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The decision of the queen was
received with enthusiasm in England as well as in Holland, and although
the Earl of Leicester was not personally popular, volunteers flocked to
his standard.
Breakfast at Hedingham Rectory had been set at an earlier hour than
usual on the 6th of December, 1585. There was an unusual stir and
excitement in the village, for young Mr. Francis Vere, cousin of the
Earl of Oxford, lord of Hedingham and of all the surrounding country,
was to start that morning to ride to Colchester, there to join the Earl
of Leicester and his following as a volunteer. As soon as breakfast was
over young Geoffrey and Lionel Vickars, boys of fourteen and thirteen
years old, proceeded to the castle close by, and there mounted the
horses provided for them, and rode with Francis Vere to Colchester.
Francis, who was at this time twenty-five years old, was accompanied by
his elder brother, John, and his two younger brothers, Robert and
Horace, and by many other friends; and it was a gay train that cantered
down the valley of the Colne to Colchester.


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