CHAPTER V. ANNUS MIRABILIS. MARTIAL PREPARATIONS IN ENGLAND. THE SPANISH ARMADA. ITS PLAN OF OPERATIONS. AUXILIARY FORCES EXPECTED FROM FRANCE, THE NETHERLANDS, AND HEAVEN. MOTIVES AND PURPOSES OF PHILIP OF SPAIN. ANXIETY ON THE CONTINENT. THE SPANISH FLEET ENTERS THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. THE FIRST SKIRMISH. THE NAVAL FORCE OF ENGLAND. THE LORD ADMIRAL EFFINGHAM GIVES CHASE AND FIGHT. THE SPANIARDS ANCHOR AT CALAIS. ARE DISPERSED BY FIRE-SHIPS, AND ATTACKED IN DETAIL. THE SPANIARDS HOLD A COUNCIL OF WAR, AND RESOLVE UPON A RETREAT THROUGH THE NORTHERN SEAS. THEIR SUFFERINGS AND DISASTERS. ONLY SIXTY SAIL SUCCEED IN REACHING SPAIN. THE MOURNING OF THE PEOPLE. THE ENGLISH CAMP AT TILBURY. THE QUEEN'S SPEECH THERE. THE LOYALTY OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. GOD THE VICTOR. THANKSGIVING OF THE ENGLISH. THE LAST DAYS OF THE EARL OF LEICESTER. HIS PIOUS EPISTLES. 1588. Ir had long been predicted by astrologers, in various parts of the world, that the year of our Lord 1588 would be a year of remarkable and momentous events. By a Prussian seer it had been more particularly announced, more than a hundred years before, that a terrible fear would then pervade the nations, and be immediately followed, either by the destruction of the world, or by some great event which would change the forms of government, and bring great distress upon the people. "Whence the astrologers fetched their intelligence hereof, whether from heaven or hell, from other stars, or from Lucifer alone, is uncertain. This is most sure, 1 Stow, 743, 749. Camden, 402. Birch, I. 51, 52; Faunt to Bacon. 1 that this prediction, though hitting the mark, missed the meaning." So far as the apprehensions of men were concerned, the prophecies wrought their own fulfilment; for the Christian world, universally awed by the pretensions and auguries of occult science, "by reason of the aforesaid predictions, had stood at gaze for divers years past, vehemently expecting more strange and terrible alterations, both in imperial and regal estates, than ever happened since the world began." 2 God wrought the rest. In the year specified he crippled the right arm of Papacy. He paralyzed the secular power upon whose devotion and strength Rome could most depend; and since she has found no champion to extend by force her terrific despotism. Thus "the Governor among the nations" opened a highway for civil and social progress which has been trodden by increasing multitudes to the present hour. Early in the year 1588, England presented an unusual appearance. Martial preparations were going on, to a greater or less extent, in every county. In almost every hamlet the forge of the armorer was ringing with the sound of the anvil, and his shop was glittering with lances, petronels, calivers, muskets, corslets, bills, and halberds. Before the month of June had closed, along the coast from Land's-End to Dover, twenty-one thousand two hundred and seventy-two men were equipped for war, in readiness to be drawn quickly together and placed "under leaders who had orders to join one another as occasion should require." In the month of July, 1 thirty-four thousand and four hundred foot-soldiers and nineteen hundred and fourteen cavalry were detailed from the several counties, under command of Lord Hunsdon. These were also furnished with arms, and received orders, on the twenty-third day of the month, to attend upon her Majesty's person at St. James's; ten thousand of them (Londoners) to appear on that day; the others to do the same on different days, specified to each division, from the sixth to the tenth days of August. There were also enrolled a distinct corp of twenty-four hundred and eighteen cavalry and twenty-seven thousand foot, "to be drawn together to make an army . . . . . in June." 2 The command of these was committed to the Earl of Leicester. From motives of policy and economy, only fifteen thousand foot-soldiers, with their proportion of cavalry, were collected and marched to Tilbury, at the mouth of the Thames, where they took position in an intrenched camp. The detachment 3 1 Murdin, 612, 613. Stow, 744. Wright, II. 375. Camden, 405. Strype's Annals, VI. 13, 14. Dr. Lingard says (VIII. 291), "that this army existed nowhere but on paper." But her Majesty, in the latter part of June or early in July, ordered its enrolment and arming. (Strype's Annals, VI. 14.) Are we to understand Dr. Lingard as affirming that the queen's orders were not obeyed? If so, we cannot credit him. The whole realm, and especially her nobility and officers, showed the greatest alacrity upon this occasion; ready even to exceed the royal requisitions. Although this special army for 4 attendance upon her Majesty's per- Camden says (p. 405), “a thousand horse and twenty-two thousand foot." 3 Stow, 744, 749. moved thither with the greatest enthusiasm, was led by experienced captains, and comprised many old soldiers.1 "3 All these military operations had been carried on by orders of the queen to her lieutenants of the counties, issued from time to time; which “directions were so well performed that she could not but receive great contentment thereby." But on the eighteenth day of June she issued to them new or ders "for a larger proportion of furniture both for horsemen and footmen.” 2 Soon after, she also called upon her nobility "with all possible speed to furnish armor and weapons meet for their calling, and for their servants and able tenants that were not already enrolled in general musters.” 3 In the month of May, the Archbishop of Canterbury, agreeable to orders from the Council, had called upon the clergy to contribute to the general armament; directing that "such ecclesiastics as had means should, as each bishop should think fit to allot to every one, furnish lances, light-horses, petronels on horseback, muskets, calivers, pikes, halberds, bills, or bows and arrows." 4 Such had been the measures taken by the Court. Their result was, that throughout the entire realm eighty-three thousand six hundred and ninety-one men had been enrolled and armed.5 1 Stow, 744. dence in the tables in Murdin, pp. 2 Strype's Annals, VI. 534, 535; 594-605, showing the number of Appendix, Book II. No. L. "men prepared for the defence of Nor were the forces thus raised raw recruits. A small proportion only had seen actual service; yet, "through the whole realm, of late years, directions had been given for the mustering, arming, and training of all persons "- the nobility excepted "able to bear armor," 1 and "to be in readiness under captains and leaders." In London, particularly, during the last three years, "the Gentlemen of the Artillery Garden" so called-men who had had military experience abroad-"once a week voluntarily exercised themselves in practising all usual points of war; and every man by turn bare orderly office, from the corporal to the captain. They also trained up others for the ready use of war; so as within two years there were almost three hundred very sufficient and faithful to train and teach common soldiers. Some of them this year had charge of men in the great camp" - at Tilbury. By these means, involuntary and voluntary, of the eighty-three thousand six hundred and ninety-one men furnished with four. This error, however, is indicated in the summary table on p. 608, where the number given is only four thousand five hundred and four. Again, in that summary table, the columns showing the men armed and the men trained are incorrectly cast. These are specimens of errors. I have, therefore, gone over all the local tables the tables which state the number of men armed and trained in each county with great care; making my own summary. I find as the result, that the total the number 80,875; that the total number of" trained men" was 46,847, whereas the summary table gives the number 44,727. I may myself have made some error in casting such an array of figures. But a perfect estimate from the local tables could not be relied upon absolutely; because we know not in how many instances typographical errors exist. Any result must be considered only an approximation to the truth. 1 The Council to the Nobility; Strype's Annals, VI. 13, 14, and Wright, II. 375. 2 Stow, 744. |