Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CHAPTER XVII 1571 TO 1573
- CHAPTER XVIII 1573 TO 1577
- CHAPTER XIX 1577 TO 1582
- CHAPTER XX 1582 TO 1587
- CHAPTER XXI 1587 AND 1588
- CHAPTER XXII FROM 1588 TO 1591
- CHAPTER XXIII FROM 1591 TO 1593
- CHAPTER XXIV FROM 1593 TO 1597
- CHAPTER XXV 1595 TO 1598
- CHAPTER XXVI 1597 AND 1598
- CHAPTER XXVII 1599 TO 1603
- ON THE DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE OF The Reign of Elizabeth
- INDEX
CHAPTER XXIII - FROM 1591 TO 1593
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2011
- Frontmatter
- CHAPTER XVII 1571 TO 1573
- CHAPTER XVIII 1573 TO 1577
- CHAPTER XIX 1577 TO 1582
- CHAPTER XX 1582 TO 1587
- CHAPTER XXI 1587 AND 1588
- CHAPTER XXII FROM 1588 TO 1591
- CHAPTER XXIII FROM 1591 TO 1593
- CHAPTER XXIV FROM 1593 TO 1597
- CHAPTER XXV 1595 TO 1598
- CHAPTER XXVI 1597 AND 1598
- CHAPTER XXVII 1599 TO 1603
- ON THE DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE OF The Reign of Elizabeth
- INDEX
Summary
The maritime war with Spain, notwithstanding the cautious temper of the queen, was strenuously waged during the year 1591, and produced some striking indications of the rising spirit of the English navy.
A squadron under lord Thomas Howard, which had been waiting six months at the Azores to intercept the homeward bound ships from Spanish America, was there surprised by a vastly more numerous fleet of the enemy which had been sent out for their convoy. The English admiral got to sea in all haste and made good his retreat, followed by his whole squadron excepting the Revenge, which was entangled in a narrow channel between the port and an island. Sir Richard Grenville her commander, after a vain attempt to break through the Spanish line, determined, with a kind of heroic desperation, to sustain alone the conflict with a whole fleet of fifty-seven sail, and to confront all extremities rather than strike his colors. From three o'clock in the afternoon till day-break he resisted, by almost incredible efforts of valor, all the force which could be brought to bear against him, and fifteen times beat back the boarding parties from his deck. At length, when all his bravest had fallen, and he himself was disabled by many wounds; his powder also being exhausted, his small-arms lost or broken, and his ship a perfect wreck, he proposed to his gallant crew to sink her, that no trophy might remain to the enemy.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth , pp. 306 - 330Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1818