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Philip II’s Armada Proclamation of 1597
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 October 2016
Extract
In the summer of 1597, Philip II authorized the printing of a proclamation in English to be used in the event of a landing of his forces in England. This hitherto unpublished document has survived through a Spanish version prepared for his son, Philip III, a short time after his father's death. This was the only English proclamation that received Philip's official approval during his long naval war with England. Yet why was it prepared at all, when his priorities by 1597 were elsewhere, and even these were in jeopardy? His Council of War had made him aware of the loss of important advantages in France and the Low Countries, where the maintenance of his land forces was threatened by another bankruptcy. With reports of sporadic mutinies of garrisons arriving in Madrid, a naval expedition had to be conceived within the framework of restricted resources. This precise situation provides a fundamental insight into the proclamation. Upon examination, it is an appeal for local support from every quarter. In effect, the Spanish Armada of 1597 needed an insurrection in order to succeed. Since a large military commitment was unfeasible, the rhetoric of the proclamation had to by-pass religious differences and not solicit simply a Catholic loyalty.
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References
Notes
1 Thompson, I. A. A., ‘The Appointment of the Duke of Medina Sidonia to the Command of the Spanish Armada’, The Historical Journal, vol. 12 (1969), pp. 200–03CrossRefGoogle Scholar, argues similarly that Philip's objective in 1588 had to be ‘not to conquer England but to stop English interference in his affairs’; Parker, N. G., ‘Spain, Her Enemies and the Revolt of the Netherlands, 1559-1648’, Past and Present (No. 49, 1970), pp. 89–90,CrossRefGoogle Scholar demonstrates the greater financial priority of continental campaigns at this time, and in the appendix of The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road, 1567-1659 (Cambridge, 1972) lists the recent mutinies among Spanish garrisons.
2 Youngs, F. A., ‘Definitions of Treason in an English Proclamation’, The Historical Journal, vol. 14 (1971), pp. 675–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3 Henry, L. W., ‘The Earl of Essex as Strategist and Military Organizer’, English Historical Review, vol. 68 (1953), pp. 362–93;Google Scholar J. B. Black, The Reign of Elizabeth (Oxford, 1959), pp. 418-19.
4 Declaratio Causarum Serenissimam Maiestatem Reginae Angliae Moventium ad instruendam atque emittendam classem ad Regnorum suorum defensionem (London, 1596,Google Scholar Short Title Catalogue 9204).
5 Thomas, Nun, A Comfort against the Spaniard (London, 1596,Google Scholar Short Title Catalogue 18478) Sig. C2-C3.
6 Archivo General de Simancas, Sección de Estado (hereafter cited as E) 839/138, Persons to Idiáquez, Valladolid, 2 September 1596.
7 E 839/126-28, ‘Puntos Principales para facilitar y assegurar la Empresa de Ynglaterra’.
8 E 839/137, Creswell to Philip II, Madrid, 12 September 1596.
9 E 839/134, holograph in Creswell's hand, summary in Cal. S.P. Spanish, 1587-1603, p. 635, ‘Suggestions [sic] for an Edict’. In the Archives of the Archbishop of Westminster, Manuscripts, Series A, vol. 6, pp. 297-300 is a duplicate in an unknown hand with a heading ‘Copia del edicto para el Adelantado 1597’ [sic]; no other document explains why this unused draft was in circulation.
10 In content it resembled the text given below under points 1 to 9, then rapidly concluded with only points 11 and 16.
11 E 839/136, ‘Las Razones para este edicto y modo de proceder que en el se propone’.
12 Cheyney, E.P., A History of England from the defeat of the Armada to the death of Elizabeth (New York, 1914–26), vol. 2, pp. 94–103.Google Scholar
13 See, for example, H.M.C. Salisbury MSS., vol. 6, pp. 124–5:Google Scholar deposition of Thomas Palyser to William Waade, March 1596-97.
14 Loomie, A. J., ‘An Armada Pilot's Survey of the English Coastline, October 1597’, Mariner'sMirror, vol. 49 (1963), pp. 288–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15 E 2851, unnumbered folio. Holograph written in two columns with sixteen sideheads upon five folios. Text in appendix.
16 E 2851, unnumbered folio. Creswell to Philip III, 7 November 1598.
17 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1598-1601, pp. 183-5; Short Title Catalogue 19842.
18 Silke, J., Kinsale: The Spanish Intervention in Ireland at the End of the Elizabethan Wars (Liverpool, New York, 1970), pp. 58–60.Google Scholar
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21 Thomas, H., Anti-English Propaganda in the Time of Queen Elizabeth (Oxford, for the Hispanic Society of America, 1946)Google Scholar reprints the text; his historical introduction is inaccurate. Silke, op. cit. places two Irish agents, MacDavitt and Birmingham, at the court at this time.
22 Calendar of Carew MSS., vol. 1, p. 400;Google Scholar Silke, op. cit. pp. 20-21.
23 Silke, pp. 108 ff.
24 Hughes, P. L. and Larkin, J. F., Tudor Royal Proclamations (New Haven, London, 1969), vol. 3, p. 251.Google Scholar The wrong proclamation is indicated in the footnote.
25 Silke, pp. 117-19.
26 Loomie, A. J., ‘Philip III and the Stuart Succession in England, 1600-1603’ Revue Beige dePhilologie et d'Histoire, pp. 510–14.Google Scholar
27 E 840/136. Creswell explained in the margin: ‘Although she would be dead, it is well that it be made clear that his Majesty had ordered this’.
28 E 840/136, ‘Memoria para el edicto’. Sideheads are then numbered in sequence 13, 14, 15.
29 Loomie, A. J., ‘Guy Fawkes in Spain: the “Spanish Treason” in Spanish Documents’ (Bull, of Inst, of Hist. Res., Special Supplement, no. 9, 1971) pp. 18, 28.Google Scholar
30 Tudor Royal Proclamations, vol. 1, pp. xxvi–xxix.Google Scholar
31 A very similar statement of Elizabeth's purpose was proclaimed after the English occupation of Le Havre in 1562. (Black, Reign of Elizabeth, p. 57).
32 It is likely that this is in response to the proclamation of 16 September 1591 forbidding supplies of war to Spain: Tudor Royal Proclamations vol. 3, pp. 183–6.Google Scholar
33 The phrase was underlined by Creswell, who wrote in the margin: ‘For many reasons it seems best not to indicate the right of the Lady Infanta until the Catholic party is superior’.
34 Before he left Spain in 1596 Persons had suggested: ‘The excommunication of the Queen should be renewed by the Pope and there should be some such printed public announcement as was to be made by Cardinal Allen in ‘88, of which, although it was never published, I have a copy here and it can be reprinted’. (E 839/126-128, paragraph 9; see also Cal. S.P. Spanish 1587-1603, p.63l). This broadside (Short Title Catalogue 22590) was prepared for the first Armada of 1588 (Pollen, J. H. and MacMahon, W., Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel 1557-95, C.R.S., vol. 21, pp. 174–5)Google Scholar and was denounced by William Cecil as an ‘untimely’ and ‘boastful’ proclamation: Leigh, R., The Copie of a Letter sent out of England to don Bernardin Mendoza (London, 1588,Google Scholar Short Title Catalogue 15412, p. 2). However, Clement VIII did not agree to lift in 1596 the suspension of the political effects of Pius Vs excommunication already in force before Allen's effort (Silke, p. 66). Even for the Irish campaigns he refused to announce an excommunication of the old English Catholics who fought for Elizabeth there (R. D. Edwards, ‘Ireland, Elizabeth I and the Counter-Reformation’, in Bindoff, S. T. ed,. ElizabethanGovernment and Society (London, 1961), p. 331),Google Scholar
35 In his 1598 copy Creswell underlined the phrase with a comment in the margin: ‘This is placed here with a particular purpose and has its reasons’.
36 Here Creswell wrote in the margin: ‘By singling out the few, hope is given to the rest and it disposes their minds to ask for clemency’.