History of the United Netherlands, 1588dMotley, John Lothrop
History
History of the United Netherlands, 1588d
Motley, John Lothrop
Netherlands -- History -- Eighty Years' War, 1568-1648
Of the 30,000 men who sailed in the fleet; it is probable that not more
than 10,000 ever saw their native land again. Most of the leaders of the
expedition lost their lives. Medina Sidonia reached Santander in
October, and, as Philip for a moment believed, "with the greater part of
the Armada," although the King soon discovered his mistake. Recalde,
Diego Flores de Valdez, Oquendo, Maldonado, Bobadilla, Manriquez, either
perished at sea, or died of exhaustion immediately after their return.
Pedro de Valdez, Vasco de Silva, Alonzo de Sayas, Piemontel, Toledo, with
many other nobles, were prisoners in England and Holland. There was
hardly a distinguished family in Spain not placed in mourning, so that,
to relieve the universal gloom, an edict was published, forbidding the
wearing of mourning at all. On the other hand, a merchant of Lisbon, not
yet reconciled to the Spanish conquest of his country, permitted himself
some tokens of hilarity at the defeat of the Armada, and was immediately
hanged by express command of Philip. Thus--as men said--one could
neither cry nor laugh within the Spanish dominions.
This was the result of the invasion, so many years preparing, and at an
expense almost incalculable. In the year 1588 alone, the cost of
Philip's armaments for the subjugation of England could not have been
less than six millions of ducats, and there was at least as large a sum
on board the Armada itself, although the Pope refused to pay his promised
million. And with all this outlay, and with the sacrifice of so many
thousand lives, nothing had been accomplished, and Spain, in a moment,
instead of seeming terrible to all the world, had become ridiculous.
"Beaten and shuffled together from the Lizard to Calais, from Calais
driven with squibs from their anchors, and chased out of sight of England
about Scotland and Ireland," as the Devonshire skipper expressed himself,
it must be confessed that the Spaniards presented a sorry sight. "Their
invincible and dreadful navy," said Drake, "with all its great and
terrible ostentation, did not in all their sailing about England so much
as sink or take one ship, bark, pinnace, or cock-boat of ours, or even
burn so much as one sheep-tote on this land."
Meanwhile Farnese sat chafing under the unjust reproaches heaped upon
him, as if he, and not his master, had been responsible for the gigantic
blunders of the invasion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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