As the sun sets earlier and earlier every day I imagine him, wrapped in a thick cloak, standing behind the steersman, scanning the darkening horizon for enemy sails, and I whisper a prayer to keep him safe. In their terror at the threat of the French invasion the court speak constantly of him, and I learn to be stony-faced when someone mentions the admiral and the fleet that he is mustering. I train myself to listen as if I am concerned for the ships and not for their commander.

It is in some of the worst weather of the autumn that Thomas plans an attack on the coast of Brittany, gathering his fleet off the Isle of Wight, hoping to catch the French navy sheltering in port and destroy them at their moorings. I hear of his plan from his sister-in-law, Anne Seymour, who has it from her husband, Edward. Thomas has sent his battle plan to the Privy Council for their approval. He says that the French must be destroyed in port before spring. He says that they have oared galleys that can fight in any weather, unlike our sailing ships, which depend on a favorable wind. He says that the only way to prevent an invasion is to destroy the French fleet before they even set sail. All the king’s castles on the south coast cannot do as much damage to the enemy as one well-timed sea-borne raid, if he can catch them unawares, at anchor.

He writes about new ways of using our ships. They have always been used as transport—delivering the soldiers and weapons to the battle where they will fight—but Thomas writes to the king that if we can make the ships more maneuverable, if we can arm them with heavy cannon, then we can use them as weapons themselves. A ship could meet another at sea and bombard from a distance, conquer at sea with cannon, and not depend on getting close enough to board. He writes that the French galleys carry a terrifyingly heavy cannon that launches stone cannonballs at the target, and that they can hole an enemy vessel, ram it with the blade at their prow, and only then get alongside to allow the soldiers to board for hand-to-hand fighting on a vessel that is already wounded.