Note 266 — Chapter IX · 1584-1588

It appears, from a letter written by the Marquis of Santa Cruz in 1586, that all the English ships were released in a week or so without any damage being done to them, whereas the embargo upon Spanish property in England was not raised at all. Santa Cruz represents that the English were the aggressors; probably some religious point was made the pretext for the attempt to take possession of the Primrose by the Lieutenant-Governor of Biscay. The Spaniards insist that none of the ships were embargoed until the Primrose had sailed away with her “captors.”