Page 67 - 1992 - XVIII Congresso Internazionale di Storia Militare

ENGLMID AG.hiNST SPAIN. EIIZAJIEI"H l VERSIJS PHIUP Il 33
Even more nocable, che nature of che Eoglish chaUenge co imperial Spaio is
ofteo misundersrood even by serious hiswriaos. The maritirru aspeas of che lare-
Tudor period are frequencly rnisrepresenred as being predomina ne in che long struggle
with Spain. lo fact only the Armada episode - rhreatening che invasion and possi-
ble conquest of the English home-base- was òf rruly cridcal national importance,
m which sbould be added, of course, che escablishmeoc of our fìrsc overseas colo-
Dies in Virginia and (briefly) Roanoke.
In facc the continental coocciburion was far more imponanr. Tbe English con-
cribucion ro che desperace and derer-mined rt'siscance co Spain of the gallaoc Cal-
vinistic statt'S comprising che Uniced Provinces, locked in the Ninel}' Years' War.
The Englisb interveocion in this cominenral war - which casr up such nota·
ble military fìgures as Prince William the Silent, Prince Maurice of Orange oo che
one side and tbe greac Dukes of Alva, Parma and Spinola on cbe otber - wem
rhrough two disdncr scages. Fitsc, from 1572, was the period of "volumeer" or
unofficial imervencion. In chat year Sit Humph.rey Gilben led a force of some 6000
men co che assistance of tbe hard-pressed Ducch. The second period daces from
1585, when Queen Elizabecb's favourite couJ:tier, Roben Dudley Earl ofLeicester,
led an "official" force of some 7500 croops co the Uniced Provinces, bearing che
ti de of "Lieucenam an d Capcain-GeneraJ in tbc Netbedands", with political as weU
as military sratus, alchough his successor in 1589. Sir Francis Vere, was restticted
co a purely mi1irary aurhoricy as "Sergeam-Major Generai aud Colone l Generai".
The expense of these expedirionary forces - in tenns of money, men and organi-
sarioo - inevitably rose steeply year byyear, unril in L594 tbe eotire Eoglish force
was formally taken imo the Dwch service and pay.
As c. G. Cruikshank discusses in tXte!ISO io rus book, ElizabeJb'J Army (Oxford,
1946), these English armies were largely reccuired from "volumeers" drawn from
che councy milirias (eacb counry being allocaced a quota ro fill according co ics size
- thus in t591 rhe .Lord-Lieurenam of Yorksbire was ordered ro produce 500
me n whilsc Surrey was asked foc only 50) supplememed by rhe sweepings of the
"jail-deliveries" and che forcible recruitmem of "rogues and srurdy vagabonds",
"masterless men" and the like, wbo were, in the Frivy Council's view, " ... such
men as are fircesc" for che roles of privare senrinels and humble pioneers.
Tbc sizes of chese Engl.ish expedicions were om very impressive, co be suce,
but ic must be remembered that English milicary admioiruarion was srill in a
rudimencary srace of devclopmem, and rhar the demaods of the "colony'' of lreland
- than as now the AchiUes' h ed of the Bridsli lsles - was kepr io a scate of per-
petual fet:mem by a c:ombinarion of Cdric roma mie resiscance co che Anglo-Saxon
conqueror, genuine grieviances againsr the Elizabethan "'settlemenc". religious perse-
cucino of the nacive Catholic popularion (or "bog-lrish"') and economie e."ploira-
cion of che pale of Dublin and ocher areas, and, it musr be avowed, deliberare Spaoish