1888.] Professor Laiujhton on the Lmncihle Armada. 307 



WEEKLY EVENING IMEETING, 



Friday, May 4, 1888. 



Colonel James A. Grant, C.B. C.S.I. F.E.S. Vice-President, 

 in the Chair. 



J. K. Laughton, M.A. E.N. Professor of Modern History, 

 King's College, London. 



The Invincible Armada : a Tercentenary Betros^ect. 



The completion of three centuries since our great victory over the 

 Spanish fleet in the summer of 1588 has not unnaturally given rise to 

 renewed interest in the history of our past glories, and has recalled to 

 many minds the wholesome sentiment that "Britannia rules the 

 waves." There is, however, some danger of misunderstanding whilst 

 repeating the words : of thinking that if in past years Britannia ruled 

 the waves, she did so by right Divine, or by some special and excsptional 

 favour of Providence, rather than by the wise provisions of her 

 (Tovernment and by the skill and discipline of her seamen. My object 

 this evening is, therefore, not so much to retrace the glorious but 

 often told story, as, whilst calling up the main facts to your remem- 

 brance, to lead you to examine more or less critically into the true 

 meaning of the great event, the circumstances of which have been 

 overlaid with a great deal of fable and of national or religious preju- 

 dice, all fatal to anything like a philosophical or scientific inquiry, 

 which demands an equable temper and an attention to details sueh as 

 the graphic historian either slurs over or considers to be beyond the 

 scope of his researches. 



I may say then, at the outset, that I conceive the religious preju- 

 dice to be entirely misplaced. That the opposing Governments did 

 invoke the aid of religious sentiment, is true enough ; so would the 

 Governments of Russia and Turkey, for instance, at the present day ; 

 but the Elizabethan war with Spain had its origin in two perfectly 

 clear but wholly mundane causes ; the first and chief of which was 

 the exclusive commercial policy adopted and enforced by the Spanish 

 Government in respect of its West Indian and American settlements. 

 That such a policy should give rise to smuggling was almost a matter 

 of course ; and amongst the smugglers w^ere two men who, by force 

 of character, by genius curiously well adapted to the circumstances 

 of the age, and by undaunted courage, were destined to achieve a 

 foremost place in the roll of English seamen. Their names were 

 John Hawkyns and Francis Drake. In September 1568 these two 

 men, with some few companions and a little squadron of five small 

 vessels, after a lucrative though illicit traffic through the Spanish 

 settlements, were caught at anchor, in the harbour of San Juan de Lua, 



