committed themselves again to the seas, and proceeded in their course
and voyage in quietness, without sight of any enemy till they came near
to Pantalarea, an island so called betwixt Sicily and the coast of
Africa; into sight whereof they came on July 13th, 1586. And the same
day, in the morning about seven o'clock, they descried thirteen sails in
number, which were of the galleys lying in wait of purpose for them in
and about that place. As soon as the English ships had spied them, they
by-and-by, according to a common order, made themselves ready for a
fight, laid out their ordnance, scoured, charged, and primed them,
displayed their ensigns, and left nothing undone to arm themselves
thoroughly. In the meantime, the galleys more and more approached the
ships, and in their banners there appeared the arms of the Isles of
Sicily and Malta, being all as then in the service and pay of the
Spaniard. Immediately both the admirals of the galleys sent from each of
them a frigate to the admiral of our English ships, which being come
near them, the Sicilian frigate first hailed them, and demanded of them
whence they were; they answered that they were of England, the arms
whereof appeared in their colours. Whereupon the said frigate
expostulated with them, and asked why they delayed to send or come with
their captains and pursers to Don Pedro de Leiva, their general, to
acknowledge their duty and obedience to him, in the name of the Spanish
king, lord of those seas. Our men replied and said that they owed no
such duty nor obedience to him, and therefore would acknowledge none;
but commanded the frigate to depart with that answer, and not to stay
longer upon her peril. With that away she went, and up came towards them
the other frigate of Malta; and she in like sort hailed the admiral, and
would needs know whence they were and where they had been. Our
Englishmen in the admiral, not disdaining an answer, told them that they
were of England, merchants of London, had been in Turkey, and were now
returning home; and to be requited in this case, they also demanded of
the frigate whence she and the rest of the galleys were. The messenger
answered, "We are of Malta, and for mine own part, my name is Cavalero.
These galleys are in service and pay to the King of Spain, under the
conduct of Don Pedro de Leiva, a nobleman of Spain, who hath been
commanded hither by the king with this present force and army of purpose
to intercept you. You shall therefore," quoth he, "do well to repair to
him to know his pleasure; he is a nobleman of good behaviour and
courtesy, and means you no ill." The captain of the English admiral,
whose name was Master Edward Wilkinson, now one of the six masters of
Her Majesty's Royal Navy, replied and said, "We purpose not at this time
to make trial of Don Pedro his courtesy, whereof we are suspicious and
doubtful, and not without good cause;" using withal good words to the
messenger, and willing him to come aboard him, promising security and
good usage, that thereby he might the better know the Spaniard's mind.
Whereupon he indeed left his frigate and came aboard him, whom he
entertained in friendly sort, and caused a cup of wine to be drawn for
him, which he took, and began, with his cap in his hand and with
reverent terms, to drink to the health of the Queen of England, speaking
very honourably of her majesty, and giving good speeches of the
courteous usage and entertainment that he himself had received in
London at the time that the Duke of Alençon, brother to the late French
king, was last in England. And after he had well drunk, he took his
leave, speaking well of the sufficiency and goodness of our ships, and
especially of the _Royal Merchant_ which he confessed to have seen
before riding in the Thames near London. He was no sooner come to Don
Pedro de Leiva, the Spanish general, but he was sent off again, and
returned to the English admiral, saying that the pleasure of the general
was this, that either their captains, masters, and pursers should come
to him with speed, or else he would set upon them, and either take them
or sink them. The reply was made by Master Wilkinson aforesaid, that not
a man should come to him; and for the brag and threat of Don Pedro, it
was not that Spanish bravado that should make them yield a jot to their
hindrance, but they were as ready to make resistance as he to offer an
injury. Whereupon Cavalero, the messenger, left bragging, and began to
persuade them in quiet sort and with many words; but all his labour was
to no purpose, and as his threat did nothing terrify them, so his
persuasion did nothing move them to do that which he required. At the
last he entreated to have the merchant of the admiral carried by him as
a messenger to the general, that so he might be satisfied and assured of
their minds by one of their own company. But Master Wilkinson would
agree to no such thing; although Richard Rowit, the merchant himself,
seemed willing to be employed in that message, and laboured by
reasonable persuasions to induce Master Wilkinson to grant it--as hoping
to be an occasion by his presence and discreet answers to satisfy the
general, and thereby to save the effusion of Christian blood, if it
should grow to a battle. And he seemed so much the more willing to be
sent, by how much deeper the oaths and protestations of this Cavalero
were, that he would (as he was a true knight and a soldier) deliver him
back again in safety to his company. Albeit, Master Wilkinson who, by
his long experience, had received sufficient trial of Spanish
inconstancy and perjury, wished him in no case to put his life and
liberty in hazard upon a Spaniard's oath; but at last, upon much
entreaty, he yielded to let him go to the general, thinking indeed that
good speeches and answers of reason would have contented him, whereas,
otherwise, refusal to do so might peradventure have provoked the more
discontentment.
Master Rowit, therefore, passing to the Spanish general, the rest of the
galleys having espied him, thought, indeed, that the English were rather
determined to yield than to fight, and therefore came flocking about the
frigate, every man crying out, "_Que nuevas? que nuevas?_ Have these
Englishmen yielded?" The frigate answered, "Not so; they neither have
nor purpose to yield. Only they have sent a man of their company to
speak with our general." And being come to the galley wherein he was, he
showed himself to Master Rowit in his armour, his guard of soldiers
attending upon him, in armour also, and began to speak very proudly in
this sort: "Thou Englishman, from whence is your fleet? Why stand ye
aloof off? know ye not your duty to the Catholic king, whose person I
here represent? Where are your bills of lading, your letters, passports,
and the chief of your men? Think ye my attendance in these seas to be in
vain, or my person to no purpose? Let all these things be done out of
hand, as I command, upon pain of my further displeasure, and the spoil
of you all." These words of the Spanish general were not so outrageously
pronounced as they were mildly answered by Master Rowit, who told him
that they were all merchantmen, using traffic in honest sort, and
seeking to pass quietly, if they were not urged further than reason. As
for the King of Spain, he thought (for his part) that there was amity
betwixt him and his Sovereign, the Queen of England, so that neither he
nor his officers should go about to offer any such injury to English
merchants, who, as they were far from giving offence to any man, so they
would be loth to take an abuse at the hands of any, or sit down to their
loss, where their ability was able to make defence. And as touching his
commandment aforesaid for the acknowledging of duty in such particular
sort, he told him that where there was no duty owing there none should
be performed, assuring him that their whole company and ships in general
stood resolutely upon the negative, and would not yield to any such
unreasonable demand, joined with such imperious and absolute manner of
commanding. "Why, then," said he, "if they will neither come to yield,
nor show obedience to me in the name of my king, I will either sink them
or bring them to harbour; and so tell them from me." With that the
frigate came away with Master Rowit, and brought him aboard to the
English admiral again, according to promise, who was no sooner entered
in but by-and-by defiance was sounded on both sides. The Spaniards hewed
off the noses of the galleys, that nothing might hinder the level of the
shot; and the English, on the other side, courageously prepared
themselves to the combat, every man, according to his room, bent to
perform his office with alacrity and diligence. In the meantime a cannon
was discharged from out the admiral of the galleys, which, being the
onset of the fight, was presently answered by the English admiral with a
culverin; so the skirmish began, and grew hot and terrible. There was no
powder nor shot spared, each English ship matched itself in good order
against two Spanish galleys, besides the inequality of the frigates on
the Spanish side. And although our men performed their parts with
singular valour, according to their strength, insomuch that the enemy,
as amazed therewith, would oftentimes pause and stay, and consult what
was best to be done, yet they ceased not in the midst of their business
to make prayer to Almighty God, the revenger of all evils and the giver
of victories, that it would please Him to assist them in this good
quarrel of theirs, in defending themselves against so proud a tyrant, to
teach their hands to war and their fingers to fight, that the glory of
the victory might redound to His name, and to the honour of true
religion, which the insolent enemy sought so much to overthrow.
Contrarily, the foolish Spaniards, they cried out, according to their
manner, not to God, but to our Lady (as they term the Virgin Mary),
saying, "Oh, Lady, help! Oh, blessed Lady, give us the victory, and the
honour thereof shall be thine." Thus with blows and prayers on both
sides, the fight continued furious and sharp, and doubtful a long time
to which part the victory would incline, till at last the admiral of the
galleys of Sicily began to warp from the fight, and to hold up her side
for fear of sinking; and after her went also two others in like case,
whom all the sort of them enclosed, labouring by all their means to keep
them above water, being ready by the force of English shot which they
had received to perish in the seas. And what slaughter was done among
the Spaniards the English were uncertain, but by a probable conjecture
apparent afar off they supposed their loss was so great that they wanted
men to continue the charging of their pieces; whereupon with shame and
dishonour, after five hours spent in the battle, they withdrew
themselves. And the English, contented in respect of their deep lading
rather to continue their voyage than to follow in the chase, ceased from
further blows, with the loss of only two men slain amongst them all, and
another hurt in his arm, whom Master Wilkinson, with his good words and
friendly promises, did so comfort that he nothing esteemed the smart of
his wound, in respect of the honour of the victory and the shameful
repulse of the enemy.
Thus, with dutiful thanks to the mercy of God for His gracious
assistance in that danger, the English ships proceeded in their
navigation. And coming as high as Algiers, a port town upon the coast of
Barbary, they made for it, of purpose to refresh themselves after their
weariness, and to take in such supply of fresh water and victuals as
they needed. They were no sooner entered into the port but immediately
the king thereof sent a messenger to the ships to know what they were.
With which messenger the chief master of every ship repaired to the
king, and acquainted him not only with the state of their ships in
respect of merchandise, but with the late fight which they had passed
with the Spanish galleys, reporting every particular circumstance in
word as it fell out in action; whereof the said king showed himself
marvellous glad, entertaining them in the best sort, and promising
abundant relief of all their wants; making general proclamation in the
city, upon pain of death, that no man, of what degree or state soever he
were, should presume either to hinder them in their affairs or to offer
them any manner of injury in body or goods; by virtue whereof they
despatched all things in excellent good sort with all favour and
peaceableness.
The English, having received this good justice at the king's hands, and
all other things that they wanted or could crave for the furnishing of
their ships, took their leave of him and of the rest of their friends
that were resident in Algiers, and put out to sea, looking to meet with
the second army of the Spanish king, which waited for them about the
mouth of the Strait of Gibraltar, which they were of necessity to pass.
But coming near to the said strait, it pleased God to raise, at that
instant, a very dark and misty fog, so that one ship could not discern
another if it were forty paces off, by means whereof, together with the
notable fair eastern winds that then blew most fit for their course,
they passed with great speed through the strait, and might have passed,
with that good gale, had there been five hundred galleys to withstand
them and the air never so clear for every ship to be seen. But yet the
Spanish galleys had a sight of them when they were come within three
English miles of the town, and made after them with all possible haste;
and although they saw that they were far out of their reach, yet in a
vain fury and foolish pride they shot off their ordnance and made a stir
in the sea as if they had been in the midst of them, which vanity of
theirs ministered to our men notable matter of pleasure and mirth,
seeing men to fight with shadows and to take so great pains to so small
purpose.
But thus it pleased God to deride and delude all the forces of that
proud Spanish king, which he had provided of purpose to distress the
English; who, notwithstanding, passed through both his armies--in the
one, little hurt, and in the other, nothing touched, to the glory of His
immortal name, the honour of our prince and country, and the just
commendation of each man's service performed in that voyage.
THE STORY OF THE SPANISH ARMADA.
BY SIR EDWARD CREASY.
On the afternoon of July 19th, A.D. 1588, a group of English captains
was collected at the bowling green on the Hoe at Plymouth, whose equals
have never before or since been brought together, even at that favourite
mustering-place of the heroes of the British Navy. There was Sir Francis
Drake, the first English circumnavigator of the globe, the terror of
every Spanish coast in the Old World and the New; there was Sir John
Hawkins, the rough veteran of many a daring voyage on the African and
American seas, and of many a desperate battle; there was Sir Martin
Frobisher, one of the earliest explorers of the Arctic seas in search of
that North-West Passage which is still the darling object of England's
boldest mariners; there was the High-admiral of England, Lord Howard of
Effingham, prodigal of all things in his country's cause, and who had
recently had the noble daring to refuse to dismantle part of the fleet,
though the queen had sent him orders to do so; resolved to risk his
sovereign's anger, and to keep the ships afloat at his own charge,
rather than that England should run the peril of losing their
protection.
A match at bowls was being played, in which Drake and other high
officers of the fleet were engaged, when a small armed vessel was seen
running before the wind into Plymouth Harbour, with all sails set. Her
commander landed in haste, and eagerly sought the place where the
English lord-admiral and his captains were standing. His name was
Fleming; he was the master of a Scotch privateer; and he told the
English officers that he had that morning seen the Spanish Armada off
the Cornish coast. At this exciting information the captains began to
hurry down to the water, and there was a shouting for the ship's boats:
but Drake coolly checked his comrades, and insisted that the match
should be played out. He said that there was plenty of time both to win
the game and beat the Spaniards. The best and bravest match that ever
was scored was resumed accordingly. Drake and his friends aimed their
last bowls with the same steady calculating coolness with which they
were about to point their guns. The winning cast was made; and then they
went on board and prepared for action, with their hearts as light and
their nerves as firm as they had been on the Hoe bowling green.
Meanwhile, the messengers and signals had been despatched fast and far
through England, to warn each town and village that the enemy had come
at last. In every seaport there was instant making ready by land and by
sea; in every shire and every city there was instant mustering of horse
and man. But England's best defence then, as ever, was her fleet; and
after warping laboriously out of Plymouth Harbour against the wind, the
lord-admiral stood westward under easy sail, keeping an anxious look-out
for the Armada, the approach of which was soon announced by Cornish
fishing-boats, and signals from the Cornish cliffs.
The England of our own days is so strong, and the Spain of our own days
is so feeble, that it is not possible, without some reflection and care,
to comprehend the full extent of the peril which England then ran from
the power and the ambition of Spain, or to appreciate the importance of
that crisis in the history of the world. We had then no Indian or
Colonial Empire save the feeble germs of our North American settlements,
which Raleigh and Gilbert had recently planted. Scotland was a separate
kingdom; and Ireland was then even a greater source of weakness, and a
worse nest of rebellion than she has been in after times. Queen
Elizabeth had found at her accession an encumbered revenue, a divided
people, and an unsuccessful foreign war, in which the last remnant of
our possessions in France had been lost; she had also a formidable
pretender to her crown, whose interests were favoured by all the Roman
Catholic powers; and even some of her subjects were warped by religious
bigotry to deny her title, and to look on her as an heretical usurper.
On the other hand, Philip II. was absolute master of an empire so
superior to the other states of the world in extent, in resources, and
especially in military and naval forces, as to make the project of
enlarging that empire into a universal monarchy seem a perfectly
feasible scheme; and Philip had both the ambition to form that project
and the resolution to devote all his energies, and all his means, to its
realisation. Since the downfall of the Roman empire no such
preponderating power had existed in the world.
Philip had also the advantage of finding himself at the head of a large
standing army in a perfect state of discipline and equipment, in an age
when, except some few insignificant corps, standing armies were unknown
in Christendom. The renown of the Spanish troops was justly high, and
the infantry in particular was considered the best in the world. His
fleet, also, was far more numerous, and better appointed, than that of
any other European power; and both his soldiers and his sailors had the
confidence in themselves and their commanders which a long career of
successful warfare alone can create.
One nation only had been his active, his persevering, and his successful
foe. England had encouraged his revolted subjects in Flanders against
him, and given them the aid in men and money without which they must
soon have been humbled in the dust. English ships had plundered his
colonies; had defied his supremacy in the New World as well as the Old;
they had inflicted ignominious defeats on his squadrons; they had
captured his cities, and burned his arsenals on the very coasts of
Spain. The English had made Philip himself the object of personal
insult. He was held up to ridicule in their stage-plays and masks, and
these scoffs at the man had (as is not unusual in such cases) excited
the anger of the absolute king even more vehemently than the injuries
inflicted on his power. Personal as well as political revenge urged him
to attack England. Were she once subdued, the Dutch must submit; France
could not cope with him, the empire would not oppose him; and universal
dominion seemed sure to be the result of the conquest of that malignant
island.
There was yet another and a stronger feeling which armed King Philip
against England. He was one of the sincerest and sternest bigots of his
age. He looked on himself, and was looked on by others, as the appointed
champion to extirpate heresy and re-establish the Papal power throughout
Europe. A powerful reaction against Protestantism had taken place since
the commencement of the second half of the sixteenth century, and Philip
believed that he was destined to complete it. The Reform doctrines had
been thoroughly rooted out from Italy and Spain. Belgium, which had
previously been half Protestant, had been reconquered both in allegiance
and creed by Philip, and had become one of the most Catholic countries
in the world. Half Germany had been won back to the old faith. In Savoy,
in Switzerland, and many other countries, the progress of the
counter-Reformation had been rapid and decisive. The Catholic league
seemed victorious in France. The Papal court itself had shaken off the
supineness of recent centuries; and, at the head of the Jesuits and the
other new ecclesiastical orders, was displaying a vigour and a boldness
worthy of the days of Hildebrand or Innocent III.
Throughout continental Europe, the Protestants, discomfited and
dismayed, looked to England as their protector and refuge. England was
the acknowledged central point of Protestant power and policy; and to
conquer England was to stab Protestantism to the very heart. Sixtus V.,
the then reigning pope, earnestly exhorted Philip to this enterprise.
And when the tidings reached Italy and Spain that the Protestant Queen
of England had put to death her Catholic prisoner, Mary, Queen of Scots,
the fury of the Vatican and Escurial knew no bounds.
The Prince of Parma, who was appointed military chief of the expedition,
collected on the coast of Flanders a veteran force that was to play a
principal part in the conquest of England. Besides the troops who were
in his garrisons, or under his colours, five thousand infantry were sent
to him from northern and central Italy, four thousand from the kingdom
of Naples, six thousand from Castile, three thousand from Arragon, three
thousand from Austria and Germany, together with four squadrons of
heavy-armed horse; besides which he received forces from the
Franche-Comté and the Walloon country. By his command, the forest of
Waes was felled for the purpose of building flat-bottomed boats, which,
floating down the rivers and canals to Meinport and Dunkerque, were to
carry this large army of chosen troops to the mouth of the Thames, under
the escort of the great Spanish fleet. Gun-carriages, fascines, machines
used in sieges, together with every material requisite for building
bridges, forming camps, and raising fortresses, were to be placed on
board the flotillas of the Prince of Parma, who followed up the conquest
of the Netherlands whilst he was making preparations for the invasion of
this island. His intention was to leave to the Count de Mansfeldt
sufficient forces to follow up the war with the Dutch, which had now
become a secondary object, whilst he himself went at the head of fifty
thousand men of the Armada and the flotilla, to accomplish the principal
enterprise--that enterprise, which, in the highest degree, affected the
interests of the pontifical authority. In a bull, intended to be kept
secret until the day of landing, Sixtus V., renewing the anathema
fulminated against Elizabeth by Pius V. and Gregory XIII., affected to
depose her from our throne.
Elizabeth was denounced as a murderous heretic whose destruction was an
instant duty. A formal treaty was concluded (in June, 1587), by which
the pope bound himself to contribute a million of scudi to the expenses
of the war; the money to be paid as soon as the king had actual
possession of an English port. Philip, on his part, strained the
resources of his vast empire to the utmost. The French Catholic chiefs
eagerly co-operated with him. In the sea-ports of the Mediterranean,
and along almost the whole coast from Gibraltar to Jutland, the
preparations for the great armament were urged forward with all the
earnestness of religious zeal, as well as of angry ambition.
For some time the destination of the enormous armament of Philip was not
publicly announced. Only Philip himself, the Pope Sixtus, the Duke of
Guise, and Philip's favourite minister, Mendoza, at first knew its real
object. Rumours were sedulously spread that it was designed to proceed
to the Indies to realise vast projects of distant conquest. Sometimes
hints were dropped by Philip's ambassadors in foreign courts that his
master had resolved on a decisive effort to crush his rebels in the Low
Countries. But Elizabeth and her statesmen could not view the gathering
of such a storm without feeling the probability of its bursting on their
own shores. As early as the spring of 1587 Elizabeth sent Sir Francis
Drake to cruise off the Tagus. Drake sailed into the Bay of Cadiz and
the Lisbon roads, and burnt much shipping and military stores, causing
thereby an important delay in the progress of the Spanish preparations.
Drake called this "Singeing the King of Spain's beard." Elizabeth also
increased her succours of troops to the Netherlanders, to prevent the
Prince of Parma from overwhelming them, and from thence being at full
leisure to employ his army against her dominions.