[1] In May 1586 he was imprisoned in Marshalsea following his action to obstruct the sending of supplies to Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester who had accepted the post of Governor-General of the United Provinces following the death of William the Silent, Prince of Orange.
Leicester was keen to confront the Spanish commander, Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, who aimed to suppress the Dutch rebels further following his capture of Antwerp.
However, Queen Elizabeth I was infuriated by such enthusiasm and instructed him to avoid any decisive victories.
At a time when Leicester was trying to lift the Siege of Grave, Smarte issued a proclamation in Ipswich assembling a body of citizens who joined him on a ship owned by Thomas Bennett, where they found a quantity of Suffolk bacon, which they seized and sold or otherwise distributed.
[3] On his death in 1599 he gave a number of medieval manuscripts, originally from the abbey of Bury St Edmunds, to Pembroke College Cambridge.