Borough was not found guilty by the court of law where Drake accused him; but his grief of mind endured long. Some time after, he wrote that “he was very fain to ease it as he might, hoping in good time he should.”
CHAPTER XI
THE GREAT ARMADA
Drake’s raid upon the Spanish coast made it impossible for the Armada to sail in 1587. But after waiting so long Philip made his preparations with an almost feverish haste. The death of his great general, Santa Cruz, hindered his plans very much. Santa Cruz was a commander of experience and renown, and the man most fitted, both by his rank and his qualities, to undertake “the enterprise of England.”
The man chosen to succeed him was the Duke of Medina Sidonia, whose exalted rank seems to have been his chief claim to the difficult place into which he was thrust by Philip. He had no desire to take the place; he wrote to Philip and told him quite simply that he was no seaman, and knew little about naval fighting and less about England. But he was ordered to take the fleet into the English Channel and take possession of Margate. He was then to send ships to bring the Duke of Parma and his army in safety to England, when Parma was to assume the command of the expedition.
But, after all, the Armada was not ready to sail till July 1588, and the months between then and January were filled by the English with preparations for defence. They had to face the difficulties, much greater then than now, of keeping both men and ships on the seas, and yet fit for action. Life on board ship tried the men very severely. We have seen how often sickness broke out among the sailors if they were kept long to their crowded, unhealthy quarters. The feeding of both navies seems to have been a task of great difficulty. This was due to the hurried demand for vast quantities of stores, such as biscuit and salt meat The Spaniards, too, owing to Drake’s foresight, had lost their water-casks, and had to depend on new ones of unseasoned wood, which leaked.
Lord Howard, a cousin of the Queen, was made Lord High Admiral of England, and Drake was his Vice-Admiral and John Hawkins his Rear-Admiral. With them served many other famous men, such as Fenner, Frobisher, Wynter, and Seymour, and many younger men from noble families. All were working hard, with spirits stretched to an unusual pitch of endurance. In the letters they wrote about the business in hand to the Queen and her Ministers of State there is a note of high courage and defiance; and a distant echo comes down to us from the dim old letters of all the stir and bustle as the men gathered to the ships, and of the hum of excitement about the clamouring dockyards. The shipwrights were working day and night Lord Howard says he has been on board every ship “where any man may creep,” and thanks God for their good state, and that “never a one of them knows what a leak means.” Sir William Wynter tells how badly the ships had suffered in the winter storms, but adds: “Our ships doth show themselves like gallants here. I assure you it will do a man’s heart good to behold them; and would to God the Prince of Parma were upon the seas with all his forces, and we in the view of them; then I doubt not but that you should hear we would make his enterprises very unpleasant to him.”
The ships are always spoken of like live creatures, and their personal histories are well known and remembered. Lord Howard says of his Ark (which was bought of Sir Walter Raleigh by the Queen): “And I pray you tell her Majesty from me that her money was well given for the Ark Ralegh, for I think her the odd (only) ship in the world for all conditions; and truly I think there can no great ship make me change and go out of her.” And again: “I mean not to change out of her I am in for any ship that ever was made.”
Drake had “her Majesty’s very good ship the Revenge” which was so famous then and afterwards. Lord Henry Seymour writes from on board “the Elizabeth Bonaventure, the fortunate ship where Sir Francis Drake received all his good haps.” Howard and Drake, with other commanders of experience, were of one mind; they wanted to go out and meet the enemy upon the coasts of Spain, and so prevent the Spanish fleet from ever reaching England.
Howard pressed this opinion as that of men whom the world judged to be the wisest in the kingdom. But the Queen was unwilling to send the fleet away, and she still talked of making peace.
Both the Spaniards and the English were persuaded that God was fighting with them. Philip told the Duke of Medina Sidonia, that as the cause was the cause of God, he could not fail. In England Drake was saying that “the Lord is on our side”; and Fenner wrote to the Queen: “God mightily defend my gracious Mistress from the raging enemy; not doubting that all the world shall know and see that her Majesty’s little army, guided by the finger of God, shall beat down the pride of His enemies and hers, to His great glory.” Nowadays we do not look upon our enemies as necessarily the enemies of God.