word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you. In the mean time my lieutenant-general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble or worthy subject, not doubting but by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory, over those enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people." While she was at dinner that day in the general's tent, there came a post with tidings that the prince of Parma and all his forces had embarked for England, and that his arrival with all possible speed was to be looked for. The news was immediately published through the camp*; and assuredly, if the enemy had set foot upon our shores, they would have sped no better than they had done at sea, such was the spirit of the nation. This intelligence was soon disproved; but after it was certain that by God's mercy the danger had been averted, some time elapsed before the fate of the Armada was ascertained. Statements of its success were confidently circulated upon the Continent, and credited according to the wishes of the hearer. It was affirmed that great part of the English fleet had been taken, great part sunk, and the poor remainder driven into the Thames "all rent and torn;" that they were utterly discomfited, and that Drake was made prisoner.† Poems were composed in honour of the victory, as poems had been composed to predict it. It was believed at Rome that Elizabeth was taken, and England conquered; and cardinal Allen is said to have made a feast in honour of the event, and invited to it the Scotch, Irish, and English who were in that city! But in vain, meantime, was the ship looked for in the Spanish ports that should bring good tidings home! The unhappy fleet, after the English had given over the pursuit, threw their *Turner, 682. note. +"And that there was found in his ship a piece of twenty-five spans, of one quintal of munition, made on purpose, of one only shot, to sink the admiral of Spain; but it pleased God, though she was hurt therewith, yet she was repaired again, and overcame the English fleet."-Strype's App. b. ii. no. 55. FATE OF THE ARMADA. 367 mules and horses overboard lest their water should fail. They knew that they had no relief to expect in Scotland, and that Norway could not supply their wants; so taking some captured fishermen for pilots, they sailed between the Orkney and the Feroe islands; and when they had reached the latitude of sixty-two, and were some 200 miles from any land, the duke ordered them each to take the best course they could for Spain. He, himself, with some five and twenty of the ships that were best provided, steered a straight course, and arrived in safety. The others, about forty in number, made for Cape Clear, hoping to water there; but a storm from the south-west overtook and wrecked many of them upon the Irish coast. Their treatment there is the only circumstance in the whole history of this enterprise, which is disgraceful to an English name. For the lord deputy, sir William Fitzwilliam, fearing they should join the rebels, and seeing that Bingham, the governor of Connaught, refused to obey his merciless orders concerning them, sent his deputy marshal, "who drove them out of their hiding places, and beheaded about 200 of them." The queen condemned this cruelty from her heart, though no such punishment as he deserved was inflicted upon Fitzwilliam. Terrified at this, the other Spaniards," sick and starved as they were, committed themselves to the sea in their shattered vessels, and very many of them were swallowed up by the waves.' But with some of the officers who escaped this butchery, Tyrone concerted his rebellion.† It is supposed that more than thirty of their ships perished off the coast of Ireland, with the greater part of their crews. Two vessels were cast away on the coast of Norway. Some few, having a westerly wind, got again into the English seas; of these, two were taken by the cruisers off Rochelle, and one (a great galleass) put into Havre. About 700 men who were cast . ashore in Scotland were there humanely treated; and, with Elizabeth's consent, were, at the prince of Parma's † Fiennes Moryson, 8. Carte's Ormond, i. 58. * Camden, 417. request, sent over to the Netherlands. Relics of this great destruction are still sometimes brought to light. It is not long since the remains of an anchor, which appeared to have belonged to the Armada, was picked up in a fisherman's trawl off Dover; and in 1832 one of their cannon * was found on the coast of Mayo. Of the whole Armada, only fifty-three vessels returned to Spain; eighty-one were lost; and of 30,000 soldiers who were embarked, nearly 14,000 were missing, the prisoners being about 2000. Philip's behaviour when the whole of this great calamity was known should always be recorded to his honour. He received it as a dispensation of Providence ; and gave, and commanded to be given, throughout Spain, thanks to God and the saints that it was no greater. Sept. England having thus been "delivered by the hand of 8. the Omnipotent, and the boar put back that sought to lay her vineyard waste," Elizabeth ordered a solemn thanksgiving to be celebrated at St. Paul's, where eleven of the Spanish ensigns were hung upon the lower battlements, 66 as palms of praise," says Speed, " for England's deliverance, a show, no doubt, more acceptable to God than when their spread colours did set out the pride of their ships, threatening the blood of so many innocent and faithful Christians." On the following day, which was Southwark fair, the same flags were displayed upon London bridge. They were finally suspended in St. Paul's. Less perishable trophies were deposited in the Tower, where many of the arms taken in the captured ships are still preserved; and not a few instruments of torture, wickedly devised, but more probably intended for the punishment of offences on board, than for the use of their inquisitors, who, if the conquest had been effected, might have found racks in England, and would have had fire and faggot at command. Another great thanksgiving day was celebrated on the anniversary of the queen's accession, which was long and most fitly observed as a holiday in these kingdoms: one of greater *It is now in lord Sligo's possession. solemnity, two days after, throughout the realm; and, on the Sunday following, the queen repaired as in public, but Christian, triumph, to St. Paul's. Her privy council, her nobility, the French ambassador, the judges, and the heralds, attended her. The streets were hung with blue cloth," the several companies, in their liveries, being drawn up on both sides the way, with their banners in becoming and gallant order." Her chariot* was made in the form of a throne with four pillars, and drawn by four white horses; alighting from it at the west door of St. Paul's, she there knelt, and, with great devotion, audibly praised God, acknowledging him her only defender, who had thus delivered the land from the rage of the enemy. Pierse, bishop of Salisbury, who was her lord almoner, preached a sermon, "wherein none other argument was handled, but only of praise and glory to be rendered unto God. And, when he had concluded, the queen herself (like unto another Joshua, David, and Josias), with most princely and Christian speeches, exhorted the people to the due performance of those religious services of thankfulness unto God." It was manifest, indeed, that over-ruling Providence had preserved them. Well and properly has it been observed by the ablest of our naval biographers, that, great as were the exploits of the English fleet, they were as nothing compared with what the elements wrought for England; and that this our ancestors proclaimed with one accord, "breathing the pure spirit of that blessed Reformation which had been so recently achieved for them." The people of England have never, since the Norman conquest, been chastised by the hand of a foreign enemy: when "Coaches," says Camden, "were not then so much in use among princes as now they are amongst private men." + Memoirs of Celebrated Naval Commanders, illustrated by engravings from original pictures in the Naval Gallery of Greenwich Hospital, by Edward Hawke Locker, Esq. I cannot refer to this work without regretting that Mr. Locker should have been compelled by ill health to limit to a single volume a work for which he was in every respect so eminently qualified. Speed, 862. Camden, 418. Strype, 27. their own folly and their own sins have brought upon them God's judgments, the instructive punishment has been administered by their own hands. 66 Lord Effingham was rewarded with a pension. The queen many times commended him and the captains of her ships, as men born for the preservation of their country. A greater service it has never fallen to the lot of any Englishman to perform. "True it is," says Fuller, I he was no deep seaman (not to be expected from one of his extraction); but he had skill enough to know those who had more skill than himself, and to follow their instructions, and would not starve the queen's service by feeding his own sturdy wilfulness, but was ruled by the experienced in sea matters; the queen having a navy of oak, and an admiral of osier." He did good service afterwards at Cadiz, being joint commander with the earl of Essex in that famous expedition, and, for that service, was advanced to the title of earl of Nottingham, as descended from the Mowbrays, some of whom had been earls of that county. On the apprehension of another invasion, at a time when it was known that Essex entertained rash and dangerous designs, lord Nottingham was intrusted with the command of both fleet and army, “with the high and very unusual title of lord lieutenant-general of all England; an office scarcely known to former, never owned of succeeding times, and which he held with almost regal authority for the space of six weeks, being sometimes with the fleet in the Downs, and sometimes on shore Iwith the forces."* It was to him, who, the queen said, was "born to serve and save his country," that Essex, after his insane insurrection, yielded himself a prisoner; and to him that the queen, upon her death, made that wise and constitutional declaration concerning her successor," My throne has been held by princes in the way of succession, and ought not to go to any but my next and immediate heir.' James continued him in his post of lord admiral, * Campbell, i. 377. |