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PUBLICATIONS OF THE NAVY RECORDS SOCIETY VOL. 127 THE EXPEDITION OF SIR JOHN NORRIS AND SIR FRANCIS DRAKE TO SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, 1589 THE NAVY RECORDS SOCIETY was established in 1893 for the purpose of printing unpublished manuscripts and rare works of naval interest. The Society is open to all who are interested in naval history, and any person wishing to become a member should apply to the Hon. Secretary, c/o the Public Record Office, Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1LR. The annual subscription for individuals is £10, and for libraries and insti- tutions £12, which entitles the member to receive one free copy of each work issued by the Society in that year, and to buy earlier issues at much reduced prices. SUBSCRIPTIONS and orders for back volumes should be sent to the Hon. Treasurer, c/o Binder Hamlyn, 8 St Bride Street, London EC4A 4DA. THE COUNCIL OF THE NAVY RECORDS SOCIETY wish it to be clearly understood that they are not answerable for any opinions and observations which may appear in the Society's publications. For these the editors of the several works are entirely responsible. Sir Francis Drake after the original portrait in the National Maritime Museum. Reproduced by kind permission of the Trustees of the National Maritime Museum. THE EXPEDITION OF SIR JOHN NORRIS AND SIR FRANCIS DRAKE TO SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, 1589 Edited by R. B. WERNHAM Emeritus Professor of Modern History, Oxford First published 1988 by Temple Smith Published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © The Navy Records Society 1988 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or otherm eans, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing fromthe publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation ISBN 13: 978-0-566-05578-2 (hbk) 978-1-911-42356-0 (pbk) Typeset by Acorn Bookwork, Salisbury, Wiltshire THE COUNCIL OF THE NAVY RECORDS SOCIETY 1988 PATRON H.R.H. THE PRINCE PHILIP, DUKE OF EDINBURGH, K.G., O.M., F.R.S. PRESIDENT THE RT HON. THE LORD CARRINGTON, K.G., C.H., K.C.M.G., M.C., P.C. VICE-PRESIDENTS A. W. H. PEARSALL, I.S.O., M.A. H. U. A. LAMBERT, M.A. A. P. McGowAN, M.A., Ph.D. Admiral of the Fleet the Lord LEWIN, K.G., G.C.B., M.V.O., D.S.C., F.R.S.A., Hon.D.Sc. COUNCILLORS N. R. BOMFORD, M.A. John GOOCH, B.A., Ph.D., F.R.Hist.S. R. J. B. KNIGHT, M.A., Ph.D. R. F. MACKAY, M.A., D.Litt. A. J. MARSH, M.A. Lieutenant-Commander Lawrence PHILLIPS, R.D., R.N.R. P. M. H. BELL, B.A., B.Litt., F.R.Hist.S. Lieutenant-Commander J. V. P. GOLDRICK, B.A., M.Litt., R.A.N. A. D. LAMBERT, M.A., Ph.D. Captain A. B. SAINSBURY, V.R.D., J.P., M.A., R.N.R. Professor D. M. SCHURMAN, M.A., Ph.D. Geoffrey TILL, M.A., Ph.D. C. S. WHITE, M.A. Jonathan COAD, M.A., F.S.A. Miss P. K. CRIMMIN, B.A., M.Phil., F.R.Hist.S. E. R. LI. DAVIES, B.A., B.Sc. J. D. DAVIES, M.A., D.Phil. Professor B. McL. RANFT, M.A., D.Phil., F.R.Hist.S. K. C. BREEN, B.A., M.Phil. VI R. P. CROWHURST, B.A., Ph.D. The Hon. David ERSKINE, M.A. Roger A. MORRISS, B.A., Ph.D. M. A. SIMPSON, M.A., M.Litt. R. W. A. SUDDABY, M.A. HONORARY SECRETARY N. A. M. RODGER, M.A., D.Phil., F.S.A., F.R.Hist.S. HONORARY GENERAL EDITOR A. N. RYAN, M.A., F.R.Hist.S. HONORARY TREASURER C. SWINSON, M.A., F.C.A. CONTENTS PAGE Illustrations and Maps .............................. viii Acknowledgements ................................ ix Introduction ...................................... xi Letters and Papers: I. The Origins and Original Purposes of the Expedition, August-October 1588 ........... 1 II. Preparations in England, October-December 1588 19 III. Sir John Norris in the United Provinces, October-December 1588 ................... 33 IV. The Troops ordered to the Ports, December 1588-January 1589 ........................ 45 V. Mounting Costs, December 1588-February 1589 53 VI. Difficulties and Delays, January-February 1589 . 63 VII. Orders, Instructions, and Proposals, January-March 1589 ....................... 79 VIII. Contrary Winds and Financial Problems, March-April 1589 ......................... 107 IX. The Earl of Essex joins the Expedition, April 1589 ................................ 131 X. Operations at Corunna, April-May 1589 ....... 139 XI. First Reactions at Home, May 1589 ............ 155 XII. Operations in Portugal, May-June 1589 ........ 175 XIII. Return and Disbanding, June-July 1589 ........ 197 XIV. Recollections and Reflections, July 1589 onwards 215 XV. The Hanseatic Prizes and the Dutch Flyboats .... 301 XVI. Making up the Accounts ...................... 317 Appendices: I. Lists of ships and their officers ................. 331 II. Army lists .................................. 343 Vlll III. Wingfield's date for the entry into Lisbon suburbs 353 IV. The dating of Drake's letter of June 2 .......... 355 V. An earlier visit to Santander? ................. 357 List of Letters and Papers and their Sources ........... 359 Index ............................................ 371 ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS Sir Francis Drake (National Maritime Museum) ... frontispiece Theatre of Maritime Operations, 1588-1589 .......... x Corunna and its Environs ........................... xxxviii The Iberian Peninsula, 1589 ......................... xliii Inset: Approaches to Lisbon ......................... xliii Estuary of the Tagus ............................... xlvi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Crown copyright material is reproduced by permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office. My thanks are also due to the Keeper of Manuscripts, the British Library; the Keeper of Western Manuscripts, the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the Keeper of Manuscripts, Cambridge University Library; the Li- brarian, the Pepysian Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge; His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Trustees of Lambeth Palace Library; the Marquess of Salisbury; the Council of the Hakluyt Society; the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich; and, for help and counsel, to Dr R. F. Hunnisett, Mr Alan Pearsall and, last but far from least, to the General Editor, Mr A. N. Ryan. DATING, SPELLING, AND PUNCTUATION Dates are given in the Old Style, unless otherwise stated. Spelling (with a few exceptions) and punctuation have been modernised. ENGLAND IRELAND^ ) ^ j ,-^, LONDON Dover^Bergen-op-Zoom / ^^x- — • Plymouth,^ ^Portsmouth -^XAT^^ r BRITTANY FRANCE !s\ BA Y OF ^ BISCAY LaRochelle, ) 1 • Bordeaux San Sebastian J c . T . t^~~ Corunna _— ^-_i£ St. Jean-de-Luz LISBON Azores Is. ^ ^"— Cape St. Vincent Theatre of Maritime Operations, 1588-1589 INTRODUCTION By 24 August 1588 it was known for certain that the great Spanish Armada, bruised and battered in its encounters with the English naval forces in the Channel and off Gravelines, was at last 'west­ wards of the islands of Orkney'. 1 It was, that is to say, past the point of no return and committed to the long and hazardous voyage home around the west of Scotland and Ireland. Those of its ships that survived the perils of those inhospitable coasts in that stormy summer could hardly be either seaworthy or battleworthy for months to come. So for months to come Spain would have no Atlantic fleet 'in being'. How might England make the most of this opportunity? The Queen's first idea was to send off part of her navy 'for the intercepting of the King [of SpainJ's treasure from the Indies' [see Document no. 5]. This was a natural, if by no means novel, idea and one with an especial appeal after all the expenses of the past two or three years. It was natural because the power and cohesion of Spain's empire depended, to a greater or lesser extent, upon three lines of communication by sea. The first, across the Bay of Biscay and up the Channel, was the easiest and quickest way for sending reinforcements, supplies, and pay to Spain's main field army fighting the rebel Dutch in the Netherlands. However, although war with England had already virtually closed this route, there was an alternative, longer and slower but now safer, way round by land from Milan and Genoa through Savoy, whose duke was the King of Spain's son-in-law, on by Spanish Franche-Comte*, and then Lorraine, whose duke was likewise a client of Spain, and so to Luxembourg and Brussels. The second line of communication by sea was again across the Bay of Biscay and up the Channel, but then continuing on across the North Sea to Hamburg and into the Baltic to the other 1 J. K. Laughton (ed.), State Papers relating to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada, Anno 1588, 2 vols (Navy Records Society, 1894), ii, p. 150, where 'young Norris' should read 'Young Harris'. Xii INTRODUCTION Hanseatic Towns, Poland, and Scandinavia. From there came back to Spain the masts, cables, canvas, pitch, and other naval stores essential for the equipment of her armadas, and the corn that was becoming hardly less essential as drought and a series of bad harvests brought near-famine to Spain and much of southern Europe. Here again, however, there was another, if longer, more expensive, and this time more risky, way round by sailing west of Scotland and Ireland, a way exposed to serious English interfer­ ence only on its final stage. The third, and seemingly much the most vulnerable, line of communication by sea was that across the Atlantic from Havana to Cadiz, with its necessary halfway port of call at the Azores.

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