CHAPTER VIII
THE SPANISH ARMADA
The struggle that was at hand between Spain and England had longbeen foreseen as inevitable. The one power was the champion ofRoman Catholicism, the other of Protestantism; and yet, although somuch hung upon the result of the encounter, and all Europe lookedon with the most intense interest, both parties entered upon thestruggle without allies, and this entirely from the personal faultof the sovereigns of the two nations.
Queen Elizabeth, by her constant intrigues, her underhand dealingswith France and Spain, her grasping policy in the Netherlands,her meanness and parsimony, and the fact that she was ready at anymoment to sacrifice the Netherlands to her own policy, had whollyalienated the people of the Low Country; for while their ownefforts for defence were paralysed by the constant interferenceof Elizabeth, no benefit was obtained from the English army, whoseorders were to stand always on the defensive--the queen's onlyanxiety appearing to be to keep her grasp upon the towns that hadbeen handed over to her as the price of her alliance.
Her own counsellors were driven to their wits' end by her constantchanges of purpose. Her troops were starving and in rags from herparsimony, the fleet lay dismantled and useless from want of funds,and except such arming and drilling as took place at the expense ofthe nobles, counties, and cities, no preparation whatever was madeto meet the coming storm. Upon the other hand, Philip of Spain,who might have been at the head of a great Catholic league againstEngland, had isolated himself by his personal ambitions. Had hedeclared himself ready, in the event of his conquest of England, toplace James of Scotland upon the throne, he would have had Scotlandwith him, together with the Catholics of England, still a powerfuland important body.
France, too, would have joined him, and the combination againstElizabeth and the Protestants of England would have been well nighirresistible. But this he could not bring himself to do. His dreamwas the annexation of England to Spain; and smarting as the EnglishCatholics were under the execution of Mary of Scotland, theirEnglish spirit revolted against the idea of the rule of Spain,and the great Catholic nobles hastened, when the moment of dangerarrived, to join in the defence of their country, while Scotland,seeing no advantage to be gained in the struggle, stood sullenlyaloof, and France gave no aid to a project which was to result,if successful, in the aggrandizement of her already dangerouslyformidable neighbour.
Thus England and Spain stood alone--Philip slowly but steadilypreparing for the great expedition for the conquest of England,Elizabeth hesitating, doubtful; at one moment gathering seamen andarming her fleet, a month or two later discharging the sailors andlaying up the ships.
In the spring of 1587 Drake, with six vessels belonging to the crownand twenty-four equipped by merchants of London and other places,had seized a moment when Elizabeth's fickle mind had inclined towarlike measures, and knowing that the mood might last but a day,had slipped out of Plymouth and sailed for Spain a few hours beforea messenger arrived with a peremptory order from Elizabeth againstentering any Spanish port or offering violence to any Spanish townor ships. Although caught in a gale in the Channel, Drake held on,and, reaching Gibraltar on the 16th April, ascertained that Cadizwas crowded with transports and store ships.
Vice Admiral Burroughs, controller of the navy, who had been speciallyappointed to thwart Drake's plans, opposed any action being taken;but Drake insisted upon attack, and on the 19th the fleet stood into Cadiz harbour. Passing through the fire of the batteries, theysank the only great ship of war in the roads, drove off the Spanishgalleys, and seized the vast fleet of store ships loaded withwine, corn, and provisions of all sorts for the use of the Armada.Everything of value that could be conveniently moved was transferredto the English ships, then the Spanish vessels were set on fire,their cables cut, and were left to drift in an entangled mass offlame. Drake took a number of prisoners, and sent a messenger onshore proposing to exchange them for such English seamen as wereprisoners in Spain. The reply was there were no English prisonersin Spain; and as this notoriously untrue, it was agreed in thefleet that all the Spaniards they might take in the future shouldbe sold to the Moors, and the money reserved for the redeeming ofsuch Englishmen as might be in captivity there or elsewhere.
The English fleet then sailed for Cape St. Vincent, picking up ontheir way large convoys of store ships all bound for the Tagus,where the Armada was collecting. These were all burned, and Drakebrought up at Cape St. Vincent, hoping to meet there a portionof the Armada expected from the Mediterranean. As a harbour wasnecessary, he landed, stormed the fort at Faro, and took possessionof the harbour there. The expected enemy did not appear, and Drakesailed up to the mouth of the Tagus, intending to go into Lisbonand attack the great Spanish fleet lying there under its admiral,Santa Cruz. That the force gathered there was enormous Drake wellknew, but relying as much on the goodness of his cause as on thevalour of his sailors, and upon the fact that the enemy would betoo crowded together to fight with advantage, he would have carriedout his plan had not a ship arrived from England with ordersforbidding him to enter the Tagus. However, he lay for some timeat the mouth of the river, destroying every ship that enteredits mouth, and sending in a challenge to Santa Cruz to come outand fight. The Spanish admiral did not accept it, and Drake thensailed to Corunna, and there, as at Cadiz, destroyed all the shipscollected in the harbour and then returned to England, having inthe course of a few months inflicted an enormous amount of damageupon Spain, and having taken the first step to prove that Englandwas the mistress of the sea.
But while the little band of English had been defending Sluysagainst the army of the Duke of Parma, Philip had been continuinghis preparations, filling up the void made by the destructionwrought by Drake, and preparing an Armada which he might well haveconsidered to be invincible. Elizabeth was still continuing hernegotiations. She was quite ready to abandon the Netherlands toSpain if she could but keep the towns she held there, but she couldnot bring herself to hand these over either to the Netherlands orto Spain. She urged the States to make peace, to which they repliedthat they did not wish for peace on such terms as Spain would alonegrant; they could defend themselves for ten years longer if leftalone, they did not ask for further help, and only wanted theirtowns restored to them.
Had the Armada started as Philip intended in September, it would havefound England entirely unprepared, for Elizabeth still obstinatelyrefused to believe in danger, and the few ships that had beenheld in commission after Drake's return had been so long neglectedthat they could hardly keep the sea without repair; the rest layunrigged in the Medway. But the delay gave England fresh time forpreparation. Parma's army was lying in readiness for the invasionunder canvas at Dunkirk, and their commander had received noinformation from Spain that the sailing of the Armada was delayed.
The cold, wet, and exposure told terribly upon them, and of the30,000 who were ready to embark in September not 18,000 were fitfor service at the commencement of the year. The expenses of thisarmy and of the Armada were so great that Philip was at last drivento give orders to the Armada to start. But fortune again favouredEngland. Had the fleet sailed as ordered on the 30th of Januarythey would again have found the Channel undefended, for Elizabeth,in one of her fits of economy, had again dismantled half the fleetthat had been got ready for sea, and sent the sailors to theirhomes.
But the execution of Philip's orders was prevented by the suddendeath of Santa Cruz. The Duke of Medina Sidonia was appointed hissuccessor, but as he knew nothing of the state of the Armada freshdelays became necessary, and the time was occupied by Elizabeth,not in preparing for the defence of the country, but in freshnegotiations for peace. She was ready to make any concessions toSpain, but Philip was now only amusing himself by deceiving her.Everything was now prepared for the expedition, and just as the fleetwas ready to start, the negotiations were broken off. But thoughElizabeth's government had made no preparations for the defenceof the country, England herself had not been idle. Throughout thewhole country men had been mustered, off
icered, and armed, and100,000 were ready to move as soon as the danger became imminent.
The musters of the Midland counties, 80,000 strong, were to form aseparate army, and were to march at once to a spot between Windsorand Harrow. The rest were to gather at the point of danger. Thecoast companies were to fall back wherever the enemy landed, burningthe corn and driving off the cattle, and avoiding a battle untilthe force of the neighbouring counties joined them. Should thelanding take place as was expected in Suffolk, Kent, or Sussex,it was calculated that between 30,000 and 40,000 men would bar theway to the invaders before they reached London, while 20,000 men ofthe western counties would remain to encounter the Duke of Guise,who had engaged to bring across an army of Frenchmen to aid theSpaniards.
Spain, although well aware of the strength of England on the sea,believed that she would have no difficulty with the raw Englishlevies; but Parma, who had met the English at Sluys, had learnt torespect their fighting qualities, and in a letter to Philip gavethe opinion that even if the Armada brought him a reinforcement of6000 men he would still have an insufficient force for the conquestof England. He said, "When I shall have landed I must fight battleafter battle. I shall lose men by wounds and disease, I must leavedetachments behind me to keep open my communications, and in ashort time the body of my army will become so weak that not only Imay be unable to advance in the face of the enemy, and time may begiven to the heretics and your majesty's other enemies to interfere,but there may fall out some notable inconvenience, with the lossof everything, and I be unable to remedy it."
Unfortunately, the English fleet was far less prepared than theland forces. The militia had been easily and cheaply extemporized,but a fleet can only be prepared by long and painful sacrifices.The entire English navy contained but thirteen ships of over fourhundred tons, and including small cutters and pinnaces there werebut thirty-eight vessels of all sorts and sizes carrying thequeen's flag. Fortunately, Sir John Hawkins was at the head of thenaval administration, and in spite of the parsimony of Elizabethhad kept the fleet in a good state of repair and equipment. Themerchant navy, although numerous, was equally deficient in vesselsof any size.
Philip had encouraged ship building in Spain by grants from thecrown, allowing four ducats a ton for every ship built of abovethree hundred tons burden, and six ducats a ton for every one abovefive hundred tons. Thus he had a large supply of great ships todraw upon in addition to those of the royal navy, while in Englandthe largest vessels belonging to private owners did not exceed fourhundred tons, and there were not more than two or three vessels ofthat size sailing from any port of the country. The total allowanceby the queen for the repair of the whole of the royal navy, wagesof shipwrights, clerks, carpenters, watchmen, cost of timber, and,all other necessary dockyard expenses, was but 4000 pounds a year.
In December the fleet was ready for sea, together with the contingentfurnished by the liberality and patriotism of the merchants andcitizens of the great ports. But as soon as it was got togetherhalf the crews collected and engaged at so great an expense weredismissed, the merchant ships released, and England open to invasion,and had Parma started in the vessels he had prepared, Lord Howard,who commanded the English navy, could not have fired a shot to haveprevented his crossing.
Well might Sir John Hawkins in his despair at Elizabeth's capricesexclaim: "We are wasting money, wasting strength, dishonouringand discrediting ourselves by our uncertain dallying." But thoughdaily reports came from Spain of the readiness of the Armada toset sail, Elizabeth, even when she again permitted the navy to bemanned, fettered it by allowing it to be provided with rations foronly a month at a time, and permitting no reserves to be providedin the victualling stores; while the largest vessels were suppliedwith ammunition for only a day and a half's service, and the restof the fleet with but enough for one day's service. The councilcould do nothing, and Lord Howard's letters prove that the queen,and she only, was responsible for the miserable state of thingsthat prevailed.
At last, in May, Lord Howard sailed with the fleet down Channel,leaving Lord Henry Seymour with three men of war and a squadron ofprivateers to watch Dunkirk. At Plymouth the admiral found Drake withforty ships, all except one raised and sent to sea at the expenseof himself and the gentry and merchants of the west counties. Theweather was wild, as it had been all the winter. Howard with thegreat ships lay at anchor in the Sound, rolling heavily, while thesmaller craft went for shelter into the mouth of the river. Therewere but eighteen days' provisions on board; fresh supplies promiseddid not arrive, and the crews were put on half rations, and ekedthese out by catching fish. At last, when the supplies were justexhausted, the victualling ships arrived, with one month's freshrations, and a message that no more would be sent. So villainouswas the quality of the stores that fever broke out in the fleet.
It was not until the end of the month that Elizabeth would evenpermit any further preparations to be made, and the supplies tooksome time collecting. The crews would have been starved had notthe officers so divided the rations as to make them last six weeks.The men died in scores from dysentery brought on by the sour andpoisonous beer issued to them, and Howard and Drake ordered wineand arrow root from the town for the use of the sick, and had topay for it from their own pockets.
But at last the Armada was ready for starting. Contingents ofSpanish, Italians, and Portuguese were gathered together with thefaithful from all countries--Jesuits from France; exiled priests,Irish and English; and many Catholic Scotch, English, and Irishnoblemen and gentlemen. The six squadrons into which the fleetwas divided contained sixty-five large war ships, the smallest ofwhich was seven hundred tons. Seven were over one thousand, andthe largest, an Italian ship, La Regazona, was thirteen hundred.All were built high like castles, their upper works musket proof,their main timbers four or five feet thick, and of a strength itwas supposed no English cannon could pierce.
Next to the big ships, or galleons as they were called, were fourgalleasses, each carrying fifty guns and 450 soldiers and sailors,and rowed by 300 slaves. Besides these were four galleys, fifty-sixgreat armed merchant ships, the finest Spain possessed, and twentycaravels or small vessels. Thus the fighting fleet amounted to129 vessels, carrying in all 2430 cannon. On board was stored anenormous quantity of provisions for the use of the army after itlanded in England, there being sufficient to feed 40,000 men forsix months.
There were on board 8000 sailors, 19,000 soldiers, 1000 gentlemenvolunteers, 600 priests, servants, and miscellaneous officers, and2000 galley slaves. This was indeed a tremendous array to meet thefleet lying off Plymouth, consisting of 29 queen's ships of allsizes, 10 small vessels belonging to Lord Howard and members ofhis family, and 43 privateers between 40 and 400 tons under Drake,the united crews amounting to something over 9000 men.
The winter had passed pleasantly to Geoffrey and Lionel Vickars;the earl had taken a great fancy to them, and they had stayed forsome time in London as members of his suite. When the spring camethey had spoken about rejoining Francis Vere in Holland, but theearl had said that there was little doing there. The enmity excitedby the conduct of Elizabeth prevented any cooperation between theDutch and English; and indeed the English force was reduced tosuch straits by the refusal of the queen to furnish money for theirpay, or to provide funds for even absolute necessaries, that itwas wholly incapable of taking the field, and large numbers of themen returned to England.
Had this treatment of her soldiers and sailors at the time when suchperil threatened their country been occasioned by want of funds,some excuse would have been possible for the conduct of Elizabeth;but at the time there were large sums lying in the treasury, andit was parsimony and not incapacity to pay that actuated Elizabethin the course she pursued.
As the boys were still uneasy as to the opinion Francis Vere mightform of their continued stay in England, they wrote to him, theirletter being inclosed in one from the earl; but the reply set theirminds at rest--"By all means stay in England," Captain Vere wrote,"since there is nothing doing h
ere of any note or consequence, notlikely to be. We are simply idling our time in Bergen op Zoom, andnot one of us but is longing to be at home to bear his part in theevents pending there. It is hard, indeed, to be confined in thismiserable Dutch town while England is in danger. Unfortunatelywe are soldiers and must obey orders; but as you are as yet onlyvolunteers, free to act as you choose, it would be foolish in theextreme for you to come over to this dull place while there is somuch going on in England. I have written to my cousin, asking himto introduce you to some of the country gentlemen who have fittedout a ship for service against the Spaniards, so that you may havea hand in what is going on."
This the earl had done, and early in May they had journeyed downto Plymouth on horseback with a party of other gentlemen who weregoing on board the Active, a vessel of two hundred and fifty tonsbelonging to a gentleman of Devonshire, one Master Audrey Drake,a relation of Sir Francis Drake. The earl himself was with theparty. He did not intend to go on board, for he was a bad sailor;and though ready, as he said, to do his share of fighting uponland, would be only an encumbrance on board a ship.
He went down principally at the request of Cecil and other membersof the council, who, knowing that he was a favourite of the queen,thought that his representations as to the state of the fleet mightdo more than they could do to influence her to send supplies to thedistressed sailors. The earl visited the ships lying in the mouthof the Tamar, and three times started in a boat to go out to thosein the Sound; but the sea was so rough, and he was so completelyprostrated by sickness, that he had each time to put back. What hesaw, however, on board the ships he visited, and heard from LordHoward as to the state of those at sea, was quite sufficient. Heat once expended a considerable amount of money in buying wine andfresh meat for the sick, and then hurried away to London to laybefore the queen the result of his personal observations, and toimplore her to order provisions to be immediately despatched tothe fleet.
But even the description given by one of her favourites of thesufferings of the seamen was insufficient to induce the queen toopen her purse strings, and the earl left her in great dudgeon;and although his private finances had been much straitened by hisextravagance and love of display, he at once chartered a ship,filled her with provisions, and despatched her to Plymouth.
Mr. Drake and the gentlemen with him took up their abode in thetown until there should be need for them to go on board the Active,where the accommodation was much cramped, and life by no meansagreeable; and the Vickars therefore escaped sharing the sufferingsof those on board ship.
At the end of May came the news that the Armada had sailed on the19th, and high hopes were entertained that the period of waitinghad terminated. A storm, however, scattered the great fleet, andit was not until the 12th of July that they sailed from the Bay ofFerrol, where they had collected after the storm.
Never was there known a season so boisterous as the summer of1588, and when off Ushant, in a southwest gale, four galleys werewrecked on the French coast, and the Santa Anna, a galleon of 800tons, went down, carrying with her ninety seamen, three hundredsoldiers, and 50,000 ducats in gold.
After two days the storm abated, and the fleet again proceeded.At daybreak on the 20th the Lizard was in sight, and an Englishfishing boat was seen running along their line. Chase was given, butshe soon out sailed her pursuers, and carried the news to Plymouth.The Armada had already been made out from the coast the night before,and beacon lights had flashed the news all over England. In everyvillage and town men were arming and saddling and marching away tothe rendezvous of the various corps.
In Plymouth the news was received with the greatest rejoicing.Thanks to the care with which the provisions had been husbanded,and to the manner in which the officers and volunteers had fromtheir private means supplemented the scanty stores, there wasstill a week's provisions on board, and this, it was hoped, wouldsuffice for their needs. The scanty supply of ammunition was agreater source of anxiety; but they hoped that fresh supplies wouldbe forthcoming, now that even the queen could no longer close hereyes to the urgent necessity of the case.
As soon as the news arrived all the gentlemen in the town flockedon board the ships, and on the night of the 19th the queen'sships and some of the privateers went to moorings behind Ram Head,so that they could make clear to sea; and on the morning when theSpaniards sighted the Lizard, forty sail were lying ready for actionunder the headland.
At three o'clock in the afternoon the lookout men on the hillreported a line of sails on the western horizon. Two wings were atfirst visible, which were gradually united as the topsails of thosein the centre rose above the line of sea. As they arose it couldbe seen that the great fleet was sailing, in the form of a hugecrescent, before a gentle wind. A hundred and fifty ships, largeand small, were counted, as a few store ships bound for Flandershad joined the Armada for protection.
The Active was one of the privateers that had late the evening beforegone out to Ram Head, and just as it was growing dusk the anchorswere got up, and the little fleet sailed out from the shelter ofthe land as the Armada swept along.
The Spanish admiral at once ordered the fleet to lie to for thenight, and to prepare for a general action at daybreak, as he knewfrom a fisherman he had captured that the English fleet were atPlymouth. The wind was on shore, but all through the night Howard'sand Drake's ships beat out from the Sound until they took theirplaces behind the Spanish fleet, whose position they could perfectlymake out by the light of the half moon that rose at two in themorning.
On board the English fleet all was confidence and hilarity. Thesufferings of the last three months were forgotten. The numbers andmagnitude of the Spanish ships counted as nothing. The sailors ofthe west country had met the Spaniards on the Indian seas and provedtheir masters, and doubted not for a moment that they should do soagain.
There was scarce a breath of air when day broke, but at eighto'clock a breeze sprang up from the west, and the Armada made sailand attempted to close with the English; but the low, sharp Englishships sailed two feet to the one of the floating castles of Spain,and could sail close to the wind, while the Spanish ships, if theyattempted to close haul their sails, drifted bodily to leeward.Howard's flagship, the Ark Raleigh, with three other English ships,opened the engagement by running down along their rear line, firinginto each galleon as they passed, then wearing round and repeatingthe manoeuvre. The great San Mateo luffed out from the rest of thefleet and challenged them to board, but they simply poured theirsecond broadside into her and passed on.
The excellence of the manoeuvring of the English ships, and therapidity and accuracy of their fire, astonished the Spaniards.Throughout the whole forenoon the action continued; the Spaniardsmaking efforts to close, but in vain, the English ships keepingthe weather gage and sailing continually backwards and forwards,pouring in their broadsides. The height and size of the Spanish shipswere against them; and being to leeward they heeled over directlythey came up to the wind to fire a broadside, and their shots forthe most part went far over their assailants, while they themselvessuffered severely from the English fire. Miquel de Oquendo, whocommanded one of the six Spanish squadrons, distinguished himselfby his attempts to close with the English, and by maintaining hisposition in the rear of the fleet engaged in constant conflict withthem.
He was a young nobleman of great promise, distinguished alike forhis bravery and chivalrous disposition; but he could do littlewhile the wind remained in the west and the English held the weathergage. So far only the ships that had been anchored out under RamHead had taken part in the fight, those lying higher up in theSound being unable to make their way out. At noon the exertions oftheir crews, who had from the preceding evening worked incessantly,prevailed, and they were now seen coming out from behind the headlandto take part in the struggle. Medina Sidonia signalled to his fleetto make sail up Channel, Martinez de Ricaldo covering the rearwith the squadron of Biscay. He was vice admiral of the fleet, andconsidered to be the best seaman Spain possessed now that SantaCru
z was dead.
The wind was now rising. Lord Howard sent off a fast boat withletters to Lord Henry Seymour, telling him how things had gone sofar, and bidding him be prepared for the arrival of the Spanishfleet in the Downs. As the afternoon went on the wind rose, and arolling sea came in from the west. Howard still hung upon the Spanishrear, firing but seldom in order to save his powder. As eveningfell, the Spanish vessels, huddled closely together, frequently cameinto collision with one another, and in one of these the Capitana,the flagship of the Andalusian division, commanded by AdmiralPedro de Valdez, had her bowsprit carried away, the foremast felloverboard, and the ship dropped out of her place.
Two of the galleasses came to her assistance and tried to take herin tow, but the waves were running so high that the cable broke.Pedro de Valdez had been commander of the Spanish fleet on the coastof Holland, and knew the English Channel and the northern shoresof France and Holland well.
The duke therefore despatched boats to bring him off with hiscrew, but he refused to leave his charge. Howard, as with his shipshe passed her, believed her to be deserted and went on after thefleet; but a London vessel kept close to her and exchanged shotswith her all night, until Drake, who had turned aside to chase whathe believed to be a portion of the Spanish fleet that had separateditself from the rest, but which turned out to be the merchant shipsthat had joined it for protection, came up, and the Capitana struckher flag. Drake took her into Torbay, and there left her in thecare of the Brixham fishermen, and taking with him Valdez and theother officers sailed away to join Lord Howard. The fishermen, onsearching the ship, found some tons of gunpowder on board her.
Knowing the scarcity of ammunition in the fleet they placed thison board the Roebuck, the fastest trawler in the harbour, and shestarted at once in pursuit of the fleet.
The misfortune to the Capitana was not the only one that befellthe Spaniards. While Oquendo was absent from his galleon a quarrelarose among the officers, who were furious at the ill result of theday's fighting. The captain struck the master gunner with a stick;the latter, a German, rushed below in a rage, thrust a burning fuseinto a powder barrel, and sprang through a porthole into the sea.The whole of the deck was blown up, with two hundred sailors andsoldiers; but the ship was so strongly built that she survived theshock, and her mast still stood.
The duke sent boats to learn what had happened. These carriedoff the few who remained unhurt, but there was no means of takingoff the wounded. These, however, were treated kindly and sent onshore when the ship was picked up at daylight by the English, who,on rifling her, found to their delight that there were still manypowder barrels on board that had escaped the explosion.
The morning broke calm, and the wind, when it came, was from theeast, which gave the Spaniards the advantage of position. The twofleets lay idle all day three or four miles apart, and the nextmorning, as the wind was still from the east, the Spaniards boredown upon Howard to offer battle.
The English, however, headed out to sea. Encouraged by seeingtheir assailants avoid a pitched battle the Spaniards gave chase.The San Marcos, the fastest sailer in the fleet, left the restbehind, and when the breeze headed round at noon she was severalmiles to windward of her consorts, and the English at once set uponher. She fought with extreme courage, and defended herself singlehanded for an hour and a half, when Oquendo came up to the rescue,and as the action off Plymouth had almost exhausted his stockof powder, and the Brixham sloop had not yet come up, Howard wasobliged to draw off.
The action of this day was fought off Portland. During the threedays the British fleet had been to sea they had received almosthourly reinforcements. From every harbour and fishing port alongthe coast from Plymouth to the Isle of Wight vessels of all sizes,smacks, and boats put off, crowded with noblemen and gentlemenanxious to take part in the action, and their enthusiasm added tothat of the weary and ill fed sailors. At the end of the third daythe English fleet had increased to a hundred sail, many of which,however, were of very small burden.