain and Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma's Spanish Army of Flanders (that was meant to link up with the fleet and invade South East England) was unaffected by the defeat; so the threat was a real one, in fact two other Armadas did leave Spain to try and invade England, in 1596 and 1597, but both were defeated by the weather. So in 1594 there was a very real threat of Spanish domination of the French Channel coast and the disastrous implications for England.
Kent was one of the ‘front line’ counties and due to the departure points for expeditions to France often being in Gravesend or Dover, it made sense to recruit in county to lessen the cost of transporting troops to the departure point.
It would appear Walter had been recruited for service in Brittany but, was somewhat reluctant to go. I am pretty certain he was on his way to Brittany because of the very helpful (and free to download) article “Levies from Kent to the Elizabethan Wars(1589—1603)” by J.J.N. McGurk in Archaeologia Cantiana - Vol. 88 1973.
So what was going on in Brittany in 1594 that involved sending English troops? Well, it was quite complicated but, put simply: the English Government decided to back the Protestant French King Henry IV in fighting Catholic rebels to secure the English Channel ports; the main reason being the Catholic Rebels were allied to Spain and Spanish troops were roving northern France with an eye on securing Brest, or some other deep water port, to act as a spring board for another Armada attempt on England. The ‘Invincible Armada’ had of course failed in its task back in 1588, but at least half of the ships made it back to Spain and Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma's Spanish Army of Flanders (that was meant to link up with the fleet and invade South East England) was unaffected by the defeat; so the threat was a real one, in fact two other Armadas did leave Spain to try and invade England, in 1596 and 1597, but both were defeated by the weather. So in 1594 there was a very real threat of Spanish domination of the French Channel coast and the disastrous implications for England.
Kent was one of the ‘front line’ counties and due to the departure points for expeditions to France often being in Gravesend or Dover, it made sense to recruit in county to lessen the cost of transporting troops to the departure point.
It would appear Walter was part
of the contingent, recruited in 1594,
who “…had such a long delay in
Gravesend that many absconded from the
Captain’s charge; fifteen of their names were sent to the council which then
ordered Sir John Leveson and Sir Thomas Scott to have these men traced and
imprisoned[1].” Sadly the list of the 15 men is not available
online to confirm he was one of them.
It is worth noting that Walter lived a stone’s throw
from North Foreland, known as ‘El cabo de Margat’ by the Spanish at the time, which was the
location that appears in the instructions given to Parma and Santa Cruz, by King Philip in 1587, as the place for the Armada to anchor and wait for Parma’s army to ferry across
to invade[2]. Maybe Walter would have been keener to
take up arms if he realised how close Broadstairs came to becoming the
front line landing beach for the Spanish invasion back in 1588, or maybe he
felt, for this reason, he would rather defend his home rather than fight across the channel?
Perhaps he was just a reluctant conscript who didn't want to be a soldier anywhere. He sounds like one of 'the very poor sort of men he was about to bring over to him out of Kent'[3], as complained about around this time by
Captain Morton to Sir John Norris, leader of the expedition. It was also not unknown, at the time, to use the 'press' for foreign service as a means to rid parishes of undesirables. Maybe Walter the collier was one of these[4]?
"The Siege of Rouen 1591", by Frans Hogenberg, 1591 - 1593. English troops (in Normandy) fighting alongside French Royalists.
Print available to download from the Rijksmuseum
[1] “Leviesfrom Kent to the Elizabethan Wars (1589—1603)” by J.J.N. McGurk in Archaeologia
Cantiana - Vol. 88 1973. P.
67
[1] “Leviesfrom Kent to the Elizabethan Wars (1589—1603)” by J.J.N. McGurk in Archaeologia
Cantiana - Vol. 88 1973. P.
67
[2] C.
Martin and G. Parker, The
Spanish Armada, 1988, p.284.
[3] McGurk,
P.67
[4] For the practice of conscription for 'social cleansing' see "A survey of the demands made on the
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