heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

278 THE HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
the burning of an Indian town on November 5th, '"the sixth day we
" '
sarvyd God, being Sunday,' surely the barefaced religion of the
" present day
is more tolerable than such sanctified iniquity."
The truth is, as Davenport Adams tells us in his interesting book,
England on the Sea, that piracy, as we should call it now, was not only
recognized but utilized under the Tudors, for regular navy there was
very little.
During the reign of Edward VI. and Mary, at one time young
Catholic, and at another young Protestant gentlemen, rebelling against
the ecclesiastical status, went down to the sea in ships, for occupation and
livelihood. They hung about the French harbours, and creeks, and bays
of the Irish coast, with the rough, wild crews they had gathered together.
When England was at war they were recognized as commissioned privateers
; when at peace they were tolerated by the Government, from the
certainty that at no distant time their services would be again required.
During the Marian persecution, Canns, Killigrews, Tremaynes, Strangwayses,
Throgmortons, Horseys, and Cobhams men belonging to the first families,
became roving chiefs. On Elizabeth's accession they came back to the
service of the Crown ;
and thus, as the modern gentleman keeps his
yacht, so Elizabeth's loyal burghers, esquires, or knights, whose inclination
lay that way, kept their ambiguous cruisers, and levied war on their own
account when the Government lagged behind its duty.
Spain was at this time the dominant power, if not of the old world
certainly of the new, and the increasing strength of their navy, necessary
to secure their acquisitions across the Atlantic, seemed to Elizabeth and
her wisest counsellors to threaten the liberty of this nation. That a rigidly
as was
defensive policy was not a safe policy they were also of opinion,
specially evident to the great circumnavigator of the world, Francis Drake;
and he, in conjunction with Sir Philip Sidney, laid before the Queen in
council a plan for weakening the resources of Spain, by attacking her
settlements in the West Indies and Spanish Main. As old Fuller quaintly
"
puts it It was resolved by the judicious of that age the way to humble
:
" Spanish greatness, was not by pinching and pricking him in the low
"countries, which only emptied his veins of such blood as was quickly
" refilled ;
but the way to make it cripple for ever, was by cutting off the
" Spanish sinews of war, his money, from the West Indies. In order
" whereunto this Earl set forth a small fleet at his own cost, and adven-
"tured his own person thereunto, being the best born Englishman that
"ever hazarded himself in that kind." And that they were not ineffectual
is evident from the angry protest addressed by the Spanish ambassador to
Queen Elizabeth. "Your mariners rob my master's subjects on the seas,
"and trade where they are forbidden to go; they attack our vessels in