260 OF A WAR WITH SPAIN. 



come in to them : and that the duke of Parma had 

 particular reaches and ends of his own underhand, 

 to cross the design. But it was both a strange com 

 mission, and a strange obedience to a commission; 

 for men in the midst of their own blood, and being 

 so furiously assailed, to hold their hands, contrary to 

 the laws of nature and necessity. And as for the 

 duke of Parma, he was reasonably well tempted to 

 be true to that enterprise, by no Jess promise than 

 to be made a feudatary, or beneficiary king of 

 England, under the seignory, in chief, of the pope, 

 and the protection of the king of Spain. Besides, it 

 appeared that the duke of Parma held his place long 

 after in the favour and trust of the king of Spain, by 

 the great employments and services that he per 

 formed in France : and again, it is manifest, that 

 the duke did his best to come down and to put to sea. 

 The truth was, that the Spanish navy, upon those 

 proofs of fight which they had with the English, 

 finding how much hurt they received, and how little 

 hurt they did, by reason of the activity and low 

 building of our ships, and skill of our seamen ; and 

 being also commanded by a general of small courage 

 and experience, and having lost at the first two of 

 their bravest commanders at sea, Pedro de Valdez, 

 arid Michael de Oquenda, durst not put it to a bat 

 tle at sea, but set up their rest wholly upon the 

 land enterprise. On the other side, the transporting 

 of the land forces failed in the very foundation : for 

 whereas the council of Spain made full account, that 

 their navy should be master of the sea, and therefore 



