act of hostility; that of the bull amounted to nothing less than a declaration of war on the part of Spain. The queen, therefore, directed Dr. Valentine Dale, who was one of her commissioners, to speak with the prince in person, charge him in good sort with the things contained in this publication, and require from him a direct answer, whether he were not appointed general of the army which was then preparing in Spain, and, as there publicly stated, for the invasion of England? +

The prince made answer, that he knew nothing either of the book or bull; nor had he undertaken any thing in obedience to the pope, nor attempted any thing of himself but honourably, in the service of the king his master, whom, as his own sovereign, he must obey. And for the queen of England, he had so high an esteem for her, for her royal virtues, that, next his own king, he honoured her above all persons, and desired to do her service. With that desire, he had persuaded the king

souls, which consist in preaching, teaching, catechising, ministering the sacraments, and the like."— Apology of the English Seminaries, p. 71. In the same apology, alluding to a publication, very similar both in matter and spirit to that which he now fulminated in his capacity of cardinal, Allen says, "touching some of our late repairing to the city of Rome, wherewith we are charged, the principal of that voyage (meaning himself) doth protest, that he neither joined with rebel nor traitor, nor any one or other, against the queen or realm; or traitorously sought or practised any prince or potentate to hostility against the same: farther invocating upon his soul, that he never knew, saw, nor heard, during his abode in the court there of any such writings as are mentioned in the proclamation of July, containing certain articles of confederation of the pope, king of Spain, and other princes for the invasion of the realm; nor ever afterward gave counsel to publish any such thing, though he were at Rome at the day of the date, that some of those copies which afterwards he saw when they were common to all the world, do bear. Being also most assured that no other English catholic would or could be the author thereof, nor (as it may be thought), any other of those princes or their ministers, that are pretended to be of the foresaid league; being neither wisdom nor policy, if any such thing were intended (as we verily think there was not), much less if it were never meant, to publish any such libels to give the realm warning to provide for it; specially all the world knowing that the pinching of the poor catholics at home (a lamentable case) is their fence to repay for all adverse accidents abroad. And it may verily be thought (and so it is certain that some of the principal ministers of the forenamed princes have an swered, being reminded thereof), that the protestants, having exercised skill and audacity in such practises and counter-practises of which France, Flanders, Scotland, and other countries have had so lamentable experience,) did contrive them, to alter her majesty's accustomed benignity and mercy towards the catholics, into such rigour of justice as in the said edict is threatened." P. 15-16.

* Turner, 672.

† Bor, 320. Grimestone, 996. Camden, 409.

PARMA'S PREPARATIONS.

327

In

to enter upon this treaty, which would be more advantageous for the English than the Spaniards. "For if the Spaniards be overcome,” said he, "they will soon repair their loss; but if you are once vanquished, your kingdom is lost." Dale made answer, "Our queen is provided of strength sufficient to defend her kingdom: and you yourself, in your wisdom, may judge that a kingdom cannot easily be won by the fortune of one battle, seeing that in so many years of war the king of Spain has not yet been able to recover his ancient inheritance of the Netherlands.”—“ Be it so,” replied the prince : "these things are in the disposal of the Almighty." This consummate general practised a duplicity more conformable to his religion than his own better nature, when he denied all knowledge of a bull then circulating throughout the states which he governed, and a book which had been printed at Antwerp, with the knowledge and approbation of the authorities that he had himself established there. forwarding with the utmost activity the preparations for invasion during the negotiations, he did no more than circumstances fairly warranted, and his plain sense of duty required: in this point, neither party was duped into any loss of irretrievable time. Most happily for England, the provinces which the prince of Parma had reduced were not the maritime ones; Flanders alone excepted. He had to seek, therefore, for shipwrights and for seamen: the former were brought from Italy, which still retained its reputation in this branch: the latter from Hamburgh, Bremen, and Embden. He thought also to obtain both ships and sailors from Denmark. The Danish king had endeavoured to act as mediator for bringing about, if that were possible, an accommodation between Philip and the States: but his ambassador, proceeding in company with some of the prince's soldiers, had been made prisoner by the Dutch in a skirmish; and as they either disbelieved or disregarded his pretensions to the character which he

* Camden, 409.

assumed, his papers had been opened. This so incensed the king, that he immediately detained 700 vessels which were bringing grain from the Baltic; for even if former experience had taught the Dutch to provide against such a danger, in the present circumstances of their country means and leisure for such provision were alike wanting, and they must have been reduced to immediate distress for food, if they had not, as necessity compelled, brought into their ports the French and English vessels * coming from the same sea. Spain, therefore, had less difficulty in contracting with the Danes for ships, mariners, and “soldiers upon the seas;" but the English resident at Copenhagen having intelligence of this, represented to the governors of the king (for he was a minor), that this was contrary to the league between the two crowns, and nothing conformable to the sincere friendship which had subsisted between queen Elizabeth and the king their master. This remonstrance prevailed; and though the parties pleaded their privileges, severe order was taken that no subjects of Denmark or Norway, or other parts appertaining to the king's dominions, should either then or thereafter serve against the queen.t

But in what was to be effected by human exertions under his own superintendence, the prince was in no danger of being disappointed. Two and thirty war ships he made ready at Dunkirk, hired for the same purpose five foreign vessels in that harbour, and engaged five more from Hamburgh to rendezvous there. Seventy flat-bottomed boats were fitted out in the little river Watene, each to carry thirty horses, with bridges for embarking and landing them; and at Nieuport about 200 similar vessels, but of smaller size. Here, too, he collected store of fascines, and all other materials for throwing up intrenchments and constructing sconces.

* "Ita vitatum discrimen solâ pecuniæ a Danis expressæ jacturâ; quod ipsum tamen et quia rex missos ad se legatos audire dedignabatur, hæsit altius multorum animis judicantium minora regna majorum opibus obnoxia teneri."— Grotius, 105.

+ Strype, 25.

PARMA'S PREPARATIONS.

329

At Gravelines many thousand casks were got together, with cordage or chain-work to connect them, for forming bridges or blocking havens. Stakes for palisades

also were provided, horse furniture of every kind, and horses for draught" with ordinance and all other necessary provision for the war." With such neighbours as the Zeelanders and the English at Flushing, even Antwerp did not give him the command of the Scheldt; and he was fain, therefore, to deepen and widen some of those channels by which Flanders is intersected, that ships might be brought from Antwerp by way of Ghent to Bruges, and so to Sluys; or by the Yperlee, which had also been deepened, to the other Flemish ports. At Nieuport he had thirty companies of Italian troops, two of Walloon, and eight of Burgundian. At Dixmude, eighty of Netherlanders, sixty Spanish, sixty German, and seven of English deserters, under sir William Stanley the traitor: each company consisted of 100 men, and better troops were never brought into the field than those who served under the prince of Parma: 4000 horse were quartered at Courtray, 900 at Watene. "To this great enterprise and imaginary conquest divers princes and noblemen came from divers countries; out of Spain came the duke of Pestraña, who was said to be the son of Ruy Gomez de Silva, but was held to be the king's bastard; the marquis of Bourgou, one of the archduke Ferdinand's sons by Philippina Welserine; don Vespasian Gonzagua, of the house of Mantua, a great soldier, who had been viceroy in Spain; Giovanni de Medici, bastard of Florence; Amedeo, bastard of Savoy, with many such like, besides others of meaner quality." "'*

These preparations held the States in alarm, the more so because the prince endeavoured to make them apprehend that his intention was to attack Goes, or Walcheren, or Tholen; on all these points they prepared for defence, and some were for cutting dykes, and drowning one part of the country for the sake of preserving

* Grimestone, 999, 1000. Bor, 317.

the other. But the wiser opinion prevailed, not to incur this certain evil till its necessity became evident; and the Dutch statesmen inferred that no movement would be made here till the great Spanish Armada, news of which was now bruited abroad, should arrive in the narrow seas ; then they judged it would be joined by the prince of Parma's forces, whether the expedition was intended against them, or against England first; whichever were attacked, they knew that the subjugation of both was in view. For themselves, they stood in little fear of the Spanish fleet, from which the nature of their coast, in great measure, would protect them; but they were in much greater danger from the prince's flotilla, against which their shoals and difficult harbours could afford them no security. Straitened as they were for means, and with the disadvantage of an unsettled government, they exerted themselves manfully and wisely. All the vessels that they could muster were equipped; and after due consultation it was resolved that the larger vessels should be stationed between England and the coast of Flanders, outside the shoals, the smaller within the shoals, and the flotilla of smacks off Kleeyenburg, or between Rammekens and Flushing, according to circumstances. Their feelings toward England, notwithstanding the ill blood that had been stirred during Leicester's administration, was shown by a medal which they struck at this time. On the one side were the arms of England and of the United States, and two oxen ploughing; the motto Trahite æquo jugo-draw evenly; on the reverse two earthen pots floating upon the waves, the motto Frangimur si collidimur - if we strike we break.*

Meantime, though the negotiations at Ostend were still carried on in policy by the Spanish commissioners, there was on the part of the Spanish government a disdainful disregard of secresy as to its intentions, or rather a proud manifestation of them, which, if they had been successful, might have been called magnanimous. The great king had determined upon putting forth his strength, and

* Grimestone, 994. Bor, 318.