38 Barratt, op. cit., p.62; Martin & Parker, op. cit., pp.152–3; Mattingly, op. cit., p.266.
39 Barratt, op. cit., pp.62–3.
CHAPTER 7: Firestorm
1 Laughton, Defeat of the Spanish Armada, vol. 2, p.63.
2 HMC Foljambe, p.48. Lord Chandos, lord lieutenant of Gloucestershire, for example, was instructed to appoint a provost marshal for ‘the arrest and punishment of idle vagabonds to prevent the spread of false rumours’ (Gloucestershire Archives, GBR/H/2/1 f.1).
3 HMC Foljambe, p.50.
4 Gerson, ‘English Recusants and the Spanish Armada’, p.590.
5 McDermott, England and Spain: the Necessary Quarrel, p.244.
6 TNA, SP 12/211/95.
7 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, pp.372–3.
8 Ibid., p.480.
9 In 1584, the Member of Parliament Job Throckmorton claimed in a debate that ‘God had vowed himself to be English’ and went on to describe the Pope as Antichrist, Catherine de Medici (mother of Henri III of France) as ‘an adder whose brood is left to pester the earth’ and Philip of Spain as ‘idolatrous and incestuous’. It was not just foreign royalty that drew his ire: ‘A Frenchman was as vile a man that lives and no villainy can make him blush.’ As a boy, he had ‘heard it said that falsehood was the very nature of a Scot’. Sir Christopher Hatton, later Lord Chancellor, reprimanded him for ‘speaking sharply of princes’ and Throckmorton was thrown into the Tower. See: Brennan, ‘Papists and Patriotism . . .’, p.8 and Neale, Elizabeth and her Parliaments, pp.28, 168 and 169–73.
10 Mattingly, Defeat of the Spanish Armada, p.311.
11 McDermott, op. cit., p.241.
12 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.378.
13 A Spanish spy in London reported on 7 September that the Dutch musketeers had mutinied because they had not ‘been paid a penny’ and had killed their colonel and lieutenant colonel. ‘They are said to have fortified themselves in a castle near Sandwich but I hear from another quarter they have now been pacified and embarked’ to return home to the Netherlands. CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.421.
14 Martin & Parker, The Spanish Armada, pp.255 and 257; P. Clark, English Provincial Society from the Reformation to the Revolution; Religion, Politics and Society in Kent 1500–1640 (Hassocks, 1977), p.249.
15 On 2 August, Leicester told the Privy Council: ‘I have put these forts [Tilbury and Gravesend] in as good strength as time will permit but there must be planks sent in with all haste and workmen to make [gun] platforms.’ R.P. Cruden, History of Gravesend and the Port of London (London, 1843), p.237.
16 APC, vol. 16, pp.174–6.
17 Ibid., p.183.
18 Laughton, op. cit., vol. 1, pp.319.
19 Ibid., p.321.
20 Hogg, op. cit., pp.34–5.
21 Laughton, op. cit., vol. 1, p.331.
22 BL Cotton MS Caligula D i, f.420. The spelling of the letter, written in English, has quaint lapses into the Scottish vernacular.
23 Martin & Parker, op. cit., p.63.
24 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.397.
25 BL Cotton MS Otho E ix, f.185v.
26 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.460.
27 Martin & Parker, op. cit., p.155.
28 TNA, SP 94/3/11; CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.359.
29 Parker, ‘El testamento politico . . .’, p.31.
30 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.442.
31 BL Cotton MS Julius F x, f.114; Corbett, Drake and the Tudor Navy, vol. 2, p.227. The Delight was owned by Sir William Wynter, Surveyor of the navy.
32 A ‘crock’(or crook) was the forked wooden or metal rest on which the heavy harquebus was rested when it was aimed and fired.
33 BL Cotton MS Julius F x, f.114. This account suggests that the cannon were fired rapidly like muskets in a land battle.
34 CSP Foreign Elizabeth, vol. 22, p.5. The sailor also repeated what he had heard from ‘the Spanish captains that they meant to carry off the English women to Spain and that the king’s [Philip’s] commission instructed them to massacre everyone they met in England, even the children’. As this comes from an English source, the report’s veracity may be tainted.
35 Corbett, op. cit., vol. 2, p.228.
36 BL Cotton MS Julius F x, f.114.
37 Graham, The Spanish Armadas, p.117; Parker, ‘The Dreadnought Revolution’, p.269.
38 TNA, SP 12/213/71, f.164.
39 Medina Sidonia to Don Hugo de Moncada; on board the royal galleon San Martin, 2 August 1588. CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.359.
40 Named after ‘The Spit’ a sandbank that stretches south from the shore of Hampshire for 3.1 miles (5 km). Spithead, later the traditional anchorage for the Royal Navy, is fourteen miles (22.5 km) long with an average breadth of four miles (6.5 km). On 2 August, Seymour had written to the Privy Council warning them of a possible Spanish landing on the Isle of Wight. See Laughton, op. cit., vol. 1, p.300.
41 Martin & Parker, op. cit., p.157.
42 Fernandez-Armesto, The Spanish Armada: The Experience of War, p.159.
43 Both fleets would have seen four stacks in 1588 instead of the three ‘Needles’ of today. A 120-foot (36.58 metres) rock, nicknamed ‘Lot’s Wife’, stood just to the north of the central stack. It collapsed in 1764.
44 BL Cotton MS Julius F x, f.115.
45 One of the Spanish pilots reported ‘there is a risk in passing here because there is a castle on the mainland called Hurst which is the strongest in England. Its artillery reaches into the channel.’ Repairs to the central tower, built by Henry VIII in the 1530s as one of his coastal artillery forts, had been completed in 1585. Around eight hundred roundshot and two lasts of gunpowder had been ordered for the castle early in 1588. See: Jude James, Hurst Castle: An Illustrated History (Lymington, 2003), p.21.
46 St Helen’s Roads had its own dangers: submerged shoals off the island’s Horsestone Point, and a prominent rock, later nicknamed ‘Ben Ben’, off a plateau of rocks extending six hundred yards (548.64 m) south of Nettlestone Point, between present-day Ryde and Bembridge on the Isle of Wight. There are thirteen wrecks recorded in the area.
47 Barratt, Armada 1588, p.81.
48 Medina Sidonia asked for smaller calibre roundshot – 4, 5 and 10 lbs (1.81, 2.27 and 4.54 kg) in weight ‘in as large a quantity as possible’.
49 Medina Sidonia to Parma; ‘Royal galleon, off the Isle of Wight’, 4 August 1588. CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.360.
50 A large galleon.
51 Laughton, op. cit., vol. 1, p.13.
52 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, pp.398–9.
53 Ibid., p.443.
54 Parker, op. cit., p.32; Martin & Parker, op. cit., p.160.
55 Fernandez-Armesto, op. cit., p.160; Laughton, op.cit., vol. 2, p.40. The wounded received a collective bonus of £80.
56 Eighteen miles (28.97 km) but Carey’s landsman’s estimate of the distance is too great: the fighting was much closer to land.
57 TNA, SP 12/213/40, f.97. In France, the Venetian ambassador Giovanni Mocenigo later reported that Spanish reports of the battle off the Isle of Wight claimed they had ‘got the best of it, sinking fifteen ships, among them the flagship. The rest fled towards Dover . . . where the body of the English fleet is lying. They said that three ships which had lost their masts were captured and one large ship took fire. A Breton, who was taken by Drake . . . has come home. He declares that a galleass attacked the flagship and with the first broadside cut down her masts and at the second sank her and that Drake escaped in a boat under cover of the thick smoke.’ CSP Venice, vol. 8, p.373.
58 BL Cotton MS Otho, E, ix, f.214r.
59 BL Add. MS 33,740, ff.2–3. Four hundred had already been supplied to the fleet from Hampshire. The Earl of Sussex wrote to Walsingham the same day reporting receipt of a letter from Howard requesting powder and shot ‘saying he has a very great want [of it] indeed’ but pointing out that if he sent the five lasts of gunpowder he had received from the Tower of London, ‘there would b
e none left’. See Laughton, op. cit., vol. 1, p.323.
60 Laughton, op. cit., vol. 1, p.331.
61 CSP Foreign Elizabeth, vol. 22, p.85.
62 A Lancashire gentleman who was also imprisoned for his adherence to the Catholic faith.
63 Hammond was ‘an old aged woman. . . a laundress in the Tower’.
64 BL Add. MS 48,029, f.102.
65 Ibid., f.81.
66 Norfolk, Lives of Philip Howard. . . and Anne Dacres his wife, pp.87–9.
67 Archer, Progress, Pageants and Entertainments of Queen Elizabeth, pp.196–7. Montague had spoken against the Act of Supremacy of 1559, arguing that a Catholic settlement was imperative because of the dangers from abroad that would result from Protestantism becoming England’s national religion. He warned: ‘I fear my prince’s sure estate and the ruin of my native country. May I then, being her true subject, see such peril grow to her highness and agree to it?’ See Brennan, op. cit., p.5.
68 AGS Estado 693/30.
69 Medina Sidonia to Parma; ‘from the Armada before Calais’. 6 August 1588. CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, pp.362–3.
70 BL Sloane MS. 262/62.
71 AGS 594/113. Letters written from the Armada on 25 July about the departure from Corunna did not arrive in Flanders until 2 August. Martin & Parker, op. cit., p.182.
72 Oria et al., La armada Invencible, p.42. See also Martin & Parker, op. cit. p.168.
73 Martin & Parker, op. cit., pp.171–2.
74 Parma to Philip II; Bruges, 8 August 1588. CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.366.
75 Medina Sidonia to Parma; ‘Galleon San Martin’, 7 August 1588. CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, pp.364–5.
76 AGS 594/113.
77 Laughton, op. cit. vol. 2, p.9. Wynter may have been suffering from wishful thinking; none of the Spanish ships was burnt.
78 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, pp.443–4. The fireship attack became one of the cheapest tactical achievements of the Tudor period. Replacement value of the eight burnt vessels was later estimated at £5,111 10s.
79 Many believed that Asculi was an illegitimate son of Philip II.
80 Martin & Parker, op. cit., p.175–6.
81 Ibid., p.176.
82 Laughton, op. cit., vol. 1, pp.347–9.
83 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, pp.377 and 383. The English initially wanted to wait for high tide to float out the San Lorenzo but then tried three times to burn her.
CHAPTER 8: Fleeing for Home
1 TNA, SP 12/213/64.
2 AGS Estado 594/182. Asculi eventually landed in Dunkirk on 9 August, begging leave to return to the Armada, which Parma refused. ‘I am very unhappy to be out of whatever events may happen to the Armada but as God has ordained otherwise, it cannot be helped and my only wish is to serve your majesty and do my duty in a manner worthy of my birth,’ he told Philip later.
3 Corbett, Drake and the Tudor Navy’, vol. 2, pp.258–9. A roundshot destroyed the bed ‘of a certain gentleman lying weary thereupon’ in the stern of Revenge.
4 Laughton, Defeat of the Spanish Navy, vol. 2, pp.102–3.
5 Coarse hemp called oakum.
6 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.444.
7 Probably Seymour’s Rainbow.
8 A small shield.
9 Barratt, Armada 1588, p.114.
10 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, pp.444–5.
11 Ibid., p.401.
12 Barratt, op. cit., p.120.
13 An old measurement of length, approximating to eighteen inches. Thus eight cubits would be around twelve feet (3.66 m) of water in the lower decks of the Spanish ships.
14 Barratt, op. cit., pp.112–13. There were reports that Medina Sidonia had been wounded with a gash on one leg during the Battle of Gravelines. The captain general had given his boat-cloak to Gongora. Another of his cloaks covered a wounded ship’s boy in his cabin below. See Mattingly, Defeat of the Spanish Armada, p.308.
15 Duro, La armada Invencible, vol. 2, p.405.
16 Laughton, op. cit., vol. 2, p.10.
17 Ibid., p.58; Martin & Parker, The Spanish Armada, p.179; Duro, op. cit., vol. 2, pp.271 and 400.
18 Laughton, op. cit., vol.2, pp.10–11.
19 Duro, op. cit., vol. 2, p.407.
20 TNA, SP 12/213/64, f.148.
21 TNA, SP 12/213/65, f.150.
22 Laughton, op. cit., vol. 2, p.40.
23 TNA, SP 12/213/71, f.165.
24 Don Pedro de Mendoza’s Biscayan vice-flagship El Gran Grin was also badly damaged by the recoil of her guns.
25 Sir William Borlas, governor of Flushing, to Walsingham, 13 August 1588. CSP Foreign Elizabeth, vol. 22, p.104. Another report from a Spanish spy in London suggested that Browne and his companion in arms were hanged. Philip noted on the margin of this despatch: ‘You will know very well who this is.’ CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.372. A third report, by Richard Esherton, provost of the Merchant Adventurers’ Company in Flushing, said prisoners had told him the two Englishmen had been killed in the fleet action off Gravelines. CSP Foreign Elizabeth, vol. 22, p.113.
26 CSP Foreign Elizabeth, vol. 22, p.111. There is no ‘Tostal’ or any name resembling it, among the mayors or sheriffs of London in the sixteenth century up to 1588. The fate of these two Englishmen is unknown.
27 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.445.
28 Duro, op. cit., vol. 2, p.407; Oria et al., La armada Invencible, p.325. See also: Martin & Parker, op. cit., p.180.
29 Barratt, op. cit., p.129.
30 Fernandez-Armesto, The Spanish Armada: The Experience of War, p.202.
31 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.403.
32 Laughton, op. cit., vol. 2, p.65.
33 BL Add. MS 33,740, f.6. The resolution carried the ‘protestation that if our wants of victuals and munitions were supplied, we would pursue them to the furthest they dared [to] have gone’.
34 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.403.
35 BL Add. MS 32,092, f.102.
36 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.384. Valdés was held at the home of Sir Francis Drake’s kinsman, Richard Drake, at Esher, Surrey, southwest of London, together with the infantry captains Don Alonso de Çayas and Don Vasco de Mendoça y de Silva. Here, they received ‘the best usage and entertainment that may be’. About forty of ‘the better sort’ of prisoner were lodged in merchants’ houses in London. Presumably they gave their parole – promising not to attempt escape. See: Laughton, op. cit., vol. 2, p.136.
37 Laughton, op. cit., vol. 2, pp.24–9.
38 Gerson, ‘English Recusants and the Spanish Armada’, p.594.
39 CSP Domestic Elizabeth, 1581–90, p.527. Sixty-year-old Shrewsbury had impeccable credentials as a supporter of Elizabeth; he had served as keeper of Mary Queen of Scots 1569–83 and, as lord high steward, had presided over the trial of Thomas Howard, Fourth Duke of Norfolk in 1571.
40 CSP Domestic Elizabeth, 1581–90, p.526.
41 Laughton, op. cit., vol. 2, p.93. The information came from ‘Mr Nevinson’, Scott’s scoutmaster, who may have misunderstood Drake.
42 Laughton, op. cit., vol. 2, p.54.
43 CSP Domestic Elizabeth, 1581–90, p.527.
44 Duro, op. cit., vol. 2, pp.407–8.
45 Medina Sidonia was catching up on his sleep and left orders not to be disturbed. He took no part in the court martials and Cuéllar reported he ‘kept [to] his cabin and was very unhappy and did not want anyone to speak to him’.
46 Duro, op. cit., vol. 2, p.337.
47 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.447.
48 Laughton, op. cit., vol. 2, p.54.
49 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.404.
50 Ibid., p.447.
51 Olivares to Philip II; Rome, 8 and 19 August 1588. Ibid., pp.368 and 385.
52 Gritti to the Doge and Senate of Venice; Rome, 20 August 1588. CSP Venice, vol. 8, p.379. Sixtus had a pet plan to rebuild the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in Rome. ‘It would be possible to buy it from the Turks but he did not want to prove to the
world that he had abandoned all hope of recovering it by [force of] arms,’ Gritti reported. The Pope was piqued that the Spanish army ‘would be sufficient for this purpose’ but was now engaged in a war with England, rather than helping achieve his ambitions in the Holy Land.
53 Philip to Bernardino de Mendoza and Medina Sidonia; El Escorial Palace, San Lorenzo, CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, pp.384–5.
54 Lippomano to the Doge and Senate of Venice; Madrid, 20 August 1588. CSP Venice, vol. 8, p.378.
55 Mendoza to Philip II; Paris, 20 August 1588. CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.586. Stafford to Walsingham; Paris, 19 August 1588. CSP Foreign Elizabeth, vol. 22, p.115.
56 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, pp.410–11.
57 Mattingly, op. cit., pp.320–1.
58 The Queen’s usher was charged with preparing for her reception at any house where she was to stay.
59 CSP Domestic Elizabeth, 1581–90, p.525.
60 Ibid., p.529.
61 The Queenes most excellent Maiestie, being minded in this daungerous time to intertain a certain number of captaines and souldiers for the garding of her royall person . . . by this proclamation straightly to charge and command that all and every person and persons . . . do observe and keep such rates and prices for all kinds of victuals, horsemeate, lodging and other necessaries . . . Proclamation signed at St James’, 17 August 1588.
62 Leicester means his own quarters at West Tilbury.
63 Christy, ‘Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Tilbury’, p.47.
64 Ibid., p.52.
65 John Stow, A Summarie of the Chronicles of England . . . unto 1590 (London, 1590), p.751. This was the home of Mr Edward Rich, a justice of the peace for Essex.
66 Thomas Deloney, The Queenes Visiting of the Campe at Tilburie . . . f.3.
67 Karen Hearne, ‘Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada’, p.131.
68 BL Harleian MS 6,798, f.87. A late sixteenth-century copy, reprinted in Marcus et al., Elizabeth I: Collected Works, pp.325–6.
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