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Archduke Ferdinand's visit to Kinsale in Ireland, an extract from Le Premier Voyage de Charles-Quint en Espagne, de 1517 à 1518 (Author: Laurent Vital)

section 2

The adventures which happened while his highness was at Sea.

In speaking of the seaborne adventures, the first day that the Archduke set sail, I aver that before evening came, he made more than twenty-five sea leagues; and about 9 o'clock in the evening, as daylight was failing, there were great gusts of wind and lightening in the air which lasted most of the night, but neither thunder nor rain. And what amazed the sailors, was that a strong and violent whirlwind suddenly arose, which with a force of its own filled the sails; because of this they feared a great storm would follow since these were obvious signs. Suspecting the aforementioned storm, with every haste they took down the sails and only left the trysail; and they worked on and on making preparations to resist the encounter with the said storm. In this fear and doubt, the whole night went on; but — God's Mercy — the weather passed graciously enough and the wind altered to West-North West, blowing instead towards Normandy, so that we had to wander about the sea from one coast to the other.

During this time on the boat, three servants of the king and of his highness died,

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of whom the first was Jan Balleman, who had been ill for a long time in Castile; another was Hipolite, the sommelier of the cellar, who became ill eight or nine days before embarcation, the third was Hans, the gatekeeper's assistant, who had for a long time afflicted with pains in his legs. All three were, after their demise, thrown into the sea. I saw two of them floating on the water with the waves, having been put into barrels which went where the wind took them. On Saturday we saw two Basque fishing boats, which were going to England and they were happy to have come across the fleet of my Lord now safely on its way. On that day, about five in the evening the wind became much stronger, because of this, the sea swelled up so much, that the sailors were thrown up and hurtled down by such great waves, forcing them to fall about, so that it took great effort to hold on. The rough weather lasted all the night until morning, the fourth day of this sea voyage, which was the day of the Trinity.

On that Holy Day, because of this storm, his highness pledged that if he came through, he would go on foot from Brussels to visit Notre Dame de Halle, beseeching God that he might make his journey without accident. The lords who accompanied him made the same vow. This rough weather lasted all day and night, caused by a headwind which powerfully belaboured the ships; for the boats rose up and leapt within the big waves; and although they were pumping day and night, no matter how much water was removed by this pump in an hour, more was inside in a quarter of an hour; so that if it had lasted any longer, all was in danger of foundering and being lost at the bottom of the sea. Even the horses, that were not on the lowest deck of the boat, spent two entire days up to their hocks in water.

The next day, which was Monday, the fifth day of the voyage, there was more rough weather, with a North-East wind which lasted up to about four o'clock in the afternoon; and it took a lot of effort to hold the ship's course against the sea and wind. It seemed then, seeing the passage of the water, that the boat was flying through the waves, and thus moving us further off course; and it seemed that these waves must chop and tear everything to pieces, so rudely and impetuously were they crashing against the ships. This contrary wind

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kept up for five complete days, to the great disadvantage and setback of my Lord.

On Thursday, the first day of June, the pilots used a plumb line to test the bottom of the sea, and finding it was only four score fathoms deep, they reckoned that they were at thirteen leagues from Belle-Isle, which was the nearest coastal part of Brittany. Wednesday the seventh day of the voyage, was again wild and stormy weather, and there we were near the entrance to the Channel, so that we needed a downstream wind, a south westerly, for passage to Flanders; and in short we were outside the Spanish Sea. But seeing that with this wind one could not reach England, it was concluded to take the first port which one found in the vicinity of England rather than heading towards Brittany. For this reason, the pilots steered, as much as they could to the left hand side3, towards England. On Thursday the eighth day of the voyage, which was the feast of Corpus Christi the pilots were sure that they were off course, and now heading for Scilly and there they could put into port to replenish fresh drinking water and new fresh food, because Scilly is a little island with a good port seven leagues from Cornwall. The pilots said we were very close, as per the sand and gravel from the sea, which they brought in with their line. However they failed to reach it because they kept too far to the left, and completely passed eight or ten leagues away from the said Scilly without seeing it, because of the drizzle and obscurity of the weather, which lasted two complete days. After this they tried to test the seabed again as night was about to fall, and found their plumb was loaded with miry ground; for where they were positioned, they had shot too far to the north, and sailed so far on that they had left England, Scotland and Ireland at the good hand. So, very ashamed at having failed like this, they turned back the way they came, still hoping to make port at the said Scilly. But this contrary wind lasted eight full days, so not being able to reach this port, we remained at sea as long as we could.

On Friday, the ninth day of the voyage, there was again high wind, and thus the pilots estimated that they could return to the area of the Channel. For this reason they kept on this course, the prow of their boats always

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towards Flanders waiting for a following wind. But it was for nothing. Seeing this, advice was given by his highness with the chiefs and nobles and pilots, that it was necessary to take harbour in some place, for food and fresh water which were beginning to run out. And these pilots said that they could see no more apparent way than to land in Ireland, which they estimated to be four score leagues away, or to return to Castile and await good wind. Having these opinions, my Lord the Archduke said to the Lord of Reoulx that since it was necessary to get to a port, he would prefer to go towards Ireland, because with this wind one could better go by sail. In fact they exploited this so well that on Saturday the tenth day of the trip we were getting near. The next day, eleventh of the voyage at about nine in the morning we could plainly see the country of Ireland; and we arrived there after dinner, at five o'clock, at the approach to a sea harbour near a small town called Kinsale; where from the said harbour mouth to the town there might be a good league of water. And turning into it, half hidden, there was a castle keeping guard, so that no ships could enter there without their knowledge.

When the townspeople became aware that we had arrived in this place, they were dumb-founded to see such big ships there. Because they wanted to know who we were, they sent those townspeople who knew various languages as their deputies, to find out our intentions at coming there. When they came, we permitted them to board my Lord's boat and so that they did not recognise him, his order of the golden fleece had been taken off, for we did not want him to be recognised at all. There these deputies found the nobility, and greeted them very reverently. Then their leader spoke, in English, in the belief that some of us would understand it better than his own language. When we heard that they were asking no other thing than whether we were friends or enemies of their town, we told them that we were friends and it was the lord high chamberlain of the Catholic King, who while coming from Castile to get to Flanders, had not, because of the storm and bad weather, been able to reach Flanders as quickly as expected. Because of this he arrived here to be refreshed and resupplied with fresh food, paying for it well and there to await a good wind. These deputies were happy with this news, hoping

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to benefit from it and so were those of the town when they heard the truth from these people. But before they had returned to tell the news, His Highness ordered us to give them drinks and a feast, as we did. Then they returned happily to their town. And yet before these deputies returned to their town, the Lord of Reoulx had sent into the town a senior churchman who could speak good English, named Don Juan de Granada, in order that he could enquire if it was dangerous to go there, while keeping quiet the fact that my Lord the Archduke was on the boats, but that it was the lord high chamberlain of the king of Castile, who had to retire here on account of the bad weather. Now then, one does not know how the prelate of the church did it. But he did so much that by evening the townspeople knew that the Lord Don Ferdinand, brother of the king of Castile, had arrived there. And I know that because among the townspeople who spoke to me when I was in the town, was the one who spoke good French. And so by way of greeting, they bade us welcome, for the love of his highness.