nd of the duke of Savoy: King
Philip had even allowed the son of a Moorish prince to take part in
the Catholic expedition. Infantry and cavalry also had come from
Catholic Germany.

It was a joint enterprise of the Spanish monarchy and a great part of
the Catholic world, headed by the Pope and the King, to overthrow the
Queen who was regarded as the Head, and the State which was regarded
as the main support, of Protestantism and the anti-Spanish policy.

We do not find any detailed and at the same time authentic information
as to the plan of the invasion; a Spanish soldier and diplomatist
however, much employed in the military and political affairs of the
time, and favoured with the confidence of the highest persons, J.
Baptista de Tassis, gives us an outline, which we may accept as quite
trustworthy. We know that in Antwerp, Nieuport, and Dunkirk, with the
advice of Hanseatic and Genoese master-builders, transports had been
got ready for the whole force: from Nieuport (to which place also were
brought the vessels built at Antwerp) 14,000 men were to be conveyed
across to England, and from Dunkirk 12,000. But where were they to
effect a junction with each other and with the Spaniards? Tassis
assures us that they had selected for this purpose the roadstead of
Margate on the coast of Kent, a safe and convenient harbour;[270]
there immediately after the Spanish armada had arrived, or as nearly
as possible at the same time with it, the fleet of transports from the
Netherlands also was to make the shore, and Alexander of Parma was
then to assume the command in chief of the whole force and march
straight on London.

All that Philip II had ever thought or planned was thus concentrated
as it were into one focus. The moment was come when he could subdue
England, become master of the European world, and re-establish the
Catholic faith in the form in which he professed it. When the fleet
(on the 22nd July 1588) sailed out of Corunna, and the long-meditated,
long-prepared, enterprise was now set in action, the King and the
nation displayed deep religious emotion: in all the churches of the
land prayers were offered up for forty days; in Madrid solemn
processions were arranged to our Lady of Atocha, the patroness of
Spain: Philip II spent two hours each day in prayer. He was in the
state of silent excitement which an immense design and the expectation
of a great turn in a man's fortune call forth. Scarcely any one dared
to addre