PART III.
CAROLINGIAN I.VISCOUNT WIMBLEDON, 1625 II.

THE EARL OF LINDSEY, 1635 THE ATTEMPT TO APPLY LAND FORMATIONS TO THE FLEET, 1625 INTRODUCTORY From the point of view of command perhaps the most extraordinary naval expedition that ever left our shores was that of Sir Edward Cecil, Viscount Wimbledon, against Cadiz in 1625.

Every flag officer both of the fleet and of the squadrons was a soldier.

Cecil himself and the Earl of Essex, his vice-admiral, were Low Country colonels of no great experience in command even ashore, and Lord Denbigh, the rear-admiral, was a nobleman of next to none at all.

Even Cecil's captain, who was in effect 'captain of the fleet,' was Sir Thomas Love, a sailor of whose service nothing is recorded, and the only seaman of tried capacity who held a staff appointment was Essex's captain, Sir Samuel Argall.