John Pine

“ The shatter’d Remains of the Spanish Fleet after having weather’d many Storms, and suffered all the Inconveniences of War and Weather, arriv’d at last, about the End of September, at St. Andero, and other Ports of Spain, laden with nothing but Shame and Dishonour. The Duke of Medina was forbid the Court, and ordered to go and live privately; Martinez de Recalde died immediately after his Return; and two of their Ships were accidentally burnt in the Harbour not long after their Arrival. Surely such a Series of ill Success was hardly ever known in any other Age or Nation. ”

“ THE Defeat of the Spanish Armada being the most glorious Victory that was ever obtained at Sea, and the most important to the British Nation, every Method deserves some Praise, that may in a suitable Manner propagate the Memory of it. ”

“ In the mean time the Queen conferred on him the distinction of knighthood, and rewarded him by several lucrative grants, including a large share of the forfeited Irish estates. When his country’s safety was threatened by the famous Spanish Armada, he raised and disciplined the militia of Cornwall; and afterwards, by joining the fleet with a squadron of ships belonging to gentlemen volunteers, assisted in obtaining the signal victory which it pleased Providence to give to the English over the Spaniards on that occasion. ”

“ He was a gentleman of high rank and great worth in his native county Norfolk, and while Spain was preparing the Invincible Armada of 1588 to invade England, he manifested the greatest spirit and energy in fitting out and manning ships at his own expense to repel the invaders, going in person in the cause of his country, and on account of his undaunted spirit and bravery in the several engagements previous to the 26th of July, he was knighted that day on board the Ark Royal, by the Admiral Lord Howard of Effingham, who had power from Queen Elizabeth so to do. ”

“ Some advis’d the Lord-Admiral, with more Heat than Discretion, to grapple with and board them; but he thought it neither safe nor convenient; because the Enemy’s Fleet had a considerable Army on board, whereas ours had no such Advantage; besides their Ships far exceeded the English in Number and Bulk, and were much stronger and higher built; insomuch that their Men having the Opportunity to ply the others from such lofty Decks, must inevitably have destroyed those that were obliged, as it were, to fight beneath them. ”

“ This Day the Spaniards would fain have retreated, early in the Morning, thro’ the Streights of Dover; but the Wind coming up with hard Gales at North West, forced them towards the Coast of Zealand; the English then gave over the Chace, because they perceived them hastening fast enough to their own Destruction; for with the Wind at West North-West, they could not fail of being driven among the Shallows and Sands of that Coast: But the Wind soon happening to come about to the South-West and by West, the Spaniards tacked, and sailing before the Wind, got out of Danger. ”

“ For Land Service, there were disposed along the Southern Coasts of England twenty thousand Men. Besides which, two Armies were raised of choice, well-disciplin’d, and experienced Men; one (under the Command of Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester, consisting of one thousand Horse, and twenty two thousand Foot,) was encamped at Tilbury, near the Thames Mouth, for the Safeguard of the City of London; because it was given out that the Spaniards, after having joined the Duke of Parma, intended to come up the Thames, in order to make themselves Masters of the Metropolis of the Kingdom. ”

“ England and Ireland stood very convenient for him, as being near his Dominions in the Low-Countries; and might, by their advantageous Situation, and the many good Harbours they abound with, have rendered him Master of the Trade and Navigation of these Northern Parts of the World; and, what is more, they would have enabled him to carry it on throughout all North and South-America, exclusively of all others; which is such an Advantage as cannot well be expressed. ”

“ He was not then above forty Leagues from that Kingdom, when being informed that the Enemy’s Fleet was not so much damaged as reported, and the Wind coming to be Southerly, he judged it best (as his Instructions were to guard the English Coasts,) to return to Plymouth; lest the same Wind should bring the Enemies out, and carry them by him, unseen, towards England. He arrived at Plymouth the 12th of July, and with great Expedition supplied his Fleet with whatever Necessaries were wanting. ”

“ In the mean time, the Lord Howard having continued a good while upon the Narrow Seas between England and Flanders [48] , sent Sir Francis Drake towards the Western Coasts, with about fifty Sail, great and small; intending to follow himself, with a stronger Force, if there should be Occasion. For the present he remained in the Downs, with the Lord Henry Seymour his Vice-Admiral, where they had under their Command twenty Ships belonging to the City of London, with several other Vessels fitted out by the Coast-Towns, from the Thames to Newcastle. ”

“ On each Side of the Queen are moreover several warlike Instruments taken out of the Spanish Fleet, and now preserved in the Tower. From Queen Elizabeth’s Picture hangs the Anchor of Hope, the Arms of the Admiralty, surrounded by the Winds; and below stands Neptune, the God of the Sea, in his Chariot, to denote the Queen’s Dominion of the Narrow Seas. At the Corner of the first Chart Britannia sitting upon a Rock in the Sea, and looking scornfully upon the Spanish Fleet, has this very pertinent Motto by her,
Maturate fugam, &c. ”

“ And he foresaw likewise, that the Damage and Disgrace of a total Defeat would much outweigh the Advantage of a Victory, should he happen to obtain it; since, if he was vanquished, it would have much endangered the Safety of the whole Kingdom; but if he got the better, he could obtain no more than the naked Credit of putting a Fleet in Disorder, and baffling an Enemy.——In this Day’s Engagement, a great Venetian Ship, with several other smaller ones were taken by the English [68] . ”

“ WE have been persuaded by some that are careful of our Safety, to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed Multitudes; but I assure you, I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving People. ”

“ In 1599, in anticipation of another invasion by the King of Spain, he was given the sole command of the army and navy, with the title of Lieutenant-General of all England. He commanded the troop that subdued the Essex rebellion, and under James I. was employed in several distinguished capacities, and died December 14, 1624, aged eighty-eight, having some years before resigned the office of Lord High Admiral, in the behalf of the favorite Villiers, Earl of Buckingham, receiving in exchange a pension of £1,000, and the acquittal of a debt of £1,800 due the Crown. ”

“ They were scarce got as far as the Eddystone, when they discovered, about Noon, the Spanish Fleet to the |Plate 2.|Westward, opposite to Fowey, in form of a half Moon (the Points whereof were about seven Miles asunder) coming slowly up the Channel, tho’ with full Sails. The English suffered them to pass by unmolested, that they might chace them in the rear, with all the Advantage of the Wind.
The next Morning, July 21, all the English Ships being then come out of Plymouth, and in number near a hundred, had recovered the Wind of the Spaniards [55] , two Leagues to the Westward of Eddystone. ”

“ In the Evening, they held a Council of War, wherein it was unanimously resolved [108] , That seeing they were in want of many Necessaries, especially of Cannon-Ball, that the Ships were very much shattered, their Anchors left in Calais-Road, their Provisions short, their Water spent, a great number of their Soldiers slain, many of their Men sick and wounded, and that there was no hopes of the Duke of Parma’s coming out to join them, they should return to Spain, by the North of Scotland. ”

“ Our Ancestors, that were personally interested in it, were so careful it should not pass into Oblivion, that they procured the Engagements between the two Fleets to be represented in ten curious Pieces of Tapestry, with the Portraits of the several English Captains, taken from the Life, worked in the Borders, which are now placed, some in the Royal Wardrobe, some in the House of Lords, the most august Assembly of the Kingdom, there to remain as a lasting Memorial of the Triumphs of British Valour, guided by British Counsels. ”

“ After mature Deliberation, they thought fit that the most convenient Landing-Places for the Enemy, as well out of Spain as out of the Low-Countries, should be well mann’d and fortify’d, namely Milford-Haven, Falmouth, Plymouth, Portland, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth, the open Coast of Kent called the Downs, the Thames Mouth, Harwich, Yarmouth, Hull, &c. that the Train’d Bands, all along the Maritime Counties, should meet in Arms upon a Signal given, to defend the said Ports, and do their best to prevent the Enemy’s landing ”

“ Philip, after having been driven almost as far as Ostend, where her Commander left her because she proved extremely leaky, was seized by some Ships of Flushing.
Thus did the Fight continue for the best part of this whole Day; during which the Spanish Fleet was closely pursued, extremely battered, and reduced to the utmost Distress [100] . The English Commanders in general, shewed on all Occasions great Resolution and Bravery; and in this last Action, the Earl of Cumberland, the Lords Henry Seymour, Thomas Howard, and Edmund Sheffield ”

“ Mean while, fourteen Spanish Ships were discovered between Ushent and Scilly, which were afterwards known to have been separated from the rest of the Fleet by the late Storm. But before they could be met with by any English Ships, they had a Northerly Wind, which carried them back to the Groyne; where, and at the neighbouring Ports, the whole Fleet took in their Soldiers and Warlike Provisions.
The Spanish Fleet, as has been said above, had been dispersed, and somewhat disabled by a violent Storm. This had like to have proved more fatal to the English than to the Spaniards themselves [49] . ”

“ Such was the End of the formidable Spanish Armada, that had been three Years fitting out at a vast Expence; and which in less than three Months was shamefully beaten, and put to a most ignominious Flight, [137] without taking at the same time, in several Engagements, and in many Days Fight, any English Ship or Boat, or making one Prisoner; not having so much as fired a Cottage at Land, or taken a Cock-Boat of ours at Sea, as the Lord Bacon observes [138] , it wandered through the Wilderness of the Northern Seas ”

“ On the left Side Britannia is represented darting Thunder and Lightning, upon Envy, Superstition, and the Kingdom of Spain, delineated by those of Castile and Leon, which lye groveling below: On the other Side, True Religion, represented by a Woman sitting, and holding a Bible in one Hand, thunders down upon Hypocrisy, Ignorance, and Popery: The Medal at the Top has, on one Side, the Spanish Fleet in a Storm, and this Inscription, FLAVIT · יְהֹוָה‎‬ · ET · DISSIPATI · SVNT· 1588. ”

“ SIR WALTER RALEIGH. Sir Walter Raleigh, a distinguished statesman, scholar, and warrior, in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., was born in 1552, at Budleigh in Devonshire, and educated at Oriel College, Oxford. At the age of seventeen he made one of a troop of an hundred gentlemen volunteers whom Queen Elizabeth permitted to go to France, under the command of Henry Champernon, for the service of the Protestant princes. He next served in the Netherlands ”

“ These (with a Desire of restoring the Roman-Catholick Religion) seem to have been the real and true Motives of this great Expedition.
The Reasons alleged by Philip were these [3] :
I. That Elizabeth had, from the first assisted his rebellious Subjects in the Netherlands, with Men and Money, and spirited them up against him, her greatest Friend and Benefactor; whom she was indebted to for her Life, when her Sister Queen Mary and Gardiner were for removing her out of the Way.
II. Drake, and others of her Subjects, had committed several Depredations in Spain and America. ”

“ But because Time, or Accident, or Moths may deface these valuable Shadows, we have endeavoured to preserve their Likeness in the preceding Prints, which, by being multiplied and dispersed in various Hands, may meet with that Security from the Closets of the Curious, which the Originals must scarce always hope for, even from the Sanctity of the Place they are kept in. ”

“ Those taken in Ireland were brought to England [134] , and confined in Bridewell ’till they were ransomed. The most eminent of the Prisoners were, Don Pedro de Valdez, Don Vasquez de Silvea, Don Alonzo de Sayes, and others taken in the Channel; in Ireland, Don Alonzo de Luzon, Roderigo de Lasso, &c. in Zealand, Don Diego Piementelli, &c. In a Word, there was hardly a noble Family in all Spain, that did not lose a Son, a Brother, or a Kinsman; upon which account the Mourning was so universal in that whole Kingdom, [135] that King Philip was obliged by Proclamation to shorten the usual Time ”

“ One who was an Eye Witness relates moreover, that “the whole Armie in every Quarter, did devoutely, at certaine Times, sing in her hearing, in a very tunable manner, divers Psalmes put into Forme of Prayers in Praise of Almighty God, which she greatly commended, and with very earnest Speech thanked God with them [114] .” ”