the four Gallions of Portugal but one of the ninety one Callions and great Hulks from divers Provinces only thirty three returned fifty eight being lost In brief they lost in this Voyage eighty one Vessels thirteen thousand five hundred and odd Souldiers Prisoners taken in England Ireland and the Low-Countries were above two thousand Amongst those in England Don Pedro de Valdez Don Vasques de Silva and Don Alonzo de Saies and others were kept for their ransome In Ireland Don Alonzo de Luzon Roderigo de Lasse and others of great account In Zeland was Don Diego Piementelli To be brief there was no famous or noble family in all Spain which in this expedition lost not a Son Brother or Kinsman And thus this Armado which had been so many years in preparing and rigging with such vast expence was in one month many times assaulted and at length wholly defeated with the slaughter of so many of her men not one hundred of the English being lacking nor one small Ship of theirs taken or lost save only that of Cocks and having traversed round about all Britain by Scotland the Orcades and Ireland most grievously tossed and very much distressed and wasted by stormes wracks and all kinds of misery at length came lamely home with perpetual dishonour whereupon Medals were stamped in memory thereof A Fleet flying with full Sailes with this inscription Venit vidit fugit It came it saw it fled Others in honour of our Queen with flaming Ships and a Fleet in a great confusion and this Motto Dux foemina facti A Woman was Conductor of the fact In the aforementioned wracks above seven hundred Souldiers and Sailors were cast on land in Scotland who upon the intercession of the Prince of Parma to the King of Scots and by the permission of Queen Elizabeth were after a years time sent over into the Low-Countries But more unmercifully were those miserable wretches dealt withal whose hap was to be driven by tempest into Ireland Some of them being slain by the wild Irish their old friends and others of them being put to death by the command of the Lord Deputy For he fearing lest they might join with the Irish to disturb the peace of the Nation commanded Bingham Governour of Connaught to destroy them but he refusing to deal so rigorously with those that had yielded themselves He sent Fowle Deputy-Marshal who drew them out of their lurking holes and cut off the heads of above two hundred of them which fact the Queen from her heart condemned and abhorred as a fact of too great cruelty The remainder of them being terrified herewith sick and starven as they were committed themselves to Sea in their shattered Vessels and were many of them swallowed up by the Waves The Spaniards charged the whole fault of their overthrow upon the Prince of Parma as if in favour to our Queen he had wilfully and artificially delayed his coming to them But this was but an invention and pretention given out by them partly upon a Spanish Envy against that Prince he being an Italian and his Son a Competitor to the Kingdom of Portugal But chiefly to save the scorn and monstrous disreputation which they and their Nation received by the success of that enterprise Therefore their colours and excuses forsooth were That their General by Sea had a limited Commission not to fight till the Land Forces were come in to them and that the Prince of Parma had particular reaches and ends of his own to cross the designe But it was both a strange Commission and a strange Obedience to a Commission for men in the midst of their own blood and being so furiously assailed to hold their hands contrary to the Laws of Nature and necessity And as for the Prince of Parma he was reasonably well tempted to be true to that enterprise by no less promise than to be made a Feudatory or Beneficiary King of England under the Seignory in chief of the Pope and the protection of the King of Spain Besides it appeared that the Prince of Parma held his place long after of the Government of the Netherlands in the favour and trust of the King of Spain and by the great imployments and services that he performed in France It is also manifest that this Prince did his best to come down and put to Sea The truth was that the Spanish Navy upon those proofs of Fight which they had with the English finding how much hurt they received and how little hurt they did by reason of the activity and low building of our Ships and skill of Seamen and being also commanded by a General of small courage and experience and having lost at first two of their bravest Commanders at Sea Pedro de Valdez and Michael de Oquendo durst not put it to a Battel at Sea but set up their rest wholly upon the Land enterprise On the other side the transportation of the Land Forces failed in the very foundation For whereas the Council of Spain made full account that their Navy should be Master of the Sea and therefore able to guard and protect the Vessels of Transportation When it fell out to the contrary that the great Navy was distressed and had enough to do to save it self and that their Land Forces were impounded by the Hollanders Things I say being in this state it came to pass that the Prince of Parma must have flown if he would have come into England for he could get neither Bark nor Mariner to put to Sea Yet certain it is that the Prince looked for the coming back of the Armado even at that time when they were wandring and making their perambulation upon the Northern Seas Queen Elizabeth lying one night in her Army at Tilbury the old Lord Treasurer Burleigh came thither and delivered to the Earl of Leicester the Examination of Don Pedro who was taken and brought into England by Sir Francis Drake which examination the Earl delivered unto me saith Dr Sharp mine Author that I might publish it to the Army in my next Sermon The sum of it was this Don Pedro being asked by some of the Lords of the Privy Council what was the intent of their coming stoutly answered the Lords what but to subdue your Nation and to root it out Good said the Lords what then meant you to do with the Catholicks we meant said he to have sent them good men directly to Heaven as all you that are Hereticks to Hell Yea but said the Lords what meant you to do with your whips of Cord and Wier whereof you have such great store in your Ships what said he we meant to whip you Hereticks to Death that have assisted my Masters Rebels and done such dishonour to our Catholick King and People Yea but what would you have done said they with their young Children They said he which were above seven years old should have gone the same way that their Fathers went the rest should have lived
neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon thee But in the second place knowing that Prayers without endeavours and means are like Rachel beautiful but barren that She might not be taken unprovided She prepared with all diligence as strong a Fleet as She could and all things necessary for War and She that in discerning mens parts and abilities was of a most sharp judgment and ever most happy having the free choice in her self and not by the commendations of others assigned to every office by name the best and fittest men The charge of her Navy She committed to Charles Howard of Effingham Lord Admiral of England of whose skill She had had former experience and whom She knew both by his Moderation and Nobility to be wary in providence valiant industrious and of great authority among the Seamen and well beloved of them Her Vice-Admiral She made the famous Sir Francis Drake and these She sent to the West parts of England and for the Guard of the narrow Seas She appointed Henry Lord Seimore second Son to the Duke of Somerset whom She commanded also to lie upon the Coasts of the Low-Countries with forty Ships to watch that the Prince of Parma might not come forth with his Forces By Land She commanded the General Forces of the Realm to be mustered trained and put in readiness in their special Shires for the defence of the whole which accordingly was done and whereof the Lord Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester was appointed Lieutenant twenty thousand whereof were disposed along our South-Coast for the guard thereof besides which She had two Armies one of which consisting of a thousand Horse and twenty two thousand Foot was encamped at Tilbury near the Thames mouth whither the Enemy fully intended to come The other which was led by the Lord Hunsdon consisted of thirty four thousand Foot and two thousand Horse which were to be the Guard of the Queens person Her self in courage far surmounting her Sex as another Zenobia or rather Deborah led forth the Lords Host against this great Sisera and her Souldiers valiant and skilful both for courage and quick dispatch might well be compared to those Gadites that came to aid David whose faces were like the faces of Lions and were compared to the Roes in the Mountains for swiftness Arthur Lord Grey Sir Francis Knolles Sir John Knorris Sir Richard Bingham and Sir Roger Williams all gallant men and brave Souldiers were appointed to consult about managing the Land Service These advised that all the commodious landing places for the Enemy as well from Spain as from the Low-Countries should be manned and fortified as Milford Haven Falmouth Plimmouth Portland the Isle of Weight Portsmouth the open Coast of Kent commonly called the Downs the Thames mouth Harwich Yarmouth Hull c. and that the Trained Bands throughout the Coast Shires should meet upon a signal given to defend the said places and do their best to prohibit the Enemies landing But in case he should land that then they should leave all the Country round about wast that so they might find nothing for food but what from their Ships they should carry upon their shoulders and that they should hold the Enemies busied both night and day with continual Alarms but not to hazard a Battel till more Commanders with their Companies were come together Some suggested also to the Queen that the Spaniards abroad were not so much to be feared as the Papists at home for that the Spaniards would not attempt the Invasion of England but upon confidence of aid from them She thereupon committed some of them to Prison at Wisbeach in the Fenns by her Letters also She directed Sir William Fitz-Williams Lord Deputy of Ireland what he should do The King of Scots She put in mind to beware of the Papists and Spanish Factions By her frequent Letters She wrote to the States of the Vnited Provinces not to be deficient in assisting her what they could But amongst these preparations for War on both sides Philip King of Spain to cast a mist over her Majesties eyes and to rock her into a sleep of security importuned by all means the Realms unto peace imploying the Prince of Parma to be his instrument therein who dealt earnestly by Letters with the help of Sir James Crofts a privy Counsellor and a man much addicted to peace as also by Andrew Van Loey a Netherlander that a Treaty of Peace might be entred upon affirming that he had Warrant thereunto from the King of Spain Our Queen measuring other Princes by her own guileless heart gave ear to this deceitful lullaby little suspecting that a deadly Snake could be hid in so fair a Garden yet resolved to treat of Peace with her Sword in her hand neither was the Prince of Parma against her so doing In the month therefore of February Commissioners were sent into Flanders Henry Earl of Darby William Brook Lord Cobham Sir James Crofts Valentine Dale and John Rogers Doctors of the Law who arriving there were received in the Prince of Parma's name with all courtesy who thereupon sent away Dale presently to him to know where the place of meeting should be and to see his Commission from the King of Spain the place he appointed to be near Ostend the Town it self being then in the English hands and as for his Commission he promised it should be produced at their meeting Only he wished them to hasten the matter lest any thing should happen in the interim to interrupt the Treaty and one Richardot which stood by him said more openly That he knew not what in the mean time might be done against England Which being reported to the Queen She sent Rogers to the Prince to know whether there was any design for the Invading of England as he and Richardot by their words seemed to imply The Prince answered that he had never any thought for the Invading England when he wished the Treaty to be hastened and was angry with Richardot who denied that any such words had fallen from him Commissioners for the King of Spain were Maximilian Earl of Aremberg Governor of Antwerp Richardot President of Artois with some other Civilians These stayed at Bruges and for all their pretended haste much time was cunningly spun out about the place of their meeting which should have the Precedency and what hostages should be given for security of the Commissioners yet at length the Spaniards yielded to the English Precedency both in going and sitting and the place was in Tents near unto Ostend The demands for the Queen were that there might be a surcease of Arms with a present and undelayed Truce She mitrusting the Spanish preparations at Sea The sending away of foreign Souldiers out of the Low-Countries for Englands security A restitution of such sums of money as the Queen had lent to the States and which the King had promised to restore That the Netherlanders might enjoy their ancient liberties and
were their friends of courage to succour these distressed Lords but left both Ship and them in this sudden and unexpected danger But the night coming on our Lord Admiral supposing that they had left neither men nor Mariners aboard within her and fearing to lose sight of the Spaniards past by her and followed the Lanthorn which he supposed to be carried by Sir Francis Drake as it was appointed but that brave Knight was eagerly pursuing five great Hulks which he took to be of the Spaniards but when he came up and haled them they proved Easterlings and friends and so were dismissed yet by this mistake of his the greatest part of our Fleet wanting the direction of his light was forced to lye still so that he and the rest of the Fleet till towards night the next day could not recover sight of the Lord Admiral who all the night before with two other Ships the Bear and the Mary-Rose followed the Spanish Lanthorn July the twenty second Sir Francis Drake espied the aforementioned lagging Gallion whereupon he sent forth a Pinnace to command them to yield otherwise his bullets without any delay should force them to it Valdes to seem valorous answered that they were four hundred and fifty strong that himself was Don Pedro and stood on his honour and thereupon propounded certain conditions But the Knight returned this reply that he had no leisure to parley if he would immediately yield so otherwise he should soon prove that Drake was no Dastard Pedro hearing that it was the fiery Drake whose name was very terrible to the Spaniards that had him in chase presently yielded and with forty of his Companions came on board Sir Francis his Ship where first giving him the Conge he protested that he and all his were resolved to have dyed fighting had they not fallen into his hands whose valour and felicity was so great that Mars and Neptune seemed to wait on him in all his attempts and whose noble and generous mind towards the vanquished had often been experienced even of his greatest Foes Sir Francis to requite his Spanish Complements with English Courtesie placed him at his own Table and lodged him in his own Cabin the residue of that Company he sent to Plimouth where they remained Prisoners for the space of eighteen months till by payment of their ransoms they obtained their liberty But Drakes Souldiers had well paid themselves by the plunder of the Ship wherein they found 55000 Ducats of Gold which they merrily shared amongst them The same day Michael de Oquendo Admiral of the Squadron Guypusco and Vice-Admiral of the whole Fleet suffered no less a disaster whose Ship being one of the greatest Gallions fell on fire and all the upper part of the Ship being burnt most also of the persons therein were consumed howbeit the Gunpowder in the hold not taking fire the Ship fell into the hands of the English which together with the scorched Spaniards therein was brought into Plimouth a joyful spectacle to the beholders All this day the Duke of Medina laboured securely to set his Fleet in order To Alphonso de Leva he gave in charge to joyne the first and last Squadron together To every Ship he assigned his quarter to ride in according to the form prescribed in Spain commanding them upon pain of death not to desert their stations Glitch an Ensign-bearer he sent to the Prince of Parma to acquaint him with his condition July the twenty third early in the morning the Spaniards taking the benefit of a Northerly wind when they approached right against Portland turned about against the English but the English nimble and foreseeing all advantages soon turned aside to the Westward each striving to get the wind of the other which at last the English got and so they prepared themselves on each side to Fight and the English continued all day from morning till night to batter those wooden Castles with great and small shot The fight was very confused and variable whilst on the one side the English bravely rescued the London Ships that were hemmed in by the Spaniards and on the other side the Spaniards as stoutly delivered Rechalde being in danger Never was there heard greater thundring of Ordnance on both sides the chiefest fight being performed on this day yet notwithstanding the shot from the Spanish Ships for the most part flew over the English without hurting them only Cock an English man dyed with honour in the midst of his Enemies in a little Ship of his The English Ships being far the lesser charged that Sea-Gyant with marvellous agility and having given them their broad sides flew off again presently and then coming up levelled their shot directly without missing those heavy and unweildy Ships of the Spaniards But the Lord Admiral would not hazard a fight by grappling with them as some unadvised persons would have perswaded him For he considered that the Enemy had a strong Army in the Fleet whereas he had none that their Ships were more in number of bigger burden stronger and huger built so that they could not be boarded but with extreme disadvantage He foresaw also that the overthrow would turn to a greater dammage than the victory would avail him For being vanquished he should have brought England into extreme hazzard and being Conquerour he should only have gained a little glory to himself for overthrowing the Fleet and beating the Enemy On this day the sorest fight was performed wherein besides other remarkable harms which the Enemy sustained a great Venetian Ship with some other smaller were surprized and taken by the English and the Spaniards were forced for their further safety to gather themselves close into a Roundel their best and greatest Ships standing without that they might secure those that were battered and less July the twenty fourth the Fight was only between the four great Galliasses and some of the English Ships the Spaniards having great advantage theirs being rowed with Oars and ours by reason of the calm having no use of their Sails notwithstanding which they sorely galled the Enemy with their great and Chain shot wherewith they cut in sunder their tacklings Cables and Cordage to their no little prejudice But wanting Powder which they had spent so freely and other provision to maintain the fight the Lord Admiral sent some of his smaller Ships to the next Ports of England to fetch supply which stirred up jealousies in the heads of many that we should thus want upon our own Coasts In which Interim a Council was called wherein it was resolved that the English Fleet should be divided into four Squadrons and those committed to four brave Captains and skilful Seamen whereof the Lord Admiral in the Ark Royal was chief Sir Francis Drake in the Revenge led the second Captain Hawkins the third and Captain Forbusher the fourth Other most valiant Captains there were in others of Her Majesties Ships as the Lord Thomas Howard in the Lion the Lord Sheffield
in the Bear Sir Robert Southwel in the Elizabeth Captain Baker in the Victory and Captain George Fenner in the gallion-Gallion-Leicester It was also further appointed that out of every Squadron certain small Vessels should give you a charge from divers parts in the dead time of the night but the calm continuing this design could not be effected July the twenty fifth being Saint James day the Spaniards were arrived against the Isle of Wight where was a most terrible encounter each shooting off their whole broad sides and not above sixscore yards the one from the other There the Saint Anne a Gallion of Portugal which could not hold course with the rest was set upon by certain small English Vessels to whose rescue came Leva and Don Diego Telles Enriques with three Galliasses which the Lord Admiral himself and the Lord Thomas Howard in the Golden Lion rowing their Ships with their Boats so great was the calm charged in such sort with their roaring Canons that they had much ado and that not without loss to save the Gallion from which time forward none of the Galliasses would undertake the fight The Spaniards reported that the English the same day beat the Spanish Admiral in the utter Squadron rending her sore with their Great Ordnance and having slain many of her men shot down her main Mast and would have much endanger'd her but that Mexia and Rechalde came in good time to her rescue That the Spanish Admiral assisted by Rechalde and others set upon the English Admiral which happily escaped by the sudden turning of the wind That thereupon the Spaniards gave over the pursuit and holding on their Course dispatched again a Messenger to the Prince of Parma to joyn his Fleet with all speed to the Kings Armado and withal to send them a supply of great shot But these things were unknown to the English who wrote that from one of the Spanish Ships they had shot down their Lanthorn and from another the Beak-head and that they had done much hurt to the third that the Non-parrella and the Mary Rose had fought a while with the Spaniards and that other Ships had rescued the Triumph which was in danger The truth is they had so sorely battered those huge wooden Castles that once more they forced them for their further safety to gather themselves into a Roundel July the twenty sixth the Lord Admiral to encourage and reward the Noble Attempts of his gallant Captains bestowed the Order of Knighthood upon the Lords Howard and Sheffield Roger Townsend John Hawkings Martin Forbusher and others And yet the vain glorious and boasting Spaniards caused a report to be spread in France that England was wholly conquered by them It was resolved by our men that from thenceforth they should assail the Enemy no more till they came to the British Frith or strait of Callis where the Lord Henry Seimore and Sir William Winter with the Ships which they had for the guard of the narrow Seas waited their coming and so with a fair gale from the South-West and by South the Spanish Fleet sailed forward the English Fleet following it close at the heels And so far was it from terrifying our English Coasts with the name of Invincible or with its huge and terrible spectacle that our brave English youth with an incredible alacrity leaveing Parents Wives Children Kinsfolk and Friends out of their entire love to their native Country hired Ships from all parts at their own proper charges and joyned with the Fleet in great numbers amongst whom were the Earl of Oxford Northumberland and Cumberland Thomas and Robert Cecil Henry Brook Charles Blunt Walter Raleigh William Hatton Robert Carey Ambrose Willoughby Thomas Gerard Arthur Gorges and many others of great note July the twenty seventh the Spanish Fleet making forward towards Evening came over against Dover and Anchored before Callis intending for Dunkirk there to joyn with the Prince of Parma's Forces wel perceiving that without their assistance they could do nothing They were also warned by the Pilots that if they proceeded any farther it was to be feared lest they should be driven by the force of the Tide into the Northern Ocean The English Fleet following up hard upon them cast Anchor so near that they lay within Culvering shot at which time the Lord Henry Seimore and Winter joyned their Ships to them so that now the English Fleet consisted of one hundred and forty Sail all able Ships to fight Sail and turn about which way soever they pleased Yet were they not above fifteen that sustained the greatest burden of the fight From hence once more the Duke of Medina sent to the Prince of Parma to hasten forth his long expected and much desired Forces with which Messengers many of the Spanish Noblemen went to Land having had enough of the Sea amongst whom was the Prince of Ascoli the Kings base Son who returned to his Ship no more and indeed well it was for him for that his Gallion was afterwards cast away upon the Irish Coast and never returned to salute Spain These Messengers earnestly prayed the Prince of Parma to put forth to Sea with his Army which the Spanish Fleet should protect as it were under her wings till it was landed in England And indeed the Prince of Parma hearing the best and not the worst of this Voyage made all things ready that lay in his charge whose hopes were so fixed upon Englands Conquest and the glittering Diadem upon Queen Elizabeths head did so dazel his ambitious Eyes being assured by Cardinal Allen that he was the man designed to be Crowned therewith that neglecting the Coronet of the Low-Country Government he transferred the charge thereof upon Count Mansfield the Elder and having made his vows to the Lady of Hall in Heinault he was already in conceit no less than a King But the date of his Reign was soon expired and his swelling tide fallen into a low shallow ebb For the day following in his march to Dunkirk he heard the thundring Ordnance ringing the passing Peal of his hopes and title and the same Evening had news of the hard success of the Spaniards the hoped advancers of his dreamed felicity and indeed do what he could he could not be ready at the Spaniards call His flat-bottomed Boats for the shallow Channels leaked his provision of Victuals proved unready and his Mariners having hitherto been detained against their wills had withdrawn themselves there lay also watching before the Havens of Dunkirk and Newport whence he was to put forth to Sea the men of War of the Hollanders and Zelanders so well provided with great Ordnance and Musketiers that he could not put from the shore unless he would wilfully cast himself and his men upon eminent perils and dangers of destruction and yet he being a skilful and experienced Commander omitted no means being inflamed with a desire to Conquer England But Queen Elizabeths foresight prevented both his diligence and the credulous