Note 241 — Chapter VIII

For the accounts of this battle, see Campana, Vita del Re Filippo Secondo, parte II. lib. 10.—Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. IV. cap. 21.—De Thou, Histoire Universelle, tom. III. pp. 239-241.—Garnier, Histoire de France, tom. XXVII. p. 513 et seq.—Rabutin, ap. Nouvelle Collection des Mémoires, tom. VII. p. 598.—Herrera, Historia General, lib. V. cap. 5.—Ferreras, Histoire Générale d'Espagne, tom. IX. p. 396.—Monpleinchamp, Vie du Duc de Savoie, p. 155.

I know of no action of which the accounts are so perfectly irreconcilable in their details as those of the battle of Gravelines. Authorities are not even agreed as to whether it was an English fleet that fired on the French troops. One writer speaks of it as a Spanish squadron from Guipuscoa. Another says the marines landed, and engaged the enemy on shore. It is no easy matter to extract a probability from many improbabilities. There is one fact, however, and that the most important one, in which all agree,—that Count Egmont won a decisive victory over the French at Gravelines.