Elizabeth: Miscellaneous, 1558 | British History Online

Calendar of State Papers Foreign: Elizabeth, Volume 1, 1558-1559. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1863.

Citation:

'Elizabeth: Miscellaneous, 1558', in Calendar of State Papers Foreign: Elizabeth, Volume 1, 1558-1559, ed. Joseph Stevenson (London, 1863), British History Online https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/foreign/vol1/pp58-59 [accessed 31 January 2025].

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Miscellaneous, 1558



[1558 ?] R. O.	170. Garrisons on the Borders.
	"A description of an order for Barwyk and the Borders."
	The writer having raised the question. Whether an offensive or a defensive war is the more expedient, decides in favour of the latter. He states among other reasons that our soldiers "seem not comparable to the foreign nations that be so well armed and in continued exercise and disciple." No invasion of England is to be apprehended "so long as Berwick lie upon their backs." Wark and Norham are not tenable against any army any time, but he does not think them meet to be abandoned; they should be victualled for 20 days and 400 men put in the one and 300 in the other. If the enemy got them, they could not keep them.
	It is not likely that any great number of foreign troops will come into Scotland except to besiege Berwick, and that town is able to maintain a siege from the Scots, if unaided. The importance of the place, however, requires that it should be well fortified, and victualled for 4,000 men for four months; that 2,500 men be ready to reinforce the town on the first raising of the enemy's power; and these, with the soldiers already in the town and the chosen artificers and pioneers, will make a force of 6,000 men. Every inhabitant should provide victuals for his family for two months. Timber should be put in the town for the new fortifications. Faggots both of wood and broom should be provided, also tents. On the English side the town is exposed to a besieging enemy, whose cannon could beat into every street and along the "rampier," and demolish the storehouses, bakehouses, and brewhouses; to obviate which the Lord Lieutenant should have authority to levy a power to encamp on the English side on the hill over against Berwick, which would be provisioned from Holy Island.
	Endd. by Cecil: Berwick. Pp. 7.
	171. Frontiers against Scotland.
R. O.	"A statement of the extraordinary charges abated by the month upon the frontiers against Scotland, 1558."
	Appended is a note of the number of men remaining in wages, at Berwick, (1,400), Warke (54), Holy Island and Farne Island (25), and Carlisle (10).
	Add.: Mr. Secretary. Endd. by Cecil: Berwick. Pp. 4.
R.O.	172. Stores in the North.
	"A declaration as well of all such ordnance and munition as remaineth presently in Berwick, and what lack there is to be supplied for the better furniture of the same; as also what parcels of great ordnance remaineth in sundry places in these north parts, towards the same supply; the rest to be furnished from above by the discretion of the Lords and others of the Council; with also a like declaration of a further supply for the furniture of 4,000 men for the field."
	Orig. Endd. by Cecil: Ordnance for Berwick. Pp. 11.
[1558?] R. O.	173. The Queen's Sovereignty over Scotland.
	"How the Queen is chief Sovereign over Scotland, as appeareth by the several homages done by the Kings of Scots to her progenitors the Kings of England," from the time of Bruce to 1423.
	In a modern hand. Pp. 7.