He rarely met the States in person, and almost never resided at the Hague, holding his court at Middleburg, Dort, or Utrecht, as his humour led him.
The one great feature of the autumn of 1587 was the private negotiation between Elizabeth and the Duke of Parma.
Before taking a glance at the nature of those secrets, however, it is necessary to make a passing allusion to an event which might have seemed likely to render all pacific communications with Spain, whether secret or open, superfluous.
For while so much time had been lost in England and Holland, by misunderstandings and jealousies, there was one Englishman who had not been losing time.

In the winter and early spring of 1587, the Devonshire skipper had organized that expedition which he had come to the Netherlands, the preceding autumn, to discuss.

He meant to aim a blow at the very heart of that project which Philip was shrouding with so much mystery, and which Elizabeth was attempting to counteract by so much diplomacy.
On the 2nd April, Francis Drake sailed from Plymouth with four ships belonging to the Queen, and with twenty-four furnished by the merchants of London, and other private individuals.

It was a bold buccaneering expedition--combining chivalrous enterprise with the chance of enormous profit--which was most suited to the character of English adventurers at that expanding epoch.

For it was by England, not by Elizabeth, that the quarrel with Spain was felt to be a mortal one.