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The Spanish Armada

The Spanish Armada is the name given to the massive Spanish fleet that sailed against England in 1588 with the aim of taking the thrown from Queen Elizabeth and ending her involvement in the rebellion of the Spanish Netherlands. The fleet failed to achieve its objective for a variety of reasons and returned to Spain in tatters.

Causes For much of the 16th century England and Spain lead a peaceful coexistence, but soon after Elizabeth gained the English throne in 1558 relations between the two countries began to sour. The first major point of contention between the two countries had to do with commerce, specifically, the slave trade. Both Spain and England participated in the slave trade (although England started later than Spain) to the Spanish colonies in the Americas, and in the process made large amounts of money. The issue arose from the fact that although Spain wanted to tax all trade with its colonies, English ships began selling slaves to the Spanish colonies without sailing to Spain to submit to the requisite tax. In response to this smuggling King Phillip II of Spain began a policy of attacking and capturing English ships sailing to the Americas, something that cost a cash strapped England much needed money. Not wanting a war, but needing to respond, Queen Elizabeth quietly began supporting English privateers in a campaign against Spanish shipping. This privateering (and the motives behind it) did not go unnoticed by Spain however, and became the catalyst for further anger between Spain and England (Ulm).

Although the anger over shipping certainly played a role in the launching of the Armada, by far the most important factor was the assistance that England was providing for Protestant rebels in the Spanish Netherlands. England provided this assistance for two main reasons; first, because many English felt sympathetic to their fellow Protestants fighting in the Netherlands, and second, because a papal bull had been issued which not only excommunicated Elizabeth, but also declared that it would not be a sin for the English people not to obey her rule. The second reason in particular pushed Elizabeth to help the Dutch rebels because she felt that that was the best way to fight back against the Catholics that had just put here rule into such a precarious position. This assistance from England continued to grow until finally in 1585 7,000 English troops were sent to fight the Spanish in the Netherlands. While the troops accomplished little, by sending them England was effectively declaring war on Spain, something Spain could not let go unanswered. One final event would take place to cause the Armada, the execution of the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots. Mary had been ousted from power in Scotland in 1567 and fled to England for protection, but was instead imprisoned by a suspicious Elizabeth. During her long prison term Mary was connected to a series of plots against Elizabeth and, although she was reluctant, Elizabeth finally had Mary executed in 1587. This released a firestorm of anger from the whole Catholic world and gave the final push for Spain launch the Armada against England (Ulm).

Plan Now in an open war with England (after the English troops were sent to the Netherlands), Philip II of Spain began planning an attack. What he came up with was the Spanish Armada. The armada would be a fleet almost 130 large galleons and armed merchant vessels carrying more than 30,000 men as a ground force for an invasion of England. The objective of this invasion would not be to annex England (after all, Spain could barely hold the tiny Netherlands down), but to force Elizabeth off the throne (hopefully to be replaced by a Catholic ruler), make England stop assisting Dutch Protestants rebels, and make England stop its piracy of Spanish ships. The actual battle plan for the armada was for it (under the command of Duke of Medina Sidonia) to sail up to the English Channel and rendezvous with ships carrying a professional army (under the command of Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma). From there the combined fleet would sail to England, land the troops, and force England to terms  ( Marvel 195-201).

The Sailing of the Armada Despite the seemingly well designed plan, the Armada faced troubles at every step. To begin with, when the fleet finally sailed in 1588 many of the ships and provisions had been waiting use for several years. In that time many things like ship boards, provisions, and ammunition had worn down and needed fixing or replacing. Despite this need, the disorganized Spanish navy didn’t provide many of their ships with the needed maintenance, hurting their effectiveness in sailing and battle. Once the Armada actually set sail to pick up the army from the Netherlands it discovered another problem, communication with, and discovery of, the army they were to pick up was a much slower and more difficult process than had been predicted. The Armada did eventually find the army (on the coast near Calais, France), but also found that the coast was defended by Dutch flyboats (small boats that could sail in the shallow water of the coast, something few of the Armada ships could do). Even worse than this, the barges that the army was supposed to use to get to England were not done being built and would not be for at least a week. The Armada attempted to wait for the barges to be completed by packing its ships into a tight defensive formation, but this is when the English chose to attack  ( Carr 152-156).

Battle The English fleet consisted of about 200 small, fast ships. While technically more than the 130 the Spanish had, the English were still at a disadvantage because they had far fewer men and much less fire power. Despite having a lower overall strength, the English forced the Armada to flee from its position (without having picked up the proffesional army) by using fire ships (ships set on fire and sent towards the enemy) to force the Armada’s defensive formation to loosen (as ships maneuvered to avoid being burnt), and then attacking in force. Several inconclusive skirmishes followed before the Armada and English finally met in heavy battle, which they did off the coast of Gravelines, France. In this battle 10-11 Spanish ships were lost (more would have been, but the English ran out of ammunition) and the fatal flaw of the Armada was revealed, outdated tactics. While the Armada had more cannons and men than the English, the Spanish relied on grapple and board tactics against the fast ships and longer range cannons the English had. These tactics failed completely and although the Spanish took relatively low casualties in the battle (600 dead), they inflicted much fewer on the English (fewer than 100 dead). At this point the Medina (the for mentioned Armada commander) decided to abort the mission and return to Spain. Unfortunately for the Armada, the English were blocking the way through the English Channel, meaning the Armada would have to go all the way up around Scotland and down the western Irish coast to get home. The way there would not be smooth though, a menace far worse than the English would make sure of that, the weather (Carr 156-163).

Voyage Home After escaping from the English near France the Armada initially had relatively good sailing, loosing only one ship near northern Scotland. This did not last long though, off the coast of Ireland The Armada was caught in a powerful storm and lost almost 60 ships and 15,000-20,000 men. When the Armada finally struggled back to Spain it had fewer than half the ships and about a quarter of the men it had started with (Hungerford). Consequences Although the defeat of the Spanish Armada was and important event, its consequences have often been over stated. Despite Spain’s total defeat, the battle did not signify some turning point in power or the decline of the Spain. In fact, Spain was still a major power in Europe for more than a hundred years after the Armada was destroyed. Two things that the defeat of the Armada may signify however is the beginning of dominance of cannons over grapple and board tactics, and the seeds of the English naval power of the future (Marvel 211-213).

Works Cited

The Battle of Gravelines: Vanguard engages two Spanish galleons. N.d. //BritishBattles.com//. N.p., 2010. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. . Pollen, John Hungerford. "The Spanish Armada." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 8 Oct. 2010 . fdddssdd﻿﻿ "Routes of the Armada." Chart. //MyIncarnations.com//. J Pinil, inc, 2004. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. “The Sea-War with Spain, 1585-1603.” //Elizabethan England//. Ed. Laura Marvel and Scott Barbour. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2002. 193-213. Print. Turning Point in World History. Ulm, Wes. “The Spanish Armada of 1588.” //HistoryBuff.com//. Ed. Rick Brown. R. J. Brown Archives, 7 Oct. 2010. Web. 7 Oct. 2010. . “Vicissitudes of World Power, 2500-1700.” //Spain a History//. Ed. Raymond Carr. N.p.: Oxford University Press, 2000. 152-173. Print.