The History of England, Volume IV Elizabeth Drake destroys the fleet at Cadiz
by David Hume
While Elizabeth ensured tranquillity from the attempts of her nearest neighbour, she was not negligent of more distant dangers. Hearing that Philip, though he seemed to dissemble the daily insults and injuries, which he received from the English, was secretly preparing a great navy to attack her; she sent Sir Francis Drake with a fleet to intercept his supplies, to pillage his coast, and to destroy his shipping. Drake carried out four capital ships of the queen’s, and twenty-six, great and small, with which the London merchants, in hopes of sharing in the plunder, had supplied him. Drake destroys the fleet at Cadiz.Having learned from two Dutch ships, which he met with in his passage, that a Spanish fleet, richly laden, was lying at Cadiz, ready to set sail for Lisbon, the rendezvous of the intended Armada; he bent his course to the former harbour, and boldly, as well as fortunately, made an attack on the enemy. He obliged six gallies, which made head against him, to take shelter under the forts; he burned about a hundred vessels, laden with ammunition and naval stores; and he destroyed a great ship of the marquess of Santa Croce. Thence, he set sail for Cape St. Vincent, and took by assault the castle situated on that promontory, with three other fortresses. He next insulted Lisbon; and finding, that the merchants, who had engaged entirely in expectation of profit, were discontented at these military enterprizes, he set sail for the Terceras, with an intention of lying in wait for a rich Carrack, which was expected in those parts. He was so fortunate as to meet with his prize; and by this short expedition, in which the public bore so small a share, the adventurers were encouraged to attempt farther enterprizes, the English seamen learned to despise the great unwieldy ships of the enemy, the naval preparations of Spain were destroyed, the intended expedition against England was retarded a twelvemonth, and the queen thereby had leisure to take more secure measures against that formidable invasion.h
This year Thomas Cavendish, a gentleman of Devonshire, who had dissipated a good estate by living at court, being resolved to repair his fortune at the expence of the Spaniards, fitted out three ships at Plymouth, one of a hundred and twenty tons, another of sixty, and a third of forty; and with these small vessels he ventured into the South Sea, and committed great depredations on the Spaniards. He took nineteen vessels, some of which were richly laden; and returning by the Cape of Good Hope, he came to London, and entered the river in a kind of triumph. His mariners and soldiers were cloathed in silk, his sails were of damask, his top-sail cloth of gold; and his prizes were esteemed the richest that ever had been brought into England.i
The land enterprizes of the English were not, during this campaign, so advantageous or honourable to the nation. The important place of Deventer was intrusted by Leicester to William Stanley, with a garrison of twelve hundred English; and this gentleman, being a catholic, was alarmed at the discovery of Babington’s conspiracy, and became apprehensive, lest every one of his religion should thenceforth be treated with distrust in England. He entered into a correspondence with the Spaniards, betrayed the city to them for a sum of money, and engaged the whole garrison to desert with him to the Spanish service. Roland York, who commanded a fort near Zutphen, imitated his example; and the Hollanders, formerly disgusted with Leicester, and suspicious of the English, broke out into loud complaints against the improvidence, if not the treachery, of his administration. Soon after, he himself arrived in the Low Countries; but his conduct was no-wise calculated to give them satisfaction, or to remove the suspicions, which they had entertained against him. The prince of Parma having besieged Sluys, Leicester attempted to relieve the place, first by sea, then by land; but failed in both enterprizes; and as he ascribed his bad success, to the ill behaviour of the Hollanders, they were equally free in reflections upon his conduct. The breach between them became wider every day: They slighted his authority, opposed his measures, and neglected his counsels; while he endeavoured, by an imperious behaviour, and by violence, to recover that influence, which he had lost by his imprudent and ill-concerted measures. He was even suspected by the Dutch of a design to usurp upon their liberties; and the jealousy, entertained against him, began to extend towards the queen herself. That princess had made some advances towards a peace with Spain: A congress had been opened at Bourbourg, a village near Graveline: And though the two courts, especially that of Spain, had no other intention than to amuse each of them its enemy by negociation, and mutually relax the preparations for defence or attack, the Dutch, who were determined, on no terms, to return under the Spanish yoke, became apprehensive lest their liberty should be sacrificed to the political interests of England.k But the queen, who knew the importance of her alliance with the States during the present conjuncture, was resolved to give them entire satisfaction by recalling Leicester, and commanding him to resign his government. Maurice, son of the late prince of Orange, a youth of twenty years of age, was elected by the States governor in his place; and Peregrine lord Willoughby was appointed by the queen commander of the English forces. The measures of these two generals were much embarrassed by the malignity of Leicester, who had left a faction behind him, and who still attempted, by means of his emissaries, to disturb all the operations of the States. As soon as Elizabeth received intelligence of these disorders, she took care to redress them; and she obliged all the partizans of England to fall into unanimity with prince Maurice.l But though her good sense so far prevailed over her partiality to Leicester, she never could be made fully sensible of his vices and incapacity: The submissions, which he made her, restored him to her wonted favour; and Lord Buckhurst, who had accused him of misconduct in Holland, lost her confidence, for some time, and was even committed to custody.
Sir Christopher Hatton was another favourite, who at this time, received some marks of her partiality. Though he had never followed the profession of the law, he was made chancellor in the place of Bromley, deceased; but notwithstanding all the expectations and perhaps wishes of the lawyers, he behaved in a manner not unworthy of that high station: His good natural capacity supplied the place of experience and study; and his decisions were not found deficient either in point of equity or judgment. His enemies had contributed to this promotion, in hopes that his absence from court, while he attended the business of chancery, would gradually estrange the queen from him, and give them an opportunity of undermining him in her favour.
[h] Camden, p. 540. Sir William Monson’s Naval Tracts in Churchill’s Voyages, vol. iii. p. 156.
[i] Birch’s Memoirs, vol. i. p. 57.
[k] Bentivoglio, part ii. lib. 4. Strype, vol. iv. No. 246.
