In this dramatic hour-by-hour, blow-by-blow account of the Spanish Armada's attempt to destroy Elizabeth's England, Robert Hutchinson spins a compelling and unbelievable narrative. After the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558, Protestant England was beset by the hostile Catholic powers of Europe, including Spain. In October 1585, King Philip II of Spain declared his intention to destroy Protestant England and began preparing invasion plans, leading to an intense intelligence war between the two countries and culminating in the dramatic sea battles of 1588. Popular history dictates that the defeat of the Spanish Armada was a David versus Goliath victory, snatched by plucky and outnumbered English forces. In this tightly written and fascinating new history, Robert Hutchinson explodes this myth, revealing the true destroyers of the Spanish Armada—inclement weather and bad luck. Of the 125 Spanish ships that set sail against England, only 60 limped home, the rest wrecked or sank with barely a shot fired from their main armament. Using everything from contemporary eyewitness accounts to papers held by the national archives in Spain and the United Kingdom, Hutchinson re-creates one of history's most famous episodes in an entirely new way.
The political machinations, the strategies, and the hour-by-hour accounts of the war that locked Elizabeth I and Philip II in a battle for naval supremacy. The defeat of the Spanish Armada is one of the turning points in English history, and it was perhaps the defining episode in the long reigns of Elizabeth I of England and Philip II of Spain. The running battle along the Channel between the nimble English ships and the lumbering Spanish galleons has achieved almost legendary status. In this compelling new account John Barratt reconstructs the battle against the Armada in the concise, clear Campaign Chronicles format, which records the action in vivid detail, day by day, hour by hour. He questions common assumptions about the battle and looks again at aspects of the action that have been debated or misunderstood. Included are full orders of battle showing the chains of command and the effective strengths and fighting capabilities of the opposing fleets.There is also an in-depth analysis of the far-reaching consequences of the wreck of Philip II’s great enterprise.
The Spanish Armada challenges that view. On the 400th anniversary of the famous sea battle, it offers a more balanced account of the confrontation between the Spanish and British naval powers than has previously been presented. According to Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, the British did not "defeat" the Spaniards; rather, the event should be seen as a "failure" of the Armada to invade British territory. Miles from home, with many of its crew sick, and fighting in stormy waters, the Spanish fleet did well, Fernandez argues, not to be completely routed. Further, he says, it reflects badly on the British not to have inflicted more damage on such a disadvantaged opponent.
In this title in the Battle for Britain series, well-known historical illustrator Peter Dennis takes the battle out to sea, supplying all the artwork needed to create the navies which clashed in the English channel at a moment of supreme danger for the realm. Artwork is also suppled for a printable squared sea surface, coastline and islands. Here, the galleons, Nao and galleasses of the Spanish invader can clash again with the sea dogs of Elizabeth I using simple rules from veteran wargamer Andy Callan. This source book shows you how to copy and make any number of simple and colourful ship cut-out models using traditional skills with glue and scissors. To play the game you will need a tabletop playing surface and a handful of dice.
With the launch of the Spanish Armada in 1588, England suffered its greatest threat since the Norman invasion some 500 years before. This book details the background to the campaign, the opposing fleets, and the whole campaign, including the Armada's disastrous return voyage around Scotland and Ireland.
The English navy inflicted a narrow defeat on the Armada, but it was the Irish coast that encompassed its downfall. 'Heed that coast!' The Duke of Medina Sidonia wanted only to guide La Felissima Armada home safely. In the North Sea he issued sailing instructions, which, if they had been followed, would have given the Armada a safety margin of at least 300 miles. He particularly ordered them to '...take great heed lest you fall upon the island of Ireland for fear of the harm that may happen unto you upon that coast.' They were in no doubt that Ireland was to be avoided. His words proved to be more than a warning: they were a prophecy, which was inexorably fulfilled. A siren of alluring beauty, the Irish coast also conceals deadly danger. Destiny was to conspire to transform it into an instrument of terrible destruction and tragic loss of life. In the Atlantic the Armada encountered continuous southerly winds and unknown ocean currents. It was two centuries before it became possible to calculate longitude at sea, and they were unaware that they had not sailed far enough westwards to give themselves the prescribed safety margin. They became separated and lost, and when they at last turned southwards, scattered groups unintentionally descended on Ireland, arriving at fourteen different locations from Donegal to Kerry. Many found shelter, but a few were lost. But on 21 September 1588 fourteen ships were destroyed by hurricane force winds: the only occasion during the entire voyage when ships were completely destroyed by the weather. 'A most extreme and cruel storm' the Irish described it. The Spanish recorded that 'in the morning it began to blow from the west with a most terrible fury, bright and with little rain.' Ships that had stayed at sea survived. In Donegal Bay the galleass Girona had sheltered with about 1,000 men. In October, Don Alonso de Leyva arrived with almost 1,000 more. His entourage included young men from all the noble families of Spain. After being repaired, the Girona departed for Scotland at the end of October, overloaded with 1,300 survivors. She so nearly got there, but foundered near the Giant's Causeway with the loss of de Leyva and the flower of Spanish nobility. In all, 24 Spanish ships were lost in Ireland and about 5,000 men died, far greater losses than had been suffered in the English Channel. The English navy inflicted a narrow defeat on the Armada, but it was the Irish coast that encompassed its downfall. Long before it had been surveyed and charted, when it was almost as unknown to mariners as the surface of the moon, for a few brief months in the autumn of 1588, the Irish coast was caught in the headlights of history.
The reasons behind the disastrous demise of the Spanish Armada are explored four hundred years later using new evidence found in archives and under the sea
Captain Francisco de Cuéllar was an officer who served with the ill-fated Spanish Armada. He was shipwrecked on the coast of Co. Sligo in September 1588. Known to Irish history for the extraordinary account he wrote of his experiences in Ireland, he survived a hurricane-force storm that destroyed his ship and killed most of those on board. A castaway, he found shelter among the Gaelic Irish of the northwest for seven months before he was helped to reach Scotland, and later, the Low Countries. But Captain Cuéllar's Irish adventure was only one of many in a remarkable military career. Drawing on previously undiscovered documents from Spanish and Belgian archives, this book chronicles, for the first time, Cuéllar's entire military service - from the earliest evidence of him as a soldier in 1578, to our final glimpse of him in 1606.
