ABSTRACT
The last decade of the sixteenth century opened amidst renewed fears in England of an imminent Spanish invasion. Convening on St George's Day 1590, the Privy Council dispatched aseries ofletters ordering the placing of 'all such forces both of the old garrisons and newe' in Ireland, and 'all the forces [in Devon and Cornwall] ... in a readines for the defence of the same against whatsoever may fall out'. The measures were taken in response to the reported sighting of a 'certeine fleete of shippes' off Cape Finisterre. Over a week later it transpired 'that the number of shippes so seene were hulkes laden with salte', blown off course and seeking to 'passe homewarde rounde about Ireland and Scotland'. Not only was this a false alarm, 'by reason of the mistie weather', but at the same time as it was being sounded in London, equally urgent and groundless fears for an English fleet were 'so great at Lisbon that the people sent their goods 30 leagues inland,2 These two chimerical fleets demonstrate, in Wernham's words, 'how thick was the fog ofwar that enveloped both sides' (1984, 240). The 'mistie weather' of rumour did not disperse until the new century.
