the Catholic
monarch to proceed immediately to the execution of his ambitious
project.

* Camden. Strype, vol. iii. p. 512.

** Bentivoglio, part ii. lib. iv.

During some time, he had been secretly making preparations, out as
soon as the resolution was fully taken, every part of his vast empire
resounded with the noise of armaments, and all his ministers, generals,
and admirals were employed in forwarding the design. The marquis of
Santa Croce, a sea officer of great reputation and experience, was
destined to command the fleet; and by his counsels were the naval
equipments conducted. In all the ports of Sicily, Naples, Spain, and
Portugal, artisans were employed in building vessels of uncommon size
and force; naval stores were bought at a great expense; provisions
amassed; armies levied and quartered in the maritime towns of Spain;
and plans laid for fitting out such a fleet and embarkation as had never
before had its equal in Europe. The military preparations in Flanders
were no less formidable. Troops from all quarters were every moment
assembling to reenforce the duke of Parma. Capizuchi and Spinelli
conducted forces from Italy: the marquis of Borgaut, a prince of the
house of Austria, levied troops in Germany; the Walloon and Burgundian
regiments were completed or augmented: the Spanish infantry was supplied
with recruits and an army of thirty-four thousand men was assembled in
the Netherlands, and kept in readiness to be transported into England.
The duke of Parma employed all the carpenters whom he could procure,
either in Flanders or in Lower Germany and the coasts of the Baltic;
and he built at Dunkirk and Newport, but especially at Antwerp, a great
number of boats and flat-bottomed vessels, for the transporting of his
infantry and cavalry. The most renowned nobility and princes of
Italy and Spain were ambitious of sharing in the honor of this great
enterprise. Don Amadseus of Savoy, Don John of Medicis, Vespasian
Gonzaga, duke of Sabionetta, and the duke of Pastrana, hastened to
join the army under the duke of Parma. About two thousand volunteers
in Spain, many of them men of family, had enlisted in the service.
No doubts were entertained but such vast preparations, conducted by
officers of such consummate skill, must finally be successful. And the
Spaniards, ostentatious of their power, and elated with vain hopes, had
already denominated their navy the Invincible Armada.

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