THE SPANISH AKMADA. 283 



"foreigners named her the restorer of the glory of shipping, and the Queen of the North 

 Sea." She raised the pay of sailors. " The wealthier inhabitants of the sea-coast," says 

 Camden, "in imitation of their princess, built ships of war, striving who should exceed, 

 insomuch that the Queen's Navy, joined with her subjects'' shipping, was, in short time, 

 so puissant that it was able to bring forth 20,000 fighting men for sea service." 



The greatest and most glorious event of her reign was, without cavil, the defeat of 

 the Spanish Armada, at one time deemed and called " The Invincible." With the political 

 complications which preceded the invasion, we have nought to do : it was largely a 

 religious war, inasmuch as Popish machinations were at the bottom of all. When the 

 contest became inevitable, the Spanish Government threw off dissimulation, and showed 

 "a disdainful disregard of secrecy as to its intentions, or rather a proud manifestation of 

 them, which," says Southey, "if they had been successful, might have been called 

 magnanimous." Philip had determined on putting forth his might, and accounts which 

 were ostentatiously published in advance termed it "The most fortunate and invincible 

 Armada." The fleet consisted of 130 ships and twenty caravels, having on board nearly 

 20,000 soldiers, 8,450 marines, 2,088 galley-slaves, with 2,630 great pieces of brass 

 artillery. The names of all the saints appeared in the nomenclature of the ships, "while," 

 says Southey, "holier appellations, which ought never to be thus applied, were strangely 

 associated with the Great Griffin and the Sea Dog, the Cat and the White Falcon." Every 

 noble house in Spain was represented, and there were 180 friars and Jesuits, .with Cardinal 

 Allen at their head, a prelate who had not long before published at Antwerp a gross libel 

 on Elizabeth, calling her " heretic, rebel, and usurper, an incestuous bastard, the bane of 

 Christendom, and firebrand of all mischief." These priests were to bring England back 

 to the true Church the moment they landed. The galleons being above sixty in number 

 were, " exceeding great, fair, and strong, and built high above the water, like castles, 

 easy to be fought withal, but not so easy to board as the English and the Netherland ships ; 

 their upper decks were musket-proof, and beneath they were four or five feet thick, so 

 that no bullet could pass them. Their masts were bound about with oakum, or pieces 

 of fazeled ropes, and armed against all shot. The galleases were goodly great vessels, 

 furnished with chambers, chapels, towers, pulpits, and such-like; they rowed like galleys, 

 with exceeding great oars, each having 300 slaves, and were able to do much harm with 

 their great ordnance." Most severe discipline was to be preserved; blasphemy and oaths 

 were to be punished rigidly ; gaming, as provocative of these, and quarrelling, were forbidden ; 

 no one might wear a dagger; religious exercises, including the use of a special litany, 

 in which all archangels, angels, and saints, were invoked to assist with their prayers 

 against the English heretics and enemies of the faith, were enjoined. " No man," says 

 Southey, "ever set forth upon a bad cause with better will, nor under a stronger delusion 

 of perverted faith." The gunners were instructed to have half butts filled with water 

 and vinegar, wet clothes, old sails, &c., ready to extinguish fire, and what seems strange 

 now-a-days, in addition to the regular artillery, every ship was to carry two boatsMoads 

 of large stones, to throw on the enemy's decks, forecastles, &c., during an encounter. 



Meantime Elizabeth and her ministers were fully aware of the danger, and the 

 appeals made to the Lords, and through the lord-lieutenants of counties were answered 



