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Spanish Armada

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History 1500-1750

   Battle of Gravelines
   Part of the Anglo-Spanish War
   Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 1588- 08-08 by Philippe-Jacques de
   Loutherbourg, painted 1797, depicts the battle of Gravelines.

     Date   July 29, 1588
   Location English Channel, near Gravelines, France (then part of the
            Netherlands)
    Result  Strategic English/Dutch victory
            Tactical draw
   Combatants
   England
   Dutch Republic Spain
   Portugal
   Commanders
   Charles Howard
   Francis Drake Duke of Medina Sidonia
   Strength
   34 warships
   163 merchant vessels 22 galleons
   108 merchant vessels
   Casualties
   50–100 dead
   ~400 wounded 600 dead,
   800 wounded,
   397 captured,
   4 merchant ships sunk or captured
                                Anglo-Spanish War
   San Juan de Ulúa – Gravelines – Corunna – Lisbon – Spanish Main –
   Azores

   The Spanish Armada (Old Spanish: Grande y Felicísima Armada, "Great and
   Most Fortunate Navy," but called by the English, with ironic intention,
   the "Invincible Fleet") was the Spanish fleet that sailed against
   England under the command of the Duke of Medina Sedonia in 1588. The
   Armada was sent by the Catholic King Philip II of Spain, who had, until
   the death of his wife Mary I of England, been king consort of England.
   The purpose of the operation was to escort the Duke of Parma's fearsome
   Spanish tercios from the Spanish Netherlands across the North Sea for a
   landing in south-east England. The aim was to suppress English support
   for the United Provinces, formerly part of the Spanish Netherlands.
   Further aims were to cut off attacks against the Spanish possessions in
   the New World and the Atlantic treasure fleets, and to re-establish
   England (then ruled by the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I) as a Roman
   Catholic kingdom. The expedition was supported by the Pope, and proved
   the largest engagement of the undeclared Anglo–Spanish War ( 1585–
   1604).

   The Armada consisted of 130 warships and converted merchant ships and
   faced an English fleet of about 200 vessels. After forcing its way up
   the Channel, the Armada was attacked by English naval squadrons, with
   the assistance of the Dutch navy, at the Battle of Gravelines in the
   North Sea, off the coastal border between France and the Spanish
   Netherlands. A fire-ship attack drove Medina Sedonia's ships from their
   anchorage, and the Spanish were then forced to abandon their rendezvous
   with the invasion army in the face of superior English artillery.

   The Armada was blown north up the east coast of England and attempted a
   return to Spain by sailing around Scotland and out into the Atlantic,
   past Ireland. But very severe weather destroyed a portion of the fleet,
   and more than 24 vessels were wrecked on the north and western coasts
   of Ireland, with the survivors having to seek refuge in Scotland. Of
   the Armada's initial complement of vessels, about 50 did not return to
   Spain. However, the loss to Philip's Royal Navy was comparatively
   small: only seven ships failed to return, and of these only three were
   lost to enemy action.

   The battle is greatly misunderstood, as many myths have surrounded it.
   English writers have tended to present it as a pivotal moment in
   European history, which is to ignore the fact that it marked the
   beginning of an increase in Spanish naval supremacy, rather than a long
   decline.

Execution

   Route taken by the Spanish Armada
   Route taken by the Spanish Armada

   On May 28, 1588, the Armada, with around 130 ships, 8,000 sailors and
   18,000 soldiers, 7,000 sailors, 1,500 brass guns and 1,000 iron guns,
   set sail from Lisbon in Portugal, headed for the English Channel. An
   army of 30,000 men stood in the Spanish Netherlands, waiting for the
   fleet to arrive. The plan was to land the original force in Plymouth
   and transfer the land army to somewhere near London, mustering 55,000
   men, a huge army for this time. The English fleet was prepared and
   waiting in Plymouth for news of Spanish movements. It took until May 30
   for all of the Armada to leave port and, on the same day, Elizabeth's
   ambassador in the Netherlands, Dr Valentine Dale, met Parma's
   representatives to begin peace negotiations. On July 17 negotiations
   were abandoned because of a fight over a bowl of soup.

   Delayed by bad weather, the Armada was not sighted in England until
   July 19, when it appeared off The Lizard in Cornwall. The news was
   conveyed to London by a sequence of beacons that had been constructed
   the length of the south coast of England. That same night, 55 ships of
   the English fleet set out in pursuit from Plymouth and came under the
   command of Lord Howard of Effingham (later Earl of Nottingham) and Sir
   John Hawkins. However, Hawkins acknowledged his subordinate, Sir
   Francis Drake, as the more experienced naval commander and gave him
   some control during the campaign. In order to execute their "line
   ahead" attack, the English tacked upwind of the Armada, thus gaining a
   significant manoeuvring advantage.

   Over the next week there followed two inconclusive engagements, at
   Eddystone and Portland, Dorset. At the Isle of Wight the Armada had the
   opportunity to create a temporary base in protected waters and wait for
   word from Parma's army. In a full-on attack, the English fleet broke
   into four groups with Drake coming in with a large force from the
   south. At that critical moment, Medina Sidonia sent reinforcements
   south and ordered the Armada back into the open sea in order to avoid
   sandbanks. This left two Spanish wrecks, and with no secure harbours
   nearby the Armada sailed on to Calais, without regard to the readiness
   of Parma's army.

   On July 27, the Spanish anchored off Calais, not far from Parma's
   waiting army of 16,000 in Dunkirk, in a crescent-shaped, tightly-packed
   defensive formation. There was no deep-water port along that coast of
   France and the Low Countries where the fleet might shelter - always a
   major difficulty for the expedition - and the Spanish found themselves
   vulnerable as night drew on.

   At midnight of July 28, the English set eight fireships (filled with
   pitch, gunpowder, and tar) alight and sent them downwind among the
   closely-anchored Spanish vessels. The Spaniards feared that these might
   prove as deadly as the ' hell burners' used against them to deadly
   effect at the Siege of Antwerp. Two were intercepted and towed away,
   but the others bore down on the fleet. Medina Sedonia's flagship, and a
   few other "core" ships, held their positions, but the rest of the fleet
   cut their cables and scattered in confusion, with the result that only
   one Spanish ship was burned. But the fireships had managed to break the
   crescent formation, and the fleet now found itself too far to leeward
   of Calais in the rising south-westerly wind to recover its position.
   The lighter English ships then closed in for battle at Gravelines.

Battle of Gravelines

   Gravelines was part of Flanders in the Spanish Netherlands, close to
   the border with France and the closest Spanish territory to England.
   Medina-Sidonia tried to re-form his fleet there, and was reluctant to
   sail further east owing to the danger from the shoals off Flanders,
   from which his Dutch enemies had removed the sea-marks. The Spanish
   army had been expected to join the fleet in barges sent from ports
   along the Flemish coast, but communications were far more difficult
   than anticipated, and without notice of the Armada's arrival Parma
   needed another six days to bring his troops up, while Medina-Sidonia
   waited at anchor.

   The English had learned much of the Armada's strengths and weaknesses
   during the skirmishes in the English Channel, and accordingly conserved
   their heavy shot and powder prior to their attack at Gravelines on July
   29. During the battle, the Spanish heavy guns proved unwieldy, and
   their gunners hadn't been trained to re-load - in contrast to their
   English counterparts, they fired once and then jumped to the rigging to
   attend to their main task as marines ready to board enemy ships.
   Evidence from wrecks in Ireland shows that much of the Armada's
   ammunition was never spent.

   In 2002 Dr Colin Martin of the University of St Andrews claimed that
   many Spanish ships carried cannon shot that was the wrong size for
   their cannon. The equipment had been gathered from a wide variety of
   sources in the Spanish Habsburg lands which were world-wide and, in
   Europe, scattered between the Heel of Italy, southern Portugal and the
   Ems estuary. The notion of standardization had barely been explored at
   this stage.

   With its superior maneuverability, the English fleet provoked Spanish
   fire while staying out of range. Once the Spanish had loosed their
   heavy shot, the English then closed, firing repeated and damaging
   broadsides into the enemy ships. This superiority also enabled them to
   maintain a position to windward so that the heeling Armada hulls were
   exposed to damage below the water-line.

   The main handicap for the Spanish was their determination to board the
   enemy's ships and thrash out a victory in hand-to-hand fighting. This
   had proved effective at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, but the English
   were aware of this Spanish strength and avoided it through their
   superiority in artillery and maneuverability.

   Eleven Spanish ships were lost or damaged (though the most seaworthy
   Atlantic-class vessels escaped largely unscathed). The Armada suffered
   nearly 2,000 battle casualties, before the English fleet ran out of
   ammunition. English casualties in the battle were far fewer, in the low
   hundreds. The Spanish plan to join with Parma's army had been defeated,
   and the English had afforded themselves some breathing space. But the
   Armada's presence in northern waters still posed a great threat to
   England.

Pursuit

   On the day after Gravelines, the wind had backed, southerly, enabling
   Medina Sidonia to move the Armada northward (away from the French
   coast). Although their shot lockers were almost empty, the English
   pursued and harried the Spanish fleet, in an attempt to prevent it
   returning to escort Parma. On 12 August, Howard called a halt to the
   chase in the latitude of the Firth of Forth off Scotland. But by that
   point, the Spanish were suffering from thirst and exhaustion. The only
   option left to Medina Sidonia was to chart a course home to Spain,
   along the most hazardous parts of the Atlantic seaboard.

Tilbury speech

   The threat of invasion from the Netherlands had not yet been
   discounted, and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester maintained a force of
   4,000 soldiers at Tilbury Fort, Essex, to defend the estuary of the
   River Thames against any incursion up-river towards London.

   On August 8, Elizabeth went to Tilbury to encourage her forces, and the
   next day gave to them what is probably her most famous speech:

     I have come amongst you as you see, at this time, not for my
     recreation and disport, but being resolved in the midst and heat of
     the battle to live or die amongst you all, to lay down for my God
     and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honour and my blood, even
     in the dust. I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but
     I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England
     too....

The return to Spain

   The Spanish fleet sailed around Scotland and Ireland into the North
   Atlantic. The ships were beginning to show wear from the long voyage,
   and some were kept together by having their hulls bundled up with
   cables. Supplies of food and water ran short, and the cavalry horses
   were driven overboard into the sea. Shortly after reaching the latitude
   of Ireland, the Armada ran straight into a hurricane—to this day, it
   remains one of the northernmost on record. The hurricane scattered the
   fleet and drove some two dozen vessels onto the coast of Ireland. (See
   Protestant Wind)

   A new theory suggests that the Spanish fleet failed to account for the
   effect of the Gulf Stream. Therefore they were much closer to Ireland
   than planned, a devastating navigational error. This was during the "
   Little Ice Age" and the Spanish were not aware that conditions were far
   colder and more difficult than they had expected for their trip around
   the north of England and Ireland. As a result many more ships and
   sailors were lost to cold and stormy weather than in combat actions.

   Following the storm, it is reckoned that 5,000 men died, whether by
   drowning and starvation or by execution at the hands of English forces
   in Ireland. The reports from Ireland abound with strange accounts of
   brutality and survival, and attest on occasion to the brilliance of
   Spanish seamanship. Survivors did receive help from the Gaelic Irish,
   with many escaping to Scotland and beyond.

   In the end, 67 ships and around 10,000 men survived. Many of the men
   were near death from disease, as the conditions were very cramped and
   most of the ships ran out of food and water. Many more died in Spain,
   or on hospital ships in Spanish harbours, from diseases contracted
   during the voyage. It was reported that, when Philip II learned of the
   result of the expedition, he declared, "I sent my ships to fight
   against the English, not against the elements".

Consequences

   English losses were comparatively few, and none of their ships were
   sunk. But after the victory, typhus and dysentery killed many sailors
   and troops (estimated at 6,000–8,000) as they languished for weeks in
   readiness for the Armada's return out of the North Sea. Then a
   demoralising dispute occasioned by the government's fiscal shortfalls
   left many of the Armada defenders unpaid for months, which was in
   contrast to the assistance given by the Spanish government to its
   surviving men.

   Although the victory was acclaimed by the English as their greatest
   since Agincourt, an attempt in the following year to press home their
   advantage failed, when an English Armada returned to port with little
   to show for its efforts. But the boost to national pride lasted for
   years, and Elizabeth's legend persisted and grew well after her death.
   The repulse of Spanish naval might gave heart to the Protestant cause
   across Europe. High seas buccaneering against the Spanish persisted,
   and the supply of troops and munitions from England to Philip II's
   enemies in the Netherlands and France continued, but the Anglo-Spanish
   war thereafter generally favoured Spain.

   It was half a century later when the Dutch finally decisively broke
   Spain's dominance at sea in the Battle of the Downs in (1639). The
   strength of its tercios, the dominant fighting unit in European land
   campaigns for over a century, was broken by the French at the Battle of
   Rocroi (1643). Two further wars between England and Spain were waged in
   the 17th Century, but it was only during the Napoleonic Wars that the
   British navy, increasingly dominant in the 18th century, established
   its overwhelming mastery at sea, at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

Ships involved

England and the Netherlands

   Ark Royal (built as 'Ark Raleigh' bought by Elizabeth I and renamed)
   (flag, Lord High Admiral Charles Howard)
   Elizabeth Bonaventure ( George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland)
   Rainbow ( Lord Henry Seymour)
   Golden Lion ( Lord Thomas Howard)
   White Bear (Alexander Gibson)
   Vanguard (William Winter)
   Revenge (Francis Drake)
   Elizabeth (Robert Southwell)
   Victory (Rear Admiral Sir John Hawkins)
   Antelope (Henry Palmer)
   Triumph ( Martin Frobisher)
   Dreadnought (George Beeston)
   Mary Rose (Edward Fenton)
   Nonpareil (Thomas Fenner)
   Hope (Robert Crosse)
   Galley Bonavolia
   Swiftsure (Edward Fenner)
   Swallow (Richard Hawkins)
   Foresight
   Aid
   Bull
   Tiger
   Tramontana
   Scout
   Achates
   Charles
   Moon
   Advice
   Merlin
   Spy (pinnace)
   Sun (pinnace)
   Cygnet
   Brigandine
   George (hoy)
   34 merchant ships
   30 ships and barks
   33 ships and barks
   20 coasters
   23 coasters
   23 coasters
   Disdain (included in above)
   Margaret and John (included in above)
   30 Dutch cromsters blockading the Flemish coast
   Fireships expended 7 August: (included in above)
   Bark Talbot
   Hope
   Thomas
   Bark Bond
   Bear Yonge
   Elizabeth
   Angel
   "Cure's Ship"

Spain and Portugal

Portuguese

   São Martinho 48 (section flag, Duke of Medina Sidonia)
   São João 50 (section vice-flag)
   São Marcos 33 (Don Diogo Pimental or Penafiel) — Aground c. 8 August
   near Ostend
   São Felipe 40 (Don Francisco de Toledo) — Aground 8 August between
   Nieupoort and Ostend, captured by Dutch 9 August
   San Luis 38
   San Mateo 34 — Aground 8 August between Nieupoort and Ostend, captured
   by Dutch 9 August
   Santiago 24
   Galeon de Florencia 52 (or San Francesco ex-Levantine, Niccolo Bartoli)
   San Crístobal 20
   San Bernardo 21
   Augusta 13
   Julia 14

Biscayan

   Santa Ana 30 (section flag, Juan Martínez de Recalde)
   El Gran Grin 28 (section vice-flag) — Aground c. 24 September, Clare
   Island
   Santiago 25
   La Concepcion de Zubelzu 16
   La Concepcion de Juan del Cano 18
   La Magdalena 18
   San Juan 21
   La María Juan 24 — Sunk 8 August north of Gravelines
   La Manuela 12
   Santa María de Montemayor 18
   María de Aguirre 6
   Isabela 10
   Patache de Miguel de Suso 6
   San Esteban 6

Castilian

   San Crístobal 36 (section flag, Diego Flores de Valdés)
   San Juan Bautista 24 (section vice-flag)
   San Pedro 24
   San Juan 24
   Santiago el Mayor 24
   San Felipe y Santiago 24
   La Asuncion 24
   Nuestra Señora del Barrio 24
   San Linda y Celedon 24
   Santa Ana 24
   Nuestra Señora de Begoña 24
   La Trinidad Bogitar 24
   Santa Catalina 24
   San Juan Bautista 24
   Nuestra Señora del Rosario 24
   San Antonio de Padua 12

Guipúzcoan

   Santa Ana 47 (section flag, Miguel de Oquendo)
   Santa María de la Rosa 26 (section vice-flag) — Damaged 8 August,
   wrecked 16 September, Blaskett Sound, Ireland
   San Salvador 25 — Damaged by explosion and captured c. 31 July
   San Esteban 26 — Wrecked 20 September, Ireland
   Santa Marta 20
   Santa Bárbara 12
   San Buenaventura 21
   La María San Juan 12
   Santa Cruz 18
   Doncella 16 — Sank at Santander after returning to Spain
   Asuncion 9
   San Bernabe 9
   Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe 1
   La Madalena 1 " Reberto Dunecan

Levant

   La Regazona lgonio 30 (section flag, Martín de Bertandona)
   La Lavia 25 (section vice-flag)
   La Rata Santa María Encoronada 35 (Leiva)
   San Juan de Sicilia 26 (formerly Brod Martolosi) — Blew up (possibly
   sabotage from English agent) 5 November Tobermory Bay, Scotland
   La Trinidad Valencera 42 — aground 8 August
   La Anunciada 24 (formerly Presveta Anuncijata) — Scuttled 19 September
   at Shannon River mouth
   San Nicolas Prodaneli 26 (formerly Sveti Nikola)
   La Juliana 32
   Santa María de Vison 18
   La Trinidad de Scala 22

Hulks

   El Gran Grifón pogitor 38 (section flag, Juan Gómez de Medina) —
   Aground 8 August
   San Salvador 24 (section vice-flag)
   Perro Marino 7
   Falcon Blanco Mayor 16
   Castillo Negro 27
   Barca de Amburg 23 — sank
   Casa de Paz Grande 26
   San Pedro Mayor 29
   El Sanson 18
   San Pedro Menor 18
   Barca de Danzig 26
   Falcon Blanco Mediano 16 (Don Luis de Cordoba?) — Wrecked c. 25
   September
   San Andres 14
   Casa de Paz Chica 15
   Ciervo Volante 18
   Paloma Blanca 12
   La Ventura 4
   Santa Bárbara 10
   Santiago 19
   David 7
   El Gato 9
   San Gabriel 4
   Esayas 4

Neapolitan galleasses

   San Lorenzo 50 (Don Hugo de Moncado) — Aground, captured 8 August,
   distracting the English fleet
   Zúñiga 50
   Girona 50 — Wrecked in Ulster
   Napolitana ("Patrona") 50
   Bazana - Wrecked c. 26 July near Bayonne

   22 pataches and zabras (Don Antonio Hurtado de Medoza)
   4 galleys of 5 guns each (Diego de Medrano)
   vessels under Parma

Other meanings

    1. Spanish Armada ( Armada Española) can also describe the modern navy
       of Spain, part of the Spanish armed forces. The Spanish navy has
       participated in a number of military engagements, including the
       dispute over the Isla Perejil. This is not a reference to the
       Armada above — "armada" simply means "navy" in Spanish.
    2. In Tennis slang, Spanish Armada is used to refer to the group of
       highly ranked Spanish players, such as Felix Mantilla, Albert
       Portas, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Carlos Moyá, and others.

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