Latest / Sir Francis Drake / 24 - Sir Francis Drake by Julian Corbett

Transcript

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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Section twenty four of Sir Francis Drake by Julian Corbett.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Pamel and Agami, Chapter thirteen, The Last Treasure Hunt, Part one.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: The Portugal voyage marks the decline of Drake's starr. And
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: yet when the effect of his armada is compared with
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: that of Philip's, it must seem a little strange that
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: most of his contemporaries should have considered it so great
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: a failure. The Spaniards, as the seamen boasted, did not
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: in all their sailing round about England, so much as
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: sink or take one ship, bark pinnis or cock boat
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: of ours, or even burn so much as one sheep
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: coat on this land. Drake and Norris had failed in
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: their object too, though mortality amongst their men had been appalling.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: But when all was said and done, they could point
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: with pride to an exploit which ere they had taught Europe.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: The risings strength of England men would have called incredible.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: In the ten weeks of their adventure, they had not
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: only destroyed the nucleus of a new armada, but they
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: had taken and burnt two Spanish ports. They had beaten
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: one army of the King of Spain in the field,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: and had made another run. They had marched a week
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: through the heart of his territory for three days. They
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: had insulted the gates of his second capital. They had
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: captured nearly a hundred sail in his waters, and all
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: this in spite of weather, sickness, and politics enough to
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: ruin three such expeditions. Sir Roger Williams told the Queen
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: the expedition had done the King of Spain more harm
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: in England, more honor, service and safety than all her
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: expenditure in the Netherlands. But though at first she sent
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: down to her two nights a glowing letter of thanks
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: and told them they had done all that valor and
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: generalship could yield, yet she could not forgive them for
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: not having wasted more time than they did in the
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: north of Spain. Had they been less loyal than they
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: were to her instructions, there is little doubt so paralyzed
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: was the Spanish power that the partisans of Don Antonio
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: would have been able to deliver Lisbon into his hands. Nevertheless,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: both generals had to submit to a court martial, and
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: though they cleared themselves. Drake's opponents at court, who had
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: gained the Queen's ear, condemned him to inactivity in vain.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: She was urged to loose him on the indies or
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: suffer him to attack Kaith so soon as the galleys
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: were laid up for the winter, she would not listen,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: and the fruit of his splendid victory at Gravelin was
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: allowed to rot away unplucked. For the rest of the year,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Drake was busy winding up the accounts of the voyage
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: and fighting his battle at court. The inevitable result was
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: that Philip's untiring persistence began again to be felt, and
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: in the spring came fresh rumors of a great fleet
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: gathering at fail. The country grew alarmed, and so serious
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: a panic seized Plymouth that the inhabitants began to abandon
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: their homes. Drake at once hurried to his house in
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: the town. There, with his wife and household, he quietly
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: took up his residence, and the panic was instantly allayed.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: On the top of this new proof of the Great
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Admiral's power, the government received information that the King of Spain,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: having heard how Drake was in Disgrace was making overtures
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: to him to enter his service. The intelligence came through
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: mister Richard Drake of Escher, a kinsman and warm friend
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: of Sir Francis, and thus may have been merely an
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: invention to alarm the government, so limitless was the Elizabethan
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: capacity for intrigue. Still it had the desired effect. Richard
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Drake was in Equerry in high favor, some of his
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: kinsmen's Spanish prisoners were in his custody. Philip had certainly
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: attempted a similar stroke before, and Sir Francis was promptly
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: given the command at Plymouth, with orders to place the
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: town in a state of defense and prepare with fire ships,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: and otherwise to resist any attempt by the Spaniards to
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: retaliate on the western ports. It was but little consolation.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: A great expedition against Panama was in contemplation, and Raleigh
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: had obtained the command of it for himself. It was
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Drake's by right, it had been the dream of his life,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: and it was in the deepest mortification that he took
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: up his small command. But even then his proud spirit
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: had not felt the depth of its abasement. As it
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: became known that the Spanish fleet was destined for Brittany,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Drake asked to be allowed to attack it as it
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: passed to the eastward, with the little squadron attached to
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: his command. Even that was denied him, for since by
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: the assassination of Henry the Third and the succession of
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: the Huguenot king, the center of the great struggle had
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: been shared France, the Queen was content to foster the
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Protestant cause by sending money and troops to the assistance
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: of Henry of Navarre. Her navy was not permitted to
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: complete its conquest of the seas, and all she would
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: sanction was that a squadron should be maintained in the
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Atlantic to cruise for the Indian treasure ships. At the
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: last moment, Raleigh's commission was revoked, his fleet was committed
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: to Hawkins and Frobisher, and Drake had the last mortification
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: of seeing it depart with his rival's flag floating over
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: the revenge that his self esteem was deeply and even
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: dangerously wounded as certain for a while he permitted himself
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: to contemplate an extravagant project for conquering the Kingdom of
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Brazil for himself and Don Antonio, But the idea perished
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: almost as soon as it was born. Impatient and masterful
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: as he had grown, his nature was too great and
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: loyal to revolt, or even to sulk under royal frowns.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: In all the ardor with which he had plundered and destroyed,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: he threw himself into the work of making Plymouth the
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: strong naval port of his ideal. Not only did he
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: carry out the works sanctioned by the government, but almost
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: entirely at his own expense. He brought pure water into
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: the town by a conduit many miles long, and constructed
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: flour mills to provide the fleets with wholesome and sufficient biscuit,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: works for which his memory is honored to this day
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: by a yearly ceremony. If Drake's princely gift to Plymouth
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: had any other motive than of far sighted patriotism, it
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: was certainly nothing less noble than a desire to regain
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: the favor of his capricious mistress. But he was not
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: yet to be forgiven. When the Atlantic Squadron came back
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: from a successful but barren blockade of the Spanish trade routes,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Hawkins resigned and Frobisher was tradransfer to the narrow seas,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: but it was not Drake who took their place. The
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: restless energy for which his work of coast defense was
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: not enough, he had to expend upon fitting out a
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: privateer squadron and promoting a syndicate to assist him with
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: funds the command. As his favorite Captain Fenner fell sick,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: he committed to the adventurous Earl of Cumberland with instructions
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: to cruise off the Spanish coast on an inner line
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: of blockade, and to intercept whatever escaped the Queen's ships
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: at the Azores. For the Atlantic Squadron, with Lord Thomas
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Howard in command, was again under orders for the Western Isles,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: and this was the immortal cruise, when the revenge was
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: entrusted to Sir Richard Grenville, who does not know the tail,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: and whose heart would not be moved when he tries
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: to picture the injured Admiral as he heard how the
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: ship he loved so well had fared while he was
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: eating out his heart between Plymouth and the great country
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: house of Buckland Abbey, which Sir Richard Grenville had sold
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: him the pride of his life. The very embodiment, as
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: it seemed of his savage creed, had perished in the
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: midst of the Spanish fleet, fighting for a day and
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: a night alone against a navy, and dealing destruction around her,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: to the last of the fifty three sails she fought for.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: She sank, and in the end did not surrender till
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: not a stick was standing, till every man, every pike,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: every barrel of powder was spent, and Sir Richard lay
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: gasping out his life in impotent defiance. Even then she
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: was not conquered, for true to her name, which to
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: those old mariners meant so much, she went down with
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: her prize crew before she could be carried into port.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: A terrific storm, the like of which no living man
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: had seen. Was her knell, and about her grave were
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: strewn along the shores of the Western Aisles, the wreckage
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: of a hundred Spanish ships and three thousand Spanish corpses.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: So it pleased them, Sir Walter Raleigh wrote to honor
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: the burial of that renowned ship, the revenge not suffering
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: her to perish alone for the great honor she achieved
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: in her lifetime. It was a loss to Spain hardly
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: less than that which the destruction of the Armada inflicted.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: But the tragedy was not yet at an end, for
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: as the revenge went down she seemed to summon Drake
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: to his doom. There was felt to be something ominous
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: in her loss, for so great a name had Drake
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: won for her that she had been chosen as the
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: model for the new ships that had been ordered after
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: the defeat of the Armada, and this, the most renowned
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: of all her navy, was the only vessel the Queen
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: had lost in all the war. By her, the shock
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: was deeply felt, and ere she had time to recover
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: from it, there fell upon her the shadow of a
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: danger greater than any she had yet encountered. The old
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: arm Armada had failed, partly because the invasion was attempted
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: from a coast so dangerous and so hard to reach
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: as that of Flanders, and partly from the faulty design
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: of the unwieldy Spanish ships. But now Philip, with splendid patience,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: was constructing a new navy on French and English lines,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: And in Brittany he had secured against his enemy an
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: advanced base which was untainted with any of the vices
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: of Dunkirk. The danger was plain, great and imminent, and
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: in the hour of her trouble, the Queen remembered the
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: man who had so often filled her purse and had
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: never lost her a ship. For all his long disgrace,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: he was the one figure who stood out in proportions
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: large enough to grapple with the peril. And as the
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: summer wore away, the merchants of Kadith began to whisper
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: in alarm that the dragon was to be unchained once more.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: End of Section twenty four