[486] In 1557 an English corps under the Earl of Pembroke took part in the war against France. "The English did not share in the glory of the battle, for they were not present; but they arrived two days after to take part in the storming of St. Quentin, and to share, to their shame, in the sack and spoiling of the town."—Froude, VI. 52.
[487] Havre.—The expedition was despatched in 1562.
[488] Led by the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland in 1569.
[489] The reference is to the frost of 1564.—"There was one great frost in England in our memory, and that was in the 7th year of Queen Elizabeth: which began upon the 21st of December and held in so extremely that, upon New Year's eve following, people in multitudes went upon the Thames from London Bridge to Westminster; some, as you tell me, sir, they do now—playing at football, others shooting at pricks."—"The Great Frost," 1608 (Arber's "English Garner," Vol. I.)
[490] "This yeare [1560] in the end of September the copper monies which had been coyned under King Henry the Eight and once before abased by King Edward the Sixth, were again brought to a lower valuacion."—Hayward's Annals of Queen Elizabeth, p. 73.
[491] On the 4th June 1561, the steeple of St. Paul's was struck by lightning.
[492] "On the 10th of October (some say on the 7th) appeared a blazing star in the north, bushing towards the east, which was nightly seen diminishing of his brightness until the 21st of the same month."—Stow's Annales, under the year 1580 (ed. 1615, p. 687).
[493] The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.
[494] Vixenish.