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- [00:01]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
Want to walk the halls of Anne Boleyn's childhood home? Or explore the castles that made up Henry VIII's English stronghold? With a subscription to History Hit, you can dive into our Tudor past alongside the world's leading historians and archaeologists. You'll also unlock hundreds of hours of original documentaries with a brand new release every single week covering everything from the ancient world to. To World War II. Just visit historyhit.com subscribe
- [00:35]
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- [00:37]
Historian Francis Kelly
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- [00:47]
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- [01:07]
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- [01:13]
Historian Francis Kelly
You did?
- [01:14]
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- [01:41]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
Hello, I'm Professor Susannah Lipscomb, and welcome to Not Just the Tudors From History Hit, the podcast in which we explore everything from Amberlynn to the Aztecs, from. From Holbein to the Huguenots, from Shakespeare to samurais, relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage, and witchcraft. Not, in other words, just the Tudors, but most definitely also the Tudors. In the wreckage of the Spanish Armada, scattered along the coasts of Ireland were thousands of stories. Most were lost to the sea, but one survived, written by a captain who refused to disappear. His name was Francisco de Quellard. And through his extraordinary letter, the Carta, we glimpse not only shipwreck and survival, but the inner workings of a global empire at war. Coeliar's story begins long before his ship was smashed against the rocks at striga strand in 1588. He was a professional soldier of the Spanish monarchy, a captain navigating not just storms and cannon fire, but rivalries, court martials, unpaid wages, and the brutal discipline of early modern military life. Arrested and sentenced to death during the Armada campaign, he survived by force of personality and legal cunning. Cast ashore in Ireland, wounded and hunted in, he endured looting, betrayal, captivity, and desperate marches across hostile terrain before eventually fighting his way back into Spain's European wars. His life traces the fault lines of an empire stretched from the Azores to Flanders, from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. In this episode, we're joined by historian Francis Kelly, whose deeply researched biography reconstructs Couleer's life for the first time. Moving beyond the familiar tale of the Marada disaster, Kelly reveals the lived reality of a Spanish officer. The factional disputes at sea, the bureaucracy of Madrid, the shifting battlefields of France and the Low Countries, and the fragile promise of royal reward that so often evaporated. It's the story of survival in every sense, physical, professional and political, and a powerful reminder that imperial history is not made only by kings and admirals, but by the men who fought, endured, and sometimes wrote their way into memory. I'm Professor Suzanne Lipscomb, and this is not just the Tudors from history hit. Welcome to the podcast. Francis.
- [04:24]
Historian Francis Kelly
Thank you. Lovely to speak with you.
- [04:26]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
Susanne Quilliard is your namesake, Isn't he really? Captain Francisco de Guiller. Tell me about who he was. Please set the stage and introduce this character who we're going to get to know so well.
- [04:38]
Historian Francis Kelly
Pepe Francisco de Coella was a military officer. He served in the armed forces of the Spanish monarchy for nearly three decades, from about 1578 to 1606. Some people refer to him as a sailor because he has become famous through the 1588 campaign, but he was a military officer first and foremost. He served both at sea and in land campaigns. He would not have considered himself a sailor. He would have been more an infantry officer, a marine infantry officer when he served at sea and served a conventional role on land as well. Aside from the 1588 campaign, for which he is well known at this stage, he would have served on pretty significant expeditions. He would have served with the Indies Guard, which was an elite squadron that protected the Caribbean and protected the American convoys. He served on an expedition that went to South America, what we would know as the Armada de Magallanes. Very ambitious effort to colonize the Strait of Magellan. This was in response to the very famous voyage by Francis Drake in the late 1570s that the Spanish monarchy tried to address and to prevent interlopers like Drake and other English, but they would have considered pirates, French and Dutch as well from entering the Pacific arena. On land. He would have served in the Low Countries, would have served in campaign in France, and he also served in northern Italy in Savoy Piedmont area.
- [06:25]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
And given that he's a relatively minor figure in Spanish military history, what was it that first drew you to him.
- [06:35]
Historian Francis Kelly
I became aware of Captain Cuellar in around 1988. So this is the fourth centenary of the Armada. There was a lot of commemoration in that year. The way my attention was drawn was there was a pageant down in Rossclawher, which is the place where he was given refuge by Maclancy, Lord of the Maclancies in North Leitrim. And a famous radio and TV personality came to the locality and played the role of Captain Cuellar. Other local actors played all the roles and that made a bit of a stir in the locality when this radio personal Donna Co Dueling was his name. He was well known in the 80s, so that's how I first became aware of him. So I was in my teenage years, we were aware of the Spanish Armada. We'd been aware of the wrecks that had been discovered only a few years previous. And there was controversies around the raising of cannons by the divers who originally found that.
- [07:44]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
So.
- [07:45]
Historian Francis Kelly
So in the locality there was already a strong tradition of stories about the Armada and about Spaniards in the region going back in 1588. So that was where what piqued my curiosity, who was this guy? What was the story, of course, that led me to his account, the character which reads like a film script. It is so dramatic, it's easy to read. So it was an exciting story. It would be another 20 years before I actually committed to researching it. And how that came about was I had cycled across America in 2008, from Boston to San Francisco.
- [08:26]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
Goodness me.
- [08:27]
Historian Francis Kelly
And I found I was following the story of America from the east coast to the west. And I found that fascinating when I came back, so it'd be great to follow and an individual story. And I was in a. Went into a secondhand bookshop and in the bargain bin I picked up a copy of the Armada. David Howarth was the author of that book. It was the Voyage of the Armada. And in it he devotes a chapter to Cuellar. And as soon as I saw in the contents, you know, the Cuellar was in there. That's the story. That's the story to follow. So at that stage, of course, all we knew was that Cuer had been to Wild. All we knew was the character. When I began to read more into the story, we discovered that there was a hint that he had served in South America in the early 1580s. But that was it. So I set off on my journey. I followed his journey from Strida to Antwerp. Once I got to Antwerp, I made my way down to Spain and Ultimately to Simancas. The archive of Simancas, which would be about 10 km outside of Valladolid, up in the north central northwest area of Spain, didn't have Spanish at the time, so just went in, winged my way, and discovered four documents. And they provided the basis then for the study. One of those documents was a list of service papers that he had garnered over the years. And these gave an outline of his career. And aside from the great dramatic story that he'd already presented in the carta of his experiences in Ireland, what we discovered from this list was that his career, this was only one chapter in a remarkable career that almost spanned the Spanish Empire. It was almost global in its extent. So it sucked me in the research. I started the research of my own efforts after about a year. I realized in order to do justice to this, I'm going to a university. So I was considering who I would approach. As you would well know, from doing archival research, you pick up all kinds of information that you're not even looking for when you're in the archive, because you see the. I saw Irish material in Simangus that I wasn't expecting to see at that time, began to read up on those, discovered Hiram Morgan in UCC and discovered then that he was also interested in Captain Francisco de Quejung. So I approached him and he took me under his wing. I started out and did my PhD under him, and from the PhD then ultimately wrote the book.
- [11:18]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
It's a wonderful story, and we're going to go into some of your findings along the way, and we will talk about what was in the Carter and what was in those other documents. But given that the Carter, that his personal narrative is the most famous of the documents for those who work on this era, how does it differ in tone in other ways from other contemporary accounts of the Spanish Armada?
- [11:44]
Historian Francis Kelly
I would say that the character within documents related to the 1588 campaign, it's unique. Any other document that I have seen are more official. Their official reports, witness testimony, all official, relating either to bureaucracy or some form of official inquiry into the campaign. Crellore's account is a personal account written to somebody whom he knew. He wasn't reporting to somebody. He was actually writing to somebody who he knew, who he had an ongoing relationship with and who he had exchanged correspondence with prior to the departure of the fleet for from Lisbon. He states in the character, it's over a year since I last wrote to you. Unfortunately, we don't know who that individual was. We assume he may have been aristocratic. He may have been related to Coelho, but we just don't know. We just call him Westram Orego Grace because it's a social, personal letter. You get far more detail, far more emotion, far more personality in the account. Now, Quelho is a very angry man. We have to bear in mind when we read that account that he has had a death sentence over him. His reputation is in tatters. It's not the first time he's been court martialed. It's the first time he was sentenced to death, and thankfully the only time he was sentenced to death. So he got away from the hangman's noose by knowledge of the legal process, the military legal process. He felt he was hard done by by senior commanders of the Armada, Duke of Medina Sidonia, and his senior military advisor, Don Francisco de Bobadilla. So he's really, really angry when he's writing this about his treatment under them. He is giving his vote. First of all, he's letting the recipient of the letter know, well, actually I'm alive a year after you thought I was lost and dead, he disappeared. He's one of the disappeared in Ireland. And he resurfaces a year later in Antwerp, as far as that recipient of the letter is concerned. So Creller assumes that the person he is writing to is familiar with the details of the court martial. So it creates this tension.
- [14:06]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
Can we know a little bit about that in terms of what happened during his naval engagements during the Armada campaign, how does he fall from grace? And also, you know, can this help us reflect or your other work help us reflect on what sort of man, what sort of captain he was?
- [14:24]
Historian Francis Kelly
So for the 1588 campaign, Cuellar takes charge of a galleon, the San Pedro, which is part of the squadron of Castile, which in actual fact is an Indies Guard galleon. Now in effect in 1588, he's rejoining a squadron that he's already served with in previous years. When he's assigned to that galleon, as do a number of his colleagues who were all sent to Lisbon in 1587 without commands, but who had also previously served with the Indies Guard. He takes charge of that galleon at Corunnja just before it departs, and through the encounters with the English fleet in the English Channel, the San Pedro is assigned to the right wing of that formation, the battle formation that the Armada. Now the right wing has in the initial engagements. There are problems on the right wing. It's not maintaining its formation. The formation gets rejigged. But with Medina Sidonia stipulating At that point that anybody who falls out of their position, you know, is liable for court martial and the death penalty. Now we proceed to the latter part of the campaign. On 8 August, off Calais, the English fire ships have been sent in and scatter the armada from where they've been anchored just outside Calais harbour. And the big Battle of Graveline takes place as the English try to finish off these scattered armada ships before they can form up into this very strong defensive formation that began. Now, Quelier indicates that he fought well at that time and that the ship, the San Pedro, suffered a lot of damage, as did many ships on that, and ships were lost in that engagement. So the Armada survives. It's stymied from achieving the objective of invasion or of joining up with the invasion troops under the Duke of Parma, who were waiting for them around Dunkirk. But at this point, I suppose it's not destroyed by any means. Two days later, both fleets are being pushed by the winds, southerly winds, in towards the North Sea. Now the English fleets have more or less exhausted their supplies of powder. The Spaniards don't know that the English fleet has maintained quite a distance, fallen back from the rear elements of the Armada. But on the 10th, at some point during, say, late morning, they seem to have closed. And the English admin. Lord Howard, states this in a letter. They made a brag countenance is the language that he uses. We made a feint to keep them on their toes, keep them pushing them away, making them think that we're going to attack them. And they close up. Now, there was good weather that morning which allowed a lot of damaged ships. Actually what they did was in order to give themselves time to carry out repairs, they pulled pushed ahead of the main fleet. So a lot of the rear guard ships that had been damaged pushed ahead. The San Pedro was one of them. Now, Quellyer states that he had gone to sleep in the morning, which was, that's fine. The captain very often went to sleep in the morning, having taken the night watch when the ship was at its most vulnerable. They rest in the early hours of the day and they return to duty later on. So Coelho states he was asleep when other officers on the ship decided to push forward in order to carry out repairs. Now, in the meantime, the English fleet has closed as if it's about to attack the rearguard, which is much depleted at this point. The flagship fires off signet cannon, signaling for the ships to return to the position. Nobody responds. A second shot is fired off and a third, and still nobody responds. Now, fortunately for the Spaniards, the English don't press home an attack. They fall back again. But now, from the Spanish perspective and from the perspective of the senior commanders on the flagship, they now have a discipline problem. Morale is very low anyway by now. So in order to enforce discipline, they identify the culprits. 20 ships are identified, and the captains of those ships are all stripped of their commands, summoned to the flagship and court martialed. Now, Coelho appears to be in a long way forward because he was the last person to arrive and already the death sentence has been given to him and one other officer. So even before he has arrived on the flagship, he has been informed by a dispatch vessel that he is to be executed.
- [19:22]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
However, does he survive this?
- [19:25]
Historian Francis Kelly
So he's in a tight bind once that death sentence is given. Now this is where previous experience of the judicial, the military system comes into play. Five years earlier, Quelia had been embroiled in controversy over a previous engagement with English ships in Brazil. And the dispute with a senior officer led to three or four formal tribunals that ultimately led to the Council of the Indies in Madrid. Cuellar was exonerated, but those experiences gave him a grounding in the legal process. So once the death sentence was passed, he objected and put in a formal objection to the sentence, which then triggered a formal inquiry. And the case then was transferred to the Judge Advocate General of the fleet, whose role it was to adjudicate in legal matters. This was Martin de Aranda, who was on Malavia. So Puello was transferred to the Lavia. Aranda held his tribunal, gathered testimony from members of the crew of the San Pedro, assessed it all, and decided in favor of Captain Cuellar. He reckoned that Captain Cruella shouldn't be put to death, according to Qualiar. Now we. The only, the only, the only person we have on this is Crello telling us this. So Aranda doesn't have the final decision. This final decision still lies with the senior commander, and that's the Duke of Medina Sidonia. So Aranda writes to Medina Sidonia and states, if you still wish to proceed with the execution, you will have to give me a written instruction. We need, obviously, you know, form a signature to go with the record. And Medina Sidonia opted not to pursue that. And unfortunately, the one poor unfortunate, Don Cristobal da Avila, who was the captain of Santa Barbara, he is hanged. He was actually known to Medina Sidonia. He came from the same part of Spain, southern Spain, Andalusia. So it was very tragic in a way, for Don Cristobal alone to Die. But very fortunate for Captain Cuellar, it's a pivotal moment in his career. He stays on the Lavia with Aranda instead of being he wasn't restored to the San Pedro. The San Pedro returns to Spain. The Lavia doesn't. It ends up being shipwrecked in Ireland. And queller's career pivots 180 degrees at that time. In that moment.
- [22:06]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
Yes. So we have this extraordinary experience of surviving a court mart marshal only to be shipwrecked. Can you describe that experience?
- [22:14]
Historian Francis Kelly
The Lavia was a Mediterranean vessel. It was from Venice. It suffered badly after the fleet. The fleet rounds the north of Scotland and enters North Atlantic waters. At that point. Now, the fleet has been instructed not to avoid Ireland, not to go into Irish waters because the west coast wasn't for people weren't familiar with the west coast. It would be dangerous to go into those unknown waters and stormy waters. But a month later, after multiple storms, the armada is dispersed. The Lavia is struggling with multiple leaks. And at this stage, food and water supplies are running low. So they find themselves in Irish waters. So they try to find a safe harbor, one to effect repairs and two to see if they can resupply. And they spend a number of days. They end up off the coast of County Sligo and alongside two other ships, the Santa Maria de Lison and the Juliana. On 20 September, a hurricane passes over Ireland. Now, when a hurricane has passed over, say in 2017, Storm Ophelia, another hurricane passed over Ireland. The storm operates in an anti clockwise motion. So as the storm approaches up, easterly winds are blowing, which gives the ships an opportunity to get out of Sligo Bay. They need the easterly winds to blow them out westwards into the open ocean. But before they can reach the open water, the winds have turned and they get blown back and end up on Stree, the strand, where the ships are wrecked. It's a sandy bottom. The deep sand grabs them literally in a vise like grip almost. And they just get absolutely pounded. And as Qualior states in his accounts, within the hour all three ships are destroyed. Now Quelje in the character gives a very vivid description of being on the deck of Delavia as that ship is being ripped apart and as the crew are jumping into the waters, dying before him. Now he's one of the last to leave Delavia, along with Martin de Aranda. Coelho attempts to return the favor, as it were, by trying to save Aranda. The two of them end up on a hatch, but they get swept by a large wave. Aranda gets swept off and isn't able to swim and gets sucked under. And Coelho's there trying to hang on, but watching Arande in the water and not being able to do anything. And then Arando just goes under and that's it, he's gone. Cuellar fortunately gets swept into the beach on this hatch cover. But he's absolutely battered by the flots on the big heavy timbers that have been ripped off the ships. And he emerges onto the beach pretty badly battered by the timbers.
- [25:33]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
We're lost. It feels like we're going round in circles. I'm gonna ask that man for directions. Hi there. We're trying to get to the state fairgrounds.
- [25:43]
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- [25:49]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
How is there signal out here?
- [25:51]
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- [26:03]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
Actually, can you pull up the way to a T Mobile store?
- [26:07]
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- [26:32]
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- [27:04]
Echoes of History Podcast Narrator
Land a Viking longship on island shores. Scramble over the dunes of ancient Egypt and avoid the poisoner's cup in Renaissance Florence. Each week on Echoes of History, we uncover the epic stories that inspire Assassin's Creed. We're stepping into Feudal Japan in our special series Chasing Shadows, where samurai warlords and shinobi spies teach us the tactics and Skills needed not only to survive, but to conquer. Whether you're preparing for Assassin's Creed Shadows or fascinated by history and great stories, listen to Echoes of History, a Ubisoft podcast brought to you by History Hits. There are new episodes every week.
- [28:01]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
I mean, what an extraordinary experience. It must have been so traumatic to see this happening, to see his friend get swept away and he's injured physically as well at this point. What does he do now that he's on dry land?
- [28:15]
Historian Francis Kelly
He doesn't know what to do. He's traumatized, he's battered, he's on this beach, he's looking around, it's full of. A large number of locals have gathered on that beach as the ships were being blown in. Everybody knows what's going to happen. The whole region knows those ships are there from when they arrive off the coast. Nobody's any really ever seen ships of that size before. They'll have seen sailing ships before, but you'd see 50 ton, maybe 100 ton coming in. But these are 6, 7, 800 tons for the day. These are enormous ships. So the whole from Sligo to Donegal know about these ships just off the coast of Sligo, including the English garrison in Sligo that's just recently been installed. Brian o', Rourke, one of the local chieftains inland, he knows within a couple of days that three ships are off the coast of Sligo. They would have spent four days at anchor prior to this storm. So everybody knows that these big ships are there on the day of the storm. Qualia reckons a big crowd have gathered and are watching these ships just as they're about to. And then as survivors come ashore, they're easy pickings for any valuables that they carry. Now I would imagine that those on the shore were expecting stuff to be to come in off the ships, but they're taking a chance now and once one or two of the survivors are found to have maybe a gold chain or coins sewn into their clothes, everybody's fair game then. And this hysteria, this scramble for goods and valuables takes hold of this. We've seen it in crowds in recent years that gather and they're supposed to be peaceful demonstrations but suddenly they become violent. And it seems what happened on street that day is something similar. This, what I suppose you call it the madness of crowds, you know, this hysteria to try and get as much. These people are not, it's not, it's not a coin based society that these people have, but suddenly they have these gold coins, the possibility of wealth that they don't Normally encounter at all.
- [30:25]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
Victor Turner called it communitas, which is exactly that idea that in a crowd we lose our sense of confidence of the individual and can do things in groups that we would never consider doing. You know, just as a single person, for good and for bad. But quite often for bad.
- [30:45]
Historian Francis Kelly
Yes. On that day, the behavior that was exhibited by the locals contrasts greatly with what happened in the days after that. There was some sort of hysteria, this scramble for valuables. Quelier is left alone because he says that he's covered in blood from his injuries. But he does get accosted in subsequent days by people who are still coming down to the beach to see if they beach combers and see what they can pick up. But thereafter, I think the real heroes of the story are some of the ordinary local farming folk who take him in and feed him and kill them and look after his injuries. He mentioned he's in the street area for about three, possibly four days after the wreck. Now, this is very dangerous. First two days, local crown troops have come up from Sligo and are rounding up survivors and executing them. But they have to move off because there's reports of other ships further off towards Mayo, maybe 30, 40 kilometers away. After that, people are directing Qualia and other survivors inland to the lands of Brian o', Rourke, lord of West Breffni in modern county Leitrim in the northwest, next door to Sligo. And thereafter, ordinary folk have been very, very helpful towards him. He moves into one valley with three or four other individual, and as they move up that valley, he kind of gets left behind by the others because the injuries. He states that he knew he had a broken leg from the heavy timbers that were smashing into him in the water. Then when he was accosted by a motley group of what he described as an English and Irishman and a Frenchman and this beautiful young woman, the Englishman had a sword and slashes the other leg. So he is quite injured now at this stage and in danger of infection from the sord. He's taken in by a family, and as he says himself, he's not let leave until they felt he was well enough to go to Oro to where he was being directed.
- [32:57]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
So how do you think we should interpret the fact that he refers to the Gaelic Irish as savages? You know, he's got two experiences here, great brutality and great kindness. What insight does this give us into the way the Spanish saw the Irish? I suppose.
- [33:15]
Historian Francis Kelly
Yeah, well, there's a great debate as to what that term he uses, the term salvaje and different people are in talking about some people, Felipe Fernando Armesto, the English Spanish historian, but nearly 40 years ago, he reckoned. No, he meant exactly what he said, that there were savages. Other people say, no, it's. He didn't mean it in that way. So I went to a dictionary, 16th, 17th century dictionary, Spanish dictionary, Covarrubius, and he defines the term salvaje as a mountain or woodland dweller. They would have long hair, they would be not dressed in the kind of clothing that you would expect to see around the court in Madrid.
- [34:01]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
So a rustic is exactly. Necessarily carrying this connotation that we think of as being so pejorative in the term savages.
- [34:09]
Historian Francis Kelly
Exactly. Yeah. It's not as condescending as perhaps some people would have, you know, interpreted, I don't think, because he is very warm to the. Particularly the local people like he. He acknowledges the fact that they were first to rob us when we came ashore. But he, in. At one point in the character, he states, if it were not for them, not one of us would have survived, for they looked after us as they would their own. Now, I'm slightly paraphrasing that, but that is the gist, you know, very much of what he's saying. He does owe his survival to the help that he gained. And this was just the ordinary firemen folk of the countryside that would take these guys in.
- [34:53]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
I mean, one thing I'm struck by is the shared faith. They are Catholics and some of the Irish are suffering under, well, many of the Irish are suffering under the impositions of a Protestant England. Is there a kind of sense of that shared faith being a source of the compassion that is given to this refugee?
- [35:20]
Historian Francis Kelly
Certainly from Qualyar's perspective, the shared faith is a point in, you could say cultural common meeting point with the locals. The fact that the Spaniards were enemies of the Tudor regime was another plus factor in his favor. But definitely the co religion element from Coelho's perspective is definitely an element there.
- [35:46]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
And his journey through Ireland and then ultimately Scotland sees him encountering many people, many landscapes. What does his narrative add to our knowledge of these early modern cross cultural encounters?
- [36:04]
Historian Francis Kelly
If you take the cartel and look at the narrative that he presents, on the one hand it's very dramatic. It's a story of survival. He's also offering social observation. Now, I don't know, you get the feeling that he must have. He is literate, he can read and write, he could speak Latin. It's possible that he has encountered other materials by other Spaniards who have sailed the likes of Cabeza de Vaca, who was in the southern what were the modern southern United states, Florida for 10 years and wrote about his experiences among the native Indians of that part of America. He may have encountered other materials relative to New Spain, Mexico and the Conquistadors.
- [36:53]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
So he may have had other cultural encounters in his career to date.
- [36:57]
Historian Francis Kelly
Prior to his experiences in Ireland on the Armada campaign, he spent time in Brazil, in South America, and we know that members of the expedition were ashore. They spent eight or nine months in Rio de Janeiro before progressing on southwards to the Strait of Magellan. Given the time of year that they had arrived, they couldn't go down during the southern winter, so they spent the time in Rio de Janeiro. There would have been a lot of opportunity to experience what you might call a mixed culture in Brazil. There he said to the is ours. He was in the Caribbean. So Ireland wasn't the first point that he has encountered a culture different from his own having if he read other materials as well other literature, it may be that he has been influenced a little bit by what he has read before. But in terms of right. Well, he's putting in these social observations from his own experiences, having read other people writing similar stuff from experienced experiences that they would have in America.
- [38:20]
Echoes of History Podcast Narrator
Land a Viking longship on island shores, Scramble over the dunes of ancient Egypt and avoid the poisoner's cup in Renaissance Florence. Each week on Echoes of History, we uncover the epic stories that inspire Assassin's Creed. We're stepping into feudal Japan in our special series Check Chasing Shadows, where samurai warlords and shinobi spies teach us the tactics and skills needed not only to survive, but to conquer. Whether you're preparing for Assassin's Creed Shadows or fascinated by history and great stories, listen to Echoes of History, a Ubisoft podcast brought to you by History Hits. There are new episodes every week.
- [39:17]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
Do you think that his story complicates what tends to be a fairly Anglo centric narrative of the Armada's failure?
- [39:27]
Historian Francis Kelly
I don't know if he if it complicates us, it certainly adds to the story of de Armada in Ireland. It gives a ground view level of what is going on. It's very useful, particularly when you can use other sources around that to place his story within the broader narrative of what's going on at that time. Like he's gone into Brian O'. Rourke. He's been with Brian O' Rourke's people next door to Sligo. He spent nearly three months with the MacLancies, who would be vassals of O' Rourke in the Gaelic lordship of West Breffning. His observations there of the turmoil that's going on in the winter of 1588, which is specifically caused by this armada crisis that erupts in 1588 in the northwest prior to September 1588, for the two years prior to that, there's no upheaval whatsoever in the northwest. There had been uprising in 1586, but that had been quashed by Sir Richard Bingham. Scots mercenaries had been called in and they were absolutely massacred in the Sligo Mayo border. After that, everything went very quiet for two years. There are political tensions in the region. Prior to that, Bingham didn't get on with the viceroy, Sir John Perris, and he gets taken out of Ireland for a period of time. But he returns in 1588. There are a lot of political tensions in the northwest with his return, and particularly for Brian o'. Rourke. O' Rourke's stance against the Tudor regime in offering refuge to the Spaniards comes at a time where he's feeling very, very insecure about what Bingham is going to do in North Connaught. Now, Bingham has control of South Connacht, in the Galway South Roscommon area. That's his main core area in the northwest. And West, Tudor rule was much less secure. So o' Rourke's stance comes at a time when he fears that Bingham is moving against him. Just weeks before the armada crisis erupts, Bingham has taken control in Sligo from the ruling o' Connor lords and has installed a crime garrison in Sligo Castle. Orourke's fear is that Bingham is next going to move against him.
- [42:00]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
So in other words, what we get here is sort of revelations, really about the political dynamics of Gaelic Island. From what Cuyalhar is telling us, letting us know about what's going on.
- [42:12]
Historian Francis Kelly
He's observing, yeah, what's going on. Now, his interpretations are somebody who doesn't know the background context. He's describing the turmoil. Now, he does make reference to nighttime raids taking place towards the lakes. It's a November December time. And he interprets this as there being absolutely the place being anarchic. And asis is no, again, slightly paraphrasing what he says. No rule of law. You know, there's no justice whatsoever in this part of the world. But he's overlooking the fact that he's not really aware of the fact that though this was. This isn't normal circumstances in Ireland or in the Northwest in late 1588, it is a big eruption where political tensions and the armada campaign have coalesced to produce, you could say, an explosion of tension in the northwest in 1588, which continues into 1589. There's uprisings in Connacht and which spreads into the northwest through 1589. Arising really, or the spark that provides it all is this Armada crisis of the autumn of 1588.
- [43:23]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
So you told us at the start that you've situated this better known account of the Armada that Cuyara writes within other materials that you found. And you've situated his military service during the Armada within this broader context of Spanish imperial warfare in Europe, in the Americas, in the Atlantic. Tell me what that contextualizing does. What else have you found that can shed light on this period and on this person?
- [44:00]
Historian Francis Kelly
I think what I found very interesting about Captain Coelho's career, taken as a whole, as you said, he's not a senior figure. He's a. He's just a minor figure. He ends his career basically in penury. Other colleagues, if you compare his other to some of the other colleagues who have served with him in the Indies Guard through the the Armada de Magallianes through the 1588 campaign and beyond. One particular individual, Juan Gutierrez Garibay, who was made a captain at the same time as Crelior, who was sent to Lisbon to the Armada on the same day as Crellier. They both served in a voyage to the Azores on the same ship and both commanded Galle in the 1588 campaign. Garibay goes on to become an admiral. He doesn't get into trouble in 1588. He remains in the naval sphere. He plays out his whole career with the Navy and progresses to become an admiral and become very wealthy, commanding fleets across the Atlantic into the 17th century. This doesn't happen with Cuellar and he ultimately doesn't achieve high office or high ranking role. What we do see from him are all the pitfalls that could happen to an individual in a military career. He falls foul of superior officers. He does engage in corruption. He's caught pilfering supplies in Brazil and has criminal charges brought against him. This is before he's court martialed in the encounter against the English. He gets sentenced to death. We see the judicial process in great detail with Cuellar. Because of the survival of these documents. We see also how long soldiers often go without being paid. It's years and years that they go with no pay. He served the pay that was owed to him for the expedition that went to South America between 1581 and 1584. He doesn't receive any payment. He gets in advance, a few months advance before the fleet leaves. He doesn't get paid for that until 1591. So he's already been through the Armada campaign and to Ireland and served in the Low Countries before he's even, you know, received any pay for this expedition that he served on the previous decade. Now, to be fair, for the Armada Campaign, the officers were paid promptly. He wasn't really owed much by the time the Armada departed for England. That's another. Looking at the story of his finances is actually quite an interesting study in its own way as well, because you get a different view of soldiering. On the one hand, you're looking at campaigns and shipwrecks and. And battles and yada, yada, yada, but the nitty gritty of ordinary life. How do you know? How do you survive? Everybody needs their income. The financial story of Coelho's career tells us quite a different or a different dimension of the career that he had. I think I mentioned. The judicial system, of course, is another topic. So the study of his career brings you down into different, other avenues of the career of a soldier that I didn't expect to find, let's put it that way, when I started out researching them.
- [47:26]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
Yes. And what's so interesting is that by drilling deeply into this one man's life, it sheds light on so much from the period, politically, religiously, militarily, administratively. We suddenly have this sort of 360 view just by going deep into the specifics of one man's life. I suppose you've almost developed a kind of historical approach in doing this, haven't you?
- [47:59]
Historian Francis Kelly
Yeah, it certainly opened my eyes to other facets. You know, I was attracted by the drama of the story initially and then with the initial documents, attracted by the drama of all these different campaigns. But I did find what you might nearly call some of the most interesting documents were just the more mundane elements of his life that I just didn't expect to see even. There was this one little document where he's signing a chit for the receipt of a box of guns that are being assigned to the galleon that he's on. This is in about 1601, 1602. And it just gives a little window into the logistics of preparing a fleet. There's a guy who's been to the arsenal in Cadiz. They're in Cadiz Bay. This boatman has been hired to pick up munitions and arms to be brought to this galleon. Crellor's on the galleon. He signs for it. This guy has to get paid. Crellor's in the. In the little receipt saying, well, I can't pay. Yeah, you're going to have to go to such and such. So it gives a little window into the kind of just ordinary, everyday activities before they hit the high seas. And I quite enjoyed that.
- [49:17]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
Lastly then, given that you've done this extensive archival research, found all this new stuff, are there still unanswered questions or mysteries about Kolya's life that you hope future scholars might explore?
- [49:30]
Historian Francis Kelly
Yeah, the personal background was very scarce in the documents. There is no evidence of him being married. I suspect that he wasn't married by the time, say, 1606 is the last documentation that I have for him. He does tell us that he's in an application that he makes to the monarchy, that he wants to go to Mexico, to New Spain, because he has family there. At this stage, he's been overlooked for a number of nominations of positions that the positions that he was nominated for, he has been overlooked. This is now under Philip iii, the new king. After Philip II had died. We don't know if he was married. We don't know did he make it to Mexico? It would be nice to know what happened to him. If he did emigrate to America, I presume he ended up in Mexico. He was issued with a letter of recommendation from Philip III for the Viceroy of New Spain, who was to find him a role within. In that, you know, in that region. So we have to assume, having gone to the, you know, gone to the trouble of applying, having been issued with documentation from the king, that he did go to Mexico. But beyond that, it's. The paper trail run ran cold for me there. What his family background, what kind of social status his family had. It would be nice to know. I believe he came from Medina del Campo and that's the strongest reference that I have. It's a pretty secure one. But beyond that, I couldn't get any more there. Last October, I was in Spain, so I went into the diocesan archive, which held materials for Medina, the various parishes in Medina del Campo. See, could I find a baptismal cert or any of that. But it didn't show up. So for people coming on, you know, anybody interested in following up on Captain Coelho, those are little areas that it would be lovely to find out a little bit more. We have this great story about this individual through his career, through his adult life. But it'd be nice to fill it out at either end with the family background and the personal. More personal information. We get a lot of people turning up saying they're descended from Francisco de Cuello. We don't know whether that's true or not. Nobody has produced documentation to support us, so it would be nice to tie up that end.
- [52:01]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
Well, Dr. Kelly, you have given us an insight into how a scholar can be like a dog with a bone. If you're chasing something down, you're searching somebody out through the archives. Every door is opened, every drawer is searched, every cranny explored in order to try and find out the story. And it's been a wonderful education in that sense of how historical research and scholarship is carried out, but also in the sense of giving us an insight into a relatively ordinary person existing during an extraordinary time. Thank you so much for coming onto the podcast.
- [52:42]
Historian Francis Kelly
Thank you, Susanna, thank you.
- [52:44]
Professor Susannah Lipscomb
Thank you for listening to this episode of Not Just the Tudors From History Hit. Thanks also to my researcher, Max Wintle and my producer Rob Weinberg. We are always eager to hear from you, including receiving your brilliant ideas for subjects we can cover. So do drop us a line at notjusthetors@historyhit.com and I look forward to joining you again for another episode. Next time on Not Just the Tudors From History Hit.
- [53:10]
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