yet as the houses of the inhabitants lay at their mercy, they were at length bought off by the payment of 1000 marks, and a promise that no resistance should be offered, if they revisited the island within a year.

In the reign of Henry IV, the French made two other attacks:  on the first occasion they were repulsed with loss; and on the second, when a large fleet made a threatening demand of a subsidy, the islanders were so elated at their past success, that they invited the French to land and try their prowess in fair fight, after having had sufficient time to rest and refresh themselves:  this handsome challenge was not however accepted.

Owing to its comparatively remote situation, the island escaped those calamities which afflicted the rest of the kingdom during the bloody disputes of the rival Roses:  nor was it engaged with any foreign enemy till the year 1488, when the governor, Sir Edward de Woodville, having raised a body of about 500 men, passed over to the continent in aid of the Duke of Bretagne against the king of France.  At the battle of St. Aubin the Bretons were routed, and the islanders, whom hatred or contempt of the French probably impelled to a more obstinate resistance, perished to a man:  this unfortunate event plunged the whole island into mourning; and in order to recruit the diminished population, an act of parliament forbad any single inhabitant from holding farms above the annual rent of ten marks.

On the 18th of July, 1545, a large French fleet appearing off the Isle of Wight, the English squadron which lay at Spithead, though greatly inferior in force, stood out to meet them:  but the admiral’s ship Mary Rose sinking with most of her crew, the others retreated into the Solent Channel; while the French landed several parties of troops, and after some sharp fighting, repulsed the islanders who had collected to oppose them; it was next proposed in a council of war to fortify and keep possession of the island, but this being considered impracticable by any number of men that could then be spared from the ships, they proceeded to pillage and burn the villages, till the inhabitants, being reinforced, attacked and drove them off with the loss of many men, and one of their principal officers.  King Henry VIII, in order to prevent a repetition of such mischievous visits, erected several forts and blockhouses for the protection of the coast; and though the rapid advance of the British naval power still more effectually guarded it from the danger of foreign invasions, the islanders for many years afterwards neglected no precautions for their own defence:  a train of field-pieces was provided among the different parishes, and the militia, in 1625, numbered 2000 men.

In the division between king Charles I and the parliament, the islanders at first manifested some zeal in the royal cause; yet as soon as hostilities commenced at Portsmouth, the Newport