Admiral hindered the carrying out of the design. Seymour was deprived of his office in January, 1549, and was beheaded on March 20th.
Open war with France was resumed in 1549. Henry II. attacked Boulogne; and Leo Strozzi, with twelve galleys convoying transports with two thousand troops, blockaded Jersey and Guernsey. It was then that Captain William Wynter, who, under Elizabeth, showed himself to be a commander of unusual ability, first began to build up his reputation, although he had served as early as 1544 during the operations in the Firth of Forth. Entrusted with a small squadron and eight hundred soldiers, he, in spite of his inferior force, so boldly attacked Strozzi that he took or burnt all his galleys, killed a thousand of his men, and drove the rest of the expedition ignominiously back to France.[1] It is but just to add that the French histories contain no mention of this affair. They do, however, assert that on August 1st, 1549, Strozzi off Boulogne gained a brilliant victory over an English fleet, and drove the shattered remnant of it to Guernsey; and this action is not mentioned by English writers. The evidence as to Wynter's victory is, nevertheless, too strong to be neglected; while the evidence as to the French success is exceedingly and even suspiciously weak. There is less doubt as to the successes of the French on land. They pressed Boulogne[2] severely, cutting off all communication with it save by sea; and by the treaty of March 14th, 1550,[3] they were given possession of it and its dependencies upon payment of 400,000 crowns.
Dudley, Earl of Warwick, who, since October 28th, 1549, had held the office of Lord High Admiral for the second time, relinquished it on May 4th, 1550, to Edward, Lord Clinton, who had been governor of the beleaguered fortress, and who had negotiated the treaty.[4]
The peace between England and France was very displeasing to the emperor, who, in consequence, allowed and probably encouraged his Flamand subjects to cruise against the French in the English seas in a manner destructive to all security of commerce and intercommunication. The French naturally retaliated, the result being
