Lord ?? Montagu. English Catholic, killed fighting for the Spanish against Dutch/English forces while serving in the Spanish Armada.

This person, almost certainly catholic, was fighting for the Spanish in one of the 4 central warships of the Spanish Armada, the Portuguese flagship San Mateo. He died fighting the Dutch in Zealand, 10-August-1588. The San Mateo was one of the few `real' (not made in haste) warships of the Armada; it apparently was transporting the most experienced Spanish Marines to lead the invasion of England. Alexander McKee describes what happened thus:

`But astern of the Armada, more than a hundred miles astern..., Don Diego Pimental's abandoned galleon San Mateo was still resisting, fighting on into the afternoon against an encircling ring of Dutch ships. She had fought against heavy odds all day on the 8th, `until she was a thing of pity to see, riddled with shot like a sieve'; she had been hopelessly aground on the banks ... all day on the 9th, ..., a stranded wreck, with 350 shot holes in her hull; and on ... 10 August the Dutch had come down to get her. ... Sir Pieter van der Does, Vice Admiral of Holland led the attack ... He expected a swift surrender from the riddled thing, but from her ruined sides Pimental's seasoned infantry sent out volley after defiant volley at the determined Dutch. `They fought it out until they saw no remedy' was the report...' (McKee).

William Borlas wrote a brief description...

`... yet he fought with us two hours, and hurt divers of our men, but at the last yielded himself. ... There was another marquis's son in her, and divers particular gentlemen of good account. I was the means that the best sort were saved; and the rest were cast overboard and slain at the entry. There was slain in her two Englishmen; the one was a brother of my Lord Montagu's as your Honour shall see by a letter that I found in the ship.'

When the States of Zealand reported on this to Queen Elizabeth, they wrote:

`The Spanish prisoners do hold it for a miracle that amongst the slain, as well by the English ordnance as our own, for the little it did, hath always struck down the principal traitors, and amongst others hath slain the banished English lords.'

This battle took place between Ostend and Sluys, and was considered a Dutch triumph. The Dutch squadron consisted of at least 2 Dutch ships and 3 English ships under the commander of the English troops in the Netherlands. Pimental was extensively interrogated by the Secretary of Holland, and this interrogation is preserved, providing detailed information about the Armada.

The pennant of the San Mateo is on display at the municipal Museum De Lakenhal in Leyden.

OK, does anyone know who this`banished lord' was? Perhaps one of the Catholic Brownes?

Sources:
From Merciless Invaders, A.McKee.
The Role of the Dutch Fleet in the Conflict of 1588, J.C.A. Schokkenbroek, in God's Obvious Design.

http://www.montaguemillennium.com/familyresearch/h_1588_lord.htm