CHAP. XLII. 1588. da arrives Channel. intelligence the Duke of Medina conceived the great facility of attacking and destroying the English ships in harbour; and he was tempted by the prospect of so decisive an advantage to break his orders, and make sail directly for Plymouth; a resolution which proved the safety of England. The Lizard was the first land made 19th July. by the Armada, about sunset; and as the Spaniards The Armatook it for the Ram-head, near Plymouth, they bore out in the to sea with an intention of returning next day and attacking the English navy. They were descried by Fleming, a Scottish pirate, who was roving in those seas, and who immediately set sail to inform the English admiral of their approach"; another fortunate event, which contributed extremely to the safety of the fleet. Effingham had just time to get out of port, when he saw the Spanish Armada coming full sail towards him, disposed in the form of a crescent, and stretching the distance of seven miles from the extremity of one division to that of the other. The writers of that age raise their style by a pompous description of this spectacle; the most magnificent that had ever appeared upon the ocean, infusing equal terror and admiration into the minds of all beholders. The lofty masts, the swelling sails, and the towering prows of the Spanish galleons, seem impossible to be justly painted but by assuming the colours of poetry; and an eloquent historian of Italy, in imitation of Camden, has asserted that the Armada, though the ships bore every sail, yet advanced with a slow motion; as if the ocean groaned with supporting, and the winds were tired with impelling so enormous a weight. The truth however is, that the largest of the Spanish vessels would scarcely pass for third-rates in the present navy of England; yet were they so ill-framed, or so ill-governed, that they were quite unwieldy, and could not sail upon a wind, nor tack on occasion, nor be managed in stormy weather by the seamen. Neither the mechanics of shipbuilding nor the experience of mariners had attained so great perfection as could serve for the security and government of such bulky vessels; and the English, who had already w Monson, p. 158. x Bentivoglio, part ii. lib. 4. CHAP. had experience how unserviceable they commonly were, beheld without dismay their tremendous appearance. XLII. 1588. Effingham gave orders not to come to close fight with the Spaniards, where the size of the ships, he suspected, and the numbers of the soldiers, would be a disadvantage to the English; but to cannonade them at a distance, and to wait the opportunity which winds, currents, or various accidents, must afford him of intercepting some scattered vessels of the enemy. Nor was it long before the event answered expectation. A great ship of Biscay, on board of which was a considerable part of the Spanish money, took fire by accident; and while all hands were employed in extinguishing the flames, she fell behind the rest of the Armada. The great galleon of Andalusia was detained by the springing of her mast; and both these vessels were taken, after some resistance, by Sir Francis Drake. As the Armada advanced up the channel, the English hung upon its rear, and still infested it with skirmishes. Each trial abated the confidence of the Spaniards, and added courage to the English; and the latter soon found, that even in close fight the size of the Spanish ships was no advantage to them. Their bulk exposed them the more to the fire of the enemy; while their cannon, placed too high, shot over the heads of the English. The alarm having now reached the coast of England, the nobility and gentry hastened out with their vessels from every harbour, and reinforced the admiral. The Earls of Oxford, Northumberland, and Cumberland, Sir Thomas Cecil, Sir Robert Cecil, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Thomas Vavasor, Sir Thomas Gerrard, Sir Charles Blount, with many others, distinguished themselves by this generous and disinterested service of their country. The English fleet, after the conjunction of those ships, amounted to a hundred and forty sail. The Armada had now reached Calais, and cast anchor before that place, in expectation that the Duke of Parma, who had gotten intelligence of their approach, would put to sea, and join his forces to them. The English admiral practised here a successful stratagem upon the Spaniards. He took eight of his smaller ships, and filling them with combustible materials, sent them one after another into the midst of the enemy. The Spaniards fancied that XLII. 1588. they were fireships of the same contrivance with a famous CHAP. vessel which had lately done so much execution in the Schelde, near Antwerp; and they immediately cut their cables, and took to flight with the greatest disorder and precipitation. The English fell upon them next morning while in confusion; and besides doing great damage to other ships, they took or destroyed about twelve of the enemy. By this time it was become apparent, that the intention for which these preparations were made by the Spaniards was entirely frustrated. The vessels provided by the Duke of Parma were made for transporting soldiers, not for fighting; and that general, when urged to leave the harbour, positively refused to expose his flourishing army to such apparent hazard; while the English not only were able to keep the sea, but seemed even to triumph over their enemy. The Spanish admiral found, in many rencounters, that while he lost so considerable a part of his own navy, he had destroyed only one small vessel of the English; and he foresaw, that, by continuing so unequal a combat, he must draw inevitable destruction on all the remainder. He prepared therefore to return homewards; but as the wind was contrary to his passage through the channel, he resolved to sail northwards, and, making the tour of the island, reached the Spanish harbours by the ocean. The English fleet followed him during some time; and had not their ammunition fallen short, by the negligence of the officers in supplying them, they had obliged the whole Armada to surrender at discretion. The Duke of Medina had once taken that resolution, but was diverted from it by the advice of his confessor. This conclusion of the enterprise would have been more glorious to the English; but the event proved almost equally fatal to the Spaniards. A violent tempest over- Defeated. took the Armada after it passed the Orkneys: the ships had already lost their anchors, and were obliged to keep to sea: the mariners, unaccustomed to such hardships, and not able to govern such unwieldy vessels, yielded to the fury of the storm, and allowed their ships to drive either on the western isles of Scotland, or on the coast of Ireland, where they were miserably wrecked. Not a half of the navy returned to Spain; and the seamen as 1588. CHAP. well as soldiers who remained were so overcome with XLII. hardships and fatigue, and so dispirited by their discomfiture, that they filled all Spain with accounts of the desperate valour of the English, and of the tempestuous violence of that ocean which surrounds them. 1589. 4th Feb. ment. Such was the miserable and dishonourable conclusion of an enterprise which had been preparing for three years, which had exhausted the revenue and force of Spain, and which had long filled all Europe with anxiety or expectation. Philip, who was a slave to his ambition, but had an entire command over his countenance, no sooner heard of the mortifying event which blasted all his hopes, than he fell on his knees, and rendering thanks for the gracious dispensation of Providence, expressed his joy that the calamity was not greater. The Spanish priests, who had so often blessed this holy crusade, and foretold its infallible success, were somewhat at a loss to account for the victory gained over the catholic monarch by excommunicated heretics and an execrable usurper: but they at last discovered, that all the calamities of the Spaniards had proceeded from their allowing the infidel Moors to live among them". Soon after the defeat and dispersion of the Spanish A Parlia- Armada, the queen summoned a new Parliament; and received from them a supply of two subsidies and four fifteenths, payable in four years. This is the first instance that subsidies were doubled in one supply; and so unusual a concession was probably obtained from the joy of the present success, and from the general sense of the queen's necessities. Some members objected to this heavy charge, on account of the great burden of loans which had lately been imposed upon the nation". Elizabeth foresaw, that this House of Commons, like all the foregoing, would be governed by the puritans ; and therefore, to obviate their enterprises, she renewed at the beginning of the session her usual injunction, that the Parliament should not on any account presume to treat of matters ecclesiastical. Notwithstanding this strict inhibition, the zeal of one Damport moved him to present a bill to the Commons for remedying spiritual grievances, y See note [L], at the end of the volume. z See note [M], at the end of the volume. XLII. 1589. and for restraining the tyranny of the ecclesiastical com- CHAP. mission, which were certainly great: but when Mr. Secretary Woley reminded the House of her majesty's commands, no one durst second the motion; the bill was not so much as read; and the Speaker returned it to Damport without taking the least notice of it". Some members of the House, notwithstanding the general submission, were even committed to custody on account of this attempt". The imperious conduct of Elizabeth appeared still more clearly in another parliamentary transaction. The right of purveyance was an ancient prerogative, by which the officers of the crown could at pleasure take provisions for the household from all the neighbouring counties, and could make use of the carts and carriages of the farmers; and the price of these commodities and services was fixed and stated. The payment of the money was often distant and uncertain; and the rates, being fixed before the discovery of the West Indies, were much inferior to the present market price; so that purveyance, besides the slavery of it, was always regarded as a great burden, and, being arbitrary and casual, was liable to great abuses. We may fairly presume, that the hungry courtiers of Elizabeth, supported by her unlimited power, would be sure to render this prerogative very oppressive to the people; and the Commons had, last session, found it necessary to pass a bill for regulating these exactions: but the bill was lost in the House of Peers. The continuance of the abuses begat a new attempt for redress; and the same bill was now revived, and again sent up to the House of Peers, together with a bill for some new regulations in the court of exchequer. Soon after, the Commons received a message from the Upper House, desiring them to appoint a committee for a conference. At this conference, the Peers informed them, that the queen, by a message delivered by Lord Burleigh, had expressed her displeasure, that the Commons should presume to touch on her prerogative. If there were any abuses, she said, either in imposing purveyance, or in the practice of the court of exchequer, her majesty was both able a D'Ewes, p. 438. b Strype's Life of Whitgift, p. 280. Neal, vol. i. p. 500. |