for Don Alonso back and so frustrated the Expectation of our Fleet. He likewise made a Dispatch to the Indies commanding the Fleets to Winter there rather than to run the hazard of coming Home that Summer But this proved so great a Hind'rance and Loss to the Merchants of Spain to be so long without Return of their Goods that it caused many to become Bankrupts in Sevil and other places besides which was so great a weakening to their Ships to Winter in the Indies that many years hardly sufficed to repair the Damage they received Our Fleet being thus prevented spent seven months in vain upon the Coasts of Spain and the Islands but in that space could not possess themselves of one Ship of the Spaniards and the Carrecks upon which part of their Hopes depended came Home without Sight of the Islands and arrived safe at Lisbon This Voyage was a bare Action at Sea though they attempted Landing at Fayal which the Earl of Cumberland the year before had taken and quitted but the Castle being re-fortified they prevailed not in thier Enterprize And thence forwards the King of Spain endeavored to strengthen his Coasts and to encrease in Shipping as may appear by the next ensuing Year Two Fleets the one by Vs under the Lord Thomas Howard the other by the Spaniards Commanded by Don Alonso de Bassan Anno 1591. Ships Commanders The Defiance The Lord Thomas Howard The Revenge Sir Richard Greenvile Vice-admiral The Nonperil Sir Edward Denny The Bonaventure Capt. Crosse The Lyon Capt. Fenner The Foresight Capt. Vavasor The Crane Capt. Duffeild HER Majesty understanding of the Indian Fleets Wintering in the Havana and that Necessity would compell them home this Year 1591. she sent a Fleet to the Islands under the Command of the Lord Thomas Howard The King of Spain perceiving her Drift and being sensible how much the safety of that Fleet concerned him caused them to set out thence so late in the Year that it endangered the Shipwrack of them all chosing rather to hazard the perishing of Ships Men and Goods than their falling into our Hands He had two Designs in bringing home this Fleet so late One was he thought the Lord Thomas would have consumed his Victuals and have been forced Home The other that he might in the mean time furnish out the great Fleet he was preparing little inferior to that of 1588. In the first he found himself deceived For my Lord was supplied both with Ships and Victuals out of England and in the second he was as much prevented For my Lord of Cumberland who then lay upon the Coast of Spain had Intelligence of the Spaniards putting out to Sea and advertised the Lord Thomas thereof the very Night before they arrived at Flores where my Lord lay The day after this Intelligence the Spanish Fleet was discovered by my Lord Thomas whom he knew by their Number and Greatness to be the Ships of which he had warning and by that means escaped the Danger that Sir Richard Greenvile his Vice-admiral rashly ran into Upon View of the Spaniards which were 55 Sail the Lord Thomas warily and like a discreet General weighed Anchor and made Signs to the rest of his Fleet to do the like with a purpose to get the Wind of them but Sir Richard Greenvile being a stubborn man and imagining this Fleet to come from the Indies and not to be the Armado of which they were informed would by no means be persuaded by his Master or Company to cut his main Sail to follow his Admiral nay so head-strong and rash he was that he offered violence to those that councelled him thereto But the Old Saying that a wilful man is the Cause of his own Woe could not be more truly verified than in him For when the Armado approached him and he beheld the Greatness of the Ships he began to see and repent of his Folly and when it was too late would have freed himself of them but in vain For he was left a Prey to the Enemy every Ship striving to be the first should board him This wilful Rashness of Sir Richard made the Spaniards triumph as much as if they had obtained a Signal Victory it being the first Ship that ever they took of Her Majesties and commended to them by some English Fugitives to be the very best she had but their Joy continued not long For they enjoyed her but five days before she was cast away with many Spaniards in her upon the Islands of Tercera Commonly one Misfortune is accompanied with another For the Indian Fleet which my Lord had waited for the whole Summer the day after this mishap fell into the Company of this Spanish Armado who if they had staid but one day longer or the Indian Fleet had come home but one day sooner we had possest both them and many millions of Treasure which the Sea afterward devoured For from the time they met with the Armado and before they could recover home nigh an hundred of them suffered Shipwrack besides the Ascention of Sevil and the double Fly-boat that were sunk by the side of the Revenge All which was occasioned by their Wintering in the Indies and the late Disambogueing from thence For the Worm which that Country is subject to weakens and consumes their Ships Notwithstanding this cross and perverse Fortune which happened by means of Sir Richard Greenvile the Lord Thomas would not be dismayed or discouraged but kept the Sea so long as he had Victuals and by such Ships as himself and the rest of the Fleet took defrayed the better part of the Charge of the whole Action The Earl of Cumberland to the Coast of Spain 1591. Ships Commanders The Garland of her Majesties The Earl of Cumberland Capt. under him Seven other Ships of his and his Friends Capt. Monson now Sir William Monson THE Earl of Cumberland keeping the Coast of Spain as you have heard while the Lord Thomas remained at the Islands and both to one end viz. to annoy and damnifie the Spaniards though in two several Fleets the Earl found Fortune in a sort as much to frown upon him as it had done upon the Lord Thomas Howard In his Course from England to the Spanish Coast he encountred with divers Ships of Holland which came from Lisbon wherein he found a great quantity of Spices belonging to the Portugalls So greatly were we abused by that Nation of Holland who though they were the first that engaged us in the War with Spain yet still maintained their own Trade into those parts and supplied the Spaniards with Munition Victuals Shipping and Intelligence against us Upon my Lord's Arrival on the Coast of Spain it was his hap to take three Ships at several times one with Wine which he unladed into his own and two with Sugars which he enjoyed not long no more did he the Spices which he took out of the Hollanders For one of the Ships of Sugar by means of a Leak that
yet they were forc'd to quit them and to retire into the Castle My Lord at last in despite of the Enemy gained the Market place where he found greatest Resistance from the Houses thereabouts and where it was that that Worthy Gentleman Sir John Wingfield was unluckily slain The Lord General Essex caused it to be proclaimed by Beat of Drum through the Town that all that would yield should repair to the Town-House where they should have promise of Mercy and those that would not to expect no Favor The Castle desired Respite to consider untill the morning following and then by one general Consent they surrend'red themselves to the two Lord Generals Mercies The Chief Prisoners Men and Women were brought into the Castle where they remained a little space and were sent away with Honorable Usage The noble treating of the Prisoners hath gained an everlasting Honor to our Nation and the General 's in particular It cannot be supposed the Lord Generals had leisure to be idle the day following having so great business to consider of as the securing the Town and enjoying the Merchants Ships Wherefore for the speedier dispatch they had Speech with the best men of the City about the Ransom to be given for their Town and Liberties 120000 Duckets was the Summ concluded on and for Security thereof many of them became Hostages There was likewise an Overture for the Ransom of their Ships and Goods which the Duke of Medina hearing of rather than we should reap any profit by them he caused them to be fired We found by Experience that the destroying of this Fleet which did amount to the value of six or seven Millions was the general impoverishing of the whole Country For when the Pledges sent to Sevil to take up money for their Redemption they were answered that all the Town was not able to raise such a Summ their Loss was so great by the loss of their Fleet. And to speak truth Spain never received so great an Overthrow so great a Spoil so great an Indignity at our Hands as this For our Attempt was at his own Home in his Port that he thought as safe as his Chamber where we took and destroy'd his Ships of War burnt and consumed the Wealth of his Merchants sack'd his City ransomed his Subjects and entred his Country without Impeachment To write all Accidents of this Voyage wete too tedious and would weary the Reader but he that would desire to know the Behavior of the Spaniards as well as of us many confer with divers English men that were redeemed out the Gallies in exchange for others and brought into England After we had enjoyed the Town of Cadiz a Fortnight and our men were grown rich by the Spoil of it the Generals imbarqued their Army with an intent to perform greater Services before their Return but such was the Covetousness of the better Sort who were inriched there and the fear of Hunger in others who complained for want of Victuals as they could not willingly be drawn to any farther Action to gain more Reputation The only thing that was afterwards attempted was Pharoah a Town of Algarula in Portugal a place of no Resistance or Wealth only famous by the Library of Osorius who was Bishop of that place which Library was brought into England by us and many of the Books bestowed upon the new erected Library of Oxford Some Prisoners were taken but of small account who told us that the greatest Strength of the Country was in Lawgust the chief Town of Argarula twelve miles distant from thence because most part of the Gentlemen thereabouts were gone thither to make it good expecting our coming This News was acceptable to my Lord of Essex who preferred Honor before Wealth And having had his Will and the Spoil of the Town of Pharoah and Country thereabouts He Shipped his Army and took Council of the Lord Admiral how to proceed My Lord Admiral diverted his course for Lawgust alleadging the place was strong of no Wealth always held in the nature of a Fisher-Town belonging to the Portugals who in their Hearts were our Friends that the winning of it after so eminent a place as Cadiz could add no Honor though it should be carried yet it would be the Loss of his best Troops and Gentlemen who would rather to die than receive Indignity of a Repulse My Lord of Essex much against his Will was forc'd to yield unto these Reasons and desist from that Enterprise About this time there was a general Complaint for want of Victuals which proceeded rather out of a desire that some had to be at home than out of any necessity For Sir William Monson and Mr. Darrel were appointed to examine the Condition of every Ship and found seven weeks Victuals Drink excepted which might have been supplied from the Shore in Water and this put the Generals in great hope to perform something more than they had done The only Service that was now to be thought on was to lie in wait for the Carrecks which in all probability could not escape us though there were many Doubts to the contrary but easily answered by men of Experience But in truth some mens desire homeward were so great that no Reason could prevail with or persuade them Coming into the height of the Rock the Generals took Council once again and then the Earl of Essex and the Lord Thomas Howard offered with great earnestness to stay out the time our Victuals lasted and desired to have but 12 Ships furnished out of the rest to stay with them but this would not be granted though the Squadron of the Hollanders offered voluntarily to stay Sir Walter Rawleigh alleadged the scarcity of Victuals and the Infection of his Men. My Lord General Essex offered in the Greatness of his Mind and the Desire he had to stay to supply his want of Men and Victuals and to exchange Ships but all Proposals were in vain For the Riches kept them that got much from attempting more as if it had been otherwise pure want though not Honour would have enforced them to greater Enterprises This being the last Hopes of the Voyage and being generally withstood it was concluded to steer away for the North Cape and afterwards to view and search the Harbors of the Groyn and Ferrol and if any of the King of Spain's Ships chanced to be there to give an Attempt upon them The Lord Admiral sent a Carvel of our Fleet into these two Harbors and aparrelled the men in Spanish Cloaths to avoid Suspicion This Carvel returned the next day with a true Relation that there were no Ships in the Harbors And now passing all places where there was any hope of doing good our Return for England was resolved upon and the 8th of August the Lord Admiral arrived in Plymouth with the greatest part of the Army And the Lord General Essex who staid to accompany the St. Andrew which was under his Charge and reputed of his
far as it could yet with humble intreaty to forbear landing with our Army especially because they understood there was a Squadron of Hollanders amongst us who did not use to forbear Cruelty wherever they came and here it was that we met the Indian Fleet which in manner following unluckily escaped us The Lord General having sent some men of good Account into the Island to see there should be no Injury offered to the Portugals he having passed his word to the contrary those men advertised him of four Sail of Ships descried from the Shore and one of them greater than the rest seemed to be a Carreck My Lord received this News with great Joy and divided his Fleet into three Squadrons to be commanded by himself the Lord Thomas Howard and Sir Walter Rawleigh The next Ship to my Lord of the Queen's was the Rainbow wherein Sir William Monson went who received direction from my Lord to steer away South that Night and if he should meet with any Fleet to follow them carrying Lights or shooting off his Ordnances or making any other Sign that he could and if he met with no Ships to direct his Course the next day to the Island of St. Michael but promising that Night to send 12 Ships after him Sir William besought my Lord by the Pinnace that brought him this Direction that above all things he should have a care to dispatch a Squadron to the Road of Angra in the Tercera's For it was certain if they were Spaniards thither they would resort Whilst my Lord was thus contriving his Business and ordering his Squadrons a small Barque of his Fleet happened to come to him who assured him that those Ships discovered from the Land were of his own Fleet and that they came in immediately from them This made my Lord countermand his former Direction only Sir William Monson who was the next Ship to him and received the first Command could not be recalled back Within three hours of his Departure from my Lord which might be about 12 of the Clock he fell in company of a Fleet of 25 Sail which at the first he could not assure himself to be Spaniards because the day before that number of Ships was missing from our Fleet. Here he was in a Dilemma and great perplexity with himself for in making Signs as he was directed if the Ships proved English it were ridiculous and he would be exposed to scorn and to respite it untill morning were as dangerous if they were the Indian Fleet For then my Lord might be out of View or of the hearing of his Ordnance Therefore he resolved rather to put his Person than his Ship in Peril He commanded his Master to keep the Weather-Gage of the Fleet whatsoever should become of him and it blowing little Wind he betook himself to his Boat and rowed up with the Fleet demanding of whence they were They answered of Sevil in Spain and asked of whence he was He told them of England and that the Ship in sight was a Gallion of the Queen 's of England single and alone alleadging the Honor they would get by winning her his Drift being to draw and entice them into the Wake of our Fleet where they would be so entangled as they could not escape they returned him some Shot and ill Language but would not alter their Course to the Tercera's whither they were bound and where they arrived to our misfortune Sir William Monson returned aboard his Ship making Signs with Lights and Report with his Ordnance but all in vain For my Lord altering his Course as you have heard stood that Night to St. Michaels and passed by the North side of Tercera a farther way than if he had gone by the way of Augra where he had met the Indian Fleet. When day appeared and Sir William Monson was in hope to find the 12 Ships promised to be sent to him he might discern the Spanish Fleet two miles and a little more a Head him and a Stern him a Gallion and a Pinnace betwixt them which putting forth her Flaggs he knew to be the Earl of Southampton in the Garland The Pinnace was a Frigat of the Spanish Fleet who took the Garland and the Rainbow to be Gallions of theirs but seeing the Flag of the Garland she found her Error and sprang a loof thinkink to escape but the Earl pursued her with the loss of some Time when he should have followed the Fleet and therefore was desired to desist from that Chase by Sir William Monson who sent his Boat to him By a Shot from my Lord this Frigat was sunk and while his Men were rifling her Sir Francis Vere and Sir William Brook came up in their two Ships who the Spaniards would have made us believe were two Gallions of theirs and so much did my Lord signifie to Sir William Monson wishing him to stay their coming up for that there would be greater hope of those two Ships which there was no doubt but we were able to Master than of the Fleet for which we were too weak But after Sir William had made the two Ships to be the Queen's which he ever suspected them to be he began to pursue the Spanish Fleet afresh but by reason they were so far a Head of him and had so little way to sail they recovered the Road of Tercera but he and the rest of the Ships pursued them and himself led the way into the Harbor where he found sharp Resistance from the Castle but yet so battered the Ships that he might see the Masts of some shot by the Board and the men quit the Ships so that there wanted nothing but a Gale of Wind to enable him to cut the Cables of the Hawsers and to bring them off Wherefore he sent to the other 3 great Ships of ours to desire them to attempt the cutting their Cables but Sir Fra. Vere rather wished his coming off that they might take a Resolution what to do This must be rather imputed to want of Experience than Backwardness in him For Sir William sent him word that if he quitted the Harbor the Ships would tow near the Castle and as the Night drew on the Wind would freshen and come more off the Land which indeed proved so and we above a League from the Road in the morning We may say and that truly there was never that possibility to have undone the State of Spain as now For every Royal of Plate we had taken in this Fleet had been two to them by our converting it by War upon them None of the Captains could be blamed in this Business All is to be attributed to the want of Experience in my Lord and his flexible Nature to be over-ruled For the first hour he anchored at Flores and called a Council Sir William Monson advised him upon the reasons following after his Watering to run West spreading his Fleet North and South so far as the Eastern Wind that then blew would
to yield and this too was made use of by the Portugalls as a main Reason why they joyned not with us And there is as much to be said on the Portugalls behalf as an Evidence of their good Will and Favor to us that though they shewed themselves forward upon this Occasion to aid us yet they opposed not themselves as Enemies against us Whereas if they had pursued us in our Retreat from Lisbon to Cask Cadiz our Men being weak sickly and wanting Powder and Shot and other Arms they had in all probability put us to a great Loss and Disgrace And if ever England have the like Occasion to aid a Competitor in Portugal we shall questionless find that our fair Demeanor and Carriage in this Expedition towards the People of that Countrey have gained us great Reconciliation among them and would be of singular Advantage to us For the General strictly forbad the Rifling of their Houses in the Country and the Suburbs of Lisbon which he possess'd and commanded just Payment to be made by the Souldiers for every thing they took without Compulsion or rigorous Usage And this hath made those that stood but indifferently affected before now ready upon the like Occasion to assist us A Voyage undertaken by the Earl of Cumberland with one Ship Royal of her Majesties and six of his own and of other Adventures Anno Dom. 1589. Ships Commanders The Victory The Earl of Cumberland The Margaret Capt. Christopher Lister And Five other Capt. Monson now Sir William Monson Vice-Amiral AS the Fleets of Sir John Norris and Sir Francis Drake returned from the Voyage of Portugal my Lord of Cumberland proceeded upon his towards that Coast and meeting with divers of that Fleet relieved them with Victuals who otherwise had perished This Voyage was undertaken at his and his Friends Charge excepting the Victory a Ship Royal of the Queen's which she adventured The Service performed at Sea was the taking of three French Ships of the League in our Channel and his encountring upon the Coast of Spain with Thirteen Hulks who made some Resistance Out of these he took to the Value of 7000 l. in Spices belonging to Portugal From thence he crossed over to the Island of Terceras and coming to St. Michaels with Boats he fetched out two Spanish Ships from under the Castle which the same Night arrived out of Spain In this Course from thence to Flores he took a Spanish Ship laden with Sugars and Sweet-meats that came from the Maderas Being at Flores he received Intelligencence of divers Spanish Ships which were in the Road of Fayal whereupon he suddainly made from that Island where Captain Lister and Captain Monson gave a desperate Attempt in their Boats upon the said Ships and after along Fight possessed themselves of one of them of 300 Tuns Burden carrying Eighteen Pieces of Ordidinance and Fifty Men. This Ship with one other came from the Indies two of the rest out of Guiney and another was Laden with Woad which that Island affords in great Plenty who putting from thence to Sea and coming to the Island of Graciosa after two days Fight yielded us by Composition some Victuals Off that Island we likewise took a French Ship of the League of 200 Tuns that came from New-found-land Afterwards Sailing to the Eastward of the Road of Terceras in the Even-we beheld 18 Tall Ships of the Indies entring into the said Road one whereof we after took in her Course to the Coast of Spain She was laden with Hides Silver and Cochineal but coming for England she was cast away upon the Mounts Bay in Cornwall being valued at 100000 l. Two other Prizes of Sugar we took in our said Course to the Coast of Spain esteemed each Ship at 7000 l. and one from under the Castle of St. Maries to the same Value There was no Road about those Islands that could defend their Ships from our Attempts yet in the last Assault we gave which was upon a Ship of Sugars we found ill Success being sharply resisted and two parts of our Men slain and hurt Which Loss was occasioned by Captain Lister who would not be persuaded from Landing in the View of their Forts The Service performed by Land was the taking of the Island of Fayall some months after the surprizing of those Ships formerly mentioned The Castle yielded us 45 Pieces of Ordinance great and small We sacked and spoiled the Town and after ransomed it and so departed These Summer Services and Ships of Sugar proved not so sweet and pleasant as the Winter was afterwards sharp and painful For in our Return for England we found the Calamity of Famine the Hazard of Shipwrack and the Death of our Men so great that the like befell not any other Fleet during the time of the War All which Disasters must be imputed to Captain Lister's Rashness upon whom my Lord of Cumberland chiefly relyed wanting Experience himself He was the man that advised the sending the Ships of Wine for England otherwise we had not known the Want of Drink he was as earnest in persuading our Landing in the Face of the Fortifications of St. Maries against all Reason and Sence As he was rash so was he valiant but paid dearly for his unadvised Counsel For he was one of the first hurt and that cruelly in the Attempt of St. Maries and afterward drowned in the Rich Ship cast away at Mounts Bay Sir John Hawkins and Sir Martin Forbisher their Voyage undertaken Anno 1590. Ships Commanders The Revenge Sir Martin Forbisher The Mary-Rose Sir John Hawkins The Lyon Sir Edward Yorke The Bonaventure Capt. Fenner The Rainbow Capt. George Beeston The Hope  The Crane Capt. Bostock The Quittance  The Foresight Capt. Burnell The Swiftseur  FRom the Yeear 1585. untill this present Year 1590. there was the greatest possibility imaginable of enriching our Nation by Actions at Sea had they been well followed the King of Spain was grown so weak in Shipping by the Overthrow he had in 1588 that he could no longer secure the Trade of his Subjects Her Majesty now finding how necessary it was for her to maintain a Fleet upon the Spanish Coast as well to hinder the Preparations he might make against Her to repair the Disgrace he received in 1588. as also to intercept his Fleets from the Indies by which he grew Great and Mighty She sent this Year 1590. Ten Ships of her own in two Squadrons the one to be Commanded by Sir John Hawkins the other by Sir Martin Forbisher two Gentlemen of tried Experience The King of Spain understanding of this Preparation of hers sent forth 20 Sail of Ships under the Command of Don. Alonso de Bassan Brother to the late Famous Marquess of St. Cruz. His Charge was to secure home the Indian Fleet and Carrecks But after Don Alonso had put off to Sea the King of Spain becoming better advised than to adventure 20 of his Ships to 10 of outs sent
the guarding of his Coasts and securing of his Trade and though there was little fear of any Fleet from England to impeach him besides this in the Indies yet because he would shew his greatness and satisfie the Portugal of the care he had in preserving their Carrecks he sent the Count of Feria a young Nobleman of Portugal who desired to gain Experience with 20 Ships to the Islands but the Carrecks did as they used to do in many other years miss both Islands and Fleets and arrived at Lisbon safely The other Fleets of the King of Spain in the Indies consisted of 24 Ships their General Don Bernardino de Villa nova an approved Coward as it appeared when he came to encounter the English Fleet but his Defects were supplied by the Valor of his Vice-admiral who behaved himself much to his Honor His Name was John Garanay The Earl of Essex and the Lord Admiral of England Generals equally both by Sea and Land Anno 1596. Ships Commanders The Repulse The Earl of Essex Capt. under him The Ark-royal Sir Will. Monson The Mere-honor The Lord Admiral Capt. under him The Warspite Ames Preston The Lyon The Lord Thomas Howard The Rainbow Sir Walter Rawleigh The Nonperil Sir Robert Southwell The Vauntguard Sir Francis Vere The Mary Rose Sir Robert Dudley The Dreadnought Sir John Wingfield The Swiftsuer Sir George Carew The Quittance Sir Alexander Clifford The Tremontary with several others Sir Robert Crosse  Sir George Clifford  Sir Robert Mansfield  Capt. King THE first of June 1596. we departed from Plymouth and our Departure was the more speedy by reason of the great pains care and industry of the 16 Captains who in their own Persons labored the Night before to get out some of their Ships riding at Catwater which otherwise had not been easily effected The Third we set Sail from Cansom Bay the Wind which when we weighed was at West and by South instantly cast up to the North East and so continued untill it brought us up as high as the North Cape of Spain and this fortunate beginning put us in great hopes of a lucky Success to ensue We being now come upon our Enemies Coast it behoved the Generals to be vigilant in keeping them from Intelligence of us who therefore appointed the Litness the True Love and the Lion's Whelp the three chief Sailors of our Fleet to run a Head suspecting the Spaniards had some Carvels of Advice out which they did usually send to discover at Sea upon any Rumor of a less Fleet than this was made ready in England No Ship or Carvel escaped from us which I hold a second Happiness to our Voyage For you shall understand hereafter the Inconvenience that might have happened upon our Discovery The 10th of June the said three Ships took three Fly-Boats that came from Cadiz 14 days before by them we understood the State of the Town and that they had no suspition of us which we looked on as a third Omen of our good Fortune to come The 12th of June the Swan a Ship of London being commanded as the other three to keep a good way off the Fleet to prevent discovery she met with a Fly-boat which made Resistance and escaped from her This Fly-boat came from the Streights bound Home who discovering our Fleet and thinking to gain Reputation and Reward from the Spaniards shhaped her Course for Lisbon but she was luckily prevented by the John and Francis another Ship of London commanded by Sir Marmaduke Darrel who took her within a League of the Shore and this we may account a fourth Happiness to our Voyage The first as hath been said was for the Wind to take us so suddainly and to continue so long For our Souldiers being Shipped and in Harbor would have consumed their Victuals and have been so pester'd that it would have endangered a Sickness amongst them The Second was the taking all Ships that were seen which kept the Enemy from Intelligence The Third was the intercepting of the Fly-Boats from Cadiz whither we were bound who assured us our coming was not suspected which made us more careful to hail from the Coast than otherwise we should have been They told us likewise of the daily expectation of the Gallions to come from St. Jacar to Cadiz and of the Merchant-men that lay there and were ready bound for the Indies These Intelligences were of great moment and made the Generals presently to contrive their business both by Sea and Land which otherwise would have taken up a longer time after their coming thither and whether all men would have consented to attempt their Ships in Harbor if they had not known the most part of them to consist of Merchants I hold very doubtful The Fourth and fortunatest of all was the taking of the Fly-boat by the John and Francis which the Swan let go For if she had reached Lisbon she had been able to make report of the number and greatness of our Ships and might have endangered the loss of the whole Design she seeing the course we bore and that we had passed Lisbon which was the place the Enemy most suspected and made there his greatest preparation for Defence But had the Enemy been freed of that doubt he had then no place to fear but Andulozia and Cadiz above the rest which upon the lest warning might have been strengthened and we put to great Hazard he might also have secured his Ships by towing them out with Gallies and howsoever the Wind had been might have sent them into the Streights where it had been in vain to have pursued them or over the Bar of St. Lucar where it had been in vain to have attempted them And indeed of the good and ill of Intelligence we had had sufficient experience formerly Of the good in 1588. For how suddainly had we been taken and surprized when it we lest suspected had it not been for Captain Flemming Of the ill in the year before this by the Spaniards taking a Barque of Sir Francis Drake's Fleet which was the Occasion of the Overthrow of himself and the whole Action The 20th of June we came to Cadiz earlier in the morning than the Masters made reckoning of Before our coming thither it was determined in Council that we should land at St. Sebastians the Westermost part of the Land and thither came all the Ships to an Anchor every man preparing to land as he was formerly directed but the Wind being so great and the Sea so grown and four Gallies lying too to intercept our Boats there was no attempting to land there without the hazard of all This day was spent in vain in returning Messengers from one General to another and in the end they were forced to resolve upon a Course which Sir William Monson Captain under my Lord of Essex advised him to the same morning he discovered the Town which was to surprize the Ships and to be possessors of the Harbor before
they attempted landing This being now resolved on there arose a great Question who should have the Honor of the first going in My Lord of Essex stood for himself but my Lord Admiral opposed it knowing if he miscarried it would hazard the Overthrow of the Action besides he was streightly charged by Her Majesty that the Earl should not expose himself to Danger but upon great necessity When my Lord of Essex could not prevail the whole Council withstanding him he sent Sir William Monson that night on Board my Lord Admiral to resolve what Ships should be appointed the next day to undertake the Service Sir Walter Rawleigh had the Vaward given him which my Lord Thomas Howard hearing challenged in right of his place of Vice-admiral and it was granted him but Sir Walter having Order over night to ply in came first to an Anchor but in that distance from the Spaniards as he could not annoy them And he himself returned on Board the Lord General Essex to excuse his coming to Anchor so far off for want of Water to go higher which was thought strange that the Spaniards which drew much more Water and had no more Advantage than he of Tide could pass where his could not But Sir Francis Vere in the Rainbow who was appointed to second him passing by Sir Walter Rawleigh his Ship Sir Walter the second time weighed and went higher The Lord General Essex who promised to keep in the midst of the Fleet was told by Sir William Monson that the greatest Service would depend upon three or four Ships and Sir William put him in mind of his Honor for that many Eyes beheld him This made him forgetful of his Promise and to use all means he could to be formost in the Fight My Lord Howard who could not go up in his own Ship the Mere-honor betook himself to the Nonperil and in respect the Rainbow the Repulse and Warspight had taken up the best of the Channel by their first coming to an Anchor to his grief he could not get higher Here did every Ship strive to be the headmost but such was the narrowness of the Channel as neither the Lord Admiral nor any other Ship of the Queens could pass on There was Commandment given that no Ship should shoot but the Queens making account that the Honor would be the greater if the Victory were obtained with so few This Fight confinued from Ten till Four in the Afternoon The Spaniards then set Sail thinking either to run higher up the River or else to bring their other Broad Sides to us because of the heat of their Ordnance but howsoever it was in their floating they came a ground and the men began to forsake the Ships Whereupon there was Commandment given that all the Hoys and Vessels that drew least Water should go unto them Sir William Monson was sent in the Repulse Boat with like directions We posses'd our selves of the great Gallions the Matthew and the Andrew but the Philip and Thomas fired themselves and were burnt down before they could be quenched I must not omit to describe the manner of the Spanish Ships and Gallies riding in Harbor at our first coming to Cadiz The four Gallions singled themselves from out the Fleet as Guards of their Merchants The Gallies were placed to flank us with their Prows before Entry but when they saw our Approach the next morning the Merchants ran up the River and the Men of War of Port Royal to the Point of the River brought themselves into a good Order of Fight moving their Ships a Head and a Stern to have their Broad Sides upon us The Gallies then betook themselves to the Guard of the Town which we put them from before we attempted the Ships The Victory being obtained at Sea the L. General Essex landed his men in a Sandy Bay which the Castle of Poyntull commanded but they seeing the Success of their Ships and mistrusting their own strength neither offered to offend his Landing nor to defend the Castle but quitted it and so we became Possessors of it After my Lord 's peeceable Landing he considered what was to be done and there being no place from whence the Enemy could annoy us but the Bridge of Swasoe which leadeth over from the main Land to the Island by our making good of which Bridge there would be no way left for the Gallies to escape us He sent three Regiments under the Command of Sir Conniers Clifford Sir Christopher Blunt and Sir Thomas Garret to the Bridge who at their first coming were encountred by the Enemy but yet possess'd themselves of it with the loss of some men but whether it was for want of Victuals or for what other reasons our men quitted it I know not and the Gallies breaking down divers Arches pass'd it and by that means escaped My Lord dispatched a Messenger to my Lord Admiral intreating him to give Order to attempt the Merchants that rode in Port Royal for that it was dangerous to give them a Night's respite lest they should convey away their Wealth or take example by the Philip and Thomas to burn themselves This Message was delivered by Sir Anthony Ashley and Sir William Monson as my Lord Admiral was in his Boat ready with his Toops of Seamen to land fearing the Lord General Essex should be put to Distress with his small Companies which were but three Regiments hastened by all means to second him and gave order to certain Ships the next day to pursue him Seeing I have undertaken to shew the Escapes committed in any of our English Voyages such as were committed here shall without Fear or Flattery appear to the Judicious Reader Though the Earl of Essex his Carriage and Forwardness merited much yet if it had been with more Advisement and less Haste it would have succeeded better And if he were now living he would confess Sir William Monson advised him rather to seek to be Master of the Ships than of the Town for it was that would afford both Wealth and Honor For the Riches in Ships could not be concealed or conveyed away as in Towns they might And the Ships themselves being brought for England would be always before mens Eyes there and put them in remembrance of the greatness of the Exploit as for the Town perhaps it might be soon won but probably not long enjoyed and so quickly forgotten And to speak indifferentiy by the Earl's suddain Landing without the Lord Admirals Privity and his giving Advice by a Message to attempt the Ships which should have been resolved of upon mature Deliberation no doubt the Lord Admiral found his Honor a little Eclipsed which perhaps hastened his Landing for his Reputation sake whenas he thought it more advisable to have possess'd himself of their Fleet. Before the Lord Admiral could draw near the Town the Earl of Essex had entred it and although the Houses were built in that manner as that every House served for a Platform
Squadron two days after us the 10th of August where he found the Army in that perfect Health as the like hath not been seen for so many to go out of England to such great Enterprises and so well to return home again He himself rid up to the Court to advise with her Majesty about the winning of Callis which the Spaniards took the Easter before Here was a good opportunity to have re-gained the Ancient Patrimony of England but the French King thought he might with more ease re-gain it from the Spaniard who was his Enemy than recover it again from us who were his Friends My Lord Admiral with the Fleet went to the Downs where he landed and left the Charge of the Navy to Sir Robert Dudley and Sir William Monson In going from thence to Chatham they endured more foul Weather and contrary Winds than in the whole Voyage besides A Voyage to the Islands the Earl of Essex General Anno 1597. Ships Commanders The Mere-honor The Earl of Essex Capt. under him After in the Repulse Sir Robert Mansell The Lyon The Lord Thomas Howard The Warspite Sir Walter Rawleigh The Garland The Earl of Southampton The Defiance The Lord Mountioy The Mary Rose Sir Francis Vere The Hope Sir Richard Lewson The Matthew Sir George Carew The Rainbow Sir Will. Monson The Bonaventure Sir Will. Harvey The Dreadnought Sir Will. Brooke The Swiftsuer Sir Gilly Merick The Antelope Sir John Gilbert he went not The Nonperil Sir Tho. Vavasor The St. Andrew Capt. Throgmorton HER Majesty having Knowledge of the King of Spain's drawing down his Fleet and Army to the Groyn and Ferrol with an intent to enter into some Action against Her and that notwithstanding the loss of thirty six Sail of his Ships that were cast away upon the North Cape in their coming thither He prepared with all possible means to revenge the Disgraces we did him the year last past at Cadiz Her Majesty likewise prepared to defend her self and fitted out the most part of her Ships for the Sea but at length perceiving his Drift was more to afright than offend her though he gave it it out otherwise because she should provide to resist him at home rather than to annoy him abroad She was unwilling the great Charges she had been at should be bestowed in vain and therefore turned her Preparations another way than that for which she first intended them The Project of this Voyage was to assault the King of Spain's Shipping in the Harbor of Ferrol which the Queen chiefly desired to do for her own Security at home and afterwards to go and take the Islands of Tercera and there to expect the coming home of the Indian Fleet. But neither of these two Designs took that effect which was expected For in our setting forth the same day we put to Sea we were taken with a most violent Storm and contrary Winds and the General was seperated from the Fleet and one Ship from another so that the one half of the Fleet were compelled to return home and the rest that kept the Sea having reached the Coast of Spain were commanded home by order of the Lord General Thus after their return they were to advise upon a new Voyage finding by their Ships and Victuals they were unable to perform the former Whereupon it was thought convenient all the Army should be discharged for the prolonging of the Victuals except a thousand of the prime Souldiers of the Low Countries which were put into her Majesties Ships that they might be the better prepared if they should chance to encounter the Spanish Fleet. Thus the second time they departed England though not without some danger of the Ships by reason of the Winter 's near approach The first Land in Spain we fell withal was the North Cape the place whither our Directions led us if we happened to lose Company being there descried from the Shore and not above 12 Leagues from the Groyn where the Spanish Armado lay We were in good hopes to have enticed them out of the Harbor to fight us but spending some time thereabouts and finding no such Disposition in them it was thought fit no longer to linger about that Coast lest we should lose our opportunity upon the Indian Fleet therefore every Captain received his Directions to stand his Course into 36 Degrees there to spread our selves North and South it being a heighth that commonly the Spaniards sail in from the Indies At this time the Lord General complained of a Leak in his Ship and two days after towards midnight he brought himself upon the Lee to stop it Sir Walter Rawleigh and some other Ships being a head the Fleet and it growing dark they could not discern the Lord General 's Working but stood their Course as before directed and through this unadvised working of my Lord they lost him and his Fleet. The day following Sir Walter Rawleigh was informed by a Pinnace he met that the great Armado which we supposed to be in the Groyn and Ferrol was gone to the Islands for the Guard of the Indian Fleet. This Pinnace with this Intelligence it gave us Sir Walter Rawleigh immediately sent to look out the General My Lord had no sooner received this Advice but at the very instant he directed his Course to the Islands and dispatched some small Vessels to Sir Walter Rawleigh to inform him of the suddain Alteration of his Course upon the News received from him commanding him with all Expedition to repair to Flores where he would not fail to be at our Arrival At the Islands we found this Intelligence utterly false For neither the Spanish Ships were there nor were expected there We met likewise with divers English men that came out of the Indies but they could give us no assurance of the coming home of the Fleet neither could we recive any Advertisement from the Shore which made us half in despair of them By that time we had watered our Ships and refreshed our selves at Flores Sir Walter Rawleigh arrived there who was willed by the Lord General after he was furnished of such Wants as that poor Island afforded to make his repair to the Island of Fayal which my Lord intended to take Here grew great Questions and Heart-burnings against Sir Walter Rawleigh For he coming to Fayal and missing the Lord General and yet knowing my Lord's Resolution to take the Island he held it more advisable to land with those Forces he had than to expect the coming of my Lord For in that space the Island might be better provided whereupon he landed and took it before my Lord's approach This Act was held such an Indignity to my Lord and urged with that Vehemence by those that hated Sir Walter that if my Lord though naturally kind and flexible had not feared how it would have been taken in England I think Sir Walter had smarted for it From this Island we went to Graciosa which did willingly relieve our Wants as
carry them alleadging that if the Indian Fleet came home that Year by computation of the last light Moon from which time their disimboguing in the Indies must be reckoned they could not be above 200 Leagues short of that Island and whensoever the Wind should chop up Westernly he bearing a slack Sail they would in a few days overtake him This Advice my Lord seemed to take but was diverted by divers Gentlemen who coming principally for Land Service found themselves tired by the tediousness of the Sea Certain it is if my Lord had followed his Advice within less than 40 hours he had made the Queen owner of that Fleet For by the Pilot's Card which was taken in the Frigat the Spanish Fleet was but 50 Leagues in traverse with that Eastern Wind when my Lord was at Flores which made my Lord wish the first time Sir William Monson repaired to him after the Escape of the Fleet that he had lost his Hand so he had been ruled by him Being met Aboard Sir Francis Vere we consulted what to do and resolved to acquaint my Lord with what had happened desiring his Presence with us to see if there were any possibility to attempt the Shipping or surprize the Island and so to possess the Treasure My Lord received this Advertisement just as he was ready with his Troops to have landed in St. Michaels but this Message diverted his Landing and made him presently cast about for the Islands of the Tercera's where we lay all this while expecting his coming In his Course from St. Michaels it was his hap to to take three Ships that departed the Havana the day after the Fleet Which three Ships did more than countervail the whole Voyage At my Lord's meeting with us at Tercera there was a Consultation how the Enemies Ships might be fetched off or destroyed as they lay but all men with one consent agreed the impossibility of it The attempting the Island was propounded but withstood for these reasons the difficulty in Landing the strength of the Island which was increased by fourteen or fifteen Hundred Souldiers in the Ships and our want of Victuals to abide by the Siege Seeing then we were frustrate of our Hopes at the Tercera we resolved upon landing in St. Michaels and arrived the day following at Punta Delgada the Chief City Here my Lord imbarqued his small Army in Boats with offer to Land and having thereby drawn the Enemies greatest Force thither to resist him suddainly he rowed to Villa Franca three or four Leagues distant from thence which not being defended by the Enemy he took The Ships had order to abide in the Road of Delgada for that my Lord made account to march thither by Land but being on Shore at Villa Franca he was informed that the March was impossible by reason of the high and craggy Mountains which diverted his purpose Victuals now grew short with us and my Lord General began discreetly to foresee the danger in abiding towards Winter upon these Coasts which could not afford him an Harbor only open Roads that were subject to Southern Winds and upon every Wind he must put to Sea for his safety He considered that if this should happen when his Troops were on Shore and he not able to reach the Land in a Fortnight or more which is a thing ordinary what a desperate case he should put himself into especially in so great a want of Victuals And so concluding that he had seen the end of all his Hopes by the Escape of the Fleet he imbarqued himself and Army though with some difficulty the Seas were now grown so high By this the one half of the Fleet that rid in Punta Delgada put room for Villa Franca and those that remained behind being thought by a Ship of Brazile to be the Spanish Fleet she came in amongst them and so was betrayed After her there followed a Carreck who had been served in the like manner but for the hasty and indiscreet weighing of a Hollander which made her run a Shore under the Castle when the Wind lessened Sir William Monson weighted with the Rainbow thinking to give an Attempt upon her notwithstanding the Castle which she perceiving as he drew near unto her she set her self on fire and burned down to the very Keel She was a Ship of 1400 Tuns Burden that the year before was not able to double the Cape of bona Esperansa in her Voyage to the East Indies but put into Brazile where she was laden with Sugars and afterwards thus destroyed The Spaniards who presumed more upon their Advantages than Valors thought themselves in too weak a Condition to follow us to the Islands and put their Fortunes upon a days Service but subtilly devised how to intercept us as we came Home when we had least Thought or Suspicion of them and their Fleet that was all this while in the Groyn and Ferrol not daring to put forwards while they knew ours to be upon the Coast their General the Adelantada came for England with a Resolution to land at Falmouth and fortifie it and afterwards with their Ships to keep the Sea and expect our coming home scattered Having thus cut off our Sea Forces and possessing the Harbor of Falmouth they thought with a second supply of 37 Levantisco's Ships which the Marquess Arumbullo commanded to have returned and gained a good footing in England These Designs of theirs were not foreseen by us For we came Home scattered as they made reckoning not 20 in number together We may say and that truly that God sought for us For the Adalantada being within a few Leagues of the Island of Silly he commanded all his Captains on Board him to receive his Directions but whilst they were in Consultation a violent Storm took them at East insomuch that the Captains could hardly recover their Ships but in no case were able to save their Boats the Storm continued so furious and happy was he that could recover home seeing their Design thus overthrown by loss of their Boats whereby their means of Landing was taken away Some who were willing to stay and receive the farther Commands of the General kept the Seas so long upon our Coast that in the end they were taken others put themselves into our Harbors for Refuge and Succor and it is certainly known that in this Voyage the Spaniards lost eighteen Ships the St. Luke and the St. Bartholomew being two and in the rank of his best Gallions We must ascribe this Success to God only For certainly the Enemies Designs were dangerous and not to be diverted by our Force but by his Will who would not suffer the Spaniards in any of their Attempts to set footing in England as we have done in all the Quarters of Spain Portugal the Islands and both the Indies The Lord Thomas Howard Admiral to the Downs from whence he returned in one Month Anno 1599. Ships Commanders The Elizabeth Jonas The Lord Thomas Howard The Ark
it Whereupon I made semblance as if I had been more willing to hear him than before hoping by that means to cause him to deliver his minde to some other that might be witness thereof with me wherein nevertheless I failed After all this on Saturday last being the sixth of February between the hours of five and six in the afternoon Parry came to my Chamber and desired to talk with me apart whereupon we drew our selves to a window And where I had told Parry before that a learned man whom I met by chance in the fields unto whom I proponed the question touching her Majesty had answered me that it was an enterprise most villanous and damnable willing me to discharge my self of it Parry then desired to know that learned mans name and what was become of him saying after a scornful manner No doubt he was a very wise man and you wiser in believing him and said further I hope you told him not that I had any thing from Rome Yes in truth said I. Whereunto Parry said I would you had not named me nor spoken of any thing I had from Rome And thereupon he earnestly perswaded me estsoons to depart beyond the Seas promising to procure me safe passage into Wales and from thence into Britain whereat we ended But I then resolved not to do so but to discharge my conscience and lay open this his most traiterous and abominable intention against her Majesty which I revealed in sort as is before set down Edmund Nevil After this confession of Edmund Nevil William Parry the 11th day of February last being examined in the Tower of London by the Lord Hunsdon Lord Governour of Barwick Sir Christopher Hatton knight Vicechamberlain to her Majesty and Sir Francis Walsingham Knight principal Secretary to her Majesty did voluntary and without any constraint by word of mouth make confession of his said Treason and after set it down in writing all with his own hand in his Lodging in the Tower and sent it to the Court the 13th of the same by the Lieutenant of the Tower The parts whereof concerning his manner of doing the same and the Treasons wherewith he was justly charged are here set down word for word as they are written and signed with his own hand and name the 11th of February 1584. The voluntary Confession of William Parry in writing all with his own hand The voluntary Confession of William Parry Doctor of the Laws now Prisoner in the Tower and accused of Treason by Edmund Nevil Esquire promised by him with all faith and humility to the Queens Majesty in discharge of his Conscience and Duty towards God and her Before the Lord Hunsdon Lord Governour of Barwick Sir Christopher Hatton Knight Vicechamberlain Sir Francis Walsingham Knight principal Secretary the 13th of February 1584. Parry IN the year 1570. I was sworn her Majesties servant from which time until the year 1580. I served honoured and loved her with as great readiness devotion and assurance as any poor subject in England In the end of that year and until Midsummer 1582. I had some trouble for the hurting of a Gentleman of the Temple In which action I was so disgraced and oppressed by two great men to whom I have of late been beholden that I never had contented thought since There began my misfortune and here followeth my woful fall In July after I laboured for licence to travail for three years which upon some consideration was easily obtained And so in August I went over with doubtful minde of return for that being suspected in Religion and not having received the Communion in twenty two years I began to mistrust my advancement in England In September I came to Paris where I was reconciled to the Church and advised to live without scandal the rather for that it was mistrusted by the English Catholiques that I had Intelligence with the greatest Councellour of England I staied not long there but removed to Lions a place of great Traffick where because it was the ordinary passage of our Nation to and fro between Paris and Rome I was also suspected To put all men out of doubt of me and for some other cause I went to Millain from whence as a place of some danger though I found favour there after I had cleared my conscience and justified my self in Religion before the Inquisitor I went to Venice There I came acquainted with father Benedicto Palmio a grave and a learned Jesuite By conference with him of the hard state of the Catholicks in England and by reading of the Book De persecutione Anglicana and other discourses of like argument 1 I conceived a possible mean to relieve the afflicted state of our Catholicks if the same might be well warranted in religion and conscience by the Pope or some learned Divines I asked his opinion he made it clear commended my devotion comforted me in it and after a while made me known to the Nuntio Campeggio there resident for his Holiness By his means I wrote to the Pope presented the service and sued for a Pasport to go to Rome and to return safely into France Answer came from Cardinal Como that I might come and should be welcome I misliked the warrant sued for a better which I was promised but it came not before my departure to Lions where I promised to stay some time for it And being indeed desirous to go to Rome and loth to go without countenance I desired Christofero de Salazar Secretary to the Catholick King in Venice who had some understanding by conference of my devotion to the afflicted Catholicks at home and abroad to commend me to the Duke di Nova Terra Governour of Millain and to the County of Olivaris Embi then Resident for the King his Master in Rome which he promised to do effectually for the one and did for the other And so I took my journey towards Lyons whither came for me an ample Passeport but somewhat too late that I might come and go in verbo Pontificis per omnes jurisdictones Ecclesiasticas absque impedimento I acquainted some good Fathers there of my necessity to depart towards Paris by promise and prayed their advises upon divers points wherein I was well satisfied And so assuring them that his Holiness should hear from me shortly it was undertaken that I should be excused for that time In October I came to Paris where upon better opinion conceived of me amongst my Catholick Country-men I found my credit well setled and such as mistrusted me before ready to trust and imbrace me And being one day at the Chamber of Thomas Morgan a Catholick Gentleman greatly beloved and trusted on that side amongst other Gentlemen talking but in very good sort of England I was desired by Morgan to go up with him to another Chamber where he brake with me and told me that it was hoped and looked for that I should do some service for God and his Church I answered him
MEGALOPSYCHY BEING A Particular and Exact ACCOUNT Of the last XVII Years OF Q. Elizabeths Reign Both MILITARY and CIVIL The First written by Sir William Monson one of the Queens Admirals The Second written by Heywood Townsend Esq WHEREIN Is a True and Faithful Relation of all the Expeditions Attempts Designs Successes and Errors both of the English and Spanish Wars from the Year 1585 to the Queens death With a Full Account of the eminent Speeches and Debates c. in the said time To which is added Dr. Parry's Tryal in the Year 1584. All written at the time of the Actions by Persons eminently Acting therein LONDON Printed for W. Crooke and sold by W. Davis in Amen Corner M.DC.LXXXII A TRUE and EXACT ACCOUNT OF THE Wars with Spain In the REIGN of Q. ELIZABETH Of Famous Memory BEING The Particulars of what happened between the English and Spanish Fleets from the Years 1585 to 1602. SHEWING The Expeditions Attempts Fights Designs Escapes Successes Errors c. on both sides With the Names of Her Majesty's Ships and Commanders in every Fleet. Being a Patern and Warning to Future Ages Never Printed before Written by Sir William Monson who was a Captain in most and Admiral of several of those Fleets in the said Wars and Dedicated to his Son LONDON Printed for W. Crooke and sold by W. Davis in Amen Corner M.DC.LXXXII TO THE READER By way of Advertisement YOu have here put into your hands a Piece of English History of a time of great Actions You will hardly meet more Truth in any History than you will find in this All circumstances considered there could not in any thing be greater opportunities of Truth they being written by Persons of Eminent Characters and Considerable Actors in the same times These very Authors Wise and Heroick Actions make no inconsiderable part of the History it self The First is a Relation of the Military Transactions of the Nation for nigh Twenty Years beginning Anno Domini 1585 from which time to Queen Elizabeths death there was yearly set out a Fleet against the Spaniards with a full Account of all the Expeditions Stratagems Attempts Successes and Miscarriages that happened in that War on both sides wherein is shewed the Valour and Heroick Acts of those great Souldiers that were so plenty in that Age as Cumberland Suffolk Essex Sheffeild Drake Rawleigh Hawkins Forbisher Carlee Burroughs Bellingham Fenner Southwell Crosse Seymour Crosse Winter Beeston Palmer Barker Bostock Sackvile Goring Norris Williams Leicester York Greenvile Vavasor c. And Sir William Monson the Author of this who was Admiral in several of the said Expeditions against the Spaniards and also a Member in her last Parliaments The second part is the full and exact Account of the Four last Parliaments both Lords and Commons of Queen Elizabeth taken from the original Records of their Houses by Heywood Townsend Esquire a Member thereof with the particular Speech and Behaviour of the Wife and Learned Statesmen Lawyers c. which that time was fo fruitful of viz. Egerton Burleigh Buckhurst Cecill Walsingham Hatton Bacon Rawleigh Hobby Crooke Coke Moore Fortescue Pophan Yelverton Finch Maynard Spelman Wentworth Hobart Manwood Jones Digby Caesar Anderson Winch c. With other passages of History in those times that is runs contemporary with Sir William Monsons Relation both together being the Account of the Military and Civil State of Affairs of nigh 20 Years of the last part of Queen Elizabeths Reign being the most eminent time of Action in all her Government With Sir William Monsons Directions and Advice to his Son by way of Dedication to excuse it s not coming forth sooner may be to avoid such Offences which must necessarily be given by a faithful and exact Historian that writes of the present Age when the Parties are living that were Actors in it it may by this time be supposed that such Objections against its now coming forth may be over You have added at the end of this the Tryal Condemnation and Execution of Dr. Parry for a Conspiracy against the said Queen written also at the time of his Tryal and Execution So that what is here offered for thy use is nothing but what was written at the time of the Action or by the Persons who were Actors and of such Quality that it is quite out of all suspicion there should be the least Falshood in this it being never at all designed for the publick in the life-time of the Authors Therefore neither Profit nor Honour did the Authors expect although their exact and careful Accounts of Truth must be no small benefit to the curious Reader There is lately published a small Book of 1 s. 6 d. price called The Connexion being choice Collections of some principal matters in King James his Reign and passages betwixt this Book and Rushworth Nalson and the rest that begin at King Charles I. Sir WILLIAM MONSON TO HIS Son JOHN Dear Son THE Custom of Dedicating Books hath been ancient and they have been usually dedicated either to Great Persons for protection or remuneration or to Familiars out of friendship and affection or to Children in respect of nature and for admonition And to this end it is that to you I commend the reading of the Discourse following that so beholding the 18 years War by Sea which for want of years you could not then remember and comparing them with the 18 years of Peace in which you have lived you may consider three things First that after so many pains and perils God hath lent Life to your Father to further your Education Secondly what proportion his recompence and rewards have had to his Services Lastly what just cause you have to abandon the thoughts of such dangerous and uncertain courses and that you may follow the ensuing Precepts which I commend to your often perusal And in the first place I will put you in mind of the small Means and Fortune I shall leave that you may rate your Expences accordingly and yet as little as it is 't is great to me in respect I attained to it by my own endeavours and dangers and therefore no body can challenge Interest in it but my self though your Carriage may promise the best possibility Beware you presume not so much upon it as thereby to grow disobedient to your Parents for what you can pretend to is but the privilege of two years of age above your younger Brother and in such cases Fathers are like Judges that can and will distinguish of offences and deserts according to truth and will reward and punish as they shall see cause And because you shall know it is no rare or new thing for a man to dispose of his own I will lay before you a Precedent of your own House that so often as you think of it you may remember it with fear and prevent it with care The Great Grandfather of your Grandfather was a Knight by Title and John by name which name we desire
Andalusian Squadron and on whom the Duke most relied because of his experience and judgment was the main man that persuaded the Attempt of our Ships in Harbour and with that resolution they directed their course for England The first Land they fell with was the Lizard the Southermost part of Cornwall which they took to be the Rams Head athwart Plymouth and the night being at hand they tacked off to Sea making account in the morning to make an Attempt upon our Ships in Plymouth But whilest they were thus deceived in the Land they were in the mean time discovered by Capt. Flemminge a Pyrat who had been at Sea pilfering and upon view of them knowing them to be the Spanish Fleet repaired with all speed to Plymouth and gave warning and notice to our Fleet who were then riding at Anchor whereupon my Lord Admiral hastned with all possible expedition to get forth the Ships and before the Spaniards could draw near Plymouth they were welcomed at Sea by my Lord and his Navy who continued fight with them untill he brought them to an Anchor at Callice The particulars of the Fight and the Successes thereof being things so well known I purposely omit While this Armado was preparing Her Majesty had from time to time perfect intelligence of the Spaniards Designs and because she knew his intent was to invade her at Sea with a mighty Fleet from his own Coast she furnished out her Royal Navy under the Conduct of the Lord High Admiral of England and sent him to Plymouth as the likeliest place to attend their coming as you have heard Then knowing that it was not the Fleet alone that could endanger her safety for that they were too weak for any Enterprize on Land without the assistance of the Prince of Parma and his Army in Flanders therefore she appointed 30 Sail of Holland Ships to lie at an Anchor before the Town of Dunkirk where the Prince was to imbarque in Flat-bottom'd Boats made purposely for the Expedition of England Thus had the Prince by the Queens Providence been prevented if he had attempted to put out of Harbour with his Boats but in truth neither his Vessels nor his Army were in readiness which caused the King ever after to be jealous of him and as 't is supposed to hasten his end Her Majesty notwithstanding this her vigilant care to foresee and prevent all danger that might happen at Sea would not hold her self too secure of her Enemy and therefore prepared a Royal Army to welcom him upon his Landing but it was not the will of God that he should set foot on English ground the Queen becoming Victorious over him at Sea with little hazard or bloudshed of her Subjects Having shewed the Design of the Spaniards and the course taken by Her Majesty to prevent them I will now collect the Errors committed as well by the one as by the other as I have promised in the beginning of my Discourse As nothing could appear more rational and likely to take effect after the Duke had gotten intelligence of the state of our Navy than his design to surprize them unawares in Harbour he well knowing that if he had taken away our strength by Sea he might have landed both when and where he listed which is a great advantage to an Invader yet admitting it had took that effect he designed I see not how he was to be commended in breaking the Instructions given him by the King what blame then did he deserve when so ill an event followed by his rashness and disobedience It was not the want of Experience in the Duke or his laying the fault upon Valdes that excused him at his return but he had smarted bitterly for it had it not been for his Wife who obtained the Kings favour for him Before th' Arrival of the Ships that escaped in this Voyage it was known in Spain that Diego Flores de Valdes was he who persuaded the Duke to break the Kings Instructions whereupon the King gave commandment in all his Ports where the said Diego Flores de Valdes might arrive to apprehend him which was accordingly executed and he carried to the Castle of Sancta Andrea and was never seen or heard of after If the Kings Directions had been punctually followed then had his Fleet kept the Coast of France and arrived in the Road of Callice before they had been discovered by us which might have endangered Her Majesty and the Realm our Ships being so far off as Plymouth where then they lay and thought the Prince of Parma had not been presently ready yet he had gained time sufficient by the absence of our Fleet to make himself ready And whereas the Prince was kept in by the 30 Sail of Hollanders so many of the Dukes Fleet might have been able to have put the Hollanders from the Road of Dunkirk and possest it themselves and so have secured the Army and Fleets meeting together and then how easie it had been after their joyning to have transported themselves for England And what would have ensued upon their Landing here may be well imagined But it was the will of him that directs all men and their actions that the Fleets should meet and the Enemy be beaten as they were put from their Anchorage in Callice Road the Prince of Parma beleaguered at Sea and their Navy driven about Scotland and Ireland with great hazard and loss which sheweth how God did marvellously defend us against their dangerous Designs And here was opportunity offered us to have followed the Victory upon them for after they were beaten from the Road at Callice and all their hopes and designs frustated if we had once more offered them fight the General by persuasion of his Confessor was determined to yield whose example 't is very likely would have made the rest to have done the like But this opportunity was lost not through the negligence or backwardness of the Lord Admiral but merely through the want of Providence in those that had the charge of furnishing and providing for the Fleet for at that time of so great advantage when they came to examine their Provisions they found a general scarcity of Powder and Shot for want whereof they were forced to return home Another opportunity was lost not much inferiour to the other by not sending part of our Fleet to the West of Ireland where the Spaniards of necessity were to pass after so many dangers and disasters as they had endured If we had been so happy as to have followed this course as it was both thought and discoursed of we had been absolutely victorious over this great and formidable Navy for they were brought to that necessity that they would willingly have yielded as divers of them confess'd that were shipwreck'd in Ireland By this we may see how weak and feeble the designs of Men are in respect of the Creator of Man and how indifferently he dealt betwixt the two Nations sometimes giving one sometimes
sprung upon her was forced to be cast off and the men with much difficulty recovered the Shore and saved their Lives The other being sent for England and tossed with contrary Winds was for want of Victuals forced into the Groyn where they rend'red themselves to the Enemies mercy The Spices were determined to be sent for England and a Ship appointed for that purpose with other Ships to guard her and Captain Monson was sent on Board her to the Islands of the Burlings with a Charge to see her dispatched for England But the other Ships not observing the Directions which were given them and the Night falling calm early in the Morning this scattered Ship was set upon by six Gallies and after a long and bloody Fight the Captain and the Principallest men being slain both Ship and Spices were taken but whether it was the respect they had to the Queen's Ship which was Admiral of that Fleet or Honor to my Lord that commanded it or Hope by good Usage of our men to receive the like again I know not but true it is that the ordinary men were treated with more Courtesie than they had been from the beginning of the Wars My Lord of Cumberland considering the Disasters that thus befell him and knowing the Spanish Fleet 's readiness to put out of Harbor but especially finding his Ship but ill of Sail it being the first Voyage she ever went to Sea he durst not abide the Coast of Spain but thought it more Discretion to return for England having as you have heard sent a Pinnace to my Lord Thomas with the Intelligence aforesaid A Voyage undertook by Sir Walter Rawleigh but himself returning left the Charge thereof to Sir Martin Forbisher Anno 1592. Ships Commanders by Sea Commander by Land The Garland Sir Walter Rawleigh Sir John Boroughs The Foresight with divers Merchants Ships Capt. Cross and others Sir Walter went not but Sir Martin Fobisher  SIR Walter Rawleigh who had tasted abundantly of the Queen's Love and found it now began to decline put himself upon a Voyage at Sea and drew unto him divers friends of great Quality and others thinking to have attempted some place in the West Indies and with this resolution he put out of Harbour but spending two or three days in fowl Weather Her Majesty was pleased to command his Return and to commit the Charge of the Ships to Sir Martin Forbisher who was sent down for that purpose but with an express Command not to follow the Design of the West Indies This suddain Alteration being known unto the rest of the Captains for the present made some Confusion as commonly it happens in all voluntary Actions Their General leaving them they thought themselves free in point of Reputation and at liberty to take what course they pleased Few of them therefore did submit themselves to the Command of Sir Martin Forbisher but chose rather each one to take his particular Fortune and Adventure at Sea Sir Martin with two or three other Ships repaired to the Coast of Spain where he took a Spaniard laden with Iron and a Portugal with Sugar He remained there not without some danger his Ship being ill of Sail and the Enemy having a Fleet at Sea Sir John Boroughs Captain Cross and another stood to the Islands where they met with as many Ships of my Lord of Cumberland's with whom they consorted After some time spent thereabouts they had sight of a Carreck which they chased but she recoverd the Island of Flores before they could approach her but the Carreck seeing the Islands could not defend her from the Strength and Force of the English chose rather after the men were got on Shore to fire her self than we the Enemy should reap Benefit by her The Purser of her was taken and by Threats compell'd to tell of another of their Company behind that had Order to fall with that Island and gave us such particular Advertisement that indeed she fell to be ours In the mean time Don Alonso de Bassan was furnishing at Lisbon 23 of those Gallions which the Year before he had when he took the Revenge he was directed with those Ships to go immediately to Flores to expect the coming of the Carrecks who had order to fall with that Island there to put on Shore divers Ordnance for strength'ning the Town and Castle Don Alonso breaking his Directions unadvisedly made his repair first to St. Michaels and there delivered his Ordnance before he arrived at Flores and in the mean time one of the Carrecks was burnt and the other taken as you have heard This he held to be such a Disreputation to him and especially for that it happened through his own Error and Default that he became much perplex'd and pursued the English 100 Leagues but in vain they being so far a Head The King of Spain being advertised of his two Carrecks mishap and the Error of Don Alonso though he had much favoured him before in respect of divers Actions he had been in with his Brother the Marquess of St. Cruz and for what he had lately performed by taking the Revenge Yet the King held it for such a Blemish to his Honor not to have his Instructions obeyed and observed that he did not only take from Don Alonso his Command but he lived and died too in Disgrace which in my Opinion he worthily deserved The Queens Adventure in this Voyage was only two Ships one of which and the least of them too was at the taking of the Carreck which title joyned with her Regal Authority she made such use of that the rest of the Adventures were fain to submit themselves to her Pleasure with whom she dealt but indifferently The Earl of Cumberland to the Coast of Spain Anno Dom. 1593. Ships Commanders The Lyon The Earl of Cumberland The Bonaventure and seven other Ships Capt. under him Capt. Monson Sir Edward Yorke THE Earl of Cumberland finding that many of his Voyages had miscarried through the Negligence or Unfaithfulness of those who were entrusted to lay in necessary Provisions and yet being incouraged by the good Success he had the last year obtained two of her Majesty's Ships and Victualled them himself together with seven others that did accompany them and arriving upon the Coast of Spain He took two French Ships of the League which did more than treble the Expence of his Voyage My Lord being one day severed from his Fleet it was his hap to meet with 12 Hulks at the same place where Captain Monson was taken the same day two years before He required that Respect from them that was due unto Her Majesties Ship which they peremptorily refused presuming upon the Strength of their 12 Ships against one only but they found themselves deceived For after two hours Fight he brought them to his Mercy and made them acknowledge their Error and not only so but they willingly discovered and delivered up to him a great quantity of Powder and
Munition which they carried for the King of Spain's Service My Lord of Cumberland having spent some time thereabouts and understanding that Fervanteles de Menega a Portugal and the King's General of a Fleet of 24 Sail was gone to the Islands he pursued them thinking to meet the Carrecks before they should joyn together At his coming to Flores he met and took one of the Fleet with the Death of the Captain who yet lived so long as to inform him both where the Fleet was and of their Strength The day after he met the Fleet it self but being far too weak for them he was forced to leave them and spent his time thereabouts till he understood the Carrecks were passed by without seeing either Fleet or Island Sir Martin Forbisher with a Fleet to Brest in Brittany Anno 1594. Ships Commanders The Vauntguard Sir Martin Forbisher The Rainbow Capt. Fenner The Dreadnought Capt. Clifford The Quittance Capt. Savil ABout three years past Anno 1591. the Queen sent Sir John Norris with 3000 Souldiers to joyn with the French King's Party in those Parts The King of Spain who upheld the Faction of the League sent Don John de Aquila with the like Forces to joyn with the Duke de Merceur who was of the contrary side The Spaniards had fortified themselves very strongly near the Town of Brest expecting new Succors from Spain by Sea which the French King fearing craved Assistance from the Queen which her Majesty was the more willing to grant because the Spaniards had gotten the Haven of Brest to entertain their Shipping in and were like to prove there very dangerous Neighbors Wherefore she sent Sir Martin Forbisher thither in this year 1594 with four of her Ships And upon his Arrival there Sir John Norris with his Forces and Sir Martin with his Seaman assailed the Fort and though it was as bravely defended as men could do yet in the end it was taken with the loss of divers Captains Sir Martin Forbisher being himself sore wounded of which Hurt he died at Plymouth after his return A Fleet to the Indies Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins Generals wherein they adventured deeply and died in the Voyage Anno 1594. Ships Commanders by Sea Commander by Land The Defiance Sir Francis Drake Sir Tho. Baskervile The Garland Sir John Hawkins  The Hope Capt. Gilbert Yorke  The Bonaventure Capt. Troughton  The Foresight Capt. Winter  The Adventure Capt. Tho. Drake  THese two Generals presuming much upon their own Experience and Knowledge used many Persuasions to the Queen to undertake a Voyage to the West Indies giving much assurance to perform great Services and promising to engage themselves very deeply therein with the Adventure of both Substance and Life And as all Actions of this Nature promise fair till they come to be performed so did this the more in the Opinion of all Men in respect of the two Generals Experience There were many Impediments and Let ts to this Voyage before they could clear themselves of the Coast which put them to greater Charge than they expected the chiefest cause of their Lingring was a mistrust our State had of an Invasion and the Danger to spare so many good Ships and men out of England as they carried with them The Spaniards with their usual subtilty let slip no opportunity to put us in amazement thereby to dissolve the Action and sent four Gallies to Bleuret in Brittany from thence to seize some part of our Coast that so we might apprehend a greater Force was to follow These Gallies landed at Pensants in Cornwall where finding the Town abandoned they sack'd and burnt it but this Design of theirs took little effect for the Voyage proceeded notwithstanding The Intent of the Voyage was to land at Nombre de dois and from thence to march to Panuma to possess the Treasure that comes from Peru and if they saw reason for it to inhabite and keep it A few days before their going from Plymouth they received Letters from her Majesty of an Advertisement she had out of Spain that the Indian Fleet was arrived and that one of them with loss of her Mast was put room to the Island of Porto Ricom She commanded them seeing there was so good an opportunity offered as the readiness of this her Fleet and the weakness of Porto Ricom to possess themselves of that Treasure and the rather for that it was not much out of their way to Nombre de dois It is neither Years nor Experience that can foresee and prevent all mishaps which is a manifest Proof that God is the Guider and Disposer of Mens Actions For nothing could seem more probable to be effected than this later Design especially considering the Ability and Wisdom of the two Generals and yet was unhappily prevented and failed in the Execution For there being five Frigats sent out of Spain to fetch this Treasure from Porto Ricom in their way it was their hap to take a Pinnace of the English Fleet by whom they understood the Secrets of the Voyage and to prevent the Attempt of Porto Ricom they hastened thither with all speed whilst our Generals lingred at Quadrupa to set up their Boats and at their Arrival so strengthened the Town with the Souldiers brought in the Prigats that when our Fleet came thither not expecting Resistance they found themselves frustrate of their Hopes which indeed they themselves were the occasion of in managing their Design with no more Secresie This Repulse bred so great a Disconceit in Sir John Hawkins as it is thought to have hastened his days and being great and unexpected did not a little discourage Sir Francis Drake's great Mind who yet proceeded upon his first resolved Design for Nombre de dios though with no better Success For the Enemy having knowledge of their coming fortified the Passage to Panuma and forced them to return with loss Sir Francis Drake who was wont to rule Fortune now finding his Error and the difference between the present strength of the Indies and what it was when he first knew it grew melancholly upon this Disappointment and suddenly and I hope naturally died at Nombre de dios where he got his first Reputation The two Generals dying and all other Hopes being taken away by their Deaths Sir Thomas Baskervile succeeded them in their Command and began now to think upon his return for England but coming near Cuba he met and fought with a Fleet of Spain though not long by reason of the Sickness and Weakness of his Men. This Fleet was sent to take the Advantage of ours in its Return thinking as indeed it happened that they should find them both weak and in want but the swiftness of our Ships in which we had the Advantage of the Spaniards preserved us You may observe that from the year the Revenge was taken untill this present year 1595. there was no Summer but the King of Spain furnished a Fleet for
after we had entred into this Conspiracy In which space her Majesty and ten Princes in several Provinces might have been killed God bless her Majesty from him for before Almighty God I joy and am glad in my soul that it was his hap to discover me in time though there were no danger near And now to the manner of our meetings He came to me in the beginning of August and spake to me in this or like sort Cousin let us do somewhat sithens we can have nothing I offered to joyn with him and gladly heard him hoping because I knew him to be a Catholick that he would hit upon that I had in my head but it fell not out so He thought the delivery of the Queen of Scotland easie presuming upon his Credit and Kindred in the North I thought it dangerous to her and impossible to men of our fortunes He fell from that to the taking of Barwick I spake of Quinborough and the Navy rather to entertain him with discourse than that I cared for those motions my head being full of a greater matter 12 I told him that I had another manner of Enterprise more honourable and profitable to us and the Catholicks Common-wealth than all these if he would joyn in it with me as he presently vowed to do He pressed to know it I willed him to sleep upon the motion He did so and belike overtaken came to me the next morning to my Lodging in London offered to joyn with me and took his Oath upon a Bible to conceal and constantly to pursue the enterprise for the advancement of Religion which I also did and meant to perform the killing of the Queen was the matter The manner and place to be on Horsback with eight or ten horses when she should ride abroad about St. James or some other like place It was once thought fit in a Garden and that the escape would be easiest by water into Shepey or some other part but we resolved upon the first This continued as agreed upon many moneths until he heard of the death of Westmoreland whose Land and Dignity whereof he assured himself bred belike this Conscience in him to discover a Treason in February contrived and agreed upon in August If it cost him not an ambitious Head at last let him never trust me He brought a tall Gentleman whom he commended for an excellent Pistolier to me to Chanon-Row to make one in the match but I refused to deal with him being loth to lay my head upon so many hands Master Nevil hath I think forgotten that he did swear to to me at divers times that all the advancement she could give should serve but for her scourge if ever time and occasion should serve and that though he would not lay hand upon her in a corner his heart served him to strike off her Head in the field Now leaving him to himself this much to make an end I must confess of my self I did mean to try what might be done in Parliament to do my best to hinder all hard courses to have prayed hearing of the Queens Majesty to move her if I could to take compassion upon her Catholick Subjects and when all had failed to do as I intended If her Majesty by this course would have eased them though she had never preferred me I had with all comfort and patience born it 13 but if she had preferred me without ease or care of them the Enterprise had held Parry God preserve the Queen and encline her merciful heart to forgive me this desperate purpose and to take my Head with all my heart for her better satisfaction After which for the better manifesting of his Treasons on the 14th of February last there was a Letter written by him to her Majesty very voluntarily all of his own Hand without any motion made to him The tenor whereof for that which concerneth these his Traiterous dealings is as followeth A Letter written by Parry to Her Majesty YOur Majesty may see by my voluntary Confession the dangerous fruits of a discontented minde and how constantly I pursued my first conceived purpose in Venice for the relief of the afflicted Catholicks continued it in Lions and resolved in Paris to put it in adventure for the Restitution of England to the antient Obedience of the See Apostolick You may see withal how it is Commended Allowed and Warranted in Conscience Divinity and Policy by the Pope and some great Divines Though it be true or likely that most of our English Divines less practised in matters of this weight do utterly mislike and condemn it The Enterprise is prevented and Conspiracy discovered by an honourable Gentleman my Kinsman and late familiar Friend Master Edmund Nevil privy and by solemn Oath taken upon the Bible party to the matter whereof I am hardly glad but now sorry in my very Soul that ever I conceived or intended it how commendable or meritoritous soever I thought it God thank him and forgive me who would not now before God attempt it if I had liberty and opportunity to do it to gain your Kingdome I beseech Christ that my Death and Example may as well satisfie you Majesty and the world as it shall glad and content me The Queen of Scotland is your Prisoner let her be honourably entreated but yet surely guarded The French King is French you know it well enough you will finde him occupied when he should do you good he will not loose a Pilgrimage to save you a Crown I have no more to say at this time but that with my Heart and Soul I do now honour and love you am inwardly sorry for mine Offence and ready to make you amends by my Death and Patience Discharge me à culpâ but not à poenâ good Lady And so farewel most gracious and the best-natured and qualified Queen that ever lived in England From the Tower the 14th of February 1584. W. Parry After which to wit the 18th of February last past Parry in further acknowledging his wicked and intended Treasons wrote a Letter all of his own hand in like voluntary manner to the Lord Treasurer of England and the Earl of Leicester Lord Steward of her Majesties house the Tenour whereof is as followeth William Parry's Letter to the Lord Treasurer and the Earl of Leicester MY Lords now that the Conspiracy is discovered the Fault confessed my Conscience cleared and Minde prepared patiently to suffer the Pains due for so heinous a Crime I hope it shall not offend you if crying Miserere with the poor Publican I leave to despair with cursed Cain My Case is rare and strange and for any thing I can remember singular A natural Subject solemnly to vow the Death of his natural Queen so born so known and so taken by all men for the Relief of the afflicted Catholicks and Restitution of Religion The Matter first conceived in Venice the Service in general words presented to the Pope continued and undertaken in
I mean I protest said his Honour I know not what thou meanest thou dost not well to use such dark Speeches unless thou wouldst plainly utter what thou meanest thereby But he said he cared not for Death and that he would lay his Bloud amongst them Then spake the Lord Chief-Justice of England being required to give the Judgment and said Parry you have been much heard and what you mean by being settled I know not but I see you are so settled in Popery that you cannot settle your self to be a good Subject But touching that you should say to stay Judgment from being given against you your Speeches must be of one of these kinds either to prove the Indictment which you have confessed to be true to be insufficient in Law or else to plead somewhat touching her Majesties Mercy why Justice should not be done of you All other Speeches wherein you have used great Liberty is more than by Law you can ask These be the matters you must look to what say you to them Whereto he said nothing Then said the Lord Chief-Justice Parry thou hast been before this time Indicted of divers most horrible and hateful Treasons committed against thy most gracious Soveraign and Native Country the matter most detestable the manner most subtle and dangerous and the occasions and means that led thee thereunto most ungodly and villanous That thou didst intend it it is most evident by thy self The matter was the destruction of a most Sacred and an Anointed Queen thy Sovereign and Mistriss who hath shewed thee such Favour as some thy betters have not obtained Yea the Overthrow of thy Country wherein thou wert born and of a most happy Commonwealth whereof of thou art a Member and of such a Queen as hath bestowed on thee the Benefit of all benefits in this world that is thy Life heretofore granted thee by her Mercy when thou hadst lost it by Justice and Desert Yet thou her Servant sworn to defend her meant'st with thy bloudy hand to have taken away her Life that mercifully gave thee thine when it was yielded into her hands This is the matter wherein thou hast offended The manner was most subtle and dangerous beyond all that before thee have committed any Wickedness against her Majesty For thou making shew as if thou wouldest simply have uttered for her safety the Evil that others had contrived didst but seek thereby credit and access that thou mightest take the apter opportunity for her Destruction And for the occasions and means that drew thee on they were most ungodly and villanous as the perswasions of the Pope of Papists and Popish Books The Pope pretendeth that he is a Pastor when as in truth he is far from feeding of the Flock of Christ but rather as a Wolf seeketh but to feed on and to suck out the blood of true Christians and as it were thirsteth after the bloud of our most Gracious and Christian Queen And these Papists and Popish Books while they pretend to set forth Divinity they do indeed most ungodly teach and perswade that which is quite contrary both to God and his Word For the Word teaches Obedience of Subjects towards Princes and forbideth any private man to kill But they teach Subjects to disobey Princes and that a private wicked person may kill yea and whom A most godly Queen and their own natural and most gracious Soveraign Let all men therefore take heed how they receive any thing from him hear or read any of their Books and how they confer with any Papists God grant her Majesty that she may know by thee how ever she trust such like to come so near her Person But see the end and why thou didst it and it will appear to be a most miserable fearful and foolish thing For thou didst imagine that it was to relieve those that thou callest Catholicks who were most likely amongst all others to have felt the worst of it if thy devilish practice had taken effect But sith thou hast been Indicted of the Treasons comprised in the Indictment and thereupon Arraigned and hast confessed thy self Guilty of them the Court doth award that thou shalt be had from hence to the place whence thou didst come and so drawn through the open City of London upon an Hurdle to the place of Execution and there to be hanged and let down alive and thy privy parts cut off and thy entrals taken out and burnt in thy sight then thy Head to be cut off and thy Body to be divided in four parts and to be disposed at her Majesties pleasure And God have mercy on thy Soul Parry nevertheless persisted still in his rage and fond Speech and ragingly there said he there summoned Queen Elizabeth to answer for his Blood before God wherewith the Lieutenant of the Tower was commanded to take him from the Bar and so he did And upon his departure the people stricken as it were at heart with the horror of his intended Enterprise ceased not but pursued him with out-cryes as Away with the Traitor away with him and such like whereupon he was conveyed to the Barge to pass to the Tower again by water and the Court was adjorned After which upon the second day of this instant March William Parry was by vertue of process in that behalf awarded from the same Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer delivered by the Lieutenant of the Tower early in the morning unto the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex who received him at the Tower-hill and thereupon according to the judgment caused him there to be forthwith set on the Hurdel From whence he was drawn thereupon threw the midst of the City of London unto the place for his Execution in the Pallace at Westminster where having long time of stay admitted unto him before his Execution he most maliciously and impudently after some other vain discourses eftsoons and often delivered in Speech that he was never guilty of any intention to kill Queen Elizabeth and so without any request made by him to the people to pray to God for him or prayer publickly used by himself for ought that appeared but such as he used if he used any was private to himself he was executed according to the judgment And now for his intent howsoever he pretended the contrary in words yet by these his own Writings Confessions Letters and many other proofs afore here expressed it is most manifest to all persons how horrible his intentions and Treasons were and how justly he suffered for the same and thereby greatly to be doubted that as he had lived a long time vainly and ungodly and like an Atheist and godless man so he continued the same course till his death to the outward sight of men Here endeth the true and plain course and process of the Treasons Arrest Arraignment and Execution of William Parry the Traitor An addition not unnecessary for this purpose FOr as much as Parry in the abundance of
seemed to glory greatly in the Profession of his pretensed Catholick Religion The whole course and action of his Life sheweth plainly how profanely and irreligiously he did always bear himself He vaunted that for these two and twenty years past he had been a Catholick and during all that time never received the Communion Yet before he travelled beyond the Seas at three several times within the compass of those two and twenty years he did voluntarily take the Oath of Obedience to the Queens Majesty set down in the Statute made in the first year of her Highness Reign by which amongst other things he did testifie and declare in his Conscience that no Forreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Preeminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm and therefore did utterly renounce and forsake all Forreign Jurisdictions Powers and Authorities and did promise to bear Faith and true Allegeance to the Queens Highness her Heirs and lawful Successors With what Conscience or Religion he took that Oath so often if he were then a Papist indeed as sithence the discovery of his Treasons he pretended let his best friends the Papists themselves judge But perhaps it may be said that he repented those his Offences past that since those three Oaths so taken by him he was twice reconciled to the Pope and so his Conscience cleared and he become a new man and which is more that in the time to his last Travel he cast away all his former lewd manners that he changed his degree and habit and bought or begged the grave Title of a Doctor of Law for which he was well qualified with a little Grammar-School Latine that he had Plenary Indulgence and Remission of all his Sins in consideration of his undertaking of so holy an Enterprise as to kill Queen Elizabeth a sacred anointed Queen his Natural and Soveraign Lady That he promised to the Pope and vowed to God to perform it that he confirmed the same by receiving the Sacrament at the Jesuits at one Altar with his two Beaupeers the Cardinals of Vendosme and Narbonne And that since his last return into England he did take his Oath upon the Bible to execute it These Reasons may seem to bear some weight indeed amongst his Friends the Jesuits and other Papists of State who have special Skill in matters of such importance But now lately in the beginning of this Parliament in November last he did eftsoons solemnly in publick place take the Oath before mentioned of obedience to her Majesty How that may stand with his reconciliations to the Pope and with his Promises Vows and Oath to kill the Queen it is a thing can hardly be warranted unless it be by some special priviledge of the Popes omnipotency But let him have the glory he desired to live and die a Papist He deserved it it is fit for him his death was correspondent to the course of his life which was disloyal perjured and Traiterous towards her Majesty and false and perfidious towards the Pope himself and his Catholicks if they will believe his solemn protestations which he made at his Arraignment and Execution that he never meant nor intended any hurt to her Highness Person For if that be true where are then his Vows which he said were in Heaven his Letter and Promise upon Earth Why hath he stollen out of the Popes shop so large an Indulgence and plenary Remission of all his Sins and meant to perform nothing that he promised Why was his Devotion and Zeal so highly commended Why was he so specially prayed for and remembred at the Altar All these great favours were then bestowed upon him without cause or desert for he deceived the Pope he deceived the Cardinals and Jesuites with a false semblance and pretence to do that thing which he never meant But the matter is clear the Conspiracy and his traiterous intent is too plain and evident it is the Lord that revealed it in time and prevented their malice there lacked no will or readiness in him to execute that horrible fact It is the Lord that hath preserved her Majesty from all the wicked Practices and Conspiracies of that Hellish Rabble it is he that hath most gratiously deliver'd her from the hands of this Traiterous miscreant The Lord is her onely defence in whom she hath always trusted A Prayer for all Kings Princes Countries and People which do profess the Gospel and especially for our Soveraign Lady Queen Elizabeth used in Her Majesties Chappel and meet to be used of all persons within Her Majesties Dominions O Lord God of hosts most loving and merciful Father whose power no creature is able to resist who of thy great goodness hast promised to grant the petitions of such as ask in thy Sons Name We most humbly beseech thee to save and defend all Princes Magistrates Kingdoms Countries and People which have received and do profess thy holy Word and Gospel and namely this Realm of England and thy servant Elizabeth our Queen whom thou hast hitherto wonderfully preserved from manifold Perils and sundry Dangers and of late revealed and frustrated the Traiterous Practices and Conspiracies of divers against her for the which and all other thy great goodness towards us we give thee most humble and hearty thanks beseeching thee in the Name of thy dear Son Iesus Christ and for his sake still to preserve and continue her unto us and to give her long life and many years to rule over this Land O Heavenly Father the practices of our Enemies and the Enemies of thy word and truth against her and us are manifest and known thee Turn them O Lord if it be thy blessed Will or overthrow and confound them for thy Names sake Suffer them not to prevail Take them O Lord in their crafty Willness that they have invented and let them fall into the Pit which they have digged for others Permit them not ungodly to triumph over us Discomfort them discomfort them O Lord which trust in their own multitude and please themselves in their subtile devices and wicked Conspiracies O loving Father we have not deserved the least of these thy Mercies which we crave For we have sinned and grievously offended thee we are not worthy to be called thy Sons We have not been so thankful unto thee as we should for thy unspeakable benefits powred upon us We have abused this long time of Peace and Prosperity We have not obeyed thy Word We have had it in Mouth but not in heart in outward appearance but not in deed We have lived carelesly We have not known the time of our visitation we have deserved utter destruction But thou O Lord art merciful and ready to forgive therefore we come to thy Throne of Grace confessing and acknowledging thee to be our only refuge in all times of peril and danger And by the means of thy Son we most heartily pray thee to forgive us our