The Spanish Armada (56 page)

1
TNA, SP 12/213/64.

2
AGS Estado 594/182. Asculi eventually landed in Dunkirk on 9 August, begging leave to return to the Armada, which Parma refused.
‘I am very unhappy to be out of whatever events may happen to the Armada but as God has ordained otherwise, it cannot be helped and my only wish is to serve your majesty and do
my duty in a manner worthy of my birth,’ he told Philip later.

3
Corbett,
Drake and the Tudor Navy
’, vol. 2, pp.258–9. A roundshot destroyed the bed ‘of a certain gentleman
lying weary thereupon’ in the stern of
Revenge.

4
Laughton,
Defeat of the Spanish Navy
, vol. 2, pp.102–3.

5
Coarse hemp called oakum.

6
CSP Spain (Simancas)
, vol. 4, p.444.

7
Probably Seymour’s
Rainbow
.

8
A small shield.

9
Barratt,
Armada 1588
, p.114.

10
CSP Spain (Simancas)
, vol. 4, pp.444–5.

11
Ibid., p.401.

12
Barratt, op. cit., p.120.

13
An old measurement of length, approximating to eighteen inches. Thus eight cubits would be around twelve feet (3.66 m) of water in the
lower decks of the Spanish ships.

14
Barratt, op. cit., pp.112–13. There were reports that Medina Sidonia had been wounded with a gash on one leg during the Battle of
Gravelines. The captain general had given his boat-cloak to Gongora. Another of his cloaks covered a wounded ship’s boy in his cabin below. See Mattingly,
Defeat of the Spanish
Armada
, p.308.

15
Duro,
La armada Invencible
, vol. 2, p.405.

16
Laughton, op. cit., vol. 2, p.10.

17
Ibid., p.58; Martin & Parker,
The Spanish Armada
, p.179; Duro, op. cit., vol. 2, pp.271 and 400.

18
Laughton, op. cit., vol.2, pp.10–11.

19
Duro, op. cit., vol. 2, p.407.

20
TNA, SP 12/213/64, f.148.

21
TNA, SP 12/213/65, f.150.

22
Laughton, op. cit., vol. 2, p.40.

23
TNA, SP 12/213/71, f.165.

24
Don Pedro de Mendoza’s Biscayan vice-flagship
El Gran Grin
was also badly damaged by the recoil of her guns.

25
Sir William Borlas, governor of Flushing, to Walsingham, 13 August 1588.
CSP Foreign Elizabeth
, vol. 22, p.104. Another report
from a Spanish spy in London suggested that Browne and his companion in arms were hanged. Philip noted on the margin of this despatch:
‘You will know very well who this
is.’
CSP Spain (Simancas)
, vol. 4, p.372. A third report, by Richard Esherton, provost of the Merchant Adventurers’ Company in Flushing, said prisoners had told him the two
Englishmen had been killed in the fleet action off Gravelines.
CSP Foreign Elizabeth
, vol. 22, p.113.

26
CSP Foreign Elizabeth
, vol. 22, p.111. There is no ‘Tostal’ or any name resembling it, among the mayors or sheriffs
of London in the sixteenth century up to 1588. The fate of these two Englishmen is unknown.

27
CSP Spain (Simancas)
, vol. 4, p.445.

28
Duro, op. cit., vol. 2, p.407; Oria
et al., La armada Invencible
, p.325. See also: Martin & Parker, op. cit., p.180.

29
Barratt, op. cit., p.129.

30
Fernandez-Armesto,
The Spanish Armada: The Experience of War
, p.202.

31
CSP Spain (Simancas)
, vol. 4, p.403.

32
Laughton, op. cit., vol. 2, p.65.

33
BL Add. MS 33,740, f.6. The resolution carried the ‘protestation that if our wants of victuals and munitions were supplied, we
would pursue them to the furthest they dared [to] have gone’.

34
CSP Spain (Simancas)
, vol. 4, p.403.

35
BL Add. MS 32,092, f.102.

36
CSP Spain (Simancas)
, vol. 4, p.384. Valdés was held at the home of Sir Francis Drake’s kinsman, Richard Drake, at
Esher, Surrey, southwest of London, together with the infantry captains Don Alonso de Çayas and Don Vasco de Mendoça y de Silva. Here, they received ‘the best usage and
entertainment that may be’. About forty of ‘the better sort’ of prisoner were lodged in merchants’ houses in London. Presumably they gave their parole – promising not
to attempt escape. See: Laughton, op. cit., vol. 2, p.136.

37
Laughton, op. cit., vol. 2, pp.24–9.

38
Gerson, ‘English Recusants and the Spanish Armada’, p.594.

39
CSP Domestic Elizabeth, 1581–90
, p.527. Sixty-year-old Shrewsbury had impeccable credentials as a supporter of Elizabeth;
he had served as keeper of Mary Queen of Scots 1569–83 and, as lord high steward, had presided over the trial of Thomas Howard, Fourth Duke of Norfolk in 1571.

40
CSP Domestic Elizabeth, 1581–90
, p.526.

41
Laughton, op. cit., vol. 2, p.93. The information came from ‘Mr Nevinson’, Scott’s scoutmaster, who may have
misunderstood Drake.

42
Laughton, op. cit., vol. 2, p.54.

43
CSP Domestic Elizabeth, 1581–90
, p.527.

44
Duro, op. cit., vol. 2, pp.407–8.

45
Medina Sidonia was catching up on his sleep and left orders not to be disturbed. He took no part in the court martials and
Cuéllar reported he ‘kept [to] his cabin and was very unhappy and did not want anyone to speak to him’.

46
Duro, op. cit., vol. 2, p.337.

47
CSP Spain (Simancas)
, vol. 4, p.447.

48
Laughton, op. cit., vol. 2, p.54.

49
CSP Spain (Simancas)
, vol. 4, p.404.

50
Ibid., p.447.

51
Olivares to Philip II; Rome, 8 and 19 August 1588. Ibid., pp.368 and 385.

52
Gritti to the Doge and Senate of Venice; Rome, 20 August 1588.
CSP Venice
, vol. 8, p.379. Sixtus had a pet plan to rebuild the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in Rome. ‘It would be possible to buy it from the Turks but he did not want to prove to the world that he had abandoned all hope of recovering it by
[force of] arms,’ Gritti reported. The Pope was piqued that the Spanish army ‘would be sufficient for this purpose’ but was now engaged in a war with England, rather than helping
achieve his ambitions in the Holy Land.

53
Philip to Bernardino de Mendoza and Medina Sidonia; El Escorial Palace, San Lorenzo,
CSP Spain (Simancas)
, vol. 4,
pp.384–5.

54
Lippomano to the Doge and Senate of Venice; Madrid, 20 August 1588.
CSP Venice
, vol. 8, p.378.

55
Mendoza to Philip II; Paris, 20 August 1588.
CSP Spain (Simancas)
, vol. 4, p.586. Stafford to Walsingham; Paris, 19 August
1588.
CSP Foreign Elizabeth
, vol. 22, p.115.

56
CSP Spain (Simancas)
, vol. 4, pp.410–11.

57
Mattingly, op. cit., pp.320–1.

58
The Queen’s usher was charged with preparing for her reception at any house where she was to stay.

59
CSP Domestic Elizabeth, 1581–90
, p.525.

60
Ibid., p.529.

61
The Queenes most excellent Maiestie, being minded in this daungerous time to intertain a certain number of captaines and souldiers
for the garding of her royall person . . . by this proclamation straightly to charge and command that all and every person and persons . . . do observe and keep such rates and prices for all kinds
of victuals,
horsemeate, lodging and other necessaries . . .
Proclamation signed at St James’, 17 August 1588.

62
Leicester means his own quarters at West Tilbury.

63
Christy, ‘Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Tilbury’, p.47.

64
Ibid., p.52.

65
John Stow,
A Summarie of the Chronicles of England . . . unto 1590
(London, 1590), p.751. This was the home of Mr Edward Rich,
a justice of the peace for Essex.

66
Thomas Deloney,
The Queenes Visiting of the Campe at Tilburie . . .
f.3.

67
Karen Hearne, ‘Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada’, p.131.

68
BL Harleian MS 6,798, f.87. A late sixteenth-century copy, reprinted in Marcus
et al., Elizabeth I: Collected Works
,
pp.325–6.

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.180
r
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.

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.