The Butcher's Daughter, page 39
Sixteenth Century Words: I am by no means a scholar in language or words. I wouldn’t know how to write as people spoke back in the 1500s. Nonetheless, I tried to avoid obvious modern words in an effort to give a touch of authenticity to the times of Queen Elizabeth. I was surprised by how many new words and phrases came out of the 1500s (or thereabouts). I used the word “traffic” for example, but “traffic” sounded too modern to my ear so I considered using a synonym. But people actually used the word “traffic” in the 1500s. The Spanish used the word tráfico (or traffique in the French and traffico in the Italian) to describe trade and commerce. The words “relapse” and “goodbye” are more examples. The etymology of “goodbye” is particularly interesting as people started using this word in the 1570s, the period in which much of our story takes place. The word “goodbwye” (“goodbye”) is short for “God be with ye” though somewhere along the way “God” in the phrase was replaced with “good.” There are many other examples of this throughout the book. Lout (a clown, a bumpkin), “weakling” (first coined by William Tyndale in the 1520s), “thumping” (as opposed to more modern terms like “clobbering” or “thrashing”), “newfangled,” “fumble,” rump,” “methodical,” “livelihood,” “good-naturedly,” “upshot,” and “shit” are all examples Sixteenth Century words and the list goes on.
Galleons: History is a bit murky on who originally built the first galleons. Captains Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and Álvaro de Bazán from Spain are generally credited with the revolutionary new design though there is evidence that the Venice built the first galleon, or gallionis to fight pirates. (The word galleon is derived from the Old French word “galion” or “little ship,” which the Spanish used to mean an “armed merchant ship” (“galeón”), which the Portuguese used to mean a “war ship” (“galeão”). The Spanish galleons were sleek and powerful ships capable of sailing around the world and when the English saw them, they wanted them. Sir John Hawkins and three master English shipwrights, Richard Chapman, Peter Pett and Mathew Baker set about designing an improved version of the Spanish galleon and ended up with their “race-built” design (the fore and aft castles were “razed” and lengthened to improve stability, speed and maneuverability). The English builders described their ships as having “the head of a cod and the tail of a mackerel.” The first of these new galleons, the 295 ton Foresight, was launched from the Deptford Dockyard in 1570. Following the success of the Foresight, the English launched many more race-built galleons in preparation for the war that was sure to come between England and Spain.
Mary Rose: As with any new and complex technology, things can go very wrong. In 1511 England launched the Mary Rose, a 500 ton carrack class vessel. The Mary Rose was King Henry VIII’s pride and joy and his flagship. She was one of the first warships to use the recently invented gunport (invented in 1501). During the Battle of Solent (off the Isle of Wight) against the French on July 19, 1545, Mary Rose suddenly, and for no apparent reason, heeled over sharply to her starboard and capsized from water pouring in through her open gunports. Only 35 out of 400 officers and men survived. The wreck was discovered in 1971 and salvaged in 1982.
Naval Guns: The first use of shipboard artillery was at the Battle of Arnemuiden on September 23, 1338 when the English armed the Christofer with three small artillery pieces and one hand gun.
Gun Laying: The first recorded device to measure an elevation angle was Niccolò Tartagilia’s invention of a gunners' quadrant circa 1545. This device had two arms at right angles connected by an arc marked with angular graduations. One arm was placed in the muzzle, and a plumb bob suspended against the arc showed the elevation angle. This led to many calculations relating elevation angle to range.
Gunpowder: The earliest gunpowder was a finely ground mixture of charcoal, saltpeter, and sulfur known as “serpentine powder,” By the 15th century gunners were using corned powder which was pressed into pellets and screened to a uniform size.
Navigational Instruments: The mariner's astrolabe, also called sea astrolabe, was an inclinometer used to determine the latitude of a ship at sea by measuring the sun's noon altitude (declination) or the meridian altitude of a star of known declination. Not an astrolabe proper, the mariner's astrolabe was rather a graduated circle with an alidade used to measure vertical angles. They were designed to allow for their use on boats in rough water and/or in heavy winds, which astrolabes were unsuitable. In the Sixteenth Century, the instrument was also called a ring.
Mining: In 1545 the Spanish discovered silver ore in Peru and began the first mining operations in the New World.
Situado: After Francis Drake (1540 - 1596) and others inflicted great damage on Spanish interests throughout the Caribbean, Spain began pouring millions into fortifying key ports with citadels and walls. The Spanish called this system of fortification Situado. Between 1751 and 1810 Cartagena alone received the sum of 20,912,677 Spanish reales, or the equivalent of about two trillion dollars in today’s terms, to beef-up her defenses.
Plantation: In the Second Desmond Rebellion in the early 1580’s (both Spain and the Pope sent soldiers to support the Irish), led by Gerald FitzGerald, the Earl of Desmond, the English used ‘scorched earth’ tactics across Munster in retaliation for the uprising. Famine broke out and 30,000 Irish men, women and children to starved to death. After the English crushed the rebellion, Munster was colonized under the doctrine of Plantation.
The Color of Slavery: The evil of slavery was not limited to American Indians or African Blacks. King James II sold 30,000 Irish prisoners to the New World as slaves. Bye the mid-1600s, 70% of the total population of Montserrat were Irish slaves. From 1641 to 1652, over 500,000 Irish were killed by the English and another 300,000 were sold as slaves (under the guise of “indentured servants”), including children (an estimated 100,000 children between the ages of 10 and 14 were sold in the New World during the 1650s). Africans sold for around 50 sterling, Irish for only 5.
The Cimarrons: The term Cimarron comes from the Taíno word si'maran meaning “the flight of an arrow.” The Cimarrons, some 3,000 strong, controlled much of Panama during the late 1500’s. Drake described the Cimarrons as “a black people which about eighty years past fled from the Spaniards their masters, by reason of their cruelty, and are since grown to a nation, under two kings of their own. The one inhabiteth to the west, the other to the east of the way from Nombre de Dios.” Drake recruited the Cimarrons as allies against the Spanish and it was the Cimarrons who led Drake and his men to the Silver Train in April, 1573.
Infamous Women Pirates of the Sixteen Century: Grace O’Malley (Irish/1530 - 1603); Syyida al Hurra (Moroccan/1510 - 1542); Lady Mary Killigrew (English/1530 - 1570); and Lady Elizabeth Killigrew (English/1570’s - 1582).
Motley Crew: was term used to describe the mismatched multi-colored woolen clothing worn by pirates.
Cádiz: The São Filipe and her cargo captured by Drake off the Azores was valued £108,000. Queen Elizabeth awarded Drake 10% of that amount. “I’ve singed the beard of the King of Spain” Drake boasted after his raid at Cádiz in 1587.
Game of Bowls: Legend has it that when the Spanish Armada was sighted off the southern coast of England, Drake insisted on finishing a game of bowls with his officers at Plymouth Ho before setting out.
Gravelines: English ships suffered little damage at the Battle of Gravelines. Spanish casualties were much higher. Three Spanish ships were sunk, one was captured and four ran aground. Many others were severely damaged. Spanish cannon balls recovered from the site revealed the iron had been poorly cast and instead of penetrating English hulls the metal shattered on impact.
Medina Sidonia’s orders to the Armada for the North About:
“The Course That Shall Be Held In The Return Of This Army To Spain
“The course that is first to be held is to the north/north-east until you be found under 61 degrees and a half; and then to take great heed lest you fall upon the Island of Ireland for fear of the harm that may happen unto you upon that coast.
“Then, parting from those islands and doubling the Cape in 61 degrees and a half, you shall run west/south-west until you be found under 58 degrees; and from thence to the south-west to the height of 53 degrees; and then to the south/south-west, making to the Cape Finisterre, and so to procure your entrance into the Groyne A Coruña to Ferrol, or to any other port of the coast of Galicia.”
The admiral’s orders to sail “north/north-east until you be found under 61 degrees and a half” would have brought the Armada to the northern tip of the Shetland Islands, giving the fleet ample distance between itself and Ireland after turning west. The fleet couldn’t keep to these orders though and cut through the Orkneys and Fair Island (south of the Shetland Islands) instead, bringing the fleet much closer to Ireland’s rugged shores.
The Tilbury Speech: Queen Elizabeth’s rousing speech given while inspecting the army on the eve of battle at Tilbury in Essex on August 18, 1588:
“My loving people:
We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear. I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects; and therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust.
I know I have the body of a weak, feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.
I know already, for your forwardness you have deserved rewards and crowns; and we do assure you on a word of a prince, they shall be duly paid. In the meantime, my lieutenant general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble or worthy subject; not doubting but by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over these enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people.”
Victory Coin: To commemorate the victory over the Spanish Armada a coin was struck with the words: “God blew and they were scattered.”
The Final Butcher’s Bill: The Armada lost about 24 ships against the rocky coastline of Ireland between Antrim and Kerry. As many as 5,000 Spaniards perished in the storms or were executed by the English. Medina Sidonia limped back to Spain with only half his ships in all (67) and less than 10,000 men (he lost 20,000 dead). The English lost only 100 men or so killed in battle and no ships. A staggering 7,000 English sailors however perished from diseases such as typhus and dysentery.
The “Counter Armada:” In 1589, a year after the English defeated the Spanish Armada, Queen Elizabeth sent the English Armada, also known as the Counter Armada or the Drake - Norris Expedition, to the Iberian Coast (in the Anglo-Spanish War) to finish-off the Spanish fleet. Sir Francis Drake had command of the English Armada and Sir John Norreys had command of the army. The campaign was a disaster for Drake and England. Drake lost 40 ships and thousands of men allowing Spain to reclaim her naval dominance.
Letter of Marque and Reprisal granted by King Henry VIII (1543):
The King's most royal Majesty being credibly informed that divers and many of his most loving faithful and obedient subjects inhabiting upon the sea coasts, using trafic by sea, and divers others, be very desirous to prepare and equip sundry ships and vessels at their own costs and charges to the sea for the annoyance of his Majesty's enemies, the Frenchmen and the Scots, so as they might obtain his most gracious licence in that behalf, Hath, of his clemency, tender love, and zeal, which he beareth to his subjects, by the advice of his most honorable counsel resolved and determined as hereafter followeth:
First his Majesty is pleased, and by the authority hereof giveth full power and licence to all and singular, his subjects of all sorts, degrees, and conditions, that they and every of them, may, at their liberties, without incuring any loss, danger, forfeiture, or penalty, and without putting in of any bonds or recognizance before the Counsel, or in the Court of the Admiralty, and without suing forth of any other licence, vidimus, or other writing, from any counsel, court, or place, within this realm, or any other his Majesty's realms and dominions, prepare and equip to the seas such and so many ships and vessels furnished for the war, to be used and employed against his Grace's said enemies, the Scots and Frenchmen, as they shall be able to think convenient for their advantage and the annoyance of his Majesty's said enemies. And his Majesty is further pleased, and by this presents granteth to every of his said subjects that they, and every of them, shall enjoy to his and their own proper use, profit, and commodity, all and singular such ships, vessels, munition, merchandise, wares, victuals, and goods of what nature and quality so ever it be, which they shall take of any of his Majesty's said enemies, without making account in any court or place of this realm or any other of the King's realms or dominions for the same, and without paying any part or share to the Lord Admiral of England, the Lord Warden of the Five Ports, or any other officer or minister of the King's Majesty, any use, custom, prescription, or order to the contrary hereof used heretofore in any wise notwithstanding. And his Majesty is further pleased that all and every his said subjects which upon the publication of this proclamation will sue for a duplicate of the same under the great seal of England, shall have the same, paying only the petty fees to the officers for writing the same.
And, seeing now that it hath pleased the King's Majesty, of his most gracious goodness, to grant unto all his subjects this great liberty, his Highness desireth all mayors, sheriffs, bailiffs, aldermen, and all other his Grace's faithful officers, ministers, and subjects of this realm, and other his Highness' realms and dominions, and especially those which do inhabit in the port towns and other places near the seaside, to shew themselves worthy of such liberty, and one to bear with another, and to help another, in such sort as their doing hereupon may be substantial, and bring forth that effect that shall redound to his Majesty's honor, their own suerties, and the annoyance of the enemies.
Provided always that no man which shall go to the sea by virtue hereof presume to take anything from any his Majesty's subjects, or from any man having his Grace's safe conduct, upon the pains by his Majesty's laws provided for the same. And his Grace is further pleased that no manner of officer, or other person, shall take any mariners, munition, or tackle from any man thus equipping himself to the sea, but by his own consent, unless his Majesty, for the furniture of his own ships, do send for any of them by special commissions, and where need shall require. His Majesty will also grant commission to such as will sue for the same for their better furnitures in this behalf.
The world is fickle. Some (I hope) will like this book and others won’t. An artist can only offer his or her best and pray. I think Eleanor, the grande dame who urged me to write this book before her end, a beautiful woman and wise in many ways, would at least have enjoyed our story. I wish you a good journey, friend…
For
Eleanor Ann (McRoberts) McMillin
Mark McMillin, The Butcher's Daughter
