Sir Francis Drake & Charles Howard

Her Majesty's Marine Cause

Although Elizabeth made him Lord High Admiral in 1585, Charles Howard is almost always referred to in history books as Lord Howard of Effingham, due more to his rank and background than his sea experience, which was limited.

Charles was the grandson of a duke and belonged to one of the largest and greatest families in Tudor England. He was related to both of the two wives that Henry VIII beheaded, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. The family had a nautical service in its blood as well; his father had also served as Lord High Admiral, as did two uncles.

Queen Elizabeth had more experienced seamen than Howard, none more so than Sir Francis Drake, already a legend after his voyage around the world in 1577-80. But the office of Lord High Admiral called for more than just excellent shiphandling. Elizabeth had no regular army, and her navy had no regular officer corps. In wartime she depended on privateer captains like Drake, and nobles or gentleman-adventurers who brought their own bands of retainers and who often served for little or no pay beyond a share of any loot they could grab.

These men - like Francis Drake himself - were deeply loyal to England and the Queen, but they were freebooters at heart and did not take orders readily. Managing them required the skills of a courtier and diplomat. These were skills Lord Howard had, along with his personal prestige and standing with the Queen. Only a great lord, speaking with her personal authority, could hope to keep these independent-minded men working together.

Indiscipline at Sea

As a seaman and navigator Drake was among the best, as skilled as England ever produced. But by the standards of the later Royal Navy he was a very bad officer, ready to disobey or simply ignore his superior officers at the drop of a hat, or especially a bagful of ducats. Drake, like most of his comrades, remained a demi-pirate at heart.

Early in the fighting against the Armada, Drake had a chance to go for a good many bagfuls of ducats. Two ships in the Armada collided, and one lost a mast and fell out of formation. She happened to be the Rosario, the Armada's pay ship, as rich as any treasure ship. Drake's orders that night were to lead the English fleet in tailing the Armada, his stern lantern providing a guide for all the ships behind him. It was precisely the job for England's best seaman: critical, dangerous, and demanding. A mistake on Drake's part might allow the Armada to slip away into the night or cause English ships to stray into the Armada's full contingent, to be surrounded and overwhelmed.

In the middle of the night, Drake's stern light winked out. Lord Admiral Howard, following behind, caught sight of another light and ordered his helmsman to follow it. When dawn broke his flagship and two others were practically in the midst of the Armada, and had to do some tricky sailing to get clear of it. Meanwhile, Sir Francis turned up miles away ... alongside the crippled Rosario. Her Spanish captain had several hundred fighting men, but he quickly surrendered to the legendary Francisco Draque.

Drake claimed to have seen mysterious sails in the night. He put out his stern light to follow them, he said, suspecting a Spanish move to double around and attack the English at dawn. Later he found that the mystery ships were merely German merchantmen, and the next ship he spotted was the Rosario with her cargo of cash.

Not many other English sailors believed Drake. No one else had seen the mysterious sails in the night, and it all seemed a bit too lucky a coincidence. In a later day and age Drake might have been court-martialed. But it was 1588 and there was still the Armada to fight. One of Drake's fellow vice-admirals, Martin Frobisher, never much liked Drake and demanded a share of the plunder, threatening to "shed the best blood in his belly" if Drake didn't hand some over. Lord Howard settled for making peace between his quarreling vice-admirals, and everyone got back to business.

We don't know what Lord Howard himself thought of Drake's night moves, but as it turned out he was in no position to complain. A few days later, the English made a night fireship attack on the Armada. The next morning the Spanish fleet was scattered, its defensive formation broken. Howard, as Lord High Admiral of England, had the right and duty to lead the charge that would smash it. He did nothing of the sort.

When the Spanish had cut their anchor cables in the night to escape from the English fireships, all but one got safely out to sea. The one that didn't was the galleass San Lorenzo, an oversized galley that ran aground in spite of its oars. Its noble captain, Don Hugo de Moncada, was a worthy feudal opponent for Lord Howard of Effingham, and he would be worth a princely ransom as a prisoner. So Lord High Admiral Howard, instead of going after the retreating Armada and smashing it once and for all, led his entire squadron in a boat attack on this one crippled ship.

Don Hugo was killed in the fighting, and in the end the French opened fire from Calais Castle, then sent men who took possession of the wreck. Unlike Drake, who lined his pockets with doubloons from the Rosario, Lord Howard came away empty-handed. By the later standards of the Royal Navy, he too rated a court martial for ignoring his mission in order to go after a rich prize. It was left up to none other than Sir Francis Drake to lead the chase against the fleeing Armada.

Neither Howard nor Drake was in a position to criticize the other, and sensibly they didn't. Martin Frobisher grumbled, but no one cared. All that mattered was that together, Howard and Drake and the rest of the English captains, including Frobisher, had won. Not one of them would have resisted the chance to take a rich prize, but they all stayed in the fight, with cunning and tenacity that won the grim respect of their Spanish foes. They were brilliant amateurs, and they beat the greatest fleet ever seen up to that time.