History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce, Volume 2 (of 4)

by W. S. Lindsay

Questionable conduct of Elizabeth.

It was, however, no easy matter to accomplish. It would have been too monstrous an outrage to have openly seized any of the rich Spanish vessels which then lay in her ports, or to have fitted out a fleet for Hawkins, granting him liberty to plunder as many of them as he could catch in the Channel. Some other means must be devised as there was not sufficient pretext for wanton violence. It required grave consideration, for it would expose the Queen’s government to reproach if any of the subjects of her “good ally” king Philip suffered wrong in English waters. While hesitating what to do, some English privateers, sailing under the flag of the Prince of Orange, and holding his letter of marque, brought into Plymouth Spanish and Portuguese prizes, with treasure on board said to be worth 200,000 ducats. The Spanish ambassador lodged a complaint with Elizabeth, and expressed his alarm for the safety of the large amount of treasure which was on board these vessels. Here an excellent opportunity presented itself for obtaining the recompense to which she considered herself entitled. With many expressions of regret for the insecurity of the seas, she offered either to convey the treasure by land to London and to transport it thence, or to permit the Duke of Alva, then in the Netherlands endeavouring to suppress the rebellion, to take it in his own ships to its destination. The ambassador, not without misgivings, accepted the latter alternative; nor, indeed, were his fears groundless. Elizabeth landed the treasure under the plea that “the audacity of the pirates” had rendered it necessary that she should keep it on shore under her own charge, as it would have been unsafe at sea even under convoy of her own fleets.

Vigorous action of the Spanish ambassador.

The Spanish ambassador was amazed. He could not suppress his astonishment; but, when he urged that the money was required immediately for the payment of his master’s troops, Elizabeth simply pleaded the insecurity of transport, remarking that she would keep it in perfect safety, though afterwards admitting that, as she was in want of money, her vigorous government had retained it “as a loan.” No sooner had the ambassador ascertained that this “loan” was to be appropriated, one half in doubling the English fleet, and the other in enabling the Prince of Orange to raise a second army against Alva, than he drew up a statement of the circumstances in Spanish and English for circulation in the city of London, and despatched his secretary in a swift boat to urge Alva to immediate reprisals. As the English trade with Flanders, though less than what it had been, was still a considerable source of the wealth of the London merchants, the Spanish ambassador hoped that they would join him in his protest and force the Queen to reimburse the treasure she had so unceremoniously retained for her own purposes. The Duke of Alva acted on the instant by arresting every English resident in the Low Countries, seizing such English ships as were in its ports, sequestering their cargoes, and imprisoning their crews; while couriers rode post haste across France to Spain, so that Philip might extend the embargo to every port within his dominions before the English had time to depart.

Prompt retaliation.

Elizabeth had hoped that her frivolous excuse for seizing the treasure would be accepted: at least she had no idea that such prompt reprisals would have been made; but, though the shock was great, she had taken a step from which, after the reprisals by Spain, she felt she could not at the time retreat. Forthwith a retaliating edict of the most stringent character appeared, ordering the immediate imprisonment of every Spaniard and Netherlander found in England, and the arrest of every vessel in her ports or in the Channel owned by any of Philip’s subjects. That very night the mayor and aldermen of the city of London went round to the houses of all the Spanish merchants, sealed up their warehouses, and carried them off from their beds to the Fleet prison. Even without Philip’s treasure the value of the Spanish and Flemish goods thus detained far exceeded the confiscation of Alva.[136] But the suppression of trade which these acts created caused great discontent in London, and there were many persons in England, especially among the old aristocracy, who felt that Elizabeth’s conduct had been far from creditable, and was a gross affront to her professed friend and ally, the king of Spain.

Injury to English trade less than might have been supposed.

The injury to English trade proved, however, less complete than the Spanish minister had anticipated. An eventual open rupture with Spain had long been foreseen and prepared for. But changes in the course of commerce were made with greater ease than he had calculated upon. Fresh openings of ports in the Baltic afforded new facilities for intercourse; and Hamburg readily took the place of Antwerp as the mart through which English goods could be carried into Germany. The merchants of London had also found new and more distant fields for their enterprise. They had pushed their way to Moscow, penetrated to Persia, and had opened out, by way of the Straits of Gibraltar, direct commercial intercourse with Constantinople and Alexandria, the ancient centres of the commerce of the world, and even with the Catholic state of Venice. Rochelle supplied the best wines and fruits of France; while its privateers intercepted the vessels sailing from the Catholic harbours, and their cargoes lay ready for export in the Huguenot storehouses. English spirit and energy having converted the loss feared by an exclusion from the Spanish and Flemish trades into gain, Elizabeth and her ministers became even more imperative in their demands. Alva, who had come to England to arrange, if possible, terms of conciliation and renewed intercourse, was informed that, if relations between Spain and England were to be re-established, the king himself must send a direct commission for that purpose; and, as a proof of Elizabeth’s determination to maintain the position she had taken in this affair, the ships which escorted Alva back to Dunkirk actually cut out from Calais roads a dozen rich Spanish merchantmen, and sent them to the Thames.

Hatred of the Catholics.

Whenever a ship could be found with a Catholic owner she was plundered by the English rovers. In harbour, in the Channel, or on the open sea, they became alike objects of their eager prey. While some of these freebooters were content to lie in wait for such vessels as contained Flemish prisoners whom they would set at liberty, others resolutely entered Spanish ports to rescue the English vessels, crews, and cargoes which had been detained in them. But their patriotism, like their religious enthusiasm, was ever blended with a love of plunder, for they invariably helped themselves to any valuables they came across in their cruises by land or by sea. To the yet deeper distress of Philip, the houses of the largest Spanish merchants in London were not merely searched and ransacked by Elizabeth’s police, but the plundered furniture of his chapel, the crucifixes and the images of the saints were borne in mock procession through the streets, and burnt in Cheapside amid the jeers of the populace, who cried as they saw them blazing, “These are the gods of Spain—to the flames with them and their worshippers.”[137]