protocolling. One throb of patriotism moved the breast of both nations.
A longing to grapple, once for all, with the great enemy of civil and
religious liberty inspired both. In Holland, the States-General and all
the men to whom the people looked for guidance, had been long deprecating
the peace-negotiations. Extraordinary supplies--more than had ever been
granted before--were voted for the expenses of the campaign; and Maurice
of Nassau, fitly embodying the warlike tendencies of his country and
race, had been most importunate with Queen Elizabeth that she would
accept his services and his advice. Armed vessels of every size, from
the gun-boat to the galleon of 1200 tons--then the most imposing ship
in those waters--swarmed in all the estuaries and rivers, and along the
Dutch and Flemish coast, bidding defiance to Parma and his armaments;
and offers of a large contingent from the fleets of Jooat de Moor and
Justinua de Nassau, to serve under Seymour and Howard, were freely made
to the States-General.
It was decided early in July, by the board of admiralty, presided over by
Prince Maurice, that the largest square-rigged vessels of Holland and
Zeeland should cruise between England and the Flemish coast, outside the
banks; that a squadron of lesser ships should be stationed within the
banks; and that a fleet of sloops and fly-boats should hover close in
shore, about Flushing and Rammekens. All the war-vessels of the little
republic were thus fully employed. But, besides this arrangement,
Maurice was empowered to lay an embargo--under what penalty he chose and
during his pleasure--on all square-rigged vessels over 300 tons, in order
that there might be an additional supply in case of need. Ninety ships
of war under Warmond, admiral, and Van der Does, vice-admiral of Holland;
and Justinus de Nassau, admiral, and Joost de Moor, vice-admiral of
Zeeland; together with fifty merchant-vessels of the best and strongest,
equipped and armed for active service, composed a formidable fleet.
The States-General, a month before, had sent twenty-five or thirty good
ships, under Admiral Rosendael, to join Lord Henry Seymour, then cruising
between Dover and Calais. A tempest, drove them back, and their absence
from Lord Henry's fleet being misinterpreted by the English, the States
were censured for ingratitude and want of good faith. But the injustice
of the accusation was soon made manifest, for these vessels, reinforcing
the great Dutch fleet outside the banks, did better service than they
could have done; in the straits. A squadron of strong well-armed
vessels, having on board, in addition to their regular equipment,
a picked force of twelve hundred musketeers, long accustomed to this
peculiar kind of naval warfare, with crews of, grim Zeelanders, who had
faced Alva, and Valdez in their day, now kept close watch over Farnese,
determined that he should never thrust his face out of any haven or nook
on the coast so long as they should be in existence to prevent him.
And in England the protracted diplomacy at Ostend, ill-timed though
it was, had not paralyzed the arm or chilled the heart of the nation.
When the great Queen, arousing herself from the delusion in which the
falsehoods of Farnese and of Philip had lulled her, should once more.
represent--as no man or woman better than Elizabeth Tudor could represent
--the defiance of England to foreign insolence; the resolve of a whole
people to die rather than yield; there was a thrill of joy through the
national heart. When the enforced restraint was at last taken off, there
was one bound towards the enemy. Few more magnificent spectacles have
been seen in history than the enthusiasm which pervaded the country as
the great danger, so long deferred, was felt at last to be closely
approaching. The little nation of four millions, the merry England of
the sixteenth century, went forward to the death-grapple with its
gigantic antagonist as cheerfully as to a long-expected holiday.
Spain was a vast empire, overshadowing the world; England, in comparison,
but a province; yet nothing could surpass the steadiness with which the
conflict was awaited.
For, during all the months of suspense; the soldiers and sailors, and
many statesman of England, had deprecated, even as the Hollanders had
been doing, the dangerous delays of Ostend. Elizabeth was not embodying
the national instinct, when she talked of peace; and shrank penuriously
from the expenses of war. There was much disappointment, even
indignation, at the slothfulness with which the preparations for defence
went on, during the period when there was yet time to make them. It was
feared with justice that England, utterly unfortified as were its cities,
and defended only by its little navy without, and by untaught enthusiasm
within, might; after all, prove an easier conquest than Holland and
Zeeland, every town, in whose territory bristled with fortifications.
If the English ships--well-trained and swift sailors as they were--were
unprovided with spare and cordage, beef and biscuit, powder and shot,
and the militia-men, however enthusiastic, were neither drilled nor
armed, was it so very certain, after all, that successful resistance
would be made to the great Armada, and to the veteran pikemen and
musketeers of Farnese, seasoned on a hundred, battlefields, and equipped
as for a tournament? There was generous confidence and chivalrous
loyalty on the part of Elizabeth's naval and military commanders; but
there had been deep regret and disappointment at her course.
Hawkins was anxious, all through the winter and spring, to cruise with a
small squadron off the coast of Spain. With a dozen vessels he undertook
to "distress anything that went through the seas." The cost of such a
squadron, with eighteen hundred men, to be relieved every four months, he
estimated at two thousand seven hundred pounds sterling the month, or a
shilling a day for each man; and it would be a very unlucky month, he
said, in which they did not make captures to three times that amount; for
they would see nothing that would not be presently their own. "We might
have peace, but not with God," said the pious old slave-trader; "but
rather than serve Baal, let us die a thousand deaths. Let us have open
war with these Jesuits, and every man will contribute, fight, devise, or
do, for the liberty of our country."
And it was open war with the Jesuits for which those stouthearted sailors
longed. All were afraid of secret mischief. The diplomatists--who were
known to be flitting about France, Flanders, Scotland, and England--were
birds of ill omen. King James was beset by a thousand bribes and
expostulations to avenge his mother's death; and although that mother had
murdered his father, and done her best to disinherit himself, yet it was
feared that Spanish ducats might induce him to be true to his mother's
revenge, and false to the reformed religion. Nothing of good was hoped
for from France. "For my part," said Lord Admiral Howard, "I have made
of the French King, the Scottish King, and the King of Spain, a trinity
that I mean never to trust to be saved by, and I would that others were
of my opinion."
The noble sailor, on whom so much responsibility rested, yet who was so
trammelled and thwarted by the timid and parsimonious policy of Elizabeth
and of Burghley, chafed and shook his chains like a captive. "Since
England was England," he exclaimed, "there was never such a stratagem
and mask to deceive her as this treaty of peace. I pray God that we do
not curse for this a long grey beard with a white head witless, that will
make all the world think us heartless. You know whom I mean." And it
certainly was not difficult to understand the allusion to the pondering
Lord-Treasurer." 'Opus est aliquo Daedalo,' to direct us out of the
maze," said that much puzzled statesman; but he hardly seemed to be
making himself wings with which to lift England and himself out of the
labyrinth. The ships were good ships, but there was intolerable delay in
getting a sufficient number of them as ready for action as was the spirit
of their commanders.
"Our ships do show like gallants here," said Winter; "it would do a man's
heart good to behold them. Would to God the Prince of Parma were on the
seas with all his forces, and we in sight of them. You should hear that
we would make his enterprise very unpleasant to him."
And Howard, too, was delighted not only with his own little flag-ship the
Ark-Royal--"the odd ship of the world for all conditions,"--but with all
of his fleet that could be mustered. Although wonders were reported, by
every arrival from the south, of the coming Armada, the Lord-Admiral was
not appalled. He was perhaps rather imprudent in the defiance he flung
to the enemy. "Let me have the four great ships and twenty hoys, with
but twenty men a-piece, and each with but two iron pieces, and her
Majesty shall have a good account of the Spanish forces; and I will make
the King wish his galleys home again. Few as we are, if his forces be
not hundreds, we will make good sport with them."
But those four great ships of her Majesty, so much longed for by Howard,
were not forthcoming. He complained that the Queen was "keeping them to
protect Chatham Church withal, when they should be serving their turn
abroad." The Spanish fleet was already reported as numbering from 210
sail, with 36,000 men,' to 400 or 500 ships, and 80,000 soldiers and
mariners; and yet Drake was not ready with his squadron. "The fault is
not in him," said Howard, "but I pray God her Majesty do not repent her
slack dealing. We must all lie together, for we shall be stirred very
shortly with heave ho! I fear ere long her Majesty will be sorry she
hath believed some so much as she hath done."
Howard had got to sea, and was cruising all the stormy month of March in
the Channel with his little unprepared squadron; expecting at any moment
--such was the profound darkness which, enveloped the world at that day--
that the sails of the Armada might appear in the offing. He made a visit
to the Dutch coast, and was delighted with the enthusiasm with which he
was received. Five thousand people a day came on board his ships, full
of congratulation and delight; and he informed the Queen that she was not
more assured of the Isle of Sheppey than of Walcheren.
Nevertheless time wore on, and both the army and navy of England were
quite unprepared, and the Queen was more reluctant than ever to incur the
expense necessary to the defence of her kingdom. At least one of those
galleys, which, as Howard bitterly complained, seemed destined to defend
Chatham Church, was importunately demanded; but it was already Easter-Day
(17th April), and she was demanded in vain. "Lord! when should she
serve," said the Admiral, "if not at such a time as this? Either she is
fit now to serve, or fit for the fire. I hope never in my time to see so
great a cause for her to be used. I dare say her Majesty will look that
men should fight for her, and I know they will at this time. The King of
Spain doth not keep any ship at home, either of his own or any other,
that he can get for money. Well, well, I must pray heartily for peace,"
said Howard with increasing spleen, "for I see the support of an
honourable, war will never appear. Sparing and war have no affinity
together."
In truth Elizabeth's most faithful subjects were appalled at the ruin
which she seemed by her mistaken policy to be rendering inevitable. "I
am sorry," said the Admiral, "that her Majesty is so careless of this
most dangerous time. I fear me much, and with grief I think it, that she
relieth on a hope that will deceive her, and greatly endanger her, and
then it will not be her money nor her jewels that will help; for as they
will do good in time, so they will help nothing for the redeeming of
time."
The preparations on shore were even more dilatory than those on the sea.
We have seen that the Duke of Parma, once landed, expected to march
directly upon London; and it was notorious that there were no fortresses
to oppose a march of the first general in Europe and his veterans upon
that unprotected and wealthy metropolis. An army had been enrolled--a
force of 86,016 foot, and 13,831 cavalry; but it was an army on paper
merely. Even of the 86,000, only 48,000 were set down as trained;
and it is certain that the training had been of the most meagre and
unsatisfactory description. Leicester was to be commander-in-chief; but
we have already seen that nobleman measuring himself, not much to his
advantage, with Alexander Farnese, in the Isle of Bommel, on the sands of
Blankenburg, and at the gates of Sluys. His army was to consist of
27,000 infantry, and 2000 horse; yet at midsummer it had not reached half
that number. Lord Chamberlain Hunsdon was to protect the Queen's person
with another army of 36,000; but this force, was purely an imaginary one;
and the lord-lieutenant of each county was to do his best with the
militia. But men were perpetually escaping out of the general service,
in order to make themselves retainers for private noblemen, and be kept
at their expense. "You shall hardly believe," said Leicester, "how many
new liveries be gotten within these six weeks, and no man fears the
penalty. It would be better that every nobleman did as Lord Dacres, than
to take away from the principal service such as are set down to serve."
Of enthusiasm and courage, then, there was enough, while of drill and
discipline, of powder and shot, there was a deficiency. No braver or
more competent soldier could be found than Sir Edward Stanley--the man
whom we have seen in his yellow jerkin, helping himself into Fort Zutphen
with the Spanish soldier's pike--and yet Sir Edward Stanley gave but a
sorry account of the choicest soldiers of Chester and Lancashire, whom he
had been sent to inspect. "I find them not," he said, "according to your
expectation, nor mine own liking. They were appointed two years past to
have been trained six days by the year or more, at the discretion of the
muster-master, but, as yet, they have not been trained one day, so that
they have benefited nothing, nor yet know their leaders. There is now
promise of amendment, which, I doubt, will be very slow, in respect to my
Lord Derby's absence."
My Lord Derby was at that moment, and for many months afterwards,
assisting Valentine Dale in his classical prolusions on the sands of
Bourbourg. He had better have been mustering the trainbands of
Lancashire. There was a general indisposition in the rural districts to
expend money and time in military business, until the necessity should
become imperative. Professional soldiers complained bitterly of the
canker of a long peace. "For our long quietness, which it hath pleased
God to send us," said Stanley, "they think their money very ill bestowed
which they expend on armour or weapon, for that they be in hope they
shall never have occasion to use it, so they may pass muster, as they
have done heretofore. I want greatly powder, for there is little or none
at all."
The day was fast approaching when all the power in England would be too
little for the demand. But matters had not very much mended even at
midsummer. It is true that Leicester, who was apt to be sanguine-
particularly in matters under his immediate control--spoke of the handful
of recruits assembled at his camp in Essex, as "soldiers of a year's
experience, rather than a month's camping; "but in this opinion he
differed from many competent authorities, and was somewhat in
contradiction to himself. Nevertheless he was glad that the Queen had
determined to visit him, and encourage his soldiers.
"I have received in secret," he said, "those news that please me, that
your Majesty doth intend to behold the poor and bare company that lie
here in the field, most willingly to serve you, yea, most ready to die
for you. You shall, dear Lady, behold as goodly, loyal, and as able men
as any prince Christian can show you, and yet but a handful of your own,
in comparison of the rest you have. What comfort not only these shall
receive who shall be the happiest to behold yourself I cannot express;
but assuredly it will give no small comfort to the rest, that shall be
overshined with the beams of so gracious and princely a party, for what
your royal Majesty shall do to these will be accepted as done to all.
Good sweet Queen, alter not your purpose, if God give you health. It
will be your pain for the time, but your pleasure to behold such people.
And surely the place must content you, being as fair a soil and as goodly
a prospect as may be seen or found, as this extreme weather hath made
trial, which doth us little annoyance, it is so firm and dry a ground.
Your usher also liketh your lodging--a proper, secret, cleanly house.
Your camp is a little mile off, and your person will be as sure as at St.
James's, for my life."
But notwithstanding this cheerful view of the position expressed by the
commander-in-chief, the month of July had passed, and the early days of
August had already arrived; and yet the camp was not formed, nor anything
more than that mere handful of troops mustered about Tilbury, to defend
the road from Dover to London. The army at Tilbury never, exceeded
sixteen or seventeen thousand men.
The whole royal navy-numbering about thirty-four vessels in all--of
different sizes, ranging from 1100 and 1000 tons to 30, had at last been
got ready for sea. Its aggregate tonnage was 11,820; not half so much as
at the present moment--in the case of one marvellous merchant-steamer--
floats upon a single keel.
These vessels carried. 837 guns and 6279 men. But the navy was
reinforced by the patriotism and liberality of English merchants and
private gentlemen. The city of London having been requested to furnish
15 ships of war and 5000 men, asked two days for deliberation, and then
gave 30 ships and 10,000 men of which number 2710 were seamen. Other
cities, particularly Plymouth, came forward with proportionate
liberality, and private individuals, nobles, merchants, and men of
humblest rank, were enthusiastic in volunteering into the naval service,
to risk property and life in defence of the country. By midsummer there
had been a total force of 197 vessels manned, and partially equipped,
with an aggregate of 29,744 tons, and 15,785 seamen. Of this fleet a
very large number were mere coasters of less than 100 tons each; scarcely
ten ships were above 500, and but one above 1000 tons--the Triumph,
Captain Frobisher, of 1100 tons, 42 guns, and 500 sailors.
Lord Howard of Effingham, Lord High-Admiral of England, distinguished for
his martial character, public spirit, and admirable temper, rather than
for experience or skill as a seaman, took command of the whole fleet, in
his "little odd ship for all conditions," the Ark-Royal, of 800 tons, 425
sailors, and 55 guns.
Next in rank was Vice-Admiral Drake, in the Revenge, of 500 tons, 250 men
and 40 guns. Lord Henry Seymour, in the Rainbow, of precisely the same
size and strength, commanded the inner squadron, which cruised in the
neighbourhood of the French and Flemish coast.
The Hollanders and Zeelanders had undertaken to blockade the Duke of
Parma still more closely, and pledged themselves that he should never
venture to show himself upon the open sea at all. The mouth of the
Scheldt, and the dangerous shallows off the coast of Newport and Dunkirk,
swarmed with their determined and well-seasoned craft, from the flybooter
or filibuster of the rivers, to the larger armed vessels, built to
confront every danger, and to deal with any adversary.
Farnese, on his part, within that well-guarded territory, had, for months
long, scarcely slackened in his preparations, day or night. Whole
forests had been felled in the land of Waas to furnish him with
transports and gun-boats, and with such rapidity, that--according to his
enthusiastic historiographer--each tree seemed by magic to metamorphose
itself into a vessel at the word of command. Shipbuilders, pilots, and
seamen, were brought from the Baltic, from Hamburgh, from Genoa. The
whole surface of the obedient Netherlands, whence wholesome industry had
long been banished, was now the scene of a prodigious baleful activity.
Portable bridges for fording the rivers of England, stockades for
entrenchments, rafts and oars, were provided in vast numbers, and
Alexander dug canals and widened natural streams to facilitate his
operations. These wretched Provinces, crippled, impoverished,
languishing for peace, were forced to contribute out of their poverty,
and to find strength even in their exhaustion, to furnish the machinery
for destroying their own countrymen, and for hurling to perdition their
most healthful neighbour.
And this approaching destruction of England--now generally believed in--
was like the sound of a trumpet throughout Catholic Europe. Scions of
royal houses, grandees of azure blood, the bastard of Philip II., the
bastard of Savoy, the bastard of Medici, the Margrave of Burghaut, the
Archduke Charles, nephew of the Emperor, the Princes of Ascoli and of
Melfi, the Prince of Morocco, and others of illustrious name, with many
a noble English traitor, like Paget, and Westmoreland, and Stanley, all
hurried to the camp of Farnese, as to some famous tournament, in which it
was a disgrace to chivalry if their names were not enrolled. The roads
were trampled with levies of fresh troops from Spain, Naples, Corsica,
the States of the Church, the Milanese, Germany, Burgundy.
Blas Capizucca was sent in person to conduct reinforcements from the
north of Italy. The famous Terzio of Naples, under Carlos Pinelo,
arrived 3500 strong--the most splendid regiment ever known in the history
of war. Every man had an engraved corslet and musket-barrel, and there
were many who wore gilded armour, while their waving plumes and festive
caparisons made them look like holiday-makers, rather than real
campaigners, in the eyes of the inhabitants of the various cities through
which their road led them to Flanders. By the end of April the Duke of
Parma saw himself at the head of 60,000 men, at a monthly expense of
454,315 crowns or dollars. Yet so rapid was the progress of disease--
incident to northern climates--among those southern soldiers, that we
shall find the number woefully diminished before they were likely to set
foot upon the English shore.
Thus great preparations, simultaneously with pompous negotiations, had
been going forward month after month, in England, Holland, Flanders.
Nevertheless, winter, spring, two-thirds of summer, had passed away, and
on the 29th July, 1588, there remained the same sickening uncertainty,
which was the atmosphere in which the nations had existed for a
twelvemonth.
Howard had cruised for a few weeks between England and Spain, without any
results, and, on his return, had found it necessary to implore her
Majesty, as late as July, to "trust no more to Judas' kisses, but to her
sword, not her enemy's word."
ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
A burnt cat fears the fire
A free commonwealth--was thought an absurdity
Baiting his hook a little to his appetite
Canker of a long peace
Englishmen and Hollanders preparing to cut each other's throats
Faction has rarely worn a more mischievous aspect
Hard at work, pouring sand through their sieves
She relieth on a hope that will deceive her
Sparing and war have no affinity together
The worst were encouraged with their good success
Trust her sword, not her enemy's word