^{page 209 note a} In this MS. the author writes his name Mountgomere.

^{page 210 note a} The currier differed from the harquebus, being longer in the barrel and taking a heavier charge. The caliver, or harquebus of standard calibre, was another weapon of the same class.

^{page 211 note a} Compare a passage in Latimer's sixth sermon : “The art of shooting hath been in times past much esteemed in this realm; it is a gift of God that he hath given us to excel all other nations withal.”

^{page 212 note a} The term “hail-shot of war,” as distinguished from sporting “hail-shot,” is applied to a charge of five small pistol bullets fired from a musket, in Instructions, Observations, and Orders Mylitarie, by Sir John Smythe, 1595.

^{page 212 note b} MS. No. v., art. 45. See the Catalogue, by G. P. Warner, p. 144.

^{page 216 note a} From this style of spelling one might conjecture that the copyist of the pamphlet was a foreigner.

^{page 217 note a} On the conclusion of peace in 1550. b A general term for fortifications.

^{page 225 note a} Ogier Ghiselin do Busbecq, the Imperial ambassador in Constantinople at this very time, witnessed a military procession through the streets, and specially mentions the head-dress of the Janissaries :—“When the cavalry had ridden past, they were followed by a long procession of Janissaries, but few of whom carried any arms except their regular weapon, the musket. They were dressed in uniforms of almost the same shape and colour, so that you might recognise them to be the slaves, and, as it were, the household of the same master. Among them no extraordinary or startling dress was to be seen, and nothing slashed or pierced. They say their clothes wear out quite fast enough without their tearing them themselves. There is only one thing in which they are extravagant, viz. plumes, head-dresses, &c.; and the veterans who formed the rearguard were specially distinguished by ornaments of this kind. The plumes which they insert in their frontlets might well be mistaken for a walking forest.”—The Life and Letters of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, ed. Forster, C. T. and Daniell, F. H. B., 1881, i. 284Google Scholar.

^{page 226 note a} Of the Turkish bow and its use, Busbecq gives the following account in his Turkish Letters :— “After dinner I practise the Turkish bow, in the use of which weapon people here are marvelously expert. From, the eighth or even the seventh year of their age they begin to shoot at a mark, and practise archery ten or twelve years. This constant exercise strengthens the muscles of their arms, and gives them such skill that they can hit the smallest marks with their arrows. The bows they use are much stronger than ours, and, being shorter, are also much more handy; they are made not of a single piece of wood, but of the sinews and horns of oxen fastened together with a quantity of glue and tow. A Turk in good practice can easily draw the string of the very stiffest of them to his ear. Without training, however, the strongest man could do nothing with a Turkish bow. Indeed, if a coin be set between the string and the bow close to the notch, none but an adept could pull the string so far as would suffice to liberate the coin. So sure is their aim, that in battle they can hit a man in the eye, or in any other exposed part they choose. At the range where they are taught you may see them shooting with so sure an aim that they surround the white on the target, which is generally smaller than a thaler, with five or six arrows, so that every arrow touches the margin of the white but does not break it. They seldom use a range of more than thirty feet. On the thumb of the right hand they wear bone rings on which the bowstring lies when they draw it, and the arrow is kept in its place by holding the left thumb in an upright position and joining it to the forefinger; so that their way of shooting is quite different from ours.”— Op. Cit. i. 252.

^{page 226 note b} Compare the account given by Busbecq of the training of the Turkish soldier :—“What, will they deny that the Turks are good soldiers ? Perhaps out of obstinacy they will not grant them to be such. I will therefore answer for them, that he who hath struck such a terror into the whole world and laid all waste before him, upon the account of his victories, may well be reckoned a good soldier. I ask them again, How is this soldier listed, and how is he trained up ? If they say they know not, I will tell them what I myself have seen, to my own cost. A Turkish soldier is a man so born, so listed, so trained and exercised, as the Romans were of old, and as ours ought to be. Yea, he is in a worse condition, for as to those soldiers who offer themselves to be listed, when the Turk goes in any military expedition, which they call Alcangi, they are little esteemed among the Turks. That soldier is the only man who is continually under their emperor's pay, and by judgment and good reason is at length advanced into the sultan's guards. This soldiery is thus chosen: the sultan sends some men every year into several provinces, who take away the third or fourth child from Christian families. When the drove of these youths arrive at Constantinople, they who have the most ingenious aspect are chosen out for the domestic uses of the sultan himself, or of the Bassas or other nobles. The rest are brought into a certain place where abundance of countrymen meet, and they desire such or such a youth from the overseer of the business; he receives from him a piece of gold and delivers him the youth he desires, having first taken notice of the youth's name, country, recorded, it is lawful for him, whether he be a citizen or a countrymen, to carry the youth into Asia or what part of the world soever he lives in, and there he vises him as his slave in continual toil and labour. His food is bread and water, and sometimes a little pottage with fruit or herbs. His apparel is sufficient only to defend him against the weather. Besides, he is instructed in the Mahometan religion. In this ignorance of delights, far from the blandishment of his own relations, he grows up into a robust and sturdy fellow. This man is again demanded of his fiduciary master and transferred to the wars; and from this seminary the legions of the Janizaries, when they are defective, are made up.”—Method how to Manage War against the Turks, translated by Tate, Nalmm at the end of his edition of Busbecq's Epistles, London, 1694, p. 399Google Scholar.

^{page 231 note a} Strype, in his edition of Stow's Survey, bk. i. ch. xxvi. quotes a publication entitled Lamentation against London, 1545, the writer of which follows the same line, and denounces gifts to those “lusty Lubbers ” the chantry priests.

^{page 232 note a} Bartholomew's, founded temp. Henry VIII., and St. Thomas's and Christ's, of the next reign, are the hospitals referred to.

^{page 233 note a} Were it not for a discrepancy in numbers, the “brief chronicle” to which Mountgomery refers might well be a little book which had lately appeared with this title : “A briefe Cronicle contaynyng the accoumpte of the raygnes of all kynges in this realme, from the entring of Brutus to this presente yeare, with all the most notable actes done by eche of theym, gathered oute of the most trusty writers,” etc. “Imprinted at London in Flete streete near saynct Dunstons church by Thomas Marshe ” [1561[. The number of parish churches, however, is there stated to be “xlviii thousand eyght hundred and twenty,” which differs from the number given above. But the discrepancy may be attributed to carelessness in transcribing. The earlier editions of the same work differ in having the title of “A breviate Chronicle.”

^{page 236 note a} The battle of Baugé, iu Anjou, fought on Easter Eve, 1421. See Hall's Chronicle, ed. 1809, p. 106, under the ninth year of Henry V.

^{page 236 note b} Hall's Chronicle, p. 542.

^{page 237 note a} The Battle of Spurs.—See Hall's Chronicle, pp. 549–551.

^{page 237 note b} A.D. 1521.

^{page 238 note a} A.D. 1528.