“BORN TO SERVE AND SAVE HIS COUNTRY.”
Queen Elizabeth has been magniloquently designated the RESTORER OF
ENGLAND’S NAVAL POWER and SOVEREIGN OF THE NORTHERN SEAS. Under her
sovereignty Lord Charles Howard wielded supreme authority worthily
and well, on behalf of his country, during that naval demonstration,
which may be regarded as the most important, in its design and results,
of any that the world has known. Lord Charles was High Admiral of
England during the period of the inception, the proud departure, the
baleful course, and the doleful return to Spain, of the “most happy and
invincible Armada,” or rather--what was left of it.
[Illustration: EARL OF EFFINGHAM.]
Charles Howard, elder son of the Earl of Effingham, was born in the
year 1536, in the reign of Henry VIII. Charles served under his father,
who was Lord Admiral to Mary, in several expeditions. He did duty
as an envoy to Charles IX. of France on his accession. He served as
a general of horse in the army headed by Warwick, against the Earls
of Northumberland and Westmoreland, and, as a courtier, he rendered
various other services, not calling for particular notice. In 1572 he
succeeded his father, and in 1573 was made a Knight of the Garter. On
the death of the Earl of Lincoln, in 1585, the queen appointed Lord
Charles, High Admiral. This appointment gave great satisfaction to all
ranks, and was especially gratifying to seamen,--with whom Lord Charles
was highly popular.
Philip of Spain employed all the art he was possessed of to obtain
ascendency over Elizabeth, as he had done over her infatuated sister
Mary, and--irrespective of law, if any existed to the contrary--was
more than willing to marry his “deceased wife’s sister,” but Elizabeth
would neither marry, nor take orders from him, which exasperated Philip
greatly. His religious fanaticism and the influence of the Jesuits
made him determined to punish the queen and ruin her country. With
this amiable intention the great Armada was prepared. It consisted
of 130 ships, of an aggregate of about 60,000 tons. It was armed
with 2630 pieces of cannon, and carried 30,000 men, including 124
volunteers,--the flower of the Spanish nobility and gentry,--and
180 monks. Twelve of the greatest ships were named after the twelve
apostles.
The English fleet was put under the command of Lord Howard, with Sir
Francis Drake for his vice-admiral, and Sir John Hawkins for his
rear-admiral. Lord Henry Seymour, with Count Nassau, cruised on the
coast of Flanders, to watch the movements of the Duke of Parma, who
purposed, it was believed, to form a junction with the Spanish Armada,
or to aid it, by making a separate descent upon England.
The threatened invasion stirred the kingdom to the highest pitch of
patriotic fervour. The city of London advanced large sums of money for
the national service. Requisitioned to provide 15 ships and 5000 men,
the city fathers promptly provided 30 ships and 10,000 men.
The Armada encountered a violent storm, at almost the commencement of
the voyage northwards, and had to put back. The rumour was current
in England that the great expedition was hopelessly shattered. Lord
Howard consequently received, through Walsingham, Secretary of State,
instructions to send four of his largest ships into port. The admiral
doubted the safety of this course, and willingly engaged to keep the
ships out, at his own charge. He bore away towards Spain, and soon
obtained such intelligence, as confirmed him in the opinion he had
formed, and fully justified the course he had adopted.
On the 19th July, Fleming, a Scottish pirate, who plied his vocation
in the Channel and the approaches thereto, sailed into Plymouth in
hot haste, with the intelligence that the Armada was at hand. This
pirate did, for once at least in his life, an honest and incalculably
important day’s work. An ancient historian estimates it so highly as
to say that “this man was, in reality, the cause of the absolute ruin
of the Spaniards; for the preservation of the English was undoubtedly
owing to his providential discovery of the enemy.” At the request of
Lord Admiral Howard, the queen afterwards granted a pardon to Fleming
for his past offences, and awarded him a pension for the timely service
he had rendered to the nation.
“And then,” says Dr. Collier, “was played on the Hoe at Plymouth that
game of bowls, which fixes itself like a picture on the memory,--the
faint, hazy blue of the July sky, arching over sun-baked land and
glittering sea; the group of captains on the grass, peak-bearded and
befrilled, in the fashion of Elizabeth’s day; the gleaming wings of
Fleming’s little bark skimming the green waters like a seagull, on
her way to Plymouth harbour with the weightiest news. She touches the
rude pier; the skipper makes hastily for the Hoe, and tells how that
morning he saw the giant hulls off the Cornish coast, and how he has
with difficulty escaped by the fleetness of his ship. The breathless
silence changes to a storm of tongues; but the resolute man who loaded
the _Golden Hind_ with Spanish pesos, and ploughed the waves of every
ocean round the globe, calls on his comrades to ‘play out the match,
for there is plenty of time to do so, and to beat the Spaniards too.’
It is Drake who speaks. The game is resumed, and played to the last
shot. Then begin preparations for a mightier game. The nation’s life is
at stake. Out of Plymouth, along every road, men spur as for life, and
every headland and mountain peak shoots up its red tongue of warning
flame.”
The sorrows and sufferings of the crowd of Spaniards noble and ignoble,
of the nine score holy fathers, and the two thousand galley slaves,
who left the Tagus in glee and grandeur, in the “happy Armada,” with a
great design,--but really to serve no higher purpose, as things turned
out, than to provide, in their doomed persons, a series of banquets for
the carnivorous fishes in British waters,--need not be dwelt upon here,
being referred to elsewhere.
As commander-in-chief, it was universally felt and admitted that Lord
Charles Howard acquitted himself with sound judgment, consummate
skill, and unfaltering courage. The queen acknowledged his merits, the
indebtedness of the nation to the lord high admiral, and her sense of
his magnanimity and prudence, in the most expressive terms. In 1596 he
was advanced to the title and dignity of Earl of Nottingham, his patent
of nobility containing the declaration, “that by the victory obtained
anno 1588, he did secure the kingdom of England from the invasion of
Spain, and other impending dangers; and did also, in conjunction with
our dear cousin, Robert, Earl of Essex, seize by force the Isle and
the strongly fortified castle of Cadiz, in the farthest part of Spain;
and did likewise rout and entirely defeat another fleet of the King of
Spain, prepared in that port against this kingdom.” On entering the
House of Peers, the Earl of Nottingham was received with extraordinary
expressions and demonstrations of honourable regard.
[Illustration: LORD HOWARD’S DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH FLEET NEAR CADIZ.]
In 1599, circumstances of delicacy and difficulty again called for the
services of the Earl of Nottingham. Spain meditated another invasion.
The Earl of Essex in Ireland had entangled affairs, had left his post
there, and had rebelliously fortified himself in his house in London.
The Earl of Nottingham succeeded in bringing the contumacious earl to
a state of quietude, if not of reason, and had the encomium pronounced
upon him by the queen, that he seemed to have been born “to serve and
to save his country.” He was invested with the unusual and almost
unlimited authority of Lord Lieutenant General of all England; he was
also appointed one of the commissioners for executing the office of
Earl-Marshal. On her death-bed the queen made known to the earl her
desire as to the succession,--an unequivocal proof of her regard and
confidence,--the disclosure having been entreated in vain by her most
favoured ministers.
The accession of James did not impede the fortunes of the Earl of
Nottingham; he was appointed Lord High Steward, to assist at the
coronation; and afterwards commissioned to the most brilliant
embassy--to the court of Philip III. of Spain--that the country had
ever sent forth. During his stay at the Spanish court, the dignified
splendour that characterised the Embassy commanded the admiration
and respect of the court and people; and at his departure, Philip
made him presents of the estimated value of about £20,000,--thereby
exciting the jealousy and displeasure of the far from magnanimous
James I. Popularity and influence, enjoyed or exercised independently
of himself, were distasteful and offensive to his ungenerous nature.
James frequently reminded his nobles at court “that they were there, as
little vessels sailing round the master ship; whereas they were in the
country so many great ships each riding majestically on its own stream.”
The earl had his enemies, but he regained the confidence of the king,
and in 1613 assisted at the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth with
Frederick, the Elector Palatine. His last naval service was to command
the squadron that escorted the princess to Flushing. The infirmities of
age having disqualified him for discharging the onerous duties of the
office, he resigned his post of lord high admiral, after a lengthened
term of honourable and effective service. The distinguished career of
this eminent public man came to a calm and honourable close on the nth
December 1624--the earl having reached the advanced age of eighty-eight
years.
SIR MARTIN FROBISHER,
NAVIGATOR, DISCOVERER, AND COMBATANT.