On this day in history, the 27th July 1588, Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester and the Lieutenant and Captain General of the Queen’s Armies and Companies, invited Elizabeth I to visit Tilbury, where he was busy assembling troops.
The reason for his invitation was to stop his beloved Queen and childhood friend from doing what she was threatening, that is riding to the south coast to be with her troops meeting Parma’s forces as they landed. Leicester wrote to Elizabeth inviting her to come and “comfort” the forces gathered at Tilbury, saying “you shall, dear lady, behold as goodly, as loyal and as able men as any prince Christian can show you” and assuring her that he personally would be in charge of her safety because she was “the most dainty and sacred thing we have in this world to care for, a man must tremble when he thinks of it.”
Also on this day, the Spanish Armada dropped anchor just off Calais, near where Parma had gathered 16,000 men at Dunkirk. The Spaniards were getting ready to invade!
Source
- Elizabeth the Queen, Alison Weir
Related posts:
The Spanish Armada 7 – Elizabeth I Visits Tilbury
The Spanish Armada 8 – Elizabeth’s Tilbury Speech
The Spanish Armada 1: The Assembling of Troops at Tilbury Fort
The Spanish Armada 5 – The Protestant Wind
The Spanish Armada 4: The Battle of Gravelines
The Spanish Armada 6 – The Spanish Fleet Homeward Bound
Spanish Armada 9 – God Blew and They Were Scattered
The Tilbury Speech
The Spanish Armada 3: The Hell-burners
24 June – The Birth of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester
Sir Francis Drake Sets Sails from Plymouth for Spain – 2 April 1587
4 September 1588 – The Death of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester
