After the Armada had failed. an official English account of the procecdings gainst it was drown up, mul h;m bcen preservcd. It will bc nmch quoted from Iter, since it possesses the signal merit, from the nawd point of view, of having been prelmx'd urnlet Howrd's direction. ut it is :also interesting because it contains, in the fonn of cmfous preunlflc, a statement of what wm certainly the generally accepted English cme against Spanish ambition and duplicity.

"Whereas," it runs, "the Qncen's nu.t excellent Majesty had of late years sm.hw and most certain intelligences of the gvat warlike prcpalxtion both tbr sea and land which the King of Spain of late years ma. le from all lm, not -nly of the mightiest and mot puissant ships and vessels that hc could prepare, as well fi'om lbi l.l:es in his mn dominions, and by arresting ,f the hips of other cometties that came into his dominions, but also of all kind of nmnition and victnals, and of captains, soldiers and mariners. and of all other provisions ihr a mighty army hy seas, to crone out of Spain and Portugal; fir the more strenglh whereof it was notorimm to the worm how he had draxn into Spain and P, wtugal his principal and most experimented cal.milm and oM soldiers .ut of Naples. Sicilia, Lmnbardy, and other parts of Italy, yea, and from sundry renmtc places of the Indies; the i,x. paration whem,l with fle nmnl .,f ships, men, victuals, oolnance and all kind of munition, wa ma. le patent to the world hy sundry b,ks printed an.l !.nl.]ishe. l b.th in Spain, lh.rtugal, and in ninny-ther co,retries of Christenalton, carwing fie titles of the 'lial,l.y Armada of the King of Spain,' and, in some, Slcia]ly expressed to be against England: And, in like , when.[as] her Majesty had the like knowllge of the mighty and puissant forces of horses and footmen, snfficient to make many armies, preparl in the Low Cometties trader the conduct of the Duke of P:mna, the Kinifs Lieutenant-General, and of mtitnde of ships, hilandem, boats and other vessels fit tbr the transporting and bin,ling of the fid fomes, armies from the coast of F]auders, with a general publication to the world that all flmse so mighty Ibmes, hoth by sea and land, were intended to the invasion of her M:esty's realms, and, as was l,reten,h.d, to have nmde therewith a full conquest: Yet fi,r that, in this time of their 1,rel,aration, the King of Spain, by his Lieutenant-General, the Duke ol' Parma, caused certain ofirs to be mmle to her Majesty for a communication of a peace betwixt their Majesties; h,wver, tff the common judgment of the wm'ld, the same was done but m abuse her Majty and to win time whilst his prel,aratims might be made omni,Icrc; her Majesty, neverlhelq like a most godly and ('hristian prince, did not x. fise t, give ear to so Christian an ofibr, tbr which pm'1o she sent certain n,,blemvn e of her l'rivy C, ameil into Flan, lers to trmt. with certain Commissioners, who continued them x itlu,ut any good success by ason of the unrm:fi,le delays of the King's Commissioners; a yea, they eontimaq there until the Navy of Sl,ain was oercome and fi,rce, l to fly."

('ottm MS. Julius F. x. if. 111-17. The credit of shinning that this document has an official chantute; an,I, ntmover, that it represents the x iews and conclusions of Howard Idmsell; is due to Professor Laughton, R.N. See ' State Papera mlating o the l}efea[ of the Spanish Armada,' ii. 388 (App. 11.)

2 The English Commissioners were Ilem, Earl of l)erl,y; William, Lord Cobhran; Sir Jam a Crofts; and Doctors Valentine Dale and John Ilogem.

• The demands and ollb of the ('mmnissioners are set Ibrth in C.tt. MS. Julius,

F. vi. 23, fi 51 b.