Chapter VI

LORD HOWARD OF EFFINGHAM, THE
TRUSTED OF THE QUEEN

Charles, eldest son of Lord William Howard, was born in 1536, his mother being Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Gamage of Glamorganshire. His father, brother of the Duke of Norfolk and uncle of Queen Catherine Howard, was, on that lady's execution, condemned to life imprisonment for having concealed her faults; but the sentence was soon remitted, and in Mary's reign he was appointed High Admiral of England. It was under such a father that Charles was trained both on land and sea service. He was about twenty-two years of age at the accession of Elizabeth, and his "most proper person," or handsome appearance, at once won the Queen's favour; for she liked a jewel set in a goodly case.

So Charles was sent to France on an embassy of condolence after the death of Henry II., and to congratulate the young king. Soon he was elected one of the knights for his native county of Surrey in the Parliament of 1562. We next hear of him as being a General of Horse under the Earl of Warwick, in the army sent against the rebel Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland in 1569.

In 1570, when Lord Lincoln was Lord Admiral, Howard was ordered to command a squadron of ships-of-war sent by Queen Elizabeth to escort Anne of Austria, sister of the Emperor Maximilian, from Zealand into Spain, whither she was going for the purpose of being married to Philip II. Howard of course knew that Philip had no love now for the Queen of England; so, when the great Spanish galleons came into British waters he first made them salute the Queen's flag, and then gave them all honourable escort, to show his Queen's respect for the house of Austria. It was a deed which gave promise of great exploits hereafter. Richard Hakluyt thus describes it in a letter to Lord Charles Howard:--

"When the Emperor's sister, the spouse of Spain, with a fleet of one hundred and thirty sail, stoutly and proudly passed the narrow seas, your Lordship, accompanied by ten ships only of her Majesty's Royal Navy, environed their fleet in most strange and warlike sort, enforced them to stoop gallant and to vail their bonnets for the Queen of England, and made them perfectly to understand that old speech of the Prince of Poets, Virgil,

'Non illi imperium pelagi sævumque tridentem,
Sed tibi sorte datum."

('It was not to him that fate had given the Empire of the deep and the fell trident, but to thee.')

"Yet after they had acknowledged their duty, your Lordship, on her Majesty's behalf, conducted her safely through our English Channel, and performed all good offices of honour and humanity to that foreign Princess."

No doubt this proud demand for homage to the flag of England went far to secure for Lord Charles the post of Lord High Admiral in 1585. For relations between Spain and England were growing ever more strained, and war conducted at first by private adventurers was bound to issue in a national contest. The Queen began to prepare for this by purchasing arms and powder abroad. She had many pieces of great ordnance of brass and iron cast, and luckily a rich vein of stone was found in Cumberland, near Keswick, which helped much in the works for making brass. How patriotic our forefathers were can be seen by the cheerful way in which both nobles and peasants helped in providing weapons.

In every nobleman's house complete armouries were provided, private individuals built ships-of-war, and poor men flocked to the ports to offer their services. When Spain insolently warned off all the English from trading with America, when she instigated revolt in Ireland, and hired assassins to murder Elizabeth, patriotism was awakened from a long sleep. The near approach of danger had evoked the nation's dormant spirit and indomitable courage.

When the Prince of Orange had been assassinated and the Prince of Parma had taken Antwerp, Elizabeth hesitated no longer to conclude a treaty with the Netherlands against their Spanish oppressors, and issued a long statement of the reasons for so doing. Other Christian princes admired such manly fortitude in a woman. The King of Sweden said she had taken the crown from her head and adventured it upon the chance of war.

There was no need in those days to compel the men to bear arms and defend their country. Englishmen were not then devoted to sports and games, but hastened from north to south to offer their maligned Queen bands of horse and foot. Amongst the first was Lord Montague, a Roman Catholic peer, with two hundred horsemen led by his own sons, and with them a young child, very comely, seated on his pony, the eldest son to his lordship's heir; so there were grandfather, father, and son at one time on horseback before the Queen, ready to do her service.

There were many Roman Catholics who remained loyal, and not least among them was Lord Charles Howard, who had been for many months looking after the welfare of the fleet, seeing all was in good order, and now and then issuing out to check or pursue pirates.

"The Queen," we are told by Fuller, "had a great persuasion of his fortunate conduct, and knew him to be of a moderate and noble courage, skilful in sea matters, wary and provident, valiant and courageous, industrious and active, and of great authority and esteem among sailors."

Another admirer of Lord Howard's admits that he was no deep seaman like Sir Humphrey Gilbert; but he had sense enough to know those who had more skill than himself, and to follow their instructions; he was not one to go his own wilful way, but ruled himself by the experienced in sea matters--thus the Queen had a navy of oak and an admiral of osier. With the help of Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher, the new Lord High Admiral, Charles Howard, formed his plans of defence. Sir Philip Sidney, too, was deep in their counsels, planning expeditions, subscribing money, and persuading rich friends to volunteer or fit out ships.

Early in January 1588 Philip, to gain time for his preparations, had proposed through the Duke of Parma, his Governor in the Netherlands, that commissioners should meet to negotiate a treaty of peace. Both Elizabeth and Burghley were in favour of this, not seeing that it was but a blind to cover their exertions to repair the damage done by Drake at Cadiz the year before.

Howard wrote at once to Walsingham: "There never was such a stratagem and mask to deceive her Majesty as this treaty of peace. I pray God that we do not curse for this a long grey beard with a white head witless (Burghley's), that will make all the world think us heartless.... Therefore, good Mr. Secretary, let every one of ye persuade her Majesty that she lose no time in taking care enough of herself."

Lord Charles does not forget his wife as danger begins to face him: "I request that, if it please God to call me to Him in this service of her Majestie, which I am most willing to spend my life in, that her Majestie of her goodness will bestow my boy upon my poor wife" (he was probably a page at Court), "and if it please her Majestie to let my poor wife have the keeping either of Hampton Court, or Oatlands, I shall think myself most bound to her Majestie; for" (in his own spelling) "I dow assur you, Sir, I shall not leve heer so well as so good a wyfe dowthe desarve."

It is strange to mark from the letters written a few weeks before the Armada set sail how very parsimonious both the Queen and Burghley seemed to the admiral to be in providing for the expenses of fitting out the fleet. Drake had been prevented from getting his fleet in order for sea-service at Plymouth. "The fault is not in him," wrote Howard, "but I pray God her Majestie do not repent her slack dealing." Four ships, which Howard had asked for, the Queen was loth to use, and especially the _Elizabeth Jonas_, a stout vessel of 900 tons burthen, which carried more guns and not fewer seamen than any of the other ships. "Lord! when should she serve if not at such a time as this?" wrote Howard to Walsingham on the 7th of April; "either she is fit now to serve, or fit for the fire. I hope never in my time to see so great a cause for her to be used. The King of Spain doth not keep any ship at home, either of his own or any other that he can get for money. I am sorry that her Majestie is so careless of this most dangerous time. I fear me much, and with grief I think it, that she relieth on a hope that will deceive her and greatly endanger her, and then it will not be her money nor her jewels that will help. Well, well! I must pray heartily for peace, for I see the support of an honourable war will never appear. Sparing and war have no affinity together."

Lord Howard had been painfully riding from port to port all along the south coast of England, to scan the outfit and crews of all the ships. He had written letter after letter for more ships, better victuals, more guns. He had dared to say to the Queen what few others could say, and had awakened her at last from her false hopes of peace. On the 21st of May, after leaving with Lord Henry Seymour a fleet strong enough to protect the narrow seas from any invasion that the Prince of Parma might attempt, Lord Howard left Dover with most of the Queen's ships and a great number of private vessels, some fifty sail, that were furnished by London and the east coast. On the 23rd of May he entered Plymouth Road and was met by Sir Francis Drake and a fleet of sixty vessels, Queen's ships and stout barques and pinnaces fitted out by the town and nobles of the west coast. Here he was detained a week by contrary winds. On the 28th he wrote to Burghley, saying that his fleet of a hundred sail had only victuals for eighteen days: "With the gallantest company of captains, soldiers, and sailors ever seen in England, it were a pity they should lack meat." However, he did go out to meet the Armada, which they thought was on its way, but a violent gale from the south scattered his ships, which "danced as lustily as the gallantest dancers in the Court."

On Howard's return to Plymouth on the 13th of June, he found a letter from Walsingham, reproving him in the Queen's name for having gone so far away, and for leaving England almost unprotected.

He was obliged to defend himself and his advisers, Drake, Hawkins, Frobisher, and Fenner, against the lady's private view of sea-tactics. "I hope her Majestie will not think we went so rashly to work, or without a choice care and respect of the safety of this realm." And then at grave length he painfully explained that he was more likely to miss the enemy near home than off the coast of Spain, as they must needs pass Cape Finisterre on their way from Lisbon, but after that they might go eastwards towards the Netherlands, or coast the west of Ireland, or seize the Isle of Wight--and thus humbly he vails his bonnet to the imperious Mistress of the Sea: "But I muste and will obeye, and am glad there be suche in London as are hable to judge what is fitter for us to doe than we here."

Let us hope that the Queen and Burghley were able to note the bitter sarcasm; for we can imagine how Drake and Hawkins and Frobisher discussed the matter, not without "old swearing."

It was at the end of May that the Invincible Armada sailed from the Tagus for Corunna, there to take on board the land forces and stores. Cardinal Albert of Austria gave it his solemn blessing before it departed, and the Spaniards were full of confidence and enthusiasm.

Its total tonnage was about 60,000, its fighting force 50,000; while the English tonnage was 30,000, and the mariners and fighting men some 16,000.

Howard sailed in the _Ark Royal_, Sir Francis Drake in the _Revenge_ as vice-admiral, Sir John Hawkins in the _Victory_ as rear-admiral, while Lord Henry Seymour in the _Rainbow_, with four Queen's ships and some Dutch vessels, watched the narrow seas.

The English admirals were united by good feeling and patriotism; no jealousy disturbed their counsels. Drake, in a letter to Burghley, writes: "I find my Lord Admiral so well affected for all honourable service in this action as it doth assure all his followers of good success and hope of victory."

The storm which had driven back the English fleet from the Spanish coast dispersed or dismasted many of the enemy. One sunk and three were captured by their own galley-slaves under a Welshman, David Gwynne; he had been a galley-slave eleven years, and encouraged the rest to rise and strike for liberty. After killing the Spaniards on board, he took the three galleys to a French port. The Armada had to put back to Corunna to refit, and spent a month or more in harbour.

Then the news was carried to Court that the Spanish fleet was so broken they would not attempt any invasion this year. Some of our ships were ordered to the Irish coast, the men at Plymouth were allowed ashore, some were even discharged, while the officers amused themselves with revels, dancing, bowls, and making merry.

The Queen and Burghley were again keeping a tight hand on the slender finances, and Walsingham had to write to Lord Howard, bidding him send back to London four of the tallest ships-royal. This made the Lord High Admiral write a strong letter to the Queen on June 23rd, in which he breaks out boldly, "For the love of Jesus Christ, madame, awake thoroughly, and see the villainous traitors around you and against your Majestie and your realm: draw your forces round about you like a mighty Prince, to defend you. Truly, madame, if you do so, there is no cause to fear; if you do not, there will be danger."

The safety of England was surely in great part due to this nobleman's brave conduct in standing up against the rigid measures of Lord Burghley. He even offered to pay the cost of the four ships which he retained, if they were not wanted in battle.

Meanwhile conflicting reports kept coming into Plymouth respecting the Spanish fleet; sometimes it was said they were at sea, at other times they were reported to be still in harbour. Lord Howard's scouts were of course on the watch for their first appearance.

On the 17th of July the Lord Admiral had to write to the Lord High Treasurer for a supply of money: "Our Companies grow into great neede. I have sent herein enclosed an estimate thereof, praying your Lordship that there may be some care had, that we may be furnished with moneye, withoute the which we are not hable to contynewe our forces togeather."

On the 19th of July the Spanish fleet steered across the Channel from France to the Lizard; but they mistook it for the Ram's-head, just west of Plymouth Sound, and night being at hand they tacked off to sea, intending in the morning to attempt to surprise the ships in Plymouth. For they had heard that the crews were off their vessels, all making merry in the town. Had they sailed in that night they might have done much damage, and anticipated the Japanese surprise at Port Arthur.

But a Cornish pirate, named Thomas Fleming, had caught sight of the Armada off the Lizard, and made all sail to Plymouth with the fateful news--

"At sunrise she escaped their van, by God's especial grace;
And the tall _Pinta_, till the noon, had held her close in chase."

It was deemed so important that he got as a reward a free pardon and a pension for life. There is a tradition that Howard, Drake, and Frobisher, with other officers, were playing a match at bowls on the Hoe when a seaman came running up with Fleming's news.

"We must go on board at once," was the thought of all.

"No, no," laughed Drake, with a wave of the hand; then shouted in his cheery manner, "Come, let us play out our match. There will be plenty of time to win the game and beat the Spaniards too."

It sounds at first like a bit of bravado, but no doubt Sir Francis had a fine knowledge of the effect of brave words upon sailors; that story was told at once from ship to ship, and the rogues laughed, and swore that Drake was the man to singe the Spaniard's beard, as he had done before at Cadiz. King Philip might well set a big price on Drake's head, for his men feared Drake worse than the devil.

Whistles were blown, orders shouted, ropes riven. The wind was blowing pretty stiffly into the harbour and the ships were warped out with difficulty; boat-loads of men came splashing up to their ships' side, fresh from the bear-pit and the tavern. They were soon busy, hauling and sweating and laughing merrily at the thought of the fun which was coming, for which they had waited so long on shore. All hands worked with a will--"With singular diligence and industry and with admirable alacrity of the seamen, whom the Lord Admiral encouraged at their halser-work, towing at a cable with his own hands.... I dare boldly say," says Fuller, "that he drew more, though not by his person, by his presence and example, than any ten in the place."

Lord Howard hauled himself out that night in the teeth of the wind with only six ships. Early next morning, July 20th, some four-and-twenty came out, and with these he stood out to meet the enemy, resolved to check their progress at all hazards.

Soon after daybreak sixty-seven vessels entered Plymouth Road; by nine o'clock they were in the open channel, waiting for the enemy.

Howard had to wait all day; for the Spanish fleet did not come in sight till three o'clock in the afternoon.

One gentleman in the English fleet, named Dodington, occupied part of his time in writing a hasty despatch to the Privy Council:--

"Right Ho. Heare is a ffleete at this instant cominge in upon us, semid at north-west, by all likelywode it should be the enymy: hast makes me--I can write no more. I beseech your L. to pardon me, and so I referr all to your Ho. most depyst considerationes.

"Your Ho. most humble to comand
"ED. DODINGTON.

"ffrom the ffleete at Plymouth."

The covering address of this letter is curious; the little gallows expresses _haste_.

+------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| FOR HER MAties SPETIALL SERVISE |
| --------- |
| | | | To THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE LORDS OF |
| | o | HER MAts MOST HO. PREVY CUNSELL, |
| | | _hast post hast, for lyfe hast! for lyfe!_ |
| |
+------------------------------------------------------------+

When it was about three o'clock in the afternoon of the 20th, the English saw approaching them a huge fleet--ships with lofty turrets like castles, like a half-moon in front, the wings of which were spread out about the length of seven miles. They were coming on very slowly, though with full sails, for their blunt bows churned up the resisting wave.

Lord Howard did not attempt to stay them, as the wind was against him, but he let them ride lazily by in all their pomp and show.

The Spaniards, seeing that the English were ready for them, and were not to be caught napping, turned west again and anchored in the bay of Looe, a few miles from Plymouth Sound.

Next morning, Sunday, the 21st of July, the Spaniards weighed anchor early, with the idea of sailing east and seizing a harbour in the Isle of Wight, and then of going on to the Hague to take on board the Prince of Parma and his men.

Lord Howard let the Armada pass Plymouth, keeping his sixty ships in the haven. When about nine o'clock on this Sunday morning the Armada had all passed eastward, Howard weighed anchor and hoisted sail. "We durst not adventure to put in amongst them, their fleet being so strong," he wrote in his first report.

But he sent after them his swift pinnace, the _Disdain_, which fired the first shot; then came fire, smoke, and echoing cannon, for Howard in the _Ark Royal_ followed the _Disdain_, thundering furiously upon a big galley which he thought was the admiral's flagship, but which proved to be the Spanish vice-admiral's, Alphonso de Leyva. Meanwhile Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher were playing fiercely upon the rear division under Juan de Recaldé.

We can imagine how anxiously Howard and Drake watched the effect of this first attack, and how they noted that the high galleons and galleasses were sending their shot plunging into the whitened sea right over the low hulls of barque and pinnace, while the English shot told again and again.

The wind was favouring the English, whose ships darted about from side to side with incredible rapidity round the slowly moving, stately Spaniards.

"Their great ships," says Hakluyt, "were powerful to defend, but not to offend; to stand, but not to move; and therefore far unfit to fight in narrow seas. Their enemies were nimble and ready at all sides to annoy them, and as apt to escape harm themselves by being low built and easily shot over."

So the Spaniards gathered their ships together in close order in form of a half-moon, keeping the smaller vessels in the centre.

This unequal fight lasted six hours. As Hawkins said, "We had some small fight with them that Sunday afternoon."

By three o'clock the great and "invincible Armada" was in utter confusion, and Nature now said to the English, "It is supper-time, my lads."

So they rested a while--some eating and drinking, some devoutly saying their prayers with thankful soul, and a few writing hasty letters. Even the Lord High Admiral could not find time to write at length to Walsingham. "I will not trouble you with any long letter; we are at present otherwise occupied than with writing. Sir, the captains in her Majesty's ships have behaved themselves most bravely and like men hitherto, and I doubt not will continue to their great commendation. There shall nothing be either neglected or unhazarded that may work the Spaniards' overthrow. And so, commending our good success to your godly prayers, I bid you hearty farewell." Then Howard adds in a postscript in his direct manner: "Sir, for the love of God and our country, let us have with some speed, some great shot sent us of all bigness; for this service will continue long,--and some powder in it."

Meanwhile the Duke of Medina Sidonia was very sharp with his gunners, whom he ordered on his flagship for a lecture on gunnery. "Fools! what was the good of firing so high, and hitting only the sea!" Perhaps the gunners had not the means of depressing the muzzles of their guns. Anyhow, one master-gunner went back to his ship very sulky indeed. He was a Dutchman, and it was said his wife had been insulted by a Spanish officer. He resolved to take his revenge out in powder. He laid a train of powder to the ship's magazine, fired it and jumped overboard; two hundred men were blown into the air. Spanish boats were sent to get the money and valuables out of her, and order was given to sink her. But somehow she got adrift, and was boarded by Lord Thomas Howard and Captain Hawkins, who found in her about fifty groaning men, horribly burnt. The stench was so disgusting that they had to quit her at once, and the Admiral ordered a small barque to tow her into Weymouth. The "scorched Spaniards" were gazed upon by the wondering townsfolk, and a quantity of gunpowder, which by luck had not exploded, was rescued and came in very useful to Howard in the days following.

How Don Pedro de Valdez by collision lost his mainmast, got left behind and was captured, has been told in the chapter on Martin Frobisher.

But the same night Lord Howard had a narrow escape of being taken; for in the dark he followed a lantern which he supposed was carried by Drake's ship. But Drake, in his eager pursuit, had forgotten the order to hang out a lantern, and fortunately only two vessels, the _Bear_ and the _Mary Rose_, followed Howard, the others lay to, as they could see no light. In the morning Howard found he was in the midst of the Armada, but very coolly dropped astern and quietly joined his own fleet.

On Tuesday, the 23rd of July, at five o'clock A.M., the fleets were a little past Portland, when the wind changed from north-west to north-east; this caused some confusion, and some volunteer ships were surrounded by Don Alphonso de Leyva's squadron. A fierce and long fight ensued, which lasted all day. "This was the most furious and bloody skirmish of all," wrote the Dutch chronicler, "in which the Lord Admiral of England continued fighting amidst his enemy's fleet."

All Tuesday, too, fresh ships came up to reinforce the English; on Saturday Howard's force numbered sixty sail, by Tuesday afternoon they had been increased to a hundred.

After the long fight on Tuesday there was a lack of gunpowder and balls, and the Spaniards on Wednesday only fired fitfully at intervals.

Wednesday afternoon was utilised for a council of war. The English fleet was redistributed into five squadrons, and from each squadron were selected small, fast vessels to make sudden night-attacks. Lord Howard's cautious circumspection and cool courage had won the respect of the greater seamen, like Drake and Frobisher; his way of asking advice and taking it when given proved how sensible he was. At this council several of his younger officers, with more heat than discretion, earnestly entreated him to let them lay aboard the enemy. Howard refused their request, not with a hasty and peremptory "No," but with calm statement of his reasons. He pointed out the enormous size of the Spanish ships compared with his own, their lofty turrets fore and aft, from which they could hurl missiles, even fragments of rock, and might annihilate those who fought beneath them; he reminded his officers of the large numbers of regular troops with which they were filled, and said they must save themselves for the crisis, when the Duke of Parma's flotilla should join the Armada.

Both fleets were becalmed most of Wednesday, but the Spaniards kept very good order, and the larger galleons protected the smaller.

On Thursday, the 25th of July, there was sharp fighting off the Isle of Wight. The _Santa Anna_ and a Portuguese galleon were singled out by Frobisher for attack. Don Alphonso with a large force hurried up to relieve them, and it would have gone hard with Frobisher had not Lord Charles Howard in his _Ark Royal_ and Lord Thomas Howard in the _Golden Lion_ come to the rescue. They cut up the rigging of the Spanish flagship with chain-shot, and then got out of reach before they could suffer much damage. "These two ships, the _Ark_ and the _Golden Lion_, declared this day to each fleet that they had most diligent and faithful gunners. The galleasses, in whose puissance the greatest hope of the Spanish fleet was founded, were never seen to fight any more--such was their entertainment that day."

On Friday Lord Howard knighted Frobisher, Hawkins, and some others for their valiant conduct on the previous day.

The two fleets moved slowly and quietly along the Sussex shore as far as Dungeness; thence they turned and steered across towards Calais.

Those who looked on from the shore might well imagine that the great ships of the Armada were undefeated, for it was mostly in their masts and rigging that they had suffered harm. On Sunday evening the Spaniards anchored off Calais, and the Lord Admiral followed and coolly dropped anchor within cannon-shot of his enemy.

A few miles off Calais Howard had been overtaken by Seymour's force of some twenty ships, with Sir William Winter second in command; so that his entire force was now about a hundred and forty ships, many of them quite small craft. Many of the men on board were mere landsmen, and knew not which way to turn, or how to set a sail. "If you had seen the simple service done by the merchants' and coast ships," wrote Winter to Walsingham, "you would have said we had been little holpen by them, otherwise than that they did make a show."

Sunday, the 28th of July, was a sunny day, and the French shore was full of holiday folk who had come in market carts from town and village to see the grand spectacle of the great Spanish floating castles.

Though they were not noisily fighting there was much business being done--messengers were hurrying to the shore for despatches, and hurrying back to the galleons with news that the Prince of Parma was making all possible preparations for debarkation at Dunkirk, but could not be ready for a dozen hours or so. Parma was a great general, but he could not work miracles on sea. His flat-bottomed boats were leaky; his provisions were not on board; his men did not like the look of the sea; the sailors were there on compulsion, and kept deserting in crowds; the Dutch fleet was waiting for him, and if he sailed, it would be to expose his army to certain destruction.

But the Armada had reached Calais unbroken and apparently invincible; for the Spanish ships sat on the water like huge castles, their bulks being so planked with great beams that balls and bullets might strike and stick, but never pass through; so that the English cannon could do little damage, except only in playing on their masts and tackle--besides, their enormous height made any attempt to board them impossible.

Those English officers who thought on these things might well wonder how the Spaniards were ever to be beaten off from the Thames and London. Howard must have been consulting and wondering how the great battle was to be won. Some say that the Queen herself suggested fire-ships, others say that the device was Winter's, who had it from Gianibelli, an Italian who had practised it with great success in defending Antwerp from Parma three years before. As has been told before, six of the oldest vessels were filled with combustibles and smeared with pitch, and convoyed to the Armada at midnight.

It was a rough sea after a three days' calm, the rain fell in torrents, and the wind blew from the south-west, so that when the flaring hulks came careering with deadly detonations amongst the wooden walls of Spain, no wonder if a panic seized them, and they scurried before the wind to the mouth of the Scheldt--all but the Neapolitan galleass, the _Capitana_, which lost her rudder, bumped on the Calais sands and was taken. For Howard had sent his long-boat and a pinnace to seize her.

"We had a pretty skirmish for half-an-hour"--a hundred English armed with muskets and swords against seven hundred Spaniards and forty guns. "They seemed safe in their ship, while we in our open pinnaces and far under them had nothing to shroud and cover us."

The captain, Don Hugo de Moncada, smiled a sarcastic smile when asked to surrender. In a few minutes a bullet had struck him in the forehead, and he fell dead upon the deck.

On this the crew threw themselves into the sea, and the English enjoyed an hour and a half of plunder; fifty thousand ducats (£10,000) rewarded them well, but the ship was claimed by the Governor of Calais.

While the Lord Admiral stayed to watch the capture of the _Capitana_--not quite an admiral's duty, one would suppose--a very great fight was going on off Gravelines, where the Flemish shoals and the stormy sea together helped the English pursuers. Many great galleons were wrecked or taken, while no English ship was seriously damaged.

Lord Howard hurried up in time to see the end of the fight, and wrote, "Their force is wonderful great and strong, but we pluck their feathers by little and little." Burghley's want of resources spared the enemy a final defeat, for ammunition was exhausted, and the Spaniards limped lamely away. "Tho' our powder and shot was well near all spent," wrote Howard, "we set on a brag countenance and gave them chase."

They followed northwards up to Friday, the 2nd of August, when, being midway between the Firth of Forth and the Skager-Rak, Howard signalled to stop. For they had to refresh the ships with victuals, as well as powder and shot; so some light pinnaces only were sent to dog the Armada to the Isles of Scotland. On their way south again the English were scattered by the storm, which was driving the Spaniards on the rocks; but they assembled in Margate Road on the 9th of August.

A medal was struck to commemorate the defeat of the Armada. On it were depicted fire-ships pursuing a fleet, with the motto, "Dux femina fecit" ("The leader who did this was a woman").

We may have our doubts on this point; certainly the fire-ships did much damage, but it was the winds of heaven that finished the fight. "Afflavit Deus, et dissipantur" was more true to the facts--"God has blown on them and they are scattered," a more humble record of the victory.

The Queen was so excited by the wonderful escape from invasion that she wished to send off at once an expedition to the Azores, in order to catch the trading ships on their way back from the Indies, and so replenish the exhausted treasury.

Lord Howard consulted with Drake and Frobisher, but all held the daring scheme to be impracticable. The crews had not yet received their money due from before the Armada fight; many seamen and soldiers were in rags and half famished, in spite of all that indignant admirals had written. "Upon your letter," Howard writes to Walsingham on the 27th of August, "I presently sent for Sir Francis Drake and showed him the desire that her Majesty had for intercepting of the King's treasure from the Indies. So we considered it, and neither of us find any ships here in the fleet anyways able to go such a voyage before they have been aground, which cannot be done in any place but at Chatham, and it will be fourteen days before they can be grounded." Then with a touch of scorn for the ignorance that prompted such a desperate scheme for vessels just come from a long sea-fight, he adds, "Belike it is thought that the West Indian islands be but hereby! it is not thought how the year is spent. I thought it good, therefore, to send with all speed Sir Francis Drake, although he be not very well, to inform you rightly of all. He is a man of judgment and acquainted with it, and will tell you what must be done for such a journey."

If Sir Francis Walsingham had turned up a file of old letters, he must have found a recent letter from the Lord High Admiral, written only four days before this, in which Howard writes with reference to the Armada returning from the north to renew the fight:--

"Sir, God knowethe what we shall dow if we have no men: many of our shypse ar so wekly maned that they have not maryners to way ther ankers. Well, we must dow what we chane (can). I hope in God that he will make us stronge anufe for them, for all men are of good corage heer."

After re-reading this, Walsingham must surely have doubted his own judgment. We may notice that the spelling of those times varied with the mood of the writer, and it also gives us an insight into the manner of pronouncing words. When all men spell on the same dead level, there is nothing to be learnt from it. Drake must have spoken "a bit of his own mind" at Court, for we hear no more of any expedition to the Azores, but of an expedition under Drake to Spain. However, it was not until 1596 that the Lord Admiral again hoisted his flag; it was the year in which the British Navy lost by death three of its most eminent seamen--Drake, Frobisher, and Hawkins.

Philip had been steadily gaining ground in Brittany and began to think of another attempt at invasion. In February 1594 he wrote to his Viceroy in the Netherlands, instructing him to destroy Elizabeth's shipping at home. "Two or three thousand soldiers might be landed at Rochester, who might burn or sink all the unarmed vessels they could find there, and then sail off again before the people of the country could collect in sufficient numbers to do them any damage." Later in the year 1594 a raid of Spaniards from Brittany upon Penzance burnt and plundered that town; in 1596 a second raid was made upon the same district. On the 10th of April Spain seized Calais, and stirred the brave Virgin Queen to wrath.

By the 3rd of June a fleet of nearly one hundred and fifty vessels was ready to sail from Plymouth, of which seventeen were Queen's ships and eighteen Netherlanders.

Lord Admiral Howard had the chief command at sea; the young Earl of Essex was given the command of the land forces. Lord Thomas Howard, a cousin of Lord Charles, and Sir Walter Raleigh had each a squadron. The entire force was 17,000 strong, the largest force sent from England since the days of the Crusades. As military rank in those days was settled according to rank in the peerage and not by standing in the army or navy, this young Earl had precedence in the commission, because the Lord Admiral was only a baron. On the 18th of June they learnt from an Irish vessel, that had just left Cadiz, that the port was full of men-of-war and galleons richly laden.

On the 20th they anchored quietly in the harbour to the amazement of all, and now the Earl of Essex set up a claim to the honour of leading in. But Lord Howard of Effingham stoutly resisted it, for he knew what a rash and impetuous firebrand the Earl was. "No, my lord, it belongs to me as a seaman to arrange all this; besides, I must acquaint you privately that I have been strictly charged by her Majesty to prevent you from exposing yourself to unnecessary danger."

The whole council backed up the Lord High Admiral, and the Earl sulked in a boyish manner: he was to be taken care of like a child!

On the 21st of June they fought from 5 A.M. until 1 P.M.; several vessels were taken and spoiled. The _San Felipe_, the glory of Spain for her size, was blown up to save her from falling into English hands. But the gunpowder exploded before her soldiers and sailors had had time to leave.

Raleigh wrote an account of it: "Tumbling into the sea came heaps of soldiers, as thick as if coals had been poured out of a sack--some drowned, some sticking in the mud ... many, half-burnt, leaped into the water; others hung by ropes' ends to the ship's side, under water even to the lips ... and withal so huge a fire and such tearing of the ordnance in the great _Felipe_, as, if any man had a desire to see hell itself, it was there most vividly figured."

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During the attack on Cadiz the _San Felipe_, the glory of Spain, was set on fire to prevent its falling into the hands of the English, but a premature explosion of the powder magazine wrought terrible havoc amongst the Spanish soldiers, hundreds being mutilated, burnt, or drowned.

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The Earl of Essex with a body of 800 men landed about a league from Cadiz, and he and Lord Howard met in the market-place.

The city had surrendered, and promised 600,000 ducats as ransom for the inhabitants. Lord Howard wrote with pride to the Queen's Council: "No aged or cold blood touched, no woman defiled; but all the ladies, nuns, and children, with great care embarked and sent to St. Mary's Port with all their apparel and rich things about them."

Even Philip II. was forced to admit that the world had never seen more chivalrous humanity among victors, and Queen Elizabeth in her letter of thanks to Howard and Essex, wrote: "You have made me famous, dreadful, and renowned; not more for your victory than for your courage; nor more for either than for such plentiful liquor of mercy, which may well match the better of the two."

On the 23rd of October in the following year, 1597, the Lord High Admiral was created Earl of Nottingham for saving his country twice from invasion.

In 1599 he was made Lieutenant-General of all England; in 1601 he was instrumental in crushing the insurrection of Essex. He attended the death-bed of his Queen, being the first cousin of Queen Anne Boleyn; Howard had also married a Carey, the grand-daughter of the Queen's aunt, Mary Boleyn, sister of Queen Anne. He was at this time in great affliction for the death of this lady, and had retired from the Court to grieve in solitude; for the Queen, like her father, hated the sight of mourning. But now she had sent for her faithful Lord Admiral, and he came and knelt by her cushions and fed her with broth with a spoon, and begged her to go to bed, yet she still refused. At last she bade all go away but Howard; then in piteous accents she murmured, "My lord, I am tied by a chain of iron about my neck;" but he knew not if she spoke this in frenzy. We will end this account of the Lord High Admiral by a gayer scene.

It was the year 1608; James I. and Queen Anne of Denmark were spending November at Winchester Palace. They played games from twilight till supper-time; they danced, and the Queen noticed that the old admiral, now over sixty-seven, seemed mighty fond of Lady Margaret Stuart, daughter of the Earl of Murray, a blooming girl of nineteen. Anne told the King, and his Majesty at once made himself very busy in merrily promoting the marriage of the old veteran with his pretty cousin. They were soon married, and, before he died, the Earl of Nottingham had the pleasure of seeing two more children, one of whom succeeded his half-brother in the earldom. His remaining years were spent at Haling House in Surrey, in honourable ease and retirement; he died in his eighty-eighth year, loved and respected by all who knew him. "He was a nobleman," says Camden, "whose courage no danger could daunt, whose fidelity no temptation could corrupt."