ARMADA, a Spanish term, signifying a fleet of men of war ; it is more particu larly applied to the ships by which an at tempt was made, by Philip II. of Spain, to invade England, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, A. D. 1588. This expedition was excited as well by the injuries which the king had sustained from the English arms, as with a view of transmitting his name to posterity, as the defender of the true faith. In the preceding year, a whole fleet of transports was destroyed at Ca diz by Drake, who ravaged the Spanish coast. Cavendish, another sea-command er, committed, about the same time, great depredations on the Spaniards in the South Sea, taking 19 vessels, richly laden, with which he entered, in triumph, the river Thames. On these, and other accounts not less mortifying to the pride of Spain, Philip looked for speedy and ample revenge,. by the overthrow of the power and credit of Elizabeth, who was every where regarded as the protector and bulwark of the Protestant religion. These preparations were Conducted with secrecy, but with all the vigour of which he was capable. His ministers, admirals, and generals, were employed in the busi ness; and measures were taken, not only in Spain, but in the ports of Sicily, Na ples, and Portugal, for fitting out a most tremendous fleet. In Flanders also there were considerable military preparations ; and an army of 14,000 men was assembled in the Netherlands, which was kept in readiness to embark, in flat-bottomed vessels constructed for the occasion. To the most renowned nobility, and princes of Italy and Spain, who were ambitious of being enrolled among the conquerors of England, were added many hundreds of English desperadoes, under the con duct of a man who had been banished for selling a Dutch fortress to Spain.
It was hoped that England would not understand, till it was too late, that these efforts were directed against her peace and existence as a nation; but the queen was never without secret intelligence of whatever was carrying on in the different parts of the continent. The spies em ployed on this, and on every other occa sion during her reign, were priests, it being a favourite maxim with her minis ter, Walsingham, that an active but vicious priest was the best spy in the world.
Elevated with the prospect of certain success, the Spaniards denominated their navy, collected for this purpose, "The Invincible Armada." The forces of Eng land seemed to be unequal to the contest; Elizabeth scorned to fear ; her mind was in every respect adequate to the greatness of the cause. At that period the number of sailors in this coun try amounted to 14,000, and the navy to only 28 sail, many of which were small in size, and of no great force. The seamen indeed were very superior to those of the enemy with whom they had to contend, which compensated in some measure for the inferiority of the size and force of their vessels. The attachment to their religion and liberties roused the exer tions of the English: London supplied 30 ships and 10,000 men, and other places imitated the example. The nobility and gentry, among whom were several Ro man Catholics of distinction, united to oppose this conspiracy ; they hired, arm ed, and manned upwards of 40 ships, at their own private charge, and the money which the queen demanded by way of loans was cheerfully and readily granted. The command of the navy was entrusted to Lord Howard of Effingham ; the prin cipal fleet was stationed at Plymouth, and a smaller squadron of 40 vessels, com manded by Lord Seymour, lay off Dun kirk. An army of 20,000 men was dis posed in different bodies along the coast, and alike number, with 1000 horse, under the command of the Earl of Leicester, was stationed at Tilbury, in order to de fend the capital. The main army, of
nearly 40,000 men, were placed under the command of Lord Hunsdon, ready to defend the queen's person, or to march wherever the enemy should appear. The King of Scotland avowed his adherence to Elizabeth, and his readiness to march his whole force, if necessary, to her aid. From Denmark and the Hanse-towns she likewise received some help. The Pro testants in general throughout Europe were anxious for the success of England. On the 29th of May, the Spanish fleet set sail from Lisbon, but on the 30th it was dispersed by a violent storm. As soon, however, as it could be refitted, it made towards the English coast, consisting of 130 vessels. These preparations had been delayed a whole year, by a circum stance mentioned by Bishop Burnet, and which is referred to in the " Acta Begin" as one of the most curious passages in the English history. "When it seemed," says the historian, "impossible to divert the present execution of so great a de sign, and there was no strength ready to resist it, a merchant of London effected it by this means. Being very well ac quainted with the revenue and expense of Spain, and all that they could do, and knowing that their funds were so swal lowed up, that it was impossible for them to victual and fit out their fleet, but by their credit on the bank of Genoa, he un dertook to write to all the places of trade, and to get such remittances made on that bank, that he might have so much of the money in his own hands, that there should be none current there equal to the great occasion of victualling the Spanish fleet. He reckoned the keeping of such a trea sure dead in his hands till the season of victualling was over would be a loss of 40,0001. He managed the matter with such secrecy and success, that the fleet could not be set out that year ; at so small a price, and with so skilful a manage ment, says the bishop, was the nation saved at that time." On the 19th of July the famous armada arrived in the Chan nel, disposing itself in the form of a cre scent, and stretching to the distance of seven miles from the extremity of one division to that of the other. As it pro ceeded up the Channel, Effingham, with the English fleet, gave orders to avoid a close fight, but to skirmish with the larger ships of the Spanish fleet, which it continued to do for six days. The arma da, having reached Calais, cast anchor, and waited the arrival of the Prince of Parma, who delayed leaving the Flemish ports until he was assured that the Spa niards were masters of the sea. While the Spanish fleet lay confusedly in this position, the English Admiral, by a suc cessful stratagem, dispatched several of his smaller ships filled with combustibles into the midst of the enemy, and thus alarmed them to such a degree, that they immediately cut their cables, and betook themselves to flight in the greatest dis order and precipitation. The English fleet pursued them and took several ships. A violent tempest then assailed the armada, after it had passed the Ork neys, and most of the vessels that bad escaped from the battle were driven on the western isles of Scotland, or on the coast of Ireland, where they were mi serably wrecked. Such was the termi nation of this desperate attempt against the liberties of our country : the forego ing account of which, in a scientific point of view, exhibits the state of naval tactics at that period of our history, and various other topics, interesting to the English reader.