This is a translation of the 'Memoires of Jacques du Clercq', published in 1823 in two volumes, edited by Frederic, Baron de Reissenberg. In his introduction Reissenberg writes: 'Jacques du Clercq tells us that he was born in 1424, and that he was a licentiate in law and a counsellor to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in the castellany of Douai, Lille, and Orchies. It appears that he established his residence at Arras. In 1446, he married the daughter of Baldwin de la Lacherie, a gentleman who lived in Lille. We read in the fifth book of his Memoirs that his father, also named Jacques du Clercq, had married a lady of the Le Camelin family, from Compiègne. His ancestors, always attached to the counts of Flanders, had constantly served them, whether in their councils or in their armies.' The Memoires cover a period of nineteen years beginning in in 1448, ending in in 1467. It appears that the author had intended to extend the Memoirs beyond that date; no doubt illness or death prevented him from carrying out this plan. As Reissenberg writes the 'merit of this work lies in the simplicity of its narrative, in its tone of good faith, and in a certain air of frankness which naturally wins the reader’s confidence.' Du Clercq ranges from events of national and international importance, including events of the Wars of the Roses in England, to simple, everyday local events such as marriages, robberies, murders, trials and deaths, including that of his own father in Book 5; one of his last entries.
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Cádiz is in Spain.
In 1596 Arthur Throckmorton [aged 39] was knighted at Cádiz.
On 25th June 1596 Robert Devereux 2nd Earl Essex [aged 30] was present at Cádiz.
On 27th June 1596 William Hervey 1st Baron Hervey [aged 31] was knighted at Cádiz by Robert Devereux 2nd Earl Essex [aged 30] at the Sack of Cádiz.
The Cádiz expedition of 1625 was a naval expedition against Spain by English and Dutch forces led by George Villiers 1st Duke of Buckingham [aged 33].
The expedition left Plymouth, Devon [Map] on 6th October 1625.
In November 1625 the fleet attempted, unsuccessfully, to capture Cádiz.
In December 1625 the English returned home having achieved nothing other than spending £250,000, losing 62 out of 105 ships and 7000 English troops.
John Felton [aged 30] served.
Samuel Pepys' Diary. 16th January 1665. To the office a while, then to supper and to bed. This afternoon Secretary Bennet [aged 47] read to the Duke of Yorke [aged 31] his letters, which say that Allen [aged 53]1 has met with the Dutch Smyrna fleet at Cales2, and sunk one and taken three. How true or what these ships are time will show, but it is good newes and the newes of our ships being lost is doubted at dales and Malaga. God send it false!
Note 1. Among the State Papers is a letter from Captain Thomas Allin to Sir Richard Fanshaw [aged 36], dated from "The Plymouth, Cadiz Bay", December 25th, 1664, in which he writes: "On the 19th attacked with his seven ships left, a Dutch fleet of fourteen, three of which were men-of- war; sunk two vessels and took two others, one a rich prize from Smyrna; the others retired much battered. Has also taken a Dutch prize laden with iron and planks, coming from Lisbon (Calendar, Domestic, 1664-65, p. 122).
Note 2. The old form of the name Cádiz.
Samuel Pepys' Diary. 23rd January 1665. Up, and with Sir W. Batten [aged 64] and Sir W. Pen [aged 43] to White Hall; but there finding the Duke [aged 31] gone to his lodgings at St. James's for all together, his Duchesse [aged 27] being ready to lie in, we to him, and there did our usual business. And here I met the great newes confirmed by the Duke's own relation, by a letter from Captain Allen [aged 53]. First, of our own loss of two ships, the Phoenix and Nonesuch, in the Bay of Gibraltar: then of his, and his seven ships with him, in the Bay of Cales, or thereabouts, fighting with the 34 Dutch Smyrna fleete; sinking the King Salamon, a ship worth a £150,000 or more, some say £200,000, and another; and taking of three merchant-ships. Two of our ships were disabled, by the Dutch unfortunately falling against their will against them; the Advice, Captain W. Poole, and Antelope, Captain Clerke: The Dutch men-of-war did little service. Captain Allen did receive many shots at distance before he would fire one gun, which he did not do till he come within pistol-shot of his enemy. The Spaniards on shore at Cales did stand laughing at the Dutch, to see them run away and flee to the shore, 34 or thereabouts, against eight Englishmen at most. I do purpose to get the whole relation, if I live, of Captain Allen himself. In our loss of the two ships in the Bay of Gibraltar, it is observable how the world do comment upon the misfortune of Captain Moone of the Nonesuch (who did lose, in the same manner, the Satisfaction), as a person that hath ill-luck attending him; without considering that the whole fleete was ashore. Captain Allen led the way, and Captain Allen himself writes that all the masters of the fleete, old and young, were mistaken, and did carry their ships aground. But I think I heard the Duke say that Moone, being put into the Oxford, had in this conflict regained his credit, by sinking one and taking another. Captain Seale of the Milford hath done his part very well, in boarding the King Salamon, which held out half an hour after she was boarded; and his men kept her an hour after they did master her, and then she sunk, and drowned about 17 of her men.
Samuel Pepys' Diary. 17th February 1666. Up, and to the office, where busy all the morning. Late to dinner, and then to the office again, and there busy till past twelve at night, and so home to supper and to bed. We have newes of Sir Jeremy Smith's being very well with his fleete at Cales. [Cadiz]
Samuel Pepys' Diary. 12th March 1666. This day I hear my Uncle Talbot Pepys [deceased] died the last week, and was buried. All the news now is, that Sir Jeremy Smith is at Cales [Cadiz] with his fleete, and Mings in the Elve. [Elbe] the King [aged 35] is come this noon to towne from Audly End [Map], with the Duke of Yorke [aged 32] and a fine train of gentlemen.
John Evelyn's Diary. 25th September 1695. Mr. Offley preached at Abinger; too much controversy on a point of no consequence, for the country people here. This was the first time I had heard him preach. Bombarding of Cádiz; a cruel and brutish way of making war, first began by the French. The season wet, great storms, unseasonable harvest weather. My good and worthy friend, Captain Gifford [aged 46], who that he might get some competence to live decently, adventured all he had in a voyage of two years to the East Indies, was, with another great ship, taken by some French men-of-war, almost within sight of England, to the loss of near £70,000, to my great sorrow, and pity of his wife, he being also a valiant and industrious man. The losses of this sort to the nation have been immense, and all through negligence, and little care to secure the same near our own coasts; of infinitely more concern to the public than spending their time in bombarding and ruining two or three paltry towns, without any benefit, or weakening our enemies, who, though they began, ought not to be imitated in an action totally averse to humanity, or Christianity.
On 20th March 1730 Leeke Carey died at Cádiz.
Adeline Horsey Recollections. On September 28, 1858, my marriage took place at the Military Chapel, Gibraltar, and I was the first Countess of Cardigan to be married on foreign soil. I wore a white silk gown draped with a blue scarf, and a large hat adorned with many feathers; Lord Cardigan's [aged 60] friends, Stuart Paget, Mrs, Paget and the Misses Paget, were present, and we gave a ball on the yacht in the evening. We spent a very gay week at Gibraltar, and then left for Cádiz, touching at Malacca and Alicante; then we took rail to Madrid [Map], where we arrived on October 16 in time to witness a review of 30,000 troops on Queen Isabella's [aged 27] birthday. After a short stay at Madrid we rejoined the Airedale at Barcelona [Map], and went 500 miles by sea to Leghorn. We experienced bad weather and many storms, and every one on board was ill except myself. The cook was a great sufferer, and his absence was naturally felt by those who were able to look at food without aversion.
Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke
Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson.
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Matthew Browne was knighted by Robert Devereux 2nd Earl Essex at Cádiz.