| Administrative History | Wilhelm IV. von Hessen-Kassel (Wilhelm der Weise) 1532 - 1592, first Landgraf of Hessen-Kassel from 1567 |
| Description | Three-page letter in Latin, in clerk's hand, with autograph signature Wilhelm Hessen, dated Cassel, 10 December Old Style 1588; discussing the reports the Lantgraf has received of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and asking Beale for further information.
[Abstract by James D. George]
The Landgrave is surprised not to have heard from Beale 'for about a semester', particularly in view of the defeat of the Armada. 'As such various and conflicting rumours are spread' regarding that, he asks for accurate information. 'Some say that of 144 Spanish ships only forty were captured and brought to England, though they were bigger ones. Others write of sixty surprised or sunk. Others again say that eighty got as far as the Orkneys 'through the strait between Scotland and Ireland', but that when the King of Scotland refused to have them there, the Duke of Madina Sidonia took his ships to sea, and transferred armaments and the wounded to the more seriously damaged ships, which he fired and sank, returning to Spain himself with 40 ships. Again others say that the ships returning from the Orkneys were driven by storm to a place in Ireland where they hoped to be safe, but were attacked by the treacherous Irish governor, whom they believed to be on their side, and taken to England, many nobles being captured and killed, with the result that no ships or certainly very few escaped. In the meantime the King (of Spain), it is said, is preparing a larger fleet to attack England again and that the Spaniards attach all the blame for the loss of their fleet to Lerma, whom they call a traitor and a Lutheran. There are also those who say that the Prince of Parma has committed himself to your royal family to be the safer from the Spanish'
Endorsed:
i. by Beale x. Dece[m]bris 1588. Lantgravius.
ii. Later hand (same as MS 1009/2/2) 'A letter from the Lantgrave of Hessedesiring an account of the victory the Queen had over the Spaniards, concerning which he says there are various reports'
[End of abstract by James D. George]
The letter is addressed:
Clarissimo nobisque plurimum dilecto viro Roberto Belo Sereniss[imae] Angliae Reginae à Secretis |