Without flinching; but their decent and orderly behaviour, and the modesty of their commander, so favourably impressed the townsmen that they actually proposed to appoint him governor in the place of Jerome de t Zereerts. But 'to say troth,' says Roger Williams [q. v.], ' this captain had never any great ambition in him, although fortune presented faire unto him often beside this time.' He loyally supported de t Zereerts, and it was at his own suggestion that Sir Humphrey Gilbert [q. v.] superseded him for a time as colonel of the English forces in Holland. He took part in the abortive attempt made by de t Zereerts to besiege Tergoes; and when, owing to the refusal of the inhabitants of Flushing to readmit them into the town on account of their cowardly behaviour before Tergoes, he was exposed to a night attack by the governor of Middelburgh, he displayed great bravery, and was wounded in charging the enemy at the head of his men. But after a second and equally futile attempt against Tergoes, he returned to England with Sir H. Gilbert and the rest.
But failure had not dispirited him, and in February 1573 he returned to Holland with ten English companies, and took part in the attempt to relieve Haarlem and in the fight before Middelburgh ; but owing to a disagreement as to the payment of his regiment, he returned to England early in January 1574, and 'being mustered before her majesty near to St. James's, the colonel and some five hundred of his best men were sent into Ireland, which, in truth, were the first perfect harquebushiers that were of our nation, and the first troupes that taught our nation to like the musket' (R. Williams, The Actions of the Lowe Countries). He landed at Dundalk in March, and in July he was sent into Munster to keep an eye on the Earl of Desmond and his brother John. He was wounded at the attack on Derrinlaur Castle on 19 Aug., and, returning to England in January 1575, he was warmly commended for his bravery, both by Sir William Fitzwilliam and the Earl of Essex. He remained apparently for some time in Wales, but in 1578 he again volunteered for service in the Low Countries under Captain (afterwards Sir John) Norris [q. v.] He took part in the battle of Rijnemants on 1 Aug., and in the numerous small skirmishes that took place in Brabant and Holland in 1579 and 1580. He was present at the relief of Steenwyk in February 1581, and the battle of Northorne on 30 Sept. ; and at the battle with Parma's forces under the walls of Ghent on 27 Aug. 1582 he was conspicuous for his bravery. But difficulties were constantly arising between him and the States in regard to the payment of his troops, and apparently early in 1584 he was compelled to return to England. The Dutch community in London, however, recognising the important services he had rendered, subscribed nine thousand florins, and with the regiment which he was thus enabled to raise he returned to the Netherlands at the latter end of August, in time to take part in the defence of Antwerp. His troops were lodged in the suburbs of Burgerhout; but they became infected with the general spirit of insubordination, and he was compelled, in order to restore discipline, to execute Captains Lee and Powell. The post assigned to him was the defence of the Lillo fortress under La Noue, but it was in the attack on the Kowenstyn Dyke on 26 May 1585 that he most signally distinguished himself.
After the capitulation of Antwerp he was appointed for a time governor of Flushing, and it was here on 27 Dec., that he had that remarkable conversation with St. Aldegonde to which Motley (United Netherlands, i. 276-9) has drawn special attention. He was shortly afterwards placed in command of the important fortress of Rheinberg, where he was besieged by Parma, but almost immediately relieved by the counter attack of Leicester on Doesburg in July 1586. He was greatly annoyed by the attempt of Lord Willoughby (Peregrine Bertie [q. v.]), Leicester's successor, to oust him from the government of Bergen-op-Zoom, to which he claimed to have been appointed by the States-General. But, finding it impossible to obtain any redress of his grievances from Willoughby, he went to England in the spring of 1587, and was so successful in urging his claim that he was not merely knighted by Elizabeth for his services (but cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. p. 519), but also obtained her letters to Willoughby expressly authorising his appointment as governor of Bergen-op-Zoom, and lieutenant-colonel of the English forces in the Netherlands. He landed at Flushing on 1 June, and having presented his letters to Willoughby at Middelburgh, he found him as obstinately opposed as ever to admit his claim, alleging a simple non possumus on the ground that he had had nothing to do with either appointment. The States-General also interfered in Morgan's behalf, but without immediate success. 'So as in lieu of my accustomed service,' he wrote bitterly to Elizabeth in July, 'done to your majesty and these countries, I must now spend my time in gazing after new.' He found temporary employment in conducting over to England part of the forces drawn from the Netherlands in anticipation of the Spanish
