Before the end of autumn of the year 1591, Henry had laid siege to Rouen, then the second city of the kingdom.  To leave much longer so important a place—­dominating, as it did, not only Normandy but a principal portion of the maritime borders of France—­under the control of the League and of Spain was likely to be fatal to Henry’s success.  It was perfectly sound in Queen Elizabeth to insist as she did, with more than her usual imperiousness towards her excellent brother, that he should lose no more time before reducing that city.  It was obvious that Rouen in the hands of her arch-enemy was a perpetual menace to the safety of her own kingdom.  It was therefore with correct judgment, as well as with that high-flown gallantry so dear to the heart of Elizabeth, that her royal champion and devoted slave assured her of his determination no longer to defer obeying her commands in this respect.

The queen had repeatedly warned him of the necessity of defending the maritime frontier of his kingdom, and she was not sparing of her reproaches that the large sums which she expended in his cause had been often ill bestowed.  Her criticisms on what she considered his military mistakes were not few, her threats to withdraw her subsidies frequent.  “Owning neither the East nor the West Indies,” she said, “we are unable to supply the constant demands upon us; and although we have the reputation of being a good housewife, it does not follow that we can be a housewife for all the world.”  She was persistently warning the king of an attack upon Dieppe, and rebuking him for occupying himself with petty enterprises to the neglect of vital points.  She expressed her surprise that after the departure of Parma, he had not driven the Spaniards out of Brittany, without allowing them to fortify themselves in that country.  “I am astonished,” she said to him, “that your eyes are so blinded as not to see this danger.  Remember, my dear brother,” she frankly added, “that it is not only France that I am aiding, nor are my own natural realms of little consequence to me.  Believe me, if I see that you have no more regard to the ports and maritime places nearest to us, it will be necessary that my prayers should serve you in place of any other assistance, because it does not please me to send my people to the shambles where they may perish before having rendered you any assistance.  I am sure the Spaniards will soon besiege Dieppe.  Beware of it, and excuse my bluntness, for if in the beginning you had taken the maritime forts, which are the very gates of your kingdom, Paris would not have been so well furnished, and other places nearer the heart of the kingdom would not have received so much foreign assistance, without which the others would have soon been vanquished.  Pardon my simplicity as belonging to my own sex wishing to give a lesson to one who knows better, but my experience in government makes me a little obstinate in believing that I am not ignorant of that which belongs to a king, and I persuade myself that in following my advice you will not fail to conquer your assailants.”