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17 - Sir Francis Drake by Julian Corbett · Sir Francis Drake

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  Speaker 1: Section seventeen of Sir Francis Drake by Julian Corbett. This
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Pamelinagami,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter ten in Quest of the Spanish Armada, Part one,
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  Speaker 1: still burning for action. On June twenty sixth Drake reached
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  Speaker 1: Plymouth with his splendid prize, and after a fortnight was
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  Speaker 1: spent in getting her up to Saltash and overhauling the
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  Speaker 1: priceless cargo with a chest full of jewels and the
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  Speaker 1: bill of lading, he hurried to court, hoping to dazzle
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  Speaker 1: the Queen into giving him the orders he so ardently desired.
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  Speaker 1: But all was in vain. Not all Drake's temptation, nor
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  Speaker 1: all that Burley and Walsingham could urge availed to stir
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  Speaker 1: the obstinate mood into which Mary Stuart's execution had plunged her.
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  Speaker 1: She would attend to nothing but the funeral. Burley and
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  Speaker 1: all the war party were still in disc grace for
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  Speaker 1: having stolen the serpent from her bosom, and she stubbornly
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  Speaker 1: shut her ear to all who did not speak of peace.
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  Speaker 1: Drake's exploits promised to erect the whole negotiations, and he
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  Speaker 1: was pitilessly reprimanded. So far from being allowed to assist him,
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  Speaker 1: Burley was set to write dispatches assuring Parma that the
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  Speaker 1: admiral had exceeded his instructions and was in disgrace. Orders
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  Speaker 1: were sent down to pay off his ships, and the
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  Speaker 1: hunger which his small beginning, as he called it, had
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  Speaker 1: only wedded, had to go unappeased. Still, he might have
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  Speaker 1: been content, for the actual havoc he had made was
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  Speaker 1: but a little thing beside its moral effect. Not only
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  Speaker 1: had he taught English seamen to despise the dreaded galleys,
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  Speaker 1: but in the rank and file of Philip's host he
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  Speaker 1: had planted a terror against which it was vain to struggle.
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  Speaker 1: That a Lutheran heretic could so prevail against the army
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  Speaker 1: of God could admit, as men thought then, of but
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  Speaker 1: one explanation, and that the Church made haste to foster.
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  Speaker 1: Drake was a magician. He had sold his soul to
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  Speaker 1: Satan for a familiar by whose aid he worked. In
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  Speaker 1: his cabin was a glass in which was shown him
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  Speaker 1: the fleets of his enemies, and all that passed on board.
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  Speaker 1: He could count their crews and watch their movements, And
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  Speaker 1: like the Norse witches of old, by some dark bargain,
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  Speaker 1: he had bought the power to garner the winds and
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  Speaker 1: loose or bind them at his will. Let no one
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  Speaker 1: underrate what all this meant. He cannot read or write
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  Speaker 1: the history of that time. Who fails to grasp how
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  Speaker 1: such a personality could oppress the imagination? Sorcery was then
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  Speaker 1: as real as sin, and men moved and breathed and
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  Speaker 1: thought in an atmosphere charged with magic. Nor was this
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  Speaker 1: all if the superstitious fishermen that manned Philip's ships he
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  Speaker 1: uttered before a new devil. The romantic chivalry of Castile
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  Speaker 1: had found another roland for the cruise to fight was madness.
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  Speaker 1: For the captain's surrender was no shame to the king.
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  Speaker 1: His name was a torment. The grandees looked cold disdain
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  Speaker 1: when it was uttered. The Pope mocked at him and
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  Speaker 1: said Elizabeth's distaff was keener than Philip's sword. He invited
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  Speaker 1: a lady to go upon the water, and she protested
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  Speaker 1: she dare not, for fear the dragon should come and
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  Speaker 1: take her from her sovereign's arms. Philip banished her from
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  Speaker 1: the court and smarting under the scourge redoubled his activity,
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  Speaker 1: but still he had to feel what foreign critics were
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  Speaker 1: saying openly that in England was a man before whom
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  Speaker 1: his armada might be not invincible, and his crusade a disgrace.
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  Speaker 1: Yet he relaxed no fiber, nor did Drake forbidden to
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  Speaker 1: strike Philip abroad. He turned earned his animosity against the
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  Speaker 1: trader he saw at home. Though the government refused to
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  Speaker 1: carry out the sentence of death, Burrough was brought before
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  Speaker 1: a court martial. Charge upon charge, Drake heaped implacably on
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  Speaker 1: his head and confounded him with crowds of witnesses, too
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  Speaker 1: eager to win the Great Admiral's favor. Yet, to his
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  Speaker 1: indignation and astonishment, the court refused to convict the prisoner
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  Speaker 1: of treason. More they could not do. It was impossible
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  Speaker 1: for them not to find that the veteran who, seventeen
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  Speaker 1: years ago had so brilliantly defeated the Baltic pirates, had
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  Speaker 1: lost his nerve, and so, with clouded reputation in administrative
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  Speaker 1: employ and once in command of a dispatch vessel, he
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  Speaker 1: fades from history, moaning hopelessly over the charges which had
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  Speaker 1: broken his heart, but to crush the man who, as
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  Speaker 1: he believed, had ruined his enterprise was not enough for
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  Speaker 1: Drake's energy years he had never ceased a day to
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  Speaker 1: do and dare against Spain, and he was not likely
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  Speaker 1: to be still at such an hour as this. If
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  Speaker 1: the Queen would not make war, he was determined to
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  Speaker 1: do it on his own account. As he looked round
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  Speaker 1: him for the best method of pursuing his lifelong quest,
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  Speaker 1: his eyes could not but turn on the abortive project
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  Speaker 1: of five years ago. It had been in his mind
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  Speaker 1: for some time. As he lay off Lisbon in May,
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  Speaker 1: he had ascertained that the Portuguese were expecting him to
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  Speaker 1: land with Don Antonio and his company, and for the
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  Speaker 1: rest of the time he was on the coast he
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  Speaker 1: had been carefully preparing his ground by conciliating them in
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  Speaker 1: every way he could. Don Antonio, over head and ears
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  Speaker 1: in debt, was still hanging about the capital, ready for
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  Speaker 1: anything that would release him from the clutches of his creditors.
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  Speaker 1: Black John Norris, Drake's old brother in arms, was there too,
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  Speaker 1: out of employ and in disgrace for presuming to try
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  Speaker 1: and save the English arms in the Low Countries from
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  Speaker 1: Lester's incompetence. The capture of the Great Karak had set
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  Speaker 1: the merchants mouths watering for the Indian fleet, and everything
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  Speaker 1: seemed ripe for a repetition of the Great king making project.
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  Speaker 1: The only difficulty was the Queen. But Drake had every
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  Speaker 1: ground for a comfortable faith in her love of tortuous
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  Speaker 1: political moves. He knew too at what value to set
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  Speaker 1: her reprimands. And moreover, he had at court a new friend,
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  Speaker 1: more powerful and eager than Hatton himself. The young Earl
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  Speaker 1: of Essex, the son of his old patron, was just
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  Speaker 1: now in the first flush of his favor and his
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  Speaker 1: passion for adventure. He had just been caught in an
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  Speaker 1: attempt to escape to the seat of war in the
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  Speaker 1: Low Countries, and brought back to play games with his
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  Speaker 1: fond and lonely mistress. Smelling traitors. Now with every breath,
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  Speaker 1: Drake pursued his intrigue in such deep mystery that only
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  Speaker 1: here and there his workings show on the surface. Still
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  Speaker 1: there can be no doubt that he suggested to the
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  Speaker 1: forlorn young truant a new way of escape. The coaxing
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  Speaker 1: of her favorite and the temptations of her little pirate
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  Speaker 1: were always hard for the Queen to resist, and as
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  Speaker 1: she found her apologies to Spain accepted, and the negotiations
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  Speaker 1: for peace going smoothly, once more opposition in high quarters
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  Speaker 1: seemed to disappear. Don Antonio received a thousand pounds to
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  Speaker 1: pay his more pressing debts. Ships began to collect at Plymouth.
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  Speaker 1: The carrick was ordered to be sold that the merchants
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  Speaker 1: interested might refit their vessels, and by the end of
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  Speaker 1: October Drake had formed a syndicate to provide the fifty
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  Speaker 1: thousand pounds which were required of him as a privateer
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  Speaker 1: by way of caution money. Everything promised well for his
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  Speaker 1: new war under Don Antonio's flag, when all at once
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  Speaker 1: Elizabeth was confronted with the fruit of her folly in
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  Speaker 1: not having permitted Drake to return at once in complete
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  Speaker 1: his work. Walsingham's brilliant financial operations by which he had
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  Speaker 1: got the King of Spain's bills protested at Genoa, were
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  Speaker 1: in vain for the safe arrival of the great convoys
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  Speaker 1: had restored Spanish credit, and stung at last from his patients,
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  Speaker 1: Philip found himself rich enough to indulge in an outburst
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  Speaker 1: of energy that surprised both friends and foes. Regardless of
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  Speaker 1: the season, the Armada was to sail ere. The year
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  Speaker 1: was out and England, after years of warning, was taken
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  Speaker 1: by surprise once more. The country was tossing in a
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  Speaker 1: fever of warlike preparation. The Navy was to be put
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  Speaker 1: on its war footing, and Drake was summoned to headquarters
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  Speaker 1: to take counsel for the safety of the realm in
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  Speaker 1: Endeavoring to appreciate the strategy of this time, for which
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  Speaker 1: Drake and Sir John Norris must be held responsible, as
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  Speaker 1: respectively the Naval and military chiefs of the Staff, it
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  Speaker 1: must be remembered that England was threatened by three separate
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  Speaker 1: invasions at the same moment. In Spain was the Armada.
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  Speaker 1: In Flanders was Parma with an army of thirty thousand
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  Speaker 1: of the finest soldiers in Europe, with adequate transport and
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  Speaker 1: a small fleet to convoy them, while the border was
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  Speaker 1: in peril from the Scots. Any two of these dangers,
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  Speaker 1: or even all three, might combine, but the best intelligence
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  Speaker 1: led to the belief that Parma meant to join the Scots,
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  Speaker 1: while the Armada seized Ireland or the Isle of Wight
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  Speaker 1: as a base of operations against the West or South.
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  Speaker 1: In view of this information and the fact that the Queen,
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  Speaker 1: still obstinately clinging to her hope of peace, would only
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  Speaker 1: openly sanction a defensive war, there is little fault to
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  Speaker 1: be found with the English naval dispositions. A fleet under
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  Speaker 1: Lord Henry Seymour, with Sir William Winter and Sir Henry
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  Speaker 1: Palmer as flag officers, was to watch Parma in the
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  Speaker 1: narrow seas and to act act in concert with the
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  Speaker 1: Dutch who were blockading the Spanish Netherland ports. To command
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  Speaker 1: in chief, Lord Howard of Effington was commissioned Lord High
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  Speaker 1: Admiral with authority to invade the Spanish dominions. For this purpose,
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  Speaker 1: he was to be in command of the main fleet,
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  Speaker 1: with John Hawkins and Martin Frobisher for his flag officers.
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  Speaker 1: For Drake was reserved the high rank of lieutenant to
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  Speaker 1: the Lord High Admiral, an office which seemed designed to
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  Speaker 1: give him as full a control over the war at
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  Speaker 1: sea as the lingering feudality of the Constitution would allow
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  Speaker 1: to a commoner, however great his professional capacity. By virtue
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  Speaker 1: of the office, he became President of the Naval Council
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  Speaker 1: of War, and as the Lord Admiral's deputy, could exercise
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  Speaker 1: all the powers of that officer's commission at the head
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  Speaker 1: of an independent command. With this in view, his little
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  Speaker 1: fleet of privateers was reinforced from the Thames and Portsmouth
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  Speaker 1: dockyards with four battleships, a cruiser and a couple of
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  Speaker 1: smart gunboats. His division was thus raised to thirty sail,
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  Speaker 1: and the plan of action seems to have been that
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  Speaker 1: while Howard guarded the channel, Drake was to inflict a
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  Speaker 1: counter blow somewhere. It was given out that he was
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  Speaker 1: once more bound for the Spanish main, and volunteers flocked
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  Speaker 1: to his flag. His real destination was kept a profound secret,
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  Speaker 1: but we cannot doubt what it was. For at Christmas
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  Speaker 1: time a spy was reporting to Burley that Don Antonio
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  Speaker 1: might easily be restored to his throne, and in January
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  Speaker 1: the instructions of the commissioners who were going over to
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  Speaker 1: Flanders to treat foreign armistice, were modified so as to
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  Speaker 1: forbid Portugal or Donantonio being included in the negotiations. In
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  Speaker 1: the light of this extraordinary piece of state craft, Elizabeth
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  Speaker 1: appears hardly so single hearted in her struggle to keep
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  Speaker 1: the peace, as some have thought her, but she was
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  Speaker 1: at least concert. Her darling policy had been all along
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  Speaker 1: to do her brother in law grievous bodily harm without
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  Speaker 1: committing a breach of the peace, and Drake had ever
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  Speaker 1: been the weapon that most nicely fitted her hand. She
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  Speaker 1: could not believe that Philip's patience was at last exhausted,
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  Speaker 1: and under Donantonio's flag, she thought, like Celia in the play,
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  Speaker 1: to make herself invisible and catch the strong fellow by
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  Speaker 1: the leg. Such was Drake's mission, as on January third
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  Speaker 1: he went down to Plymouth to hoist his flag. It
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  Speaker 1: was fitly borne by the immortal revenge than which no
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  Speaker 1: ship was ever more gilded with the romance of war.
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  Speaker 1: His old friend Thomas Fenner was his vice admiral in
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  Speaker 1: the Known Pareal. His rear admiral was Captain Cross In
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  Speaker 1: the Hope. Edward Fenner commanded the Swift Shore, his fourth battleship,
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  Speaker 1: and Will Fenner's flag flew over his cruiser. The Aid.
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  Speaker 1: Beside the royal ships rode five splendid merchantmen of London,
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  Speaker 1: perfectly found as the Londoners always were the westward west
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  Speaker 1: country craft belonging to himself and his own, in his
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  Speaker 1: wife's relations and friends. All outward bound vessels had been stayed,
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  Speaker 1: and Drake could pick his crews from the flower of
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  Speaker 1: the English Marine, who flocked to his flag. In numbers
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  Speaker 1: it was said sufficient to man two hundred sail. True
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  Speaker 1: half crews only had been sanctioned. But to this foolish
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  Speaker 1: piece of economy, Drake paid no attention, regardless of all
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  Speaker 1: but his end. He manned his fleet with its full compliment,
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  Speaker 1: and when the time came, sent in the bill without
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  Speaker 1: a word. While Drake was thus busy with his expeditionary force,
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  Speaker 1: Howard covered Plymouth and watched for the armada off the
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  Speaker 1: land's end, but he watched in vain. The seas were
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  Speaker 1: still free. The winter campaign seemed a false alarm, and Howard,
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  Speaker 1: about the middle of January was recalled to the Thames, where,
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  Speaker 1: in spite of his protests, half his crews were paid off.
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  Speaker 1: Early in February came a new alarm, and Howard was
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  Speaker 1: once more ordered to manage ships and put to sea.
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  Speaker 1: But while the Lord Admiral and Seymour were thus distracted
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  Speaker 1: with orders that changed with every new report from Spain,
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  Speaker 1: and every new turn of the negotiations. Drake, except when
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  Speaker 1: he practiced too hard with his big guns, was not
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  Speaker 1: meddled with men, said he would still sail, and Philip,
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  Speaker 1: trembling for his reconstructed fleet, left no stone unturned to
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  Speaker 1: get him stopped. Crofts, his pensioner, and the English Council
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  Speaker 1: even went so far as to tempt the Queen's cupidity
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  Speaker 1: with a scheme for his disgrace and the confiscation of
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  Speaker 1: his wealth. Essex two was made to suspect that the
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  Speaker 1: Admiral meant to play him false and treat him as
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  Speaker 1: he had treated Sydney. And as his preparations approached completion,
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  Speaker 1: Drake grew more and more anxious. Nor was it without cause.
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  Speaker 1: For ere the month was out, Crofts had prevailed, the
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  Speaker 1: Commissioners for Peace went over to Ostend, and the Plymouth
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  Speaker 1: fleet was stopped. End of Section seventeen