"And I do assure you," says Fleuranges, an eye-witness and partaker in the battle, "that there was great need of it; of the men-at-arms there were but few lost, or of the French foot; which turned out a marvellous good thing for the king and the kingdom, for they found him very much embroiled with the English and other nations." War between, France and England had recommenced at sea in 1512: two squadrons, one French, of twenty sail, and the other English, of more than forty, met on the 10th of August somewhere off the island of Ushant; a brave Breton, Admiral Herve Primoguet, aboard of "the great ship of the Queen of France," named the Cordeliere, commanded the French squadron, and Sir Thomas Knyvet, a young sailor "of more bravery than experience," according to the historians of his own country, commanded, on board of a vessel named the Regent, the English squadron.

The two admirals' vessels engaged in a deadly duel; but the French admiral, finding himself surrounded by superior forces, threw his grappling-irons on to the English vessel, and, rather than surrender, set fire to the two admirals' ships, which blew up at the same time, together with their crews of two thousand men.
The sight of heroism and death has a powerful effect upon men, and sometimes suspends their quarrels.

The English squadron went out again to sea, and the French went back to Brest.

Next year the struggle recommenced, but on land, and with nothing so striking.

An English army started from Calais, and went and blockaded, on the 17th of June, 1513, the fortress of Therouanne in Artois.