ENG 
Negociafio.ns, delufive On bothfides, had employed the 
commencement of 1588, until the end of M.iy, when the 
Armada failed under the duke de Medina Sidonia, who, 
on the deceafe of the marquis di Santa Cruz, lut'd been 
appointed to command. A dorm, which damaged the 
fliips and drove them back to Lifbon, had nearly occa- 
fioned the difarming of the Englifh fleet; which the eco¬ 
nomical Elizabeth judged no longer neceffary. Lord 
Howard, however, dared to difobey her orders ; happily 
for England, for on the 19th of July a Scots privateer 
ran into Plymouth, and informed him that the Armada 
was in the channel. Howard inflantly difpatched ex- 
prefles for aflifiance ; and, eager for action, towed his lit¬ 
tle fleet (about fifty veffels) in fpite of wind and tide, 
out of the harbour; undifmayed at the floating caflles 
which covered the fea, and which, as an elegant Italian, 
Bentivoglio, paints, “advanced flowly, as if the ocean 
were tired of lupporting, and the winds of impelling, fo 
enormous a weight.” He hung upon their rear; and, 
fupplying the want of force by valour and activity, he 
delayed their progrefs until he had received reinforce¬ 
ments from every fouthern port, fitted out and command¬ 
ed by the flower of the Englilh nation. The fleet of 
Howard now amounted to 140 (hips, or rather barks; 
with thefe, unequal as they were, he fkirmiflied with the 
Invincible Armada fix days. During this time the Eng¬ 
lifh veffels could not lie alongfide of the Spaniards, fo 
great was the fuperiority of their metal ; nor could they 
board them, fo lofty were their fides ; neverthelefs, by 
their perfevering agility they had gained fuch advantages, 
that difmay had taken place of that infoler.ee which had 
hitherto animated the invaders. 
The Armada now lay confufedly moored ofF Calais ; it 
had lofl feveral of its larged veffels, and the prince of 
Parma had refufed to leave the ports of Flanders until 
he could be certain that the Spaniards were mafiers at 
fea. On the ninth night, eight fire-fhips, commanded 
by the captains Young and Prowfe, dafhing among the 
thicked of the fleet, fcattered terror and deflru&ion 
around them; and twelve of the bed fliips which Me¬ 
dina Sidonia could boad of, were confumed or lod. While 
England had only to lament one brave officer, named 
Cocke ; who, with his crew, overwhelmed by fuperior 
force, periffied in that glorious fight. The next day it 
was determined to abandon all ideas of an invafion, and 
to conduct, if poffible, the remains of the fleet back to 
Spain ; and rather than venture to repafs the channel, 
expofed to the now dreaded veflels of England, it was 
thought better to encounter the rocks, funds, and bil¬ 
lows, of that fiormy fea which waffled the illes of Shet¬ 
land, Every fpecies of wreichednefs now hovered around 
them. Had not the Englifh wanted ammunition, the Spa¬ 
niards had all been their prifoners ; as it was, tempefls 
unceafingly accompanied their courfe.; fome of the gal¬ 
leons ran on the Scottifh fliore, where the few that 
efcaped were treated with decent kindnefs ; others more 
unfortunate were dafhed to pieces on the coafts of Ire¬ 
land, where thofe who gained the fliore were without 
pity maflacied. In fine, the Invincible Armada, re¬ 
duced to lei's than a third of its original number, returned 
to Spain full of famine and difeafe, to become the theme 
of Philip’s attested philolophy. 
Befides her deliverance from the Spanifh invafion, Eng¬ 
land had another ftiil more important event in 1588 ; the 
deceafe of Dudley earl of Leicefter, the mod unprincipled 
of court minions. He was on the point of being confti- 
tuted lieutenant-general of England. His royal miftrefs 
lamented his lols with many tears; but, with charafte- 
'riftic economy, di drained his goods to reimburfe herfelf 
for what fhe had lent him ! 
The Englifli queen had hitherto, by a feries of deep 
machinations, prevented James VI. of Scotland from mar¬ 
rying. She loved not wedlock in any of her family ; and 
was particularly apprehenfive, that a wife of difeernment 
might encourage him to a feceflion from that dependence 
LAND. 659 
on her will w hich die now kept up. Towards the' end 
of 1589, however, he exerted a fpirit of which (he fitp- 
pofed him not to be capable, and, in fpite of her machi¬ 
nations, wedded Anne of Denmark, after having encoun¬ 
tered the florins and waves of the Norwegian ocean. 
That flame of enterprize which had been kindled among 
the Englifli by the fit'll fuccelfes of Drake, now blazed 
higher and higher. Lord Thomas Howard with feven 
fliips failed to the Azores in 1591, to intercept a fleet la¬ 
den with the treafure of India. Philip had fent a large 
lquadron to protect them. The Englifli were bore down 
upon by a vafl fuperiority of fliips; and Howard, with 
five of his veflels, ran out to fea and efcaped; but the 
vice-admiral, fir Richard Greenville, thinking it beneath 
the Englifli character to Ihew the flern of his (hip, the 
Revenge, to a Spaniard, refolved fooner to engage the 
vafl force which befet him, amounting to fifty-three men 
of war, manned with 10,000 feamen. During fifteen 
hours, he fought with as many of the enemy as could find 
room to attack him; at length, covered with wounds, 
his men almofl all flain or wounded, his powder nearly 
fpent, his malls gone, and his veil'd, pierced by 800 bul¬ 
lets, almofl linking under him, he earneftly recommended 
it to the few furvivors of his crew to trufl in God, rather 
than in Spain, and to blow up the (hip. The gunner 
and fome others approved the idea ; but, a contrary fen- 
timent prevailing with the majority, the Revenge was 
furrendered on honourable terms to Don Alphonlo Baf- 
fario, the admiral of Philip. The gallant Englifhman 
died of his wounds in three days; and his ffiip, the fiift 
Englifhman of war Spain had ever taken, funk at fea 
with 200 Spaniards on-board ; a dear-bought prize ; as the 
capture of her had cod the enemy 2000 of their braved 
Tailors, and two of their douted fliips, which were funk, 
befides two difabled. In the mean time, the Indian fleet, 
which the dread of lord Howard had detained at the Ha- 
vannah beyond its due feafon, endeavouring to reach 
Spain, was difperfed by a dorm ; many of them fell into 
the hands of the Englifh. 
In France, fir John Norreys and fir Roger Williams 
commanded with great honour two feparate bodies of 
auxiliaries, fent by Elizabeth to the help of Henry IV. 
It was, indeed, the intered of thefe two fovereigns to unite 
againd the overgrown power of Spain. In 1594, the 
Englifh army, led by the gallant Norreys, encountered 
and defeated the Spanifh forces in Bretagne, and with 
great gallantry aflided at the taking Morlaix, Qujmper- 
corentin, and Bred ; before which lad place fir Martin 
Forbifher, who attacked it by fea, found, with many 
other Englifhmen, an honourable death. Early in 1596, 
Elizabeth had intelligence of a new and vad armament 
which Philip had prepared at Cadiz, under Don Martin 
di Padilla, an able officer, with a determination to fub- 
due Ireland. She waited not to be attacked. A nume¬ 
rous fleet, under lord Effingham, accompanied by a gal¬ 
lant army, failed Indantly for the coad of Spain. The 
fleet was reinforced by the experienced valour of fir Wal¬ 
ter Raleigh, who had jud returned from a fuccefsiefs ex¬ 
pedition in South-America. Cadiz was boldly attacked 
and taken, in fpite of a mod obdinate refi dance ; and all 
the fleet and (hips in the harbour were made prizes. 
Philip lod on this occafion fifteen large fliips of war, and 
twenty-two veffels laden with merchandize for the ead. 
But, during the abfence of the fleet on this expedition, 
the Spanifh admiral had failed with another fleet, and. 
8000 foldiers, with a defign to feize the unguarded har¬ 
bour of Falmouth, and wait at the mouth of the channel 
to intercept the fleet of lord Effingham on its return from 
Cadiz. What the confequence might have been, it is 
not eafy to fay ; but Providence deigned to interpofe ; 
and no fooner had the Spaniards gained fight of Scilly,. 
titan, at the indant a council of war was fitting on-board 
the admiral’s fltip, a dorm arof'e with fuch violence that 
it prevented the captains from returning to their fliips. 
Forty of their fleet were lod or forced into hoftile ports. 
