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 despatched to destroy the shipping on the coasts of Spain and Portugal, and to place the pretender Antonio on the throne of Portugal. Twenty-three thousand men were embarked under the two commanders. The enterprise excited in England almost as much enthusiasm as the struggle with the armada in the preceding year. The dramatist, George Peele, gave expression to the confidence popularly placed in Norris in ‘A Farewell. Entituled to the famous and fortunate Generalls of our English Forces: Sir Iohn Norris and Syr Frauncis Drake, Knights, and all theyr brave and resolute followers,’ 1589, 8vo. Peele reminded the soldiers— You follow noble Norris, whose renown, Won in the fertile fields of Belgia, Spreads by the gates of Europe to the courts Of Christian kings and heathen potentates (, Works, ed. Bullen, ii. 240). On 20 April Norris landed near Corunna, surprised and burnt the lower part of the town, and beat off in a smart encounter at Burgos a Spanish force eight thousand strong under the Conde de Altemira. Putting to sea again, Norris directed an attack on Lisbon; but the enemy declined a general engagement, and the expedition returned to Plymouth on 2 July, without having achieved any decisive result.

In April 1591 Norris left England with three thousand foot-soldiers to aid in Henry IV's campaign in Brittany against the forces of the League. He landed at St. Malo on 5 May, and joined the army of Prince Dombes, son of the Duc de Montpensier. On 24 May the town of Guingamp surrendered after a brief siege to Norris and Dombes, and Henry IV extolled Norris's valour in a letter to Queen Elizabeth. On 11 June he defeated a body of Spanish and French soldiers at Chateau Laudran. Shortly afterwards six hundred of his men were transferred to Normandy, where the Earl of Essex was similarly engaged about Rouen in fighting with Henry IV's enemies (, i. 65). Thenceforth Norris's campaign proved indecisive, and at the end of February 1591–2 he returned home (cf. A Journall of the honourable Service of the renowned Knight, S. John Norrice, Generall of the English and French Forces, performed against the French and Spanish Leaguers in France, 1591, in Churchyard's translation of Van Meteren's ‘Civil Wars in the Netherlands,’ 1602, pp. 119–33; The True Reporte of the Seruice in Britanie, 1591, 4to; A Journall or Briefe Report of the late Seruice in Britaigne, 1591, 4to; Unton Correspondence, Roxburghe Club, pp. 7 sq.)

In September 1593 Norris again set foot in Brittany. In November he and the Duc D'Aumont seized the great fortress of Crozon, which the enemy had built to protect Brest. The victory was well contested, and Norris was wounded (cf. Newes from Brest. A Diurnal of all that Sir J. Norreis hath doone since his last arrivall in Britaine, London, 1594, 4to). In February 1593–4 he had fourteen hundred well-trained men under his command, who ‘wanted nothing but a good opportunity to serve upon the enemy’ (, i. 157). But there were dissensions in the camp between Norris and his French colleagues, and in May 1594, to the regret of Henri IV, he was superseded, although he stayed at Brest till near the end of the year (, Hist. x. 360; and, Hist. de Bretagne, 1836, xii. 468, xiii. 22, 147; , Civil Wars, 134 sq.)

Next year Norris was summoned to Ireland, which he never quitted again alive. The lord-deputy, Sir William Russell, had proved himself unable to resist the power of O'Neill, earl of Tyrone, in Ulster, and, after proclaiming him a traitor, had appealed in April 1595 to the English government to send him a military commander to exercise unusually wide powers. The queen's advisers selected Norris, who was still nominally lord-president of Munster. Norris's military reputation stood so high that many believed that the native Irish would be reduced to impotency by the terror of his name. Norris was under no such delusion. His health was bad, and he knew, too, that his appointment was unpopular in many circles. With Sir William Russell he had an old-standing quarrel, and he had many enemies in the queen's councils. The Earl of Essex endeavoured to nominate his friends to the subordinate offices on Norris's new staff, and Norris's free expressions of resentment increased the antipathy with which Essex's friends at court regarded him.

Norris arrived at Waterford on 4 May 1595, but was disabled on disembarking by an attack of ague. After some delay he arrived at Dublin, and set out on his first campaign in June. He made Newry his headquarters. Russell followed closely in his track; but Norris had no desire for Russell's aid, and declined all responsibility as long as Russell was with the army. In July, however, Russell returned to Dublin, asserting that he left Norris to undertake the conquest of Ulster by whatever means he chose. But Norris deemed the task impossible without reinforcements. Scarcely fifteen hundred men were at his disposal, and in letters to Burghley and Cecil he charged Russell with secretly endeavouring to thwart him, and with concealing the imperfections of his army from the home government. On