The Spanish Armada
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69 Leicester to the Earl of Shrewsbury; Tilbury Camp, 15 August 1588. LPL MS 3,198, f.284.
70 BL. Cotton MS Otho, E ix, f.180r reprinted in Ellis, Original Letters . . ., vol. 3, p.142. Was this a rumour deliberately spread on Elizabeth’s behalf to add more drama and poignancy to her speech?
71 BL Cotton MS Caligula D, i, f.420.
72 CSP Domestic Elizabeth, 1581–90, p.519.
73 Enclosed in a dispatch from Madrid, 29 September 1588. CSP Venice, vol. 8, p.395.
CHAPTER 9: Shipwrecked upon an Alien Shore
1 CSP Ireland, Elizabeth, August 1588–September 1592, p.68. Fenton (1539–1608), a zealous Protestant, had been arrested as a debtor the previous year on the orders of the then governor Sir John Perrot and ignominiously paraded in chains through the Dublin streets. Quickly released, he was knighted in 1589.
2 TNA, SP 63/137 no.1, ii, f.4. The orders fell into the hands of Sir Richard Bingham, governor of the Irish province of Connacht, at the end of September.
3 The wrecks of two possible Armada casualties between Bergen and Sognefjorden in Norway, are marked on a map of the area dated 1590.
4 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.448. The charts supplied to the Armada covered no further north than Scotland’s Moray Firth and the Beara Peninsula, north of Bantry Bay in the far south-west of Ireland. See: Martin & Parker, The Spanish Armada, p.212.
5 Lime had been mixed with the flour used to make the ship’s biscuit which was a staple of the Armada’s rations.
6 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, pp.393–4.
7 Until 1708, it was the capital of the Shetlands.
8 Martin & Parker, op. cit., p.212.
9 BL Cotton MS Caligula D. i, f.292. There had been four pilots on board the San Martin – one of them an Englishman – but three had died at sea. See: Mattingly, Defeat of the Spanish Armada, p.331.
10 Sir George Carey, governor of the Isle of Wight, reported in early September that a Southampton fishing barque which had arrived from the Shetland Islands had seen ‘a very great fleet of monstrous ships . . . [on] a course to run betwixt Orkney and Fair Isle’ on 18 August. Laughton, op. cit., vol. 2, pp.137–8.
11 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.448.
12 Divers from RAF Lossiemouth found a wreck in 1997, five fathoms (30 metres) down off Kinlochbervie, north-west Sutherland, with iron guns and four anchors. It was initially believed to be the remains of an Armada ship, but fragments of Italian majolica pottery, manufactured between 1570 and 1610, suggest that it was a merchantman which sank in the 1590s or even after 1600. See: D.H. Brown and C. Curnow, ‘A Ceramic Assemblage from the seabed near Kinlochbervie, Scotland’, International Jnl of Nautical Archaeology, vol. 33 (2004), p.29 and P. Robertson, ‘A Shipwreck near Kinlochbervie, Sutherland, Scotland’, ibid., p.14.
13 Martin & Parker, op. cit., p.213.
14 The wreck was discovered by divers in February 1971 and recovered artefacts are on display in the Tower Museum, Union Hall Place, Londonderry.
15 The bishop was executed by the English in 1612.
16 Probably Kelly’s captains, Richard and Henry Ovenden, foster-brothers of Hugh O’Neill, Third Earl of Tyrone.
17 AGS GM 262/147 appendix, document 34.
18 AGS Estado K-1567. appendix, document 23.
19 They were well treated by James VI who arranged for them to be clothed and given money. Eventually thirty-two Spanish were taken by two Scottish vessels to Bordeaux and repatriated.
20 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.508.
21 Rodríguez & Aladrén, ‘Irish Wrecks of the Great Armada . . .’ in Gallagher & Cruickshank, God’s Obvious Design, pp.146–7.
22 Mendoza, then Spanish ambassador in London, had arranged his escape. See: CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, pp.454–5.
23 This was most likely William Stacey. His brother-in-law, Captain Alonso de la Serna, a prisoner in London’s Bridewell gaol, died at the end of September, probably from typhus.
24 CSP Ireland Elizabeth, August 1588–September 1592, pp.26 and 28; Martin & Parker, op. cit., p.216.
25 Ibid., p.29.
26 Ibid., p.6.
27 Ibid., p.35; Martin & Parker, op. cit., p.216.
28 CSP Ireland Elizabeth, August 1588–September 1592, p.43.
29 Gallagher & Cruickshank, God’s Obvious Design, pp.238–9.
30 Evelyn Hardy, Survivors of the Armada, p.41 and Robert Gibbings, Lovely is the Lee (London, 1945), pp.22 et seq.
31 Falls, Elizabeth’s Irish Wars, p.166. A gallowglass was a Scottish professional soldier in the service of Irish clan chieftains. Douglas (Downfall of the Spanish Armada . . .) considers this story dubious as M’Cabb’s employer, William Burke, held seventy-two Spanish prisoners including a bishop, a friar and three noblemen.
32 Rodríguez & Aladrén, op. cit., p.145.
33 Clancy to Sir Richard Bingham; fields of Liscannor, 16 September 1588. CSP Ireland Elizabeth, August 1588–September 1592, pp.29–30.
34 Mutton Island (Oileán Caorach) is so named because its shape resembles that of a leg of mutton. Spanish Point is directly north-west of the island.
35 Martin & Parker, op. cit., pp.216–17.
36 Ibid., p.217.
37 Ibid., p.218; Rodríguez & Aladrén, op. cit., p.154. The wreck of the Santa María de la Rosa was discovered in 1968 and its remains showed that she had hit the rock amidships which tore out her keel when she dragged on her anchor.
38 Four hundred Spanish prisoners were executed at Galway prison.
39 Douglas, Downfall of the Spanish Armada in Ireland, p.118.
40 Bagwell, Ireland under the Tudors, vol. 3, p.179.
41 TNA, SP 63/139/25, f.83.
42 Martin & Parker, op. cit., p.222; Rodríguez & Aladrén, op. cit., pp.150–1.
43 CSP Ireland Elizabeth, August 1588 – September 1592, p.97.
44 The shipwreck is depicted on the reverse of banknotes issued by the First Trust Bank in Northern Ireland. The wreck was discovered by divers in June 1967 and six gold chains recovered – including one 8 feet (2.78 m) long – belonging to Spanish officers. There were also forty-five pieces of gold and jewellery, including a ring, inscribed in Spanish: ‘I have nothing more to give you.’ The Girona artefacts are now in the Ulster Museum.
45 CSP Ireland Elizabeth, August 1588–September 1592, p.68.
46 AGS GM 244.42 Appendix, document 26; AGS Estado 2219/64, Appendix document 29.
47 TNA, SP 63/139/25, f.83.
48 Martin & Parker, op. cit., p.219.
49 Bagwell, op. cit., vol. 3, p.176.
50 Gallagher & Cruickshank, God’s Obvious Design, pp. 238–9. The monastery was the Abbey of Staad, allegedly founded by St Molaise, two miles (3.22 km) west of Grange and one and a half miles (2.5 km) from Streedagh Strand. The west wall of the nave is still standing with a doorway, but coastal erosion has eaten away the edge of the low sea cliff to just 6.5 yards (6 m) from the ruined wall. Archaeological investigation in 2000 suggested an ecclesiastical presence at Staad to at least the latter part of the first millennium AD and perhaps earlier.
51 CSP Ireland Elizabeth, August 1588–September 1592, p.93.
52 Ibid., p.61.
53 Bagwell, op. cit., vol. 3, pp.183–4 and 188. In revenge, the Spanish beheaded four hundred Dutch prisoners.
54 CSP Ireland Elizabeth, August 1588–September 1592, p.47.
55 Rodríguez & Aladrén, op. cit., p.152.
56 The site of the wreck is at National Grid reference HZ 2117 7007.
57 A writer describing Fair Isle 150 years later claimed the baldness came from Scales – the genetic skin disease Ichtyosis vulgaris although it seems more likely to have been scalp psoriasis or alopecia areto. Monteith, Description of the Isles of Orkney . . ., p.53.
58 Monteith, op. cit., p.54.
59 Rodríguez & Aladrén, op. cit., p.155; Martin & Parker, op. cit., p.215.
60 AGS Estado K-1568, document 140.
61 CSP Ireland Elizabeth, August 1588–September 1592, p.108
. One gold wedge eventually was sent to Queen Elizabeth.
62 Martin & Parker, op. cit., p.224.
63 The site of the wreck is at National Grid reference NM 51 55.
64 Certain Advertisements out of Ireland, concerning the Losses and Distress happened to the Spanish Navy, upon the West Coasts of Ireland in their Voyage intended from the Northern Isles beyond Scotland toward Spain, printed at London by J. Vautrollier for Richard Field, 1588.
65 Hardwick Papers, vol. 1, pp.363–4.
66 CSP Ireland Elizabeth, August 1588–September 1592, p.38.
67 Quinn, ‘Spanish Armada Prisoners Escape from Ireland’, pp.117–18; Hatfield House CP 186/2; TNA, SP 63/137/17 and SP 63/149/30.
68 AGS GA 247 and 249.
69 Rodríguez & Aladrén, op. cit., pp.156–7.
70 CSP Ireland Elizabeth, August 1588–September 1592, p.38.
71 Rodríguez & Aladrén, op. cit., p.158.
72 CSP Ireland Elizabeth, August 1588–September 1592, p.38.
73 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.465.
74 The seventh crusade in 1250.
75 Martin & Parker, op. cit., pp.238–9.
76 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, pp.432–3.
77 CSP Venice, vol. 8, p.390.
CHAPTER 10: ‘God Be Praised for all His Works’
1 Harleian Miscellany, vol. 1, p.157. Marten was the sewer in Elizabeth’s privy chamber.
2 Waters, ‘The Elizabethan Navy and the Armada Campaign’, p.125.
3 Sigüenza, La fundación de Monasterio . . ., p.120.
4 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.467.
5 Martin & Parker, The Spanish Armada, p.242.
6 CSP Ireland Elizabeth August 1588–September 1592, p.127.
7 Martin & Parker, op. cit., pp.241–2.
8 Meyer, England and the Catholic Church . . ., p.340. Visible signs of mourning were forbidden in Spain that November. See Fugger Newsletters (1924), p.130.
9 CSP Venice, vol. 8, p.404.
10 CSP Domestic Elizabeth, Addenda, p.255.
11 CSP Venice, vol. 8, p.396.
12 Ibid., p.411.
13 Martin & Parker, op. cit., pp.240–1.
14 CSP Venice, vol. 8, p.405.
15 Ibid., p.399. However, some reports suggested that Philip refused requests by Medina Sidonia to come to court: ‘He was forbidden and ordered to go home as his majesty had no desire to speak to him.’ See: Fugger Newsletters (1926), p.182.
16 CSP Ireland Elizabeth, August 1588–September 1592, pp.126–7. The information came from Edward Walsh who had arrived in Waterford from Bilbao. ‘The ships’ companies were so weak that they were taken to their lodgings in wagons.’
17 Pierson, Commander of the Armada, pp.74–6.
18 Fugger Newsletters (1926), p.181.
19 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.466.
20 Ibid., p.474.
21 CSP Venice, vol. 8, p.406.
22 Ibid., p.412.
23 Ibid., p.407.
24 CSP Foreign Elizabeth, vol. 22, p.104.
25 Ibid., p.113.
26 Laughton, Defeat of the Spanish Armada, vol. 2, p.150. Wynter told Walsingham that Parma had ‘retired in some haste with certain troops of horse from Bruges up into Brabant . . . fearing some sudden revolt’. The sailors who had been recruited to serve in the invasion fleet ‘run away daily, many of whom he has caught . . . and imprisoned sharply’. Ibid., p.150.
27 CSP Venice, vol. 8, p.399.
28 Ibid., p.402.
29 Ibid., p.407.
30 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.474.
31 AGS Estado 1261/115; 6 September 1588.
32 Martin & Parker, op. cit., p.254.
33 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.502.
34 Parker, ‘The Dreadnought Revolution’, pp.278–9.
35 Martin & Parker, op. cit., pp.189–90 and 194.
36 Thompson, ‘Spanish Armada Guns’, p.358.
37 For an excellent detailed discussion on Spanish artillery shortcomings in both equipment and technique in the Armada ships, see Martin & Parker, op. cit., pp.184–205.
38 Laughton, Defeat of the Spanish Armada, vol. 2, pp.250–3.
39 TNA, E 351/225 and AO1/1686/23.
40 For full discussion on the artillery, see Thompson, ‘Spanish Armada Guns’, pp.355–71.
41 Fugger Newsletters, 10 November 1588 (1924), p.182.
42 CSP Domestic Elizabeth, 1581–90, p.557.
43 Martin & Parker, op. cit., p.251.
44 Meyer, op. cit., p.341.
45 CSP Venice, vol. 8, p.401. Mendoza had been operated on some years earlier for a cataract. He said he was so blind that he could ‘only just see objects dimly, as if through a dark glass’.
46 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.470.
47 Mocenigo to the Doge and Senate of Venice; Paris, 19 August 1588. CSP Venice, vol. 8, p.378.
48 Meyer, op. cit., p.342. According to Plutarch, Caesar wrote these words in a letter in 47 BC announcing his victory at the battle of Zela in northern Turkey at the end of the Pontic campaign.
49 Duro, La armada Invencible, vol. 1, p.217.
50 CSP Foreign Elizabeth, vol. 22, p.111. They claimed that Philip had sent him ‘the crown and sceptre of England, blessed by the Pope’.
51 On 27 September a worried Ralph Lane wrote to Burghley expressing his ‘no small grief [that] he understands her majesty is displeased with him for sending so great a list of the captains and officers remaining in her majesty’s pay’. He explained that when the army was disbanded, the officers were ordered to remain in readiness. CSP Domestic Elizabeth, 1581–90, p.545.
52 The Queenes Maiestie being given to vnderstand that diuers souldiers vpon the dissoluing of the campe at Tilberie in the countie of Essex have in the way homeward sold diuerse their armors and weapons . . ., St James’ Palace, 25 August 1588. The parsimony was widespread. Elizabeth also faced a mutiny by her troops forming the garrison at Ostend whose only lodging was ‘lying upon straw, the better part scant, much less fire, not so much as a candle to answer the alarms’. They assured the queen of their ‘readiness to yield up their lives in her service’ but prayed ‘they may be allowed six months’ pay to cherish themselves and supply their wants’. CSP Foreign Elizabeth, vol. 22, p.166.
53 Laughton, op. cit., vol. 2, pp.138–41.
54 Ibid., p.96.
55 Ibid., p.97.
56 In November, Francis Cotton told Burghley that he had been ‘solicited, even with tears, to represent the lamentable distress of the men engaged on the [defensive] works at Portsmouth who had not received one penny since April last’. CSP Domestic Elizabeth, 1581–90, p.561.
57 Laughton, op. cit., vol. 2, p.159.
58 Fernandez-Armesto, The Spanish Armada: The Experience of War, p.226.
59 BL Lansdowne MS 144, f.53.
60 Or was it a pejorative slang reference to those depicted? The coarse term ‘prick’ for the male member is known to have been used in standard English in 1592 and the possible double entendre may be an example of bawdy Tudor humour.
61 A silver medal with the queen’s head on the obverse may have been awarded to her commanders in the Armada campaign. On the reverse is the image of a bay tree, believed to be immune from lightning strikes. This symbolises Elizabeth herself who protects the island on which the tree stands while lightning destroys a ship in the background.
62 Meaning they feared no danger.
63 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.419. Messia was sent to England to spy by Santa Cruz.
64 Somerset, Elizabeth I, p.595.
65 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.420. The previous week Messia had seen Leicester riding through the London streets ‘splendidly accompanied and [showing] every appearance of perfect health, as if he would have lived for five years’. A man called Smith claimed to have killed Leicester by bewitching him, but the Privy Council released him from custody after deciding that the earl died more prosaically from malaria.
66 Longleat House MS D
U/Vol. 3, ff.91–102.
67 CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.431.
68 CSP Venice, vol. 8, p.404.
69 Nichols, Progresses . . ., vol. 3, p.537.
70 APC, vol. 16, p.292.
71 Nichols, Progresses . . ., vol. 3, p.540.
72 SAC, vol. 23 (1871), p.114.
73 L.F. Salzman, The Town Book of Lewes 1542–1701 (Sussex Record Society, 1946), p.36.
74 R. Wilson (ed.), Three Lords and Three Ladies of London (London, 1912).
75 Raymond, Pamphlets and Pamphleteering . . ., p.119.
76 A Skeltonical Salutation, published by T. Cooke (London, 1589), without pagination, but ff. 3–4.
77 The prick of a horseman’s spur.
78 Deloney, A joyful new Ballad . . ., 1588.
79 Richard Leigh had been imprisoned in the Tower in 1588. Aged twentyseven, he was executed at Tyburn on 30 August that year, together with five other Catholics: Edward Shelley, Richard Martin, Richard Lloyd, John Roche and Margaret Ward. Leigh was beatified in 1929.
80 Anon., Copy of a Letter sent out of England . . ., 1588.
81 For discussion on the Armada portraits, see: Sir Roy Strong, Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I (Oxford, 1963).
82 Nicholas, Progresses . . ., vol. 3, p.539.
83 Leahy, Elizabethan Triumphal Processions, pp.75–6.
ess,
CHAPTER11: The English Armada
1 LPL, MS 647, ff.235–8.
2 Wernham, Expedition of Sir John Norris and Sir Francis Drake . . ., p.xiii; ‘Queen Elizabeth and the Portugal Expedition’, p.3; F.C. Dietz, The Exchequer in Elizabeth’s Reign (Northampton, Massachusetts, 1923), pp.84–6 and 100–1.
3 F.C. Dietz, English Public Finance 1558–1640 (London, 1932), p.59. The Parliament summoned in February 1589 voted two new subsidies and taxes which would bring in £280,000 over the next four years.
4 Wernham, ‘Queen Elizabeth’, p.5.
5 Cambridge University Library Hh. 6.10, ff.1–59.
6 CSP Domestic Elizabeth, 1581–90, p.545.
7 Ibid., p.551.
8 Mendoza to Philip II; Paris, 29 September 1588. CSP Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, p.454.
9 Ibid., p.470.
10 The Spanish abandoned the siege of Bergen-op-Zoom on 3 November and Parma sent his troops into winter quarters.
11 CSP Domestic Elizabeth, Addenda, p.254; CSP Venice, vol. 8, pp.426 and 435.