r.l UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 189I BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE r DATE DUE ;lMWrt^ ^ff— liyWllTO JiT a ffgi^ 3^^«F=« uss^ t^til .^ PRINTED INU.S.A. Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924087991646 ^3////fr DEAKE AND THE TUDOE NAVY VOL. I. — ' Whosoever commands the sea commands the trade ; whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself.' Sib Walter Baieiqh. /unf-L /T^i^' f'1u/-f//?ff/ <•// //.-ff/u/7//^/ fJi'd i'^iur/Va^y/a'- ''f/-/-Ti/ . DEAKE AND THE TUDOR NAYY WITH A HISTOEY OF THE RISE OF ENGLAND • AS A MAEITIME POWER BY JULIAN S. COEBETT IN TWO VOLUMES YOL I. LONGMANS, GEEEN, AND CO. 89 PATEENOSTEE EOW, LONDON NEW YOEK AND BOMBAY 1898 All rights reserved A.ii^is 1 ' PEEFACE In the present work an attempt is made to give a general view of the circumstances under which England first be- came a controlling force in the European system by virtue of her power upon the sea. In centering the history of such a movement upon the life of one of its leaders, there must be almost inevitably a tendency to present him too much as its author, where he was in reality only the foremost of men similarly inspired who determined its direction and extent. Still, for the adoption of the method in the present case history affords ample justification. Not only was Drake intimately connected, in all the various phases of his life, with every aspect of the Elizabethan maritime - upheaval, but throughout Europe he was recognised and applauded, even in his lifetime, as the personification of the new political force. Nor has recent research disclosed any reason for reversing the verdict of his contemporaries. The romantic fascination of his career as a corsair and explorer began, it is true, very shortly after his death to overshadow his work as an admiral and a statesman, but in his own time it was not so ; and a principal object of the present work is to restore him to the position he once held as one of the great military figures of the EeformatioiL vi DRAKE AND THE TUDOR NAVY The most graphic picture of him, as he then appeared to judicious observers, is from the pen of Stowe. ' He was more skilful,' he writes, 'in all points of navigation than any that ever was before his time, in his time or since his death. He was also of perfect memory, great observa- tion, eloquent by nature, skilful in artillery, expert and apt to let blood and give physic unto his people according terror to the French, to the climate. His name was a Spaniard, Portugal, and Indian. Many princes of Italy and Germany desired his picture. ... In brief, he was as famous in Europe and America, as Tamberlane in Asia and Africa.' Still, great as was the part he played as the moving spirit of the English maritime power, the significance of his career as a corsair must not be minimised ; and with this the first volume is mainly occupied. It will be seen how during this part of his life he was brought into in- timate contact with all that went to make up what we know as the Elizabethan period of maritime history, and how the part he played in each phase of the development went to make up the man who led and dominated our first great bid for the command of the sea. Yet in this work he was but one of many, emphasising and develop- ing what others had begun before him. It is in his career as an admiral and administrator, with which the second volume is concerned, that he stands alone as the creator and inspiration of a force that was new to the world. As the perfecter of a rational system of sailings tactics, as the father of a sound system of strategy, as the first and unsurpassed master of that amphibious warfare which has built up the British Empire, as an officer always ready to accept the responsibility of ignoring unintelligent orders, he has no rival in our history but Nelson. Never once when in sole command of an expedition did he fail a PREFACE vii to achieve success. The miscarriage of the Portugaf expedition which brought him into disgrace was in no way his fault, andhis colleague Norreys was almost as little to blame. Drake was denied the consummation of his work and his renown by the inherent and abiding vice of our system of national defence. The idea of following up the victorious Armada campaign by the capture of Lisbon and the liberation of Portugal was as obvious as it was sound. The navy had laid the way open, and all that was required to deal Spain a mortal blow was a small compact military force properly equipped and organised.- Drake knew this perfectly well. He and Norreys asked for such a force ; it was promised them, and the promise could not be fulfilled. The attempt was made without the perfected weapon, and it failed. It was not only Drake's reputation that was lost, it was the hard-earned fruits of what the navy had achieved. For want of a mobile military force the blow to which Spain was ex- posed by her naval defeat could not be struck—her dis- comfiture could not be completed. The result was that she assumed the defensive, and we could barely touch her. 'While she rapidly recovered all she had lost, the war necessarily sank into that hopeless form of hostility— war on commerce, which sooner or later degenerates into a scramble for prize money, demoralises the navy, and leads to no decisive result. Yet the lesson is still to learn, and for us to-day the moral of Drake's marred career is ' martialists ' of his day to beware the heresy which the \ called the ' Idolatry of Neptune.' Unfortunately for Drake, in the Elizabethan age the principles of naval warfare were as little understood as its limitations. He could convince the Government of neither the one nor the other, and was made to suffer for their inability to grasp his teaching. In a later age, under VIU DRAKE AND THE TUDOR NAVY almost any other sovereign, his unexampled services must have received the same recognition which the instructed opinion of all Europe awarded him, and he would have been permitted to spend for his country the whole of that genius and energy which in so large a measure exhausted itself in working with inadequate materials and in break- ing through the obstacles that encumbered his path. The research involved in the attempt to reconstruct the history of the Tudor navy has been necessarily a con- siderable labour, but it has been a labour of love, made pleasant by assistance and counsel from quarters almost too numerous to mention. To Captain Fernandez Duro I am indebted not only for the assistance of his well-known and exhaustive works on the Spanish navy, but also for transcripts of unpublished documents which he has dis- covered and calendared ; to Lady Drake for placing at my disposal the result of her scholarly researches in the early history of the family, as well as for permitting access to the priceless treasures that have come down from the admiral, for great and ready assistance in every way ; to Dr. H. H. Drake, the editor of Hasted's ' History of Kent,' for his unwearied patience in clearing up doubtful points in Sir Francis's early career from the mass of minute and accurate information in his possession ; to Dr. Tilton, of Harvard and Freiburg, the author of ' Die Katastrophie der Spanischen Armada,' for a knowledge of many un- noticed documents unearthed by him from our own and foreign archives ; to Mr. Wright, the Borough Librarian and well-known antiquary of Plymouth, for placing at my disposal his collections of transcripts and engravings relat- ing to the Devon worthies ; to the Vice-Master of my old college, Trinity, Cambridge, for assistance in interpreting obscure phrases and words ; to Mr. Oppenheim, Professor Laughton, and the Master of University College, Oxford, PREFACE IX for invaluable criticism and advice ; to the Master and Fellows of Magdalene, Cambridge, for permitting access to their unique Pepysian Collection, and especially to the College Librarian for facilities afforded in examining and reproducing its treasures ; as well as to others by whose aid the labour has been lightened and the tale of errors reduced. For the portrait of the admiral my thanks are due to Lady Drake and to Miss Phillipps, the present occupier of Buckland Abbey. The picture still hangs there in the position where it is believed to have been placed by Sir Francis himself, and as far as is known it has never left the house. It represents him at the end of his life, when he was rejoicing in prosperity and his restoration to Eoyal favour. Locally, it is generally attributed to Cornelius Janssen, but Lady Drake informs me that all the evidence as to its painter that is known to the family is a note in the handwriting of Sir Trayton Drake to the effect that it was by ' Abram Jansen.' Cornelius Janssen was born either in London or Amsterdam in 1590, and became the most fashionable portrait painter in England until the advent of Vandyck.