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 c ast 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-Comte 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.



Meanwhile in England, from the sovereign on the throne to the peasant in

the cottage, all hearts and hands made ready to meet the imminent deadly

peril. Circular letters from the queen were sent round to the

lord-lieutenants of the several counties requiring them "to call

together the best sort of gentlemen under their lieutenancy, and to

declare unto them these great preparations and arrogant threatenings,

now burst forth in action upon the seas, wherein every man's particular

state, in the highest degree, could be touched in respect of country,

liberty, wives, children, lands, lives, and (which was specially to be

regarded) the profession of the true and sincere religion of Christ; and

to lay before them the infinite and unspeakable miseries that would fall

out upon any such change, which miseries were evidently seen by the

fruits of that hard and cruel government holden in countries not far

distant."



The ships of the Royal Navy at this time amounted to no more than

thirty-six; but the most serviceable merchant vessels were collected

from all the ports of the country; and the citizens of London, Bristol,

and the other great seats of commerce, showed as liberal a zeal in

equipping and manning vessels as the nobility and gentry displayed in

mustering forces by land. The seafaring population of the coast, of

every rank and station, was animated by the same ready spirit; and the

whole number of seamen who came forward to man the English fleet was

17,472. The number of the ships that were collected was a hundred and

ninety-one; and the total amount of their tonnage 31,985. There was one

ship in the fleet (the Triumph) of eleven hundred tons, one of ten

hundred, one of nine hundred, two of eight hundred each, three of six

hundred, five of five hundred, five of four hundred, six of three

hundred, six of two hundred and fifty, twenty of two hundred, and the

residue of inferior burden. Application was made to the Dutch for

assistance; and, as Stowe expresses it, "The Hollanders came roundly in,

with threescore sail, brave ships of war, fierce and full of spleen, not

so much for England's aid, as in just occasion for their own defence;

these men foreseeing the greatness of the danger that might ensue, if

the Spaniards should chance to win the day and get the mastery over

them; in due regard whereof their manly courage was inferior to none."



We have more minute information of the numbers and equipment of the

hostile forces than we have of our own. In the first volume of Hakluyt's

"Voyages," dedicated to Lord Effingham, who commanded against the

Armada, there is given (from the contemporary foreign writer, Meteran) a

more complete and detailed catalogue than has perhaps ever appeared of a

similar armament.



"The number of mariners in the saide fleete were above eight thousand,

of slaves two thousand and eighty-eight, of soldiers twenty thousand

(besides noblemen and gentlemen voluntaries), of great cast pieces two

thousand six hundred. The aforesaide ships were of an huge and

incredible capacitie and receipt: for the whole fleete was large enough

to containe the burthen of sixty thousand tunnes.



"The galeons were sixty-four in number, being of an huge bignesse, and

very flately built, being of marveilous force also, and so high, that

they resembled great castles, most fit to defend themselves and to

withstand any assault; but in giving any other ships the encounter farr

inferiour unto the English and Dutch ships, which can with great

dexteritie weild and turne themselves at all assayes. The upperworke of

the said galeons was of thicknesse and strength sufficient to bear off

musket-shot. The lower worke and the timbers thereof were out of measure

strong, being framed of plankes and ribs foure or five foote in

thicknesse, insomuch that no bullets could pierce them, but such as were

discharged hard at hand; which afterward prooved true, for a great

number of bullets were found to sticke fast within the massie substance

of those thicke plankes. Great and well-pitched cables were twined about

the masts of their shippes, to strengthen them against the battery of

shot.



"The galliasses were of such bignesse, that they contained within them

chambers, chapels, turrets, pulpits, and other commodities of great

houses. The galliasses were rowed with great oares, there being in eche

one of them three hundred slaves for the same purpose, and were able to

do great service with the force of their ordinance. All these, together

with the residue aforenamed, were furnished and beautified with

trumpets, streamers, banners, warlike ensignes, and other such like

ornaments.



"Their pieces of brazen ordinance were sixteen hundred, and of yron ten

hundred.



"The bullets thereto belonging were a hundred and twenty thousand.



"Item of gun-poulder, five thousand six hundred quintals. Of matche,

twelve hundred quintals. Of muskets and kaleivers seven thousand. Of

haleberts and partisans, ten thousand.



"Moreover they had great store of canons, double-canons, culverings and

field-pieces for land services.



"This navie (as Diego Pimentelli afterward confessed) was esteemed by

the king himselfe to containe thirty-two thousand persons, and to cost

him every day thirty thousand ducates."



While this huge Armada was making ready in the southern ports of the

Spanish dominions, the Prince of Parma, with almost incredible toil and

skill, collected a squadron of war-ships at Dunkirk, and his flotilla of

other ships and of flat-bottomed boats for the transport to England of

the picked troops, which were designed to be the main instruments in

subduing England. Thousands of workmen were employed, night and day, in

the construction of these vessels, in the ports of Flanders and Brabant.

The army which these vessels were designed to convey to England amounted

to thirty thousand strong, besides a body of four thousand cavalry,

stationed at Courtrai, composed chiefly of the ablest veterans of

Europe; invigorated by rest, and excited by the hopes of plunder and the

expectation of certain conquest.



Philip had been advised, in the first instance, to effect a landing and

secure a strong position in Ireland; his admiral, Santa Cruz, had

recommended him to make sure, in the first instance, of some large

harbour on the coast of Holland or Zealand, where the Armada, having

entered the Channel, might find shelter in case of storm, and whence it

could sail without difficulty for England; but Philip rejected both

these counsels, and directed that England itself should be made the

immediate object of attack; and on May 20th the Armada left the Tagus,

in the pomp and pride of supposed invincibility, and amidst the shouts

of thousands, who believed that England was already conquered. But

steering to the northward, and before it was clear of the coast of

Spain, the Armada was assailed by a violent storm, and driven back with

considerable damage to the ports of Biscay and Galicia. It had, however,

sustained its heaviest loss before it left the Tagus, in the death of

the veteran admiral Santa Cruz, who had been destined to guide it

against England.



Philip II. had replaced him by Alonzo Perez de Gusman, Duke of Medina

Sidonia, one of the most powerful of the Spanish grandees, but wholly

unqualified to command such an expedition. He had, however, as his

lieutenants, two seamen of proved skill and bravery, Juan de Martinez

Recalde of Biscay, and Miguel Orquendo of Guipuzcoa.



On July 12th, the Armada having completely refitted, sailed again for

the Channel, and reached it without obstruction or observation by the

English.



The orders of King Philip to the Duke de Medina Sidonia were, that he

should, on entering the Channel, keep near the French coast, and, if

attacked by the English ships, avoid an action, and steer on to Calais

roads, where the Prince of Parma's squadron was to join him. The hope of

surprising and destroying the English fleet in Plymouth led the Spanish

admiral to deviate from these orders, and to stand across to the English

shore; but, on finding that Lord Howard was coming out to meet him, he

resumed the original plan, and determined to bend his way steadily

towards Calais and Dunkirk, and to keep merely on the defensive against

such squadrons of the English as might come up with him.



It was on Saturday, July 20th, that Lord Effingham came in sight of his

formidable adversaries. The Armada was drawn up in form of a crescent,

which from horn to horn measured some seven miles. There was a

south-west wind; and before it the vast vessels sailed slowly on. The

English let them pass by; and then, following in the rear, commenced an

attack on them. A running fight now took place, in which some of the

best ships of the Spaniards were captured; many more received heavy

damage; while the English vessels, which took care not to close with

their huge antagonists, but availed themselves of their superior

celerity in tacking and manoeuvring, suffered little comparative loss.

Each day added not only to the spirit, but to the number of Effingham's

force. Raleigh, Oxford, Cumberland, and Sheffield joined him; and "the

gentlemen of England hired ships from all parts at their own charge, and

with one accord came flocking thither as to a set field, where glory

was to be attained, and faithful service performed unto their prince and

their country."



The Spanish admiral also showed great judgment and firmness in following

the line of conduct that had been traced out for him; and on July 27th

he brought his fleet unbroken, though sorely distressed, to anchor in

Calais roads. But the King of Spain had calculated ill the number and

activity of the English and Dutch fleets; as the old historian expresses

it, "It seemeth that the Duke of Parma and the Spaniards grounded upon a

vain and presumptuous expectation, that all the ships of England and of

the Low Countreys would at the first sight of the Spanish and Dunkerk

Navie have betaken themselves to flight, yeelding them sea-room, and

endeavouring only to defend themselves, their havens, and sea coasts

from invasion. Wherefore their intent and purpose was, that the Duke of

Parma, in his small and flat-bottomed ships should, as it were, under

the shadow and wings of the Spanish fleet, convey over all his troupes,

armour, and warlike provisions, and with their forces so united should

invade England; or, while the English fleet were busied in fight against

the Spanish, should enter upon any part of the coast which he thought to

be most convenient. Which invasion (as the captives afterwards

confessed) the Duke of Parma thought first to have attempted by the

river of Thames; upon the banks whereof, having at the first arrivall

landed twenty or thirty thousand of his principall souldiers, he

supposed that he might easily have wonne the citie of London; both

because his small shippes should have followed and assisted his land

forces, and also for that the citie itselfe was but meanely fortified

and easie to ouercome, by reason of the citizens' delicacie and

discontinuance from the warres, who, with continuall and constant

labour, might be vanquished, if they yielded not at the first assault."



But the English and Dutch found ships and mariners enough to keep the

Armada itself in check, and at the same time to block up Parma's

flotilla. The greater part of Seymour's squadron left its cruising

ground off Dunkirk to join the English admiral off Calais; but the Dutch

manned about five-and-thirty sail of good ships, with a strong force of

soldiers on board, all well seasoned to the sea-service; and with these

they blockaded the Flemish ports that were in Parma's power. Still it

was resolved by the Spanish admiral and the prince to endeavour to

effect a junction, which the English seamen were equally resolute to

prevent: and bolder measures on our side now became necessary.



The Armada lay off Calais, with its largest ships ranged outside, "like

strong castles fearing no assault; the lesser placed in the middle

ward." The English admiral could not attack them in their position

without great disadvantage, but on the night of the 29th he sent eight

fire-ships among them, with almost equal effect to that of the

fire-ships which the Greeks so often employed against the Turkish fleets

in their late war of independence. The Spaniards cut their cables and

put to sea in confusion. One of the largest galeasses ran foul of

another vessel and was stranded. The rest of the fleet was scattered

about on the Flemish coast, and when the morning broke, it was with

difficulty and delay that they obeyed their admiral's signal to range

themselves round him near Gravelines. Now was the golden opportunity for

the English to assail them, and prevent them from ever letting loose

Parma's flotilla against England; and nobly was that opportunity used.

Drake and Fenner were the first English captains who attacked the

unwieldy leviathans: then came Fenton, Southwell, Burton, Cross, Raynor,

and then the lord-admiral, with Lord Thomas Howard and Lord Sheffield.

The Spaniards only thought of forming and keeping close together, and

were driven by the English past Dunkirk, and far away from the Prince of

Parma, who in watching their defeat from the coast, must, as Drake

expressed it, have chafed like a bear robbed of her whelps. This was

indeed the last and the decisive battle between the two fleets. It is,

perhaps, best described in the very words of the contemporary writer as

we may read them in Hakluyt.



"Upon July 29th, in the morning, the Spanish fleet after the forsayd

tumult, having arranged themselves againe into order, were, within sight

of Greveling, most bravely and furiously encountered by the English;

where they once again got the wind of the Spaniards; who suffered

themselves to be deprived of the commodity of the place in Caleis road,

and of the advantage of the wind neer unto Dunkerk, rather than they

would change their array or separate their forces now conjoyned and

united together, standing only upon their defence.



"And howbeit there were many excellent and warlike ships in the English

fleet, yet scarce were there twenty-two or twenty-three among them all,

which matched ninety of the Spanish ships in the bigness, or could

conveniently assault them. Wherefore the English ships using their

prerogative of nimble steerage, whereby they could turn and wield

themselves with wind which way they listed, came often times very near

upon the Spaniards, and charged them so sore, that now and then they

were but a pike's length asunder: and so continually giving them one

broadside after another, they discharged all their shot both great and

small upon them, spending one whole day from morning till night in that

violent kind of conflict, untill such time as powder and bullets failed

them. In regard of which want they thought it convenient not to pursue

the Spaniards any longer, because they had many great vantages of the

English, namely, for the extraordinary bigness of their ships, and also

for that they were so neerley conjoyned, and kept together in so good

array, that they could by no meanes be fought withall one to one. The

English thought, therefore, that they had right well acquitted

themselves, in chasing the Spaniards first from Caleis, and then from

Dunkerk, and by that meanes to have hindered them from joyning with the

Duke of Parma his forces, and getting the wind of them, to have driven

them from their own coasts.



"The Spaniards that day sustained great loss and damage, having many of

their shippes shot thorow and thorow, and they discharged likewise great

store of ordinance against the English; who, indeed, sustained some

hindrance, but not comparable to the Spaniard's loss: for they lost not

any one ship or person of account, for very diligent inquisition being

made, the English men all that time wherein the Spanish navy sayled upon

their seas, are not found to have wanted above one hundred of their

people: albeit Sir Francis Drake's ship was pierced with shot above

forty times, and his very cabben was twice shot thorow, and about the

conclusion of the fight, the bed of a certaine gentleman lying weary

thereupon, was taken quite from under him with the force of a bullet.

Likewise, as the Earle of Northumberland and Sir Charles Blunt were at

dinner upon a time, the bullet of a demy-culverin brake thorow the

middest of their cabben, touched their feet, and strooke downe two of

the standers by, with many such accidents befalling the English shippes,

which it were tedious to rehearse."



It reflects little credit on the English Government that the English

fleet was so deficiently supplied with ammunition, as to be unable to

complete the destruction of the invaders. But enough was done to ensure

it. Many of the largest Spanish ships were sunk or captured in the

action of this day. And at length the Spanish admiral, despairing of

success, fled northward with a southerly wind, in the hope of rounding

Scotland, and so returning to Spain without a farther encounter with the

English fleet. Lord Effingham left a squadron to continue the blockade

of the Prince of Parma's armament; but that wise general soon withdrew

his troops to more promising fields of action. Meanwhile the

lord-admiral himself, and Drake chased the vincible Armada, as it was

now termed, for some distance northward; and then, when it seemed to

bend away from the Scotch coast towards Norway, it was thought best, in

the words of Drake, "to leave them to those boisterous and uncouth

northern seas."



The sufferings and losses which the unhappy Spaniards sustained in their

flight round Scotland and Ireland are well known. Of their whole Armada

only fifty-three shattered vessels brought back their beaten and wasted

crews to the Spanish coast, which they had quitted in such pageantry

and pride.



Some passages from the writings of those who took part in the struggle

have been already quoted, to which may be added the following

description of the defeat of the Armada, written in answer to some

mendacious stories by which the Spaniards strove to hide their shame.



"They were not ashamed to publish, in sundry languages in print, great

victories in words, which they pretended to have obtained against this

realm, and spread the same in a most false sort over all parts of

France, Italy, and elsewhere; when, shortly afterwards, it was happily

manifested in very deed to all nations, how their navy, which they

termed invincible, consisting of one hundred and forty sail of ships,

not only of their own kingdom, but strengthened with the greatest

argosies, Portugal caracks, Florentines, and large hulks of other

countries, were by thirty of Her Majesty's own ships of war, and a few

of our own merchants, by the wise, valiant, and advantageous conduct of

the Lord Charles Howard, High-admiral of England, beaten and shuffled

together even from the Lizard in Cornwall, first to Portland, when they

shamefully left Don Pedro de Valdez with his mighty ship; from Portland

to Calais, where they lost Hugh de Moncado, with the galleys of which he

was captain; and from Calais driven with squibs from their anchors, were

chased out of the sight of England, round about Scotland and Ireland.

Where, for the sympathy of their religion, hoping to find succour and

assistance, a great part of them were crushed against the rocks, and

those others that landed, being very many in number, were,

notwithstanding, broken, slain, and taken; and so sent from village to

village, coupled in halters, to be shipped into England, where Her

Majesty, of her princely and invincible disposition, disdaining to put

them to death, and scorning either to retain or to entertain them, they

were all sent back again to their countries, to witness and recount the

worthy achievement of their invincible and dreadful navy. Of which the

number of soldiers, the fearful burthen of their ships, the commanders'

names of every squadron, with all others, their magazines of provisions

were put in print, as an army and navy irresistible and disdaining

prevention: with all which their great and terrible ostentation, they

did not in all their sailing round about England so much as sink or take

one ship, bark, pinnace, or cockboat of ours, or even burn so much as

one sheep-cote on this land."