The Tudors

The Tudors, story by story.

1. IEngland and Rome, 1527 to 1535
   

   Chapter I · England and Rome, 1527 to 1535

   The King's Great Matter

   You play Henry VIII

   The Pope will not end your marriage. Do you break with Rome?

   England, 1527. Henry VIII has been married to Catherine of Aragon, a Spanish princess, for eighteen years. They have one living child, a daughter named Mary.

   Your first call · The baby: on its way

   Marry Anne now, in secretWait for the Pope's ruling

   Sources

   • George Cavendish, The Life of Cardinal Wolsey, ed. S. W. Singer (Project Gutenberg 54043): the court at Blackfriars; Catherine going about to the king and kneeling at his feet 'in broken English' ('I have been to you a true humble and obedient wife'), leaving and never appearing at any court after; Campeggio: 'I will give no judgment herein until I have made relation unto the pope'; Wolsey arrested of high treason at Cawood in November 1530 and dying at Leicester on the way south; his words to Kingston ('if I had served God as diligently as I have done the king, he would not have given me over in my grey hairs'); Cromwell resolving to 'make or mar'. The same edition prints George Wyatt's Life of Queen Anne Boleigne: Anne 'rejected all his speech of love' and the king 'in the end fell to win her by treaty of marriage'; George Wyatt on Anne's 'witty and graceful speech'
   • A. F. Pollard, Henry VIII (1905; Project Gutenberg 20300): the 'doom of childlessness pronounced in the Book of the Law against him who should marry his brother's wife'; Mary Boleyn Henry's mistress before Anne; Clement 'a prisoner in the hands of the Emperor's troops' after the sack of Rome, Catherine 'his master's aunt'; the revocation of the case to Rome in July 1529; the 1531 salvo 'so far as the law of Christ allows'; Parliament prorogued 14 May 1532 and More resigning two days later; 'by the end of January Henry knew that Anne Boleyn was pregnant'; Warham's death in August 1532 and Cranmer's bulls; Dunstable sentence 23 May, coronation 1 June, Elizabeth born 7 September 1533; Clement's sentence of excommunication drawn up 11 July 1533; the title confirmed by Act of Parliament in 1534 and the new treasons; the Pope expediting Cranmer's bulls under the threat of the Act of Annates, 'suspecting, as he must have done, the object for which they were wanted'; the sentence of excommunication drawn up on 11 July 1533, its declaration suspended (note: the bull was eventually dated 30 August 1535)
   • The Love Letters of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn (Project Gutenberg 32155): Anne 'appointed maid of honour to Queen Katherine'; Henry's offer to take her for his 'only mistress'
   • Thomas Cranmer to Nicholas Hawkyns, 17 June 1533 (Luminarium transcription): the court at Dunstable 'within four miles unto Amptell, where the said Lady Kateren keepeth her house'; Catherine refusing to appear because her cause was before the Pope; sentence the morrow after Ascension Day; Anne 'married much about St Paul's day last'; 'I myself knew not thereof a fortnight after it was done'; the coronation
   • Henry Gee and W. J. Hardy, Documents Illustrative of English Church History (1896), no. XLVIII, The Submission of the Clergy ('agreed to by Convocation on May 15, 1532, and handed to the king on the following day'), and no. L, The Restraint of Appeals, 24 Hen. VIII c. 12 ('this realm of England is an empire')
   • R. B. Merriman, Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell, vol. 1 (1902; Project Gutenberg 49086): Walter Cromwell a brewer, smith and fuller of Putney; Cromwell's legal practice; Pole's account of Cromwell urging Henry to 'declare himself Head of the Church in England'; the Act forbidding appeals to Rome passed before the court at Dunstable
   • Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, vol. 8 (1535), no. 876, Chapuys to Charles V, 16 June 1535: Henry, hearing that Fisher had been made a cardinal, 'declared in anger several times that he would give him another hat, and send the head afterwards to Rome for the Cardinal's hat'; Fisher and More summoned again to swear to the King as Head of the Church or be executed as traitors
   • Catholic Encyclopedia (1910), 'Blessed John Fisher': the Queen's chief supporter at the legates' court; in 1531 the addition 'so far as God's law permits' made 'through Fisher's efforts'; sent to the Tower 26 April 1534 for refusing the oath of succession; created cardinal by Paul III in May 1535; Henry forbade the hat to enter England, 'declaring that he would send the head to Rome instead'; beheaded on Tower Hill 22 June 1535, head set on London Bridge
   • Catholic Encyclopedia (1912), 'St. Thomas More': resigned the chancellorship in May 1532; indicted 1 July and beheaded on Tower Hill 6 July 1535
   • Center for Thomas More Studies, 'I die the king's good servant, and God's first': translation of the Paris newsletter of 4 August 1535, 'qu'il mouroit son bon serviteur et de Dieu premierement'
   • Saint John Fisher (catholicism.org): Fisher and More canonized by Pius XI on 19 May 1935
   • Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911), 'Fisher, John': 'He was beheaded on Tower Hill on the 22nd of June 1535'; 'His head was exposed on London Bridge'
2. IIEngland, 1529 to 1536
   

   Chapter II · England, 1529 to 1536

   The Fall of Anne Boleyn

   You play Thomas Cromwell

   The king is tired of his queen, and the queen is your enemy. Do you bring her down?

   London, spring 1536. Anne Boleyn has been queen for three years, and she still has not given Henry VIII a son.

   Your first call · Your enemy: the queen

   Join the queen's enemiesWarn the queen and stand by her

   Sources

   • Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, vol. 10 (1536), full text (archive.org scan of the 1887 volume): no. 199, Chapuys, 29 January 1536, the King said 'in great confidence' that he had made this marriage 'seduced by witchcraft'; no. 282, the miscarriage on the day of Catherine's burial of 'a male child'; no. 615, John Skip's sermon in the King's chapel on Passion Sunday (2 April) on Ahasuerus 'moved by a wicked minister', warning a King's councillor 'what advice he gave in altering ancient things', with the interrogatories for slandering 'his counsellors'; index, 'SKIP, DR. JOHN, Anne Boleyn's almoner'; no. 782, Chapuys on the arrests of 2 May; no. 896, Cranmer's sentence of nullity at Lambeth, 17 May; no. 908, Anne affirming her innocence before and after receiving the sacrament; no. 1107, executions of the five men on 17 May and of Anne on 19 May; preface pp. xxv to xxxi: Smeaton 'arrested before any of the others' and the only one to confess, the executioner from Calais or St Omer, Henry betrothed to Jane on 20 May and married 'ten days later'
   • Calendar of State Papers, Spain, vol. 5 part 2 (February 1536): Chapuys reports that when the news of Anne's miscarriage was brought to the king 'he only observed, "I see that God will not give me male children"'
   • Calendar of State Papers, Spain, vol. 5 part 2 (1536): Chapuys, 1 April 1536, Anne and Cromwell 'on bad terms', Cromwell's earlier remark that she 'would like to see his head off his shoulders', Cromwell 'the adviser and promoter of the demolition of the English convents', Jane Seymour returning the king's letter unopened and asking him to keep his money, 'no treasure in this world that she valued as much as her honour', a room taken from 'Master Cromwell's apartments' for her elder brother and his wife, reached 'through certain galleries without being seen'
   • Calendar of State Papers, Spain, vol. 5 part 2, Chapuys, late April 1536: Carew 'daily conspiring against her, and trying to persuade Miss Seymour and her friends to accomplish her ruin'
   • Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, vol. 10, no. 699, Chapuys to Charles V, 21 April 1536: Easter Tuesday at court; the crowd at Mass watching 'how the concubine and I behaved to each other', Anne returning 'to do me reverence'; Henry at a window rejecting the emperor's points 'confusedly and in anger', 'he was no longer a child, and that they must not give him the stick, and then caress him'; the Princess among the points; Cromwell's dispute with the king, leaving the window grumbling, sitting 'upon a coffer out of sight of the King' and sending for a drink, exhausted 'with pure vexation'
   • Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, vol. 10, no. 1069, Chapuys, 6 June 1536: Cromwell 'had discovered and followed up the affair of the Concubine' and after the king's reply on the third day of Easter 'set himself to arrange the plot'; no. 1110, Cromwell to Mary: 'I think you the most obstinate woman that ever was', a book of articles to subscribe
   • Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, vol. 11, no. 7, Chapuys, 1 July 1536: Mary's refusal, the king's anger, the Marquis and the Treasurer excluded from the Council, Cromwell 'not free from suspicion' and for four or five days 'considering himself a lost man and dead', Mary signing 'without reading it'
   • George Cavendish, The Life of Cardinal Wolsey (Project Gutenberg 54043): Cromwell rides to court where 'I will either make or mar'; Wolsey's arrest for treason
   • R. B. Merriman, Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell, vol. 1 (Project Gutenberg 49086): Putney origins; Foxe's report that Cromwell told Cranmer 'what a ruffian he was in his younger days'; merchant and clerk in Antwerp and Italy; Lord Privy Seal and Baron Cromwell in July 1536; led to execution on 28 July 1540; 'his previous devotion to the cause of Anne Boleyn' and 'one whom a few years before he had done so much to support'
   • M. H. and R. Dodds, The Pilgrimage of Grace (1915), vol. 1, ch. II: the Act dissolving the Lesser Monasteries passed in March 1536
   • Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911), 'Cromwell, Thomas': 'A ruffian he doubtless was, as he says, in his youth'; in July 1536 'knighted, created lord privy seal, Baron Cromwell'; 'beheaded on Tower Hill on the 28th of July' 1540
3. IIIYorkshire, October 1536
   

   Chapter III · Yorkshire, October 1536

   The Pilgrimage of Grace

   You play Robert Aske

   You lead thirty thousand men, and the king offers a pardon. Do you trust him?

   Yorkshire, autumn 1536. The king's men are shutting the north's small monasteries, which fed the poor and sheltered travellers. Rumour says the parish churches' silver is next.

   Your first call · Pilgrims: at least 30,000

   Talk. Send men to meet NorfolkAttack Doncaster at dawn

   Sources

   • M. H. and R. Dodds, The Pilgrimage of Grace 1536-1537 and the Exeter Conspiracy 1538 (Cambridge, 1915), vol. 1. Ch. II: the Act dissolving the Lesser Monasteries, March 1536; rumours that church jewels and plate would be taken. Ch. V: Aske crossing the Humber at Barton, the ferryman's news, the oath at Ferriby two miles on, the commons at his bedside before daybreak on 5 October, 'the need for captains was much felt'. Ch. VIII to IX: the oath to expel 'all villein blood and evil councillors', 16 October, Aske entering York 'at the head of four or five thousand horsemen' (footmen kept outside), his order restoring the religious to their houses, the Five Wounds banner and badge, Aske's one eye. Ch. X: the surrender of Pontefract Castle. Ch. XI: Henry 'reluctant to trust' Norfolk; on Wednesday 25 October Lancaster Herald bringing Norfolk's exhortation (mercy 'as ungrateful traitors' or battle); Shrewsbury unable to muster 'at the highest estimate, 8000 men', lack of food, fuel, shelter and wages; the Pilgrims 'at least thirty thousand strong... as tall men, well-horsed and well appointed, as any men could be'; the Durham lords advising the challenge be accepted and the attack made at once; Norfolk's admission about 'men of war'; the 'sore rain, which raised the waters, especially the Don'; Aske's case for talks; Norfolk reaching Doncaster in the early hours of 26 October; the meeting on 27 October, Ellerker and Bowes riding to the king, both hosts sent home. Each point cites Letters and Papers xi and xii
   • Dodds, The Pilgrimage of Grace, vol. 2. Ch. XV: the December terms (a free pardon; the parliament's date left open and the place reserved by Henry; the abbeys to be restored provisionally until the next parliament); the pardon read on 8 December; Aske kneeling, giving up the name of captain, tearing off the badge of the Five Wounds, 'We will all wear no badge nor sign but the badge of our sovereign lord'. Ch. XVI: Henry's letter of 15 December summoning Aske to court; the 'jacket of crimson satin'; Aske's narrative; Henry's promise to hold the parliament at York. Ch. XVII to XVIII: Bigod's rising, which Aske and the others 'did their best to prevent and put down'; Henry's 'good excuse' for repudiating the terms; Norfolk 'by policy' bringing Aske 'to desire me to give him licence to ride to London' and writing a letter for him. Ch. XX: Aske to London on 24 March, a horse left at Buntingford, arrested 7 April, tried 16 May, his petition to be 'full dead ere I be dismembered', hanged at York on market day, Thursday 12 July 1537, on the top of Clifford's Tower. Ch. XXI: 216 executions recorded
   • Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, vol. 11, no. 783, Henry VIII to the Earl of Derby, 19 October 1536: the abbot and monks of Sawley restored by the traitors; 'take the said abbot and monks forth with violence and have them hanged without delay in their monks' apparel'
   • Catholic Encyclopedia (1912), 'Waltham Abbey': it 'outlasted every other abbey in the country' and was surrendered on 23 March 1540
4. IVKent and London, 1553 to 1554
   

   Chapter IV · Kent and London, 1553 to 1554

   Wyatt's Rebellion

   You play Queen Mary I

   Rebels are marching on London. Do you flee, or stay and rally the city?

   London, January 1554. Mary I has been queen for six months. She has brought back the old Catholic Mass.

   Your first call · Wyatt: a day's march away

   Go to the Guildhall and rally LondonWithdraw to Windsor

   Sources

   • The Chronicle of Queen Jane, and of Two Years of Queen Mary, ed. J. G. Nichols (Camden Society, 1850): Jane arraigned at the Guildhall in November 1553; the council certified on 25 January that Wyatt was up in Kent, Maidstone 'where Wyat had first displayed his' standard; Suffolk fled on 25 January; Norfolk lieutenant of the army with the five hundred Londoners under Bret; at Rochester bridge Bret's speech ('Masters, we goe about to fight agaynst our natyve countreymen'), the cry 'A Wyat! A Wyat!', the duke fleeing to London and losing eight brass pieces, the guard coming home 'ther cotes tourned... without arowes or stringe in their bowe', the defeat 'almost no lesse joyous to the Londoners'; Wyatt at Dartford on 31 January and at Greenwich and Deptford the next day; the queen at the Guildhall on Thursday 1 February; London Bridge shut; Wyatt crossing at Kingston by night; 7 February, the queen 'once determyned to come to the Tower forthwith, but shortelie after she sende worde she would tarry ther to se the uttermost'; Ludgate barred, surrender at Temple Bar; Jane and Guildford beheaded Monday 12 February; Suffolk beheaded 23 February; Suffolk's capture at Astley (with the tradition of the hollow tree in the editor's notes); Elizabeth taken to the Tower on Palm Sunday 18 March; Wyatt beheaded on Tower Hill on 11 April, saying that neither Elizabeth nor Courtenay 'was previe of my rysing'
   • John Foxe, Acts and Monuments, 'Wyat's Rebellion' (Ex-Classics transcription): Wyatt in Kent said the queen and council 'would, by foreign marriage, bring upon this realm most miserable servitude'; Norfolk 'about Rochester bridge forsaken of them that went with him'; the council's envoys and Wyatt's demand of 'the governance of our person, the keeping of the Tower, and the placing of our councillors'; Mary's Guildhall oration, 'I cannot tell how naturally the mother loveth the child, for I was never the mother of any'
   • Calendar of State Papers, Spain, vol. 12 (1554), Renard and the imperial ambassadors, late January and early February 1554: the queen 'without the means of resistance'; some of the Council in the plot; the councillors 'reproached one another'; debate whether she should go to the Tower, Windsor or Calais; the queen 'would rather lose her crown, her realm and her life' than take another husband; the envoys sent 'to gain time'; Wyatt's answer that he would have 'London Tower in his hands, and also the Queen' with a better Council; the council's decision that the queen go to the Guildhall; her speech and the people throwing up their caps; Courtenay's withdrawal from the plot
   • Calendar of State Papers, Spain, vol. 11 (1553), Renard, November 1553: the Speaker of Parliament urging the queen to marry and to choose a husband in England, 'a subject of hers'
   • John Foxe, Acts and Monuments, 'Princess Elizabeth Imprisoned' and 'The Lady Elizabeth' (Ex-Classics transcription): Gardiner 'whose head and devices were chiefly bent... against that only person'; Elizabeth brought to the Tower on Palm Sunday; removed on Trinity Sunday, 19 May, towards Woodstock, people by the way bringing gifts and townsmen ringing the bells
   • John Foxe, Acts and Monuments, 'Marriage of Queen Mary and Philip of Spain' (Ex-Classics transcription): married at Winchester on St James's day, 25 July 1554
   • Catholic Encyclopedia (1911), 'Mary Tudor': the restored Mass; 277 burned in less than four years; Philip quitting England; Mary's death on 17 November 1558
   • Dodds, The Pilgrimage of Grace, vol. 2: 'the old Duke of Norfolk' already in 1537
   • Calendar of State Papers, Spain, vol. 12 (1554), Renard, 21 to 28 February 1554: 'if she does not seize this opportunity of punishing her and Courtenay, the Queen will never be secure'; advice to 'have her thrown into the Tower, as she has been accused by Wyatt, mentioned by name in the French ambassador's letters, suspected by her own counsellors'
   • Calendar of State Papers, Spain, vol. 12 (1554), Renard, 11 to 20 March 1554: 'while she lives it will be very difficult to make the Prince's entry here safe'; some councillors hesitating 'because her trial was not yet over'
   • Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911), 'Grey, Lady Jane': born 'about the year 1537'; proclaimed 10 July 1553; mastered 'Latin, Greek, French and Italian'; executed 12 February 1554, 'her husband on Tower Hill, and herself within the Tower an hour afterwards'
5. VEngland, 1568 to 1587
   

   Chapter V · England, 1568 to 1587

   Mary, Queen of Scots

   You play Elizabeth I

   Your cousin is convicted of plotting your death. Do you sign her death warrant?

   England, 1586. Elizabeth I has ruled for twenty-eight years, unmarried and childless. To many Catholics, the rightful queen of England is someone else.

   Your first call · Spain: building a fleet

   Sign the warrantPut it aside again

   Sources

   • William Davison's own account, printed in N. H. Nicolas, Life of William Davison (London, 1823), appendix pp. 233 to 238: on 1 February the Lord Admiral sends for Davison to bring the warrant; the queen asks for it among his papers, signs it and asks 'whether I were not heartily sorry to see it done'; signs his other warrants 'with the best disposition and willingness that might be'; orders it sealed as secretly as might be; tells him to show it to Walsingham, 'being then sick at his house in London', as the grief would 'go near (as she merrily said) to kill him outright'; names 'the hall' for the place; as he was leaving, wishes that Walsingham and he 'would yet write unto both him [Paulet] and Sir Drue Drury, to sound their disposition'. Nicolas, ch. on the dispatch: the Council sent the warrant by Beale 'without again applying to the Queen'; Henry Talbot bringing news of the execution on 9 February; the fine of ten thousand marks; Davison's imprisonment and poverty, 'Elizabeth's cruel injustice closed his public life'
   • The Letter-Books of Sir Amias Poulet, ed. J. Morris (London, 1874): Paulet took charge in April 1585, a month after the Bond of Association became an Act; 'two rigid Puritans'; Walsingham ordering him to open the packets addressed to the Queen of Scots; the Burton brewer who served the house with beer, and the letters sealed in a small hollow wooden case dropped into a beer cask; pp. 359 to 362, Walsingham and Davison to Paulet, 1 February 1586/7, appealing to 'the oath of association which you both have so solemnly taken'; Paulet's reply of 2 February, 'God forbid that I should make so foul a shipwreck of my conscience'
   • History of Parliament blog, 'The Answer Answerless and Elizabeth I's attitude towards the Parliament of 1586-7' (24 November 2022): the petition of both Houses; Elizabeth's speech at Richmond on 24 November 1586 and her 'answer answerless'; her reluctance to execute a kinswoman and heir-apparent and her fear of the precedent; Burghley's temporary banishment from court
   • Catholic Encyclopedia (1910), 'Mary Queen of Scots': defeat at Langside on 13 May 1568 and flight into England; the lords crowning the infant James; imprisonment at Sheffield, Tutbury, Wingfield and Chartley; every letter passing through the hands of 'Elizabeth's decipherer Thomas Phillips' and copied; Babington's letter on dispatching 'the usurper'; Mary's reply of 17 July 1586; Babington and his fellows 'arrested, tried and executed', then Mary's trial on 14 and 15 October; died at Fotheringay 8 February 1587
   • Robert Wynkfield's account of the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, 8 February 1587 (TudorHistory.org transcription): the hall at Fotheringhay; her last words 'In manus tuas, Domine'
   • J. H. Pollen, Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington Plot (Scottish History Society, 1922): the brewer of Burton and the letters in 'a corked tube which would slip through the bung-hole'; Mary's deciphered reply of 17 July 1586, 'Then shall it be time to set the six gentlemen to work', and Pollen's conclusion that 'she nevertheless materially does consent to the plan as a whole'; the postscript asking Babington to name 'the six gentlemen', with a draft by Phelippes extant
   • William Camden, Annales, 1586 (English translation of 1625, hypertext ed. Dana F. Sutton): at Fotheringay 'a chaire of Estate for the Queene of England, under a cloath of Estate'; Mary 'warned them therefore to looke to their consciences, and to remember that the Theater of the whole world is much wyder than the Kingdome of England'; her denial; Babington and his fellows hanged in St Giles's Fields on 20 September
   • William Camden, Annales, 1568 (same edition): Mary sending a diamond 'to signifie that she would come into England, and crave ayd of her'; Elizabeth having 'promised all love and kindnesse of a sister'; Mary's 'resigne my Kingdome' under threat of death
   • Calendar of the Cecil Papers in Hatfield House, vol. 3, no. 232, 'Bond of the Queen of Scots', 5 January: she 'promises and declares, according to the said association, by her word as a queen and on her faith and honour, to account both now and for ever as her mortal enemies' all who attempt Elizabeth's life
   • Simonds D'Ewes, Journal of the House of Lords, November 1586: the petition delivered at Richmond on Thursday 24 November; the Queen's answer, 'And thus I must deliver you an Answer Answerless'
6. VISpain and the English Channel, 1587 to 1588
   

   Chapter VI · Spain and the English Channel, 1587 to 1588

   The Armada

   You play The Duke of Medina Sidonia

   The fire ships have scattered your fleet. Fight on, or go home around Scotland?

   Spain, 1588. Philip II rules Spain, Portugal and an empire across the Atlantic. Thirty years ago he was also king of England, married to its queen, Mary I.

   Your first call · English fleet: still in harbour

   Sail on to meet Parma, as orderedAttack the English fleet in Plymouth

   Sources

   • Calendar of State Papers, Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, Philip II's instructions to Medina Sidonia, April 1588: 'go straight to the English Channel, which you will ascend as far as Cape Margate, where you will join hands with the duke of Parma... and hold the passage for his crossing'; 'you will not be deflected from your course, but will continue straight on without seeking the enemy'
   • Calendar of State Papers, Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, no. 219, Medina Sidonia to Juan de Idiaquez, 16 February 1588: 'I soon become sea-sick', 'My house owes 900,000 ducats', 'I have not a single real I can spend on the expedition', 'possessing no experience of seafaring or of war'; editor's note: Santa Cruz dead before the letter; Philip's peremptory order to have the Armada ready by 1 March; the king's reply of 11 March, 'It cannot be otherwise in a case so entirely devoted to God as this is'
   • Calendar of State Papers, Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, no. 326, the council at Corunna, 27 June 1588: 'The unanimous opinion was, that it was better to stay here and await them'
   • Calendar of State Papers, Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, nos. 358 and 359, Medina Sidonia to the King, 30 July 1588, 'In sight of Cape Lizard': land sighted at the Lizard at four in the afternoon of the 29th; his decision to proceed 'as far as the Isle of Wight, and no further' until he heard from Parma
   • Calendar of State Papers, Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, no. 402, Medina Sidonia's Diary of the Expedition: sailed from Corunna 22 July; the Lizard sighted 29 July; on the 30th 'the people on land, who made signal fires', the English fleet seen leaving Plymouth; the English gaining the wind and fighting at range; Valdes's flagship left behind; anchoring off Calais on 6 August, seven leagues from Dunkirk; Tello's report that Parma had not begun to embark, Arceo's that he could not be ready 'under a fortnight'; eight fire ships at midnight on the 7th, 'our men had not diverted them', the Duke 'fearing that they might contain fire machines or mines' ordering the cables let go; the fight of the 8th from dawn until three in the afternoon; on the 9th the wind 'shifting by God's mercy to the S.W.' off the Zeeland banks, and the council's unanimous decision 'in favour of returning to the Channel if the weather would allow of it, but if not... to Spain by the North Sea'; the attack of the 8th beginning 'at daybreak' and lasting 'until three in the afternoon'
   • Calendar of State Papers, Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, August 1588, 11 to 20: no. 391, statement of what happened to the Armada: the fire ships 'flamed furiously but did us no damage'; no. 383: the ships cut their cables, 'leaving nearly 300 anchors behind them'
   • Calendar of State Papers, Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, nos. 433 to 434, Medina Sidonia to the King from Santander, 23 September 1588: landfall on the 21st, his twenty-five days of fever, 180 dead of sickness on the flagship
   • Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911), 'Drake, Sir Francis': the attack on Cadiz of 19 April 1587, 'upwards of 10,000 tons of shipping' burnt, which Drake 'jocosely called' singeing the king of Spain's beard
   • Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911), 'Armada, The': Santa Cruz died on 9 February 1588; nineteen ships known to have been wrecked on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland, crews taken in Ireland put to the sword
   • Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911), 'Medina Sidonia, Don Alonso Perez de Guzman el Bueno': retained his posts of admiral and captain-general of Andalusia, royal favour 'unabated', commands at Cadiz in 1596 and in 1606, died 1615; 'master of one of the greatest fortunes in Europe'; 'the royal favour continued unabated'
   • Calendar of State Papers, Spain (Simancas), vol. 4, September 1588, 1 to 10, no. 424, English relation forwarded by a spy: 130 ships and 30,000 men leaving Lisbon on 29 May (N.S.); dispersed by storm, 80 ships reaching Corunna; 'constantly pressed by King Philip to sail'; 'The opinion in England was that the Armada would not come this year, owing to the lateness of the season'; the Admiral having 'hardly time to take some of his ships out of port'; Valdes's galleon 'taken by us'
   • Pedro de Paz Salas, La felicissima armada que el rey Don Felipe nuestro Señor mandó juntar enel puerto de la ciudad de Lisboa (Lisbon: António Álvares, 9 May 1588), the printed muster list of the fleet (Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal record)