The Spanish Armada (57 page)

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 DU/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,

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.

12
Hardwick State Papers
, vol. 1, pp.365 and 367–8.

13
CSP Foreign, Elizabeth
, vol. 22, p.227.

14
Wernham,
Expedition
. . ., p.xxix.

15
BL Lansdowne MS 103, f.93.

16
CSP Spain (Simancas)
, vol. 4, p.525.

17
APC
, vol. 18, p.297.

18
HMC Southampton, p.126.

19
CSP Domestic Elizabeth
,
1581–90
, p.568.

20
Rowse,
Tudor Cornwall
, p.398.

21
Wernham,
Expedition
, p.xxi. The owners of the Dutch flyboats submitted a petition to Drake and Norris ‘not to be
compelled to join in the expedition as their ships were unprovided with victuals and other things necessary for such a voyage’. Furthermore, the ships’ detention was, they said,
‘a violation of the treaty between her majesty and the States’ of Holland.
CSP Domestic Elizabeth
,
1581–90
, p.591.

22
Rowse, op. cit., p.399.

23
Another name for armour.

24
Wernham,
Expedition
, pp.126–7.

25
Wernham, ‘Queen Elizabeth . . .’, p.24.

26
BL Add. MS 12,497, f.183.

27
Hatfield House CP 18/82. ‘From my study, some few days before my departure’ and endorsed: ‘The Earl of Essex before
his departure to the voyage of Portugal.’

28
CSP Domestic Elizabeth
,
1581–90
, p.592.

29
Contarini to the Doge and Senate; Madrid, 24 May 1589.
CSP Venice
, vol. 8, p.439.

30
Wernham,
Expedition
, p.222.

31
Ibid., p.146. Thirty were killed by the fall of masonry.

32
Ibid., p.153.

33
CSP Venice
, vol. 8, pp.438–9.

34
Wernham,
Expedition
, p.xlv.

35
Somewhat lamely, Norris and Drake told the Privy Council that they had met up with Essex off Cape Finisterre but were ‘unable to
send him home earlier as they could not spare the services of the
Swiftsure
’.
CSP Domestic Elizabeth, 1581–90
, p.604.

36
BL Stowe MS 159, f.370.

37
CSP Spain (Simancas)
, vol. 4, p.554.

38
CSP Domestic Elizabeth, 1581–90
, p.603.

39
Corbett,
Drake and the Tudor Navy
, vol. 2, p.326.

40
Wernham,
Expedition
, p.137.

41
Ibid., p.182.

42
MacCaffrey,
Elizabeth I: War and Politics 1588–1603
, p.87.

43
CSP Spain (Simancas)
, vol. 4, p.549.

44
APC
, vol. 18, p.49.

45
Leahy,
Elizabethan Triumphal Processions
, p.80.

46
Hatfield House, CP 18/54.

47
BL Lansdowne MS 59, f.105.

48
A fother was the equivalent of a cartload in the sixteenth century, or nineteen and a half hundredweight (990.65 kg).

49
Hatfield House, CP 18/26.

50
Rodger,
The Safeguard of the Sea
, p.274.

51
CSP Venice
, vol.8, p.437.