Then as to Ammunition, [[13]]this Fleet had a very great Number of Cannons, double Cannons, Culverins, and Field-Pieces for Land-Service; seven thousand Muskets and Calievers; ten thousand Halberts and Partizans; one hundred and twenty thousand Cannon-Balls; [[14]]one hundred Quintals of Lead for Bullets (each Quintal being a hundred weight,) twelve thousand Quintals of Match; fifty six thousand Quintals of Gunpowder; and also, Waggons, and other Carriages; Horses, Mules, and other Instruments and Necessaries for Conveyance by Land; Torches, Lanthorns, Canvas, Hides, Lead; Chains, Whips, Butchering-Knives, Halters, and other Instruments of Death and Slavery[[15]]; and Spades, Mattocks, Baskets, and every thing else requisite for Pioneers Work; as also eight hundred Mules for drawing the Ordnance and Carriages.
Proportionable to these Forces was their great Store of Provisions of every Sort: [[16]]for, besides Raisins in great abundance, they had eight thousand Quintals of Fish; three thousand Quintals of Rice; six thousand three hundred and twenty [[17]]Septiers of Beans, Pease, &c. eleven thousand three hundred and ninety eight Pounds of Olive-Oyl; thirty three thousand eight hundred and seventy Measures of Vinegar; ninety six thousand Quintals of Biscuit; three thousand four hundred and fifty eight Quintals of Goats Cheese; six thousand five hundred Quintals of Bacon; one hundred and forty seven thousand Pipes of Wine; twelve thousand Pipes of Water, &c.—Provisions in a word they had for six Months; and so well furnished were they, that Sir Francis Drake observes, in a Letter of his, [[18]]they had Provisions of Bread and Wine sufficient to maintain forty thousand Men for a whole Year.
The whole Fleet, in general, is said[[19]] to have contained thirty two thousand Persons, and cost every Day thirty thousand Ducats[[20]].
The General of the Land Forces, and the Commander in Chief in the whole Expedition, was Don Alfonso Perez de Guzman, Duke of Medina Sidonia; and the Admiral was Don Juan Martinez de Recalde.
But it was not in Spain only, that such great Preparations were carrying on, for the Invasion of England. For, Alexander Duke of Parma was also making on his Side prodigious and amazing Preparations, to assist in this grand Design.
He gathered together out of Spain, France, Savoy, Italy, Naples, Sicily, Germany, and even out of America, a very considerable and choice Army; [[21]]consisting of about forty thousand Foot, and three thousand Horse; out of which he selected thirty thousand Foot, and eighteen hundred Horse, that were to be ready to pass into England. These Troops were quarter’d as follows: [[22]]Near Nieuport there lay ready thirty Companies of Italians; ten of Walloons; and eight of Scots, and as many of Burgundians: At Dixmude were eighty Companies of Netherlanders; sixty of Spaniards; sixty of Germans; and above seven hundred fugitive English, Scots, and Irish, under the Command of Sir William Stanley, and Charles Nevil Earl of Westmoreland. There were moreover four thousand Men posted at Corrick, and nine hundred at Watene.
For the Transportation of these Forces, the Duke of Parma prepar’d Ships at Nieuport, Dunkirk, Antwerp, and other Places; and caused some new ones to be built with such Expedition, that they seem’d, as Strada expresses it, [[23]]to be transform’d in a Moment, from Trees into Ships.
More particularly: [[24]]In the River of Watten he caused seventy flat-bottom’d Boats to be built, each of which could carry thirty Horses; and to each of them were Bridges fitted for the convenient Shipping, or Landing of the Horses. There were in most of them, two Ovens for baking Bread, with a great Quantity of Saddles, Bridles, Harness, and a good Number of Draught-Horses, to draw the Engines, Cannons, and other Ammunition, after the Spaniards should be landed. Of the same Form he had provided two hundred other Vessels at Nieuport, but not so large. And at Dunkirk he had assembled thirty eight Men of War; for the navigating of which, he had hired Sailors from Bremen, Hamburgh, Emden, and Genoa. In their Ballast he had put a great Quantity of Beams, or thick Planks, sharpned at the Ends, and covered with Iron; but full of Clasps and Hooks on the Sides, that they might be easily joined together. At Graveling, he had provided twenty thousand Casks, which might in a short Time be fastened together with Nails and Cords, and reduced into the Form of a Bridge. Whatever, in a Word, was necessary for making Bridges, or for choaking up the Mouths of Havens and Rivers, was by him got in readiness. And he had even caused a great Pile of wooden Faggots to be laid near Nieuport, for erecting a Mount or Rampart. Whilst he was thus furnishing himself with all proper Vessels and other Necessaries, he caused the shallow and sandy Places of Rivers to be cleared; and had deep Channels cut in proper Places, from Ghent to Ysendyck, Sluys, and Nieuport, on purpose to convey the Ships built at Antwerp, Ghent, &c. into the Sea. Finally, he assembled at Bruges above one hundred Hoys loaden with Provisions, which he designed to bring into the Ports of Flanders, either by the Way of Sluys, or through the forementioned Channels.
The Duke of Guise had also twelve thousand Men on the Coast of Normandy, ready to land in the West of England as soon as the Spanish Armada had enter’d the Channel[[25]]; but the Spaniards coming two Months later than they intended, (or for some other Reasons) the Duke dismissed his Forces about the End of June.
And that this famous Expedition might be supported with spiritual as well as temporal Weapons[[26]], Pope Sixtus V created William Allen, a seditious English Priest, Cardinal; and sent him as his Legate into the Low-Countries, with a Bull; wherein, after enumerating the several Causes of Complaint the See of Rome had against Queen Elizabeth, (namely her suppressing the Catholic Religion, her putting the Queen of Scots to Death, &c.) he renewed and confirmed the Sentence of Excommunication pronounced against her by his Predecessors Pius V and Gregory XIII, deprived her, as illegitimate, and an Usurper, from all Princely Dignity, and Dominion over the Kingdoms of England and Ireland; absolved her Subjects from their Allegiance; and strictly enjoined them, upon Pain of God Almighty’s Displeasure, not to lend her any Help or Assistance, but to join the Spanish Army, and the Duke of Parma’s Forces, as soon as they should be landed: Promising withal a plenary Indulgence and the Pardon of all their Sins, to as many as would engage in so laudable an Undertaking.