Heritage > 'British Battles'

The Spanish Armada

July 1588

Sixteenth century England had been a tumultuous era. The century had begun with a Catholic England being adherent to the Papacy in Rome. With all of Henry the Eighth's divorces and marriages he had set up his own Church of England with a leaning towards the blossoming Protestantism. Thus begun a rollercoaster of religious preferences among Henry's successors. Edward was of his father's faith while Mary was a staunch Catholic. Once Mary had died it was her half-sister Elizabeth who took the reins of England, she was Protestant.

Elizabeth inherited a kingdom who had begun to explore the world in the search of the riches other nations had already discovered. This brought the English into direct conflict with the Catholic Spanish. Philip the Second had warned Elizabeth of his lack of patience at attacks upon his treasure fleets by Privateers such as Hawkins and Drake. In May 1588 his invasion fleet set sail from Lisbon in modern day Portugal to settle the quarrelsome Protestant English once and for all. The Armada had sailed.

The Spanish plan was to negate the English fleet and then to transport an invasion force across the English Channel from Flanders. The leader of the Spanish forces was the Duke of Medina Sidonia, an honourable man, who had nothing but reservations about the venture. The attack plan was weak at the best, much relied on the cohesion of the fleets and the ability to destroy the English fleet, which numbered virtually the same as the Armada.

The English fleet carried more cannon than the Spanish yet the Spaniards numbered more than twice as many in men. Naval strategy had been developed by the English with the ambition of the captains to engage the enemy at range rather than to board and burn.

The English fleet had been restricted to Plymouth harbour by the weather, this is where Francis Drake played his famed last game of bowls on Plymouth Hoe before the battle.

The fleet was led by Lord Howard of Effingham with three of the finest sailors as his lieutenants, Drake, Hawkins and Frobisher. It was their ability which got their ships out through the dreadful weather conditions to face the Spaniards.

With just two dozen ships in open water the English came upon a well-formed, large number of Spanish vessels. The Armada faced up in a crescent formation with the more powerful galleons at either tip. The wind favoured the Spanish at first but the English captains were famous for their ability and this was shown not to be misplaced once again as they slipped behind the Spanish to take the wind advantage for themselves. The 24 had now been joined by the remainder of the English fleet and now the Spanish faced the whole force without the assistance of the weather.

The battle was a lasting affair. The following week saw both sides battling towards their own goals, the English aimed to defeat the Armada while the Spanish aimed to get to Calais to escort the invasion force.

The invasion fleet was not forthcoming as the Dutch rebels had blockaded the invasion barges in port. Despite Medina Sidonia's pleas to hurry the invasion fleet did not move.

The English had the Armada surrounded and although it had not accomplished any major success they feared it's capability. Fireships were called for. These would be sailed into the fleet indiscriminately as it lay at anchor, a typical tactic of the age. The English sailed in eight of these at midnight on 28th July. Two of the number were destroyed before they reached their target but the others got through. The panic in the Armada led to it's once solid formation being lost. At daybreak the Spanish ships were scattered and vulnerable. The English fleet attacked. Their canon ripped into and raked along the wooden flanks of the Spanish ships. The Spanish were mauled. They sought refuge to the north, all thought of invasion now gone. It was on 2nd August that the Spanish received relief from the English attacks. The wind had changed and contact between the two fleets was lost. Though still numbering some 100 or more ships the Armada was now no more than a battered procession. At least 25 ships were destined to falter upon the rocks of the Irish coast, their survivors being murdered by the local population.

The final reckoning tells of how the Spanish lost 50 ships and nearly 20,000 men in their attempt to take England.

Spanish prestige in Europe had taken a severe body blow. Arguably the greatest empire of its day Spain had seen a mighty fleet destroyed by excellent opponents, complacency and the weather. Those who had been making plans for a Catholic sovereign to replace Elizabeth on the throne of England were now forced to search for new plots. The English fleet had performed admirably but their monarch was not to be the first, or the last, to take such service for granted. The privateers of the day would share their prize between their crew, it seems that this did not apply when fighting for their country.

The English and Spanish would clash again and again with the other imperial nations of France, the Netherlands and Portugal being involved from time to time. It was from the defeat of the Armada that the British Empire was allowed to come into being.



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