islanders were so elated at their past success, that they invited
the French to land and try their prowess in fair fight, after
having had sufficient time to rest and refresh themselves: this
handsome challenge was not however accepted.

Owing to its comparatively remote situation, the island escaped
those calamities which afflicted the rest of the kingdom during the
bloody disputes of the rival Roses: nor was it engaged with any
foreign enemy till the year 1488, when the governor, Sir Edward de
Woodville, having raised a body of about 500 men, passed over to
the continent in aid of the Duke of Bretagne against the king of
France. At the battle of St. Aubin the Bretons were routed, and the
islanders, whom hatred or contempt of the French probably impelled
to a more obstinate resistance, perished to a man: this unfortunate
event plunged the whole island into mourning; and in order to
recruit the diminished population, an act of parliament forbad any
single inhabitant from holding farms above the annual rent of ten
marks.

On the 18th of July, 1545, a large French fleet appearing off the
Isle of Wight, the English squadron which lay at Spithead, though
greatly inferior in force, stood out to meet them: but the
admiral's ship _Mary Rose_ sinking with most of her crew, the
others retreated into the Solent Channel; while the French landed
several parties of troops, and after some sharp fighting, repulsed
the islanders who had collected to oppose them; it was next
proposed in a council of war to fortify and keep possession of the
island, but this being considered impracticable by any number of
men that could then be spared from the ships, they proceeded to
pillage and burn the villages, till the inhabitants, being