Produced by Paul Murray, Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net ENGLISH SEAMEN IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY _LECTURES DELIVERED AT OXFORD EASTER TERMS 1893-4_ BY JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE LATE REGIUS PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD New Edition LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1896 [_All rights reserved_] RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, LONDON & BUNGAY. CONTENTS LECTURE PAGE I. THE SEA CRADLE OF THE REFORMATION 1 II. JOHN HAWKINS AND THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE 35 III. SIR JOHN HAWKINS AND PHILIP THE SECOND 68 IV. DRAKE'S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD 102 V. PARTIES IN THE STATE 141 VI. THE GREAT EXPEDITION TO THE WEST INDIES 176 VII. ATTACK ON CADIZ 207 VIII. SAILING OF THE ARMADA 238 IX. DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA 272 LECTURE I THE SEA CRADLE OF THE REFORMATION Jean Paul, the German poet, said that God had given to France the empire of the land, to England the empire of the sea, and to his own country the empire of the air. The world has changed since Jean Paul's days. The wings of France have been clipped; the German Empire has become a solid thing; but England still holds her watery dominion; Britannia does still rule the waves, and in this proud position she has spread the English race over the globe; she has created the great American nation; she is peopling new Englands at the Antipodes; she has made her Queen Empress of India; and is in fact the very considerable phenomenon in the social and political world which all acknowledge her to be. And all this she has achieved in the course of three centuries, entirely in consequence of her predominance as an ocean power. Take away her merchant fleets; take away the navy that guards them: her empire will come to an end; her colonies will fall off, like leaves from a withered tree; and Britain will become once more an insignificant island in the North Sea, for the future students in Australian and New Zealand universities to discuss the fate of in their debating societies. How the English navy came to hold so extraordinary a position is worth reflecting on. Much has been written about it, but little, as it seems to me, which touches the heart of the matter. We are shown the power of our country growing and expanding. But how it grew, why, after a sleep of so many hundred years, the genius of our Scandinavian forefathers suddenly sprang again into life--of this we are left without explanation.