obtained a passport and a convoy to the frontiers, " they gave
great thanks to the Spanish commissioners, and much com-
mended the prince's honourable disposition in that he had so
justly kept his word with them".* That prince, as soon
as he was assured that the Armada was on its way, had
made over his command in the Netherlands to the old Lord
of Mansfelt ; and in that same spirit of Romish devotion, in
which the expedition was set forth, went in pilgrimage to our
Lady of Halle, the most noted idol in those countries, that
he might obtain her patronage and protection in this great
attempt at the conquest of England. Returning from thence
he repaired to Dunkirk, where he was to embark : there he
heard the firing on the coast, found that Stanley's regiment
of deserters was the only one which had embarked, and that
the other troops were as little willing to go on board the ships
as the ships themselves were likely to get out of the har-
bour, t
* Grimestone, 996. t Ibid., 1003.
86 ENGLISH SEAMEN
It had been concerted with the States, that a squadron of
about thirty ships, under Cornelius Lonke van Rosendael,
should unite with Seymour's squadron, and take its station
between Dover and Calais. It had sailed with this intention,
but a storm had compelled it to put back to Zeeland ; and
some of the English, too prone to put a sinister interpretation
upon all the actions of their allies, complained of this, as
if there had been an intentional breach of faith. But the
squadron performed better service than if the original plan
had been carried into effect ; for, when the weather allowed
of its again coming forth, it joined the Admiral of Zeeland,
Justinus van Nassau, and the Vice-Admiral of Holland, Jonker
Pieter van der Does, who had with them about five and thirty
sail of from 80 to 250 tons : 1200 soldiers were on board,
selected from all the regiments in the service of the States, as
good soldiers, accustomed to sea-service ; and with part of
this fleet they watched every creek and haven in Flanders,
and with the remainder blockaded Dunkirk.* In vain did
the Duke of Medina Sidonia despatch messenger after mes-
senger to the prince, urging him to send forty light vessels
for the immediate protection of the Armada, cumbered as it
was by the unwieldy strength of its own ships, and entreating
him to put to sea with his army, that they might proceed to-
gether to the Thames. His flat-bottomed boats were leaky ;
his provisions were not ready ; his men were not willing : the
sailors had been brought together by compulsion, and were
deserting as fast as they could from what they knew to be a
desperate service : the galleys which might have cleared the
way for him (if it could have been cleared) had been lost on
the voyage ; and the great general of his age knew that if he
attempted to sail from Dunkirk in the face of the Dutch fleet
it would be wilfully exposing himself and his army to imminent
and certain destruction.t Yet, unless some effort were made,
* Bor, 321, 323. f Ibid.
LORD HOWARD OF EFFINGHAM 87
all these mighty preparations would be frustrated, and Spain
would suffer a loss of reputation not to be repaired ; and he
promised, if wind and tide permitted, to join them within
three days.*
Fair as the hopes of the English were at this time, and
admirable as their conduct had been from the hour that the
Armada came in sight, it has been justly observed f that the
Spanish duke had thus far conducted his great expedition with
as little evil and annoyance as could have been reasonably
expected. The danger to England was still undiminished.
The Armada had arrived unbroken at the point intended for
its junction with the force from Flanders : it still appeared
invincible to all except the English and the Dutch, and except
those also who, in the confidence of its invincibility, had em-
barked in it. While it lay off Calais, in this anxious interval
of expectation, " Flemings, Walloons, and French came thick
and threefold to behold it, admiring the exceeding greatness
of the ships and their warlike order. The greatest kept the
outside next the enemy, like strong castles, fearing no assault ;
the lesser placed in the middle ward."]: At this time the
English might regret the loss of Calais ; but never were the
councils of England more wisely directed. The Spanish ships,
" as castles pitched in the sea, had their bulks so planked
with great beams, that bullets might strike and stick, but never
pass through, so that little availed the English cannon, except
only in playing on their masts and tackling ". In this respect
they seemed as invulnerable as the floating batteries employed
against Gibraltar. And their height was such, that our
bravest seamen were against any attempt at boarding them.
* Camden, 414. Grimestone, 1003. Turner, 680.
t Turner, 679.
J Stowe, 748. " Fresh victuals were straight brought abroad. Captains
and cavaliers might have what they would for their money, and gave the
French so liberally, that within twelve hours an egg was worth sixpence,
besides thanks."
88 ENGLISH SEAMEN
These things had been well prepended by Elizabeth's ministers,
and the lord admiral was instructed to convert eight of his
worst vessels into fire-ships. The orders arrived in such good
time, and were obeyed with such alacrity, that within thirty
hours after the enemy had cast anchor off Calais these ships
were disburdened of all that was worth saving, filled with
combustibles, and all their ordnance charged ; and their
sides being smeared with pitch, rosin, and wildfire, they were
sent, in the dead of the night, with wind and tide, against
the Spanish fleet ; " which when the Spaniards saw the whole
sea glittering and shining with the flames thereof, they
remembered those terrible fire-ships which had been used in
the Scheldt, and the fearful cry of ' The fire of Antwerp ! ' '
ran through the fleet. They apprehended not the danger of
fire alone, but all the evils that "deadly engines and murderous
inventions " could inflict : some cut their cables ; others let
their hawsers slip, and in haste, fear, and confusion, put to
sea, " happiest they who could first be gone, though few or
none could tell which course to take ".*
In this confusion, the largest of the galleasses, commanded
by D. Hugo de Moncada, ran foul of another ship, lost her
rudder, floated about at the mercy of the tide, and making
the next morning for Calais, as well as she could, ran upon
the sands. There she was presently assailed by the English
small craft, who lay battering her with their guns, but dared
not attempt to board, till the admiral sent a hundred men in
his boats, under Sir Amias Preston. The Spaniards made a
brave resistance, hoping presently to be succoured by the
Prince of Parma, and the action was for a long time doubtful.
At length Moncada was shot through the head, the galleass
was carried by boarding, and most of the Spaniards, leaping
into the sea, were drowned. The Veedor of the fleet, D.
* Hakluyt, 601. Strype, 861. Camden,4i5. Grimestone, 1003. Bor,
324-
LORD HOWARD OF EFFINGHAM 89
Antonio de Manrique, was one of those who reached the
shore ; and he was the first person that carried certain news
to Spain of their " now vincible navy ". This huge bottom,
manned with 400 soldiers and 300 galley-slaves, had also
50,000 ducats on board ; "a booty," says Speed, "well fitting
the English soldiers' affections ". Having ransacked all, and
freed the slaves from their miserable fetters, they were about
to set that vessel of emptiness on fire ; but the Governor of
Calais would not permit this, fearing, it is said, the damage
that might thereupon ensue to the town and haven. He fired
therefore, upon the captors, and the ship and ordnance
became his prize.*
The duke, when the fire-ships were first perceived, had
ordered the whole fleet to weigh anchor and stand off to
sea, and when the danger was over, return every ship to its
former station. The latter part of this order they were too
much alarmed to wait for or to heed ; and when he returned
himself, and fired a signal for others to follow his example,
the gun was heard by few, " because they were scattered all
about, and driven by fear, some of them into the wide sea,
and some among the shoals of Flanders ". Little broken yet
in strength, though now losing fast the hope and the confi-
dence with which they had set forth, they ranged themselves
again in order off Gravelines ; and there they were bravely
attacked. Drake and Fenner were the first who assailed
them : Fen ton, Southwell, Beeston, Cross and Reyman
followed ; and then the lord admiral came up, with Lord
Thomas Howard and Lord Sheffield. They got the wind of
the enemy, who were now cut off from Calais Roads, and pre-
ferred any inconvenience rather than change their array or
separate their force, standing only upon their defence. " And
albeit there were many excellent and warlike ships in the
English fleet, yet scarce were there two or three and twenty
* Hakluyt, Strype, Camden, ut supra.
90 ENGLISH SEAMEN
among them all which matched ninety of the Spanish ships
in bigness, or could conveniently assault them. Wherefore,
using their prerogative of nimble steerage, whereby they could
turn and wield themselves with the wind which way they
listed, they came oftentimes very near upon the Spaniards,
and charged them so sore, that now and then they were but
a pike's length asunder ; and so continually giving them one
broadside after another, they discharged all their shot, both
great and small, upon them, spending a whole day, from
morning till night, in that violent kind of conflict."* " We
had such advantage," says Lord Monmouth, "both of wind
and tide, that we had a glorious day of them, continuing
fight from four o'clock in the morning till five or six at night."
During this action the Spaniards, " lying close under their
fighting sails," passed Dunkirk with a south-west wind, close
followed by their enemies. Their great ships were found
vulnerable in the close action of that day ; many of them
were pierced through and through between wind and water :
one was sunk by Captain Cross, in the Hope: from the few
of her people who were saved, it was learnt that one of her
officers, having proposed to strike, was put to death by
another ; the brother of the slain instantly avenged his death,
and then the ship went down. Two others are believed to
have sunk. The St. Philip and the St. Matthew, both Portu-
guese galleons, were much shattered. D. Diego de Pimentel,
in the latter, endeavoured to assist the former, but in vain ;
for being "sore battered with many great shot by Seymour
and Winter," and the mast shot away, the St. Philip was
driven near Ostend : as a last chance, the officers endeavoured
to make for a Flemish port ; but finding it impossible to bring
the ship into any friendly harbour, they got to Ostend in the
boats, and the galleon was taken possession of from Flushing.
The St. Matthew suffered so much, and leaked so fast, that the
* Hakluyt, 602.
LORD HOWARD OF EFFINGHAM 91
duke sent a boat to bring Pimentel and some of the chief
persons on board his own ship. A sense of honour withheld
them from abandoning their men, and looking solely to the
preservation of their own lives. The duke then charged
them to keep company with him ; but this was impossible :
in that danger the one vessel could not slacken its course,
and the other could make little way ; for the water came in
so fast that fifty men were employed at the pumps. Seeing
himself thus necessarily forsaken, Pimentel resolved to run
aground on the Flemish coast ; but here he was discovered by
some of the Dutch ships, which had their station upon that
coast ; and, after losing some forty of his men in vain resist-
ance, struck to Pieter van der Does. The ship sunk in one
of the Zeeland ports ; and its flag was suspended as a trophy
in St. Peter's Church at Leyden ; a city which had been in no
light degree beholden for its own glorious deliverance to the
illustrious family of Dousa.*
Still the duke did not despair of eventual success : an un-
expected respite was afforded him ; for the English had
expended their ammunition, and were forced to send for a
supply ; and taking advantage of a strong west-north-wester,
the Armada made an effort to regain his position in the straits,
that the prince might join them. The spirit in which this
resolution was taken was better than the seamanship : that
wind carried them towards the shallows and sands on the
Zeeland coast ; and glad were they when it came to the south
and enabled them to avoid the dangers by which they must
otherwise soon have found themselves surrounded. That day
Drake wrote to Walsingham : " We have the army of Spain
before us, and mind to wrestle a pull with him. There was
never anything pleased better than seeing the enemy flying
with a southerly wind to the northward. I doubt not, but
ere it be long, so to handle the matter with the Duke of
* Bor, 325. Hakluyt, 602, 603. Camden, 415. Grimestone, 1004.
92 ENGLISH SEAMEN
Sidonia, that he shall wish himself at St. Mary's Port, among
his vine trees. God give us grace to depend upon Him ; so
shall we not doubt victory, for our cause is good." But the
hopes which Drake entertained of a brilliant victory * were
not to be fulfilled. Enough had been achieved by the councils
and the hand of man. That providence which had confounded
the devices of the enemy effected by the agency of the
elements the rest. The duke advised with his officers in the
evening what course, after these unexpected disasters, should
be pursued. They were now experimentally convinced that
the English excelled them in naval strength. Several of their
largest ships had been lost, others were greatly damaged :
there was no port to which they could repair ; and to force
their way through the victorious English fleet, then in sight
and amounting to 140 sail, was plainly and confessedly im-
possible. They resolved, therefore, upon returning to Spain
* "And here," says Sir William Monson, " was opportunity offered us
to have followed the victory upon them ; for if we had once more offered
them fight, the general, it was thought, by persuasion of his confessor,
was determined to yield; whose example, 'tis very likely, would have
made the rest to have done the like. But this opportunity was lost ; not
through the negligence or backwardness of the lord admiral, but merely
through the want of providence in those that had the charge of furnishing
and providing for the fleet. For at that time of so great advantage, when
they came to examine their provisions, they found a general scarcity of
powder and shot, for want whereof they were forced to return home.
Another opportunity was lost, not much inferior to the other, by not
sending part of our fleet to the west of Ireland, where the Spaniards, of
necessity, were to pass, after so many dangers and disasters as they had
endured. If we had been so happy as to have followed their course, as it
was both thought and discoursed of, we had been absolutely victorious
over this great and formidable navy, for they were brought to that neces-
sity, that they would willingly have yielded, as divers of them confessed
that were shipwrecked in Ireland. By this we may see how weak and
feeble the designs of man are in respect of the Creator ; and how indif-
ferently He dealt betwixt the two nations, sometimes giving one, some-
times the other, the advantage, yet so that He only ordered the battle "
(Churchill's Collection, iii., 159).
LORD HOWARD OF EFFINGHAM 93
by a northern course ; and in that determination, "having
gotten more sea room for their huge-bodied bulks, spread
their mainsails, and made away as fast as wind and water
would give them leave. But surely/' says Speed, " if they
had known the want of powder that our fleet sustained (a
fault inexcusable upon our own coasts), they no doubt would
have stood longer to their tacklings. But God, in this, as in
the rest, would have us to acknowledge, that we were only
delivered by His own gracious providence and arm, and not
by any policy or poM'er of our own." The lord admiral left
Seymour to blockade the Prince of Parma's force, and followed
what our chroniclers now call the Vincible Armada, not with-
out some apprehension that they might put into Scotland ;
but leaving Scotland on the west, they bent towards Norway,
" ill-advised, but that necessity urged, and God had infatuated
their councils, to put their shaken and battered bottoms into
those black and dangerous seas ". And the English having,
in Drake's words, " cast them so far to the northward, that
they could neither recover England nor Scotland, thought it
best to leave them to those boisterous and uncouth northern
seas ".*
But while the loss which they had hitherto sustained was
as yet uncertain, and the opinion on shore was that they
would return to the straits, it was still thought probable that
the Prince of Parma might effect a landing. Elizabeth, who
had not easily been dissuaded from her intention of being
present in the battle wherever it should be fought, went to
the camp at Tilbury. From the time that camp was formed,
a true English spirit had been shown there. " It was a
pleasant sight," says the good London chronicler, t who him-
self had seen it, " to behold the soldiers as they marched
towards Tilbury, their cheerful countenances, courageous
* Hakluyt, 603. Speed, 862. Turner, 681.
t Stowe, 744.
94 ENGLISH SEAMEN
words and gestures, dancing and leaping wheresoever they
came. In the camp their most felicity was the hope of
fighting with the enemy, where, ofttimes, divers rumours ran
of their foes' approach, and that present battle would be
given them ; then were they as joyful at such news as if
lusty giants were to run a race." When the queen came
among them, " full of princely resolution, and more than
feminine courage," she rode through the ranks with a
general's truncheon in her hand, and sometimes with a martial
pace, another while gently, like a woman : " Incredible it is,"
says Camden, "how much she encouraged the hearts of her
captains and soldiers by her presence and her words ". "I
think," says Leicester, " the weakest person among them is
able to match the proudest Spaniards that dare land in
England ! " Her speech at this memorable time has been
preserved,* and well might it animate them. " My loving
people," she said, "we have been persuaded by some that are
careful of our safety to take heed how we commit ourselves
to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery ; but I assure you
I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving
people. Let tyrants fear ! I have always so behaved my-
self, that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and
safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects ;
and, therefore, I am come amongst you, as you see, at this
time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved
in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you
all, to lay down, for my God, for my kingdom, and for my
people, my honour and my blood even in the dust. I know
I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have
the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England
too ; and think it foul scorn that Parma, or Spain, or any prince
of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm ;
to which rather than any dishonour should grow by me, I
* Somer's Tracts (Scott's edition), i., 429.
LORD HOWARD OF EFFINGHAM 95
myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge,
and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. I
know already for your forwardness you have deserved rewards
and crowns ; and we do assure you, on the word of a prince,
they shall be duly paid you. In the meantime my lieutenant-
general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince com-
manded a more noble or worthy subject, not doubting but
by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the
camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a
famous victory over those enemies of my God, of my kingdom,
and of my people."
While she was at dinner that day in the general's tent,
there came a post with tidings that the Prince of Parma and
all his forces had embarked for England, and that his arrival
with all possible speed was to be looked for. The news was
immediately published through the camp ;* and assuredly, if
the enemy had set foot upon our shores, they would have
sped no better than they had done at sea, such was the spirit
of the nation. This intelligence was soon disproved ; but
after it was certain that by God's mercy the danger had been
averted, some time elapsed before the fate of the Armada
was ascertained. Statements of its success were confidently
circulated upon the continent, and credited according to the
wishes of the hearer. It was affirmed that great part of
the English fleet had been taken, great part sunk, and the
poor remainder driven into the Thames "all rent and torn" ;
that they were utterly discomfited, and that Drake was
made prisoner, t Poems were composed in honour of the
victory, as poems had been composed to predict it. It was
* Turner, 682, note.
t " And that there was found in his ship a piece of twenty-five spans,
or one quintal of munition, made on purpose, of one only shot, to sink
the Admiral of Spain ; but it pleased God, though she was hurt therewith,
yet she was repaired again, and overcame the English fleet " (Strype,
App. B, ii., No. 55).
96 ENGLISH SEAMEN
believed at Rome that Elizabeth was taken, and England
conquered ; and Cardinal Allen is said to have made a feast
in honour of the event, and invited to it the Scotch, Irish,
and English who were in that city ! But in vain, meantime,
was the ship looked for in the Spanish ports that should
bring good tidings home ! The unhappy fleet, after the
English had given over the pursuit, threw their mules and
horses overboard lest their water should fail. They knew
that they had no relief to expect in Scotland, and that
Norway could not supply their wants ; so taking some
captured fishermen for pilots, they sailed between the
Orkney and the Feroe Islands ; and when they had reached
the latitude of sixty-two, and were some 200 miles from any
land, the duke ordered them each to take the best course
they could for Spain. He, himself, with some five and
twenty of the ships that were best provided, steered a
straight course, and arrived in safety. The others, about
forty in number, made for Cape Clear, hoping to water there ;
but a storm from the south-west overtook and wrecked many
of them upon the Irish coast. Their treatment there is the
only circumstance in the whole history of this enterprise
which is disgraceful to an English name. For the lord
deputy, Sir William Fitzwilliam, fearing they should join
the rebels, and seeing that Bingham, the Governor of Con-
naught, refused to obey his merciless orders concerning them,
sent his deputy marshal, "who drove them out of their
hiding-places, and beheaded about 200 of them ". The
queen condemned this cruelty from her heart, though no
such punishment as he deserved was inflicted upon Fitzwilliam.
Terrified at this, the other Spaniards, " sick and starved as
they were, committed themselves to the sea in their shattered
vessels, and very many of them were swallowed up by the
waves ".* But with some of the officers who escaped this
*Camden, 417.
LORD HOWARD OF EFFINGHAM 97
butchery Tyrone concerted his rebellion.* It is supposed
that more than thirty of their ships perished off the coast of
Ireland, with the greater part of their crews. Two vessels
were cast away on the coast of Norway. Some few, having a
westerly wind, got again into the English seas ; of these, two
were taken by the cruisers off Rochelle, and one (a great
galleass) put into Havre. About 700 men who were cast
ashore in Scotland were there humanely treated ; and, with
Elizabeth's consent, were, at the Prince of Parma's request,
sent over to the Netherlands. Relics of this great destruction
are still sometimes brought to light. It is not long since the
remains of an anchor, which appeared to have belonged to
the Armada, was picked up in a fisherman's trawl off Dover ;
and in 1832 one of their cannon f was found on the coast
of Mayo. Of the whole Armada, only fifty-three vessels
returned to Spain ; eighty-one were lost ; and of 30,000
soldiers who were embarked, nearly 14,000 were missing, the
prisoners being about 2000.
Philip's behaviour when the whole of this great calamity