He might easily have avoided the English if he had kept well out in the Channel. But he relied on the size and strength of his 40 large ships, and in expectation of an encounter had recruited a body of mercenaries—mostly crossbowmen—in the Flemish ports. In the afternoon of the 29th of August he bore down boldly on King Edward’s ships at anchor at Winchelsea. When the Spaniards hove in sight, the king was sitting on the deck of his ship, with his knights and nobles, listening to his minstrels who played German airs, and to the singing of Sir John Chandos. When the look-out in the tops reported the enemy in sight, the king and his company drank to one another’s health, the trumpet was sounded, and the whole line stood out. All battles at that time, whether on land or sea, were finally settled by stroke of sword. The English steered to board the Spaniards. The king’s own ship was run into by one of the enemy with such violence that both were damaged, and she began to sink. The Spaniard stood on, and the “Cog Thomas” was laid alongside another, which was carried by boarding. It was high time, for the king and his following had barely reached the deck of the Spaniard before the “Cog Thomas” went to the bottom. Other Spaniards were taken, but the fight was hot. La Cerda’s crossbowmen did much execution, and the higher-built Spaniards were able to drop bars of iron or other weights on the lighter English vessels, by which they were damaged. The conflict was continued till twilight. At the close the large English vessel called “La Salle du Roi,” which carried the king’s household, and was commanded by the Fleming, Robert of Namur, afterwards a knight of the Garter, was grappled by a big Spaniard, and was being dragged off by him. The crew called loudly for a rescue, but were either not heard or, if heard, could not be helped. The “Salle du Roi” would have been taken if a Flemish squire of Robert of Namur, named Hannequin, had not performed a great feat of arms. He boarded the Spaniard and cut the halyards of her mainsail with his sword. The Spanish ship was taken. King Edward is said to have captured 14 of the enemy. What his own loss was is not stated, but as his own vessel, and also the vessel carrying the Black Prince, were sunk, and from the peril of “La Salle du Roi,” we may conclude that the English fleet suffered heavily. There was no pursuit, and a truce was made with the Basque towns the next year.
The battle with “the Spaniards on the sea” is a very typical example of a medieval sea-fight, when the ships were of the size of a small coaster or a fishing smack, were crowded with men, and when the personal prowess of a single knight or squire was an important element of strength.
The only real authority for the battle is Froissart, who was at different times in the service of King Edward or of his wife, Philippa of Hainaut, and of the counts of Namur. He repeated what was told him by men who had been present, and dwells as usual on the “chivalry” of his patrons. See his Chroniques, iv. 91. (D. H.)
ESPALIER (a French word, derived from the Ital. spalliera,
something to rest the spalla or shoulder against; the word is
ultimately the same as épaulière, a shoulder-piece), a lattice-work
or row of stakes, originally shoulder high, on which fruit trees,
shrubs and flowers, particularly roses and creepers, are trained.
Espaliers are usually made of larch or other wood, iron and metal
rails being too great conductors of heat and cold. The advantage
of this method of training is that the fruit, &c, is more easily got
at, and while protected from wind, is freely exposed to sun and
air, and not so open to extreme changes of temperature as when
trained on a wall. (See Horticulture.)
ESPARTERO, BALDOMERO (1792–1879), duke of Vitoria,
duke of Morella, prince of Vergara, Count Luchana, knight of
the Toison d’Or, &c. &c., Spanish soldier and statesman, was
born at Granatulu, a town of the province of Ciudad Real, on
the 27th of February 1792. He was the ninth child of a carter,
who wanted to make him a priest, but the lad at fifteen enlisted
in a battalion of students to fight against the armies of Napoleon
I. In 1811 Espartero was appointed a lieutenant of Engineers
in Cadiz, but having failed to pass his examination he entered
a line regiment. In 1815 he went to America as a captain under
General Morillo, who had been made commander-in-chief to
quell the risings of the colonies on the Spanish Main. For eight
years Espartero distinguished himself in the struggle against the
colonists. He was several times wounded, and was made major
and colonel on the battlefields of Cochabamba and Sapachni.
He had to surrender to Sucre at the final battle of Ayacucho,
which put an end to Castilian rule. He returned to Spain, and,
like most of his companions in arms, remained under a cloud for
some time. He was sent to the garrison town of Logroño, where
he married the daughter of a rich landowner, Doña Jacinta
Santa Cruz, who eventually survived him. Henceforth Logroño
became the home of the most prominent of the Spanish political
generals of the 19th century. Espartero became in 1832, on the
death of King Ferdinand VII., one of the most ardent defenders
of the rights of his daughter, Isabella II. The government sent
him to the front, directly the Carlist War broke out, as commandant
of the province of Biscay, where he severely defeated
the Carlists in many encounters. He was quickly promoted to
a divisional command, and then made a lieutenant-general. At
times he showed qualities as a guerillero quite equal to those of
the Carlists, like Zumalacarregui and Cabrera, by his daring
marches and surprises. When he had to move large forces he
was greatly superior to them as an organizer and strategist, and
he never disgraced his successes by cruelty or needless severity.
Twice he obliged the Carlists to raise the siege of Bilbao before
he was appointed commander-in-chief of the northern army on
the 17th of September 1836, when the tide of war seemed to be
setting in favour of the pretender in the Basque provinces and
Navarre, though Don Carlos had lost his ablest lieutenant, the
Basque Zumalacarregui. His military duties at the head of the
principal national army did not prevent Espartero from showing
for the first time his political ambition. He displayed such
radical and reforming inclinations that he laid the foundations
of his popularity among the lower and middle classes, which
lasted more than a quarter of a century, during which time the
Progressists, Democrats and advanced Liberals ever looked to
him as a leader and adviser. In November 1836 he again forced
the Carlists to raise the siege of Bilbao. His troops included the
British legion under Sir de Lacy Evans. This success turned
the tide of war against Don Carlos, who vainly attempted
a raid towards Madrid. Espartero was soon at his heels, and
obliged him to hurry northwards, after several defeats. In 1839
Espartero carefully opened up negotiations with Maroto and the
principal Carlist chiefs of the Basque provinces. These ended in
their accepting his terms under the famous convention of Vergara,
which secured the recognition of their ranks and titles for nearly
1000 Carlist officers. Twenty thousand Carlist volunteers laid
down their arms at Vergara; only the irreconcilables led by
Cabrera held out for a while in the central provinces of Spain.
Espartero soon, however, in 1840, stamped out the last embers of
the rising, which had lasted seven years. He was styled “El
pacificador de España,” was made a grandee of the first class,
and received two dukedoms.
During the last three years of the war Espartero, who had been elected a deputy, exercised from his distant headquarters such influence over Madrid politics that he twice hastened the fall of the cabinet, and obtained office for his own friends. At the close of the war the queen regent and her ministers attempted to elbow out Espartero and his followers, but a pronunciamiento ensued in Madrid and other large towns which culminated in the marshal’s accepting the post of prime minister. He soon became virtually a dictator, as Queen Christina took offence at his popularity and resigned, leaving the kingdom very soon afterwards. Directly the Cortes met they elected Espartero regent by 179 votes to 103 in favour of Arguelles, who was appointed guardian of the young queen. For two years Espartero ruled Spain in accordance with his Radical and conciliatory dispositions, giving special attention to the reorganization of the administration, taxation and finances, declaring all the estates of the church, congregations and religious orders to be national property, and suppressing the diezma, or tenths. He suppressed the Republican risings with as much severity as he did the military pronunciamientos of
