The Spanish Armada

The spectacular but unsuccessful attempt by King Philip II of Spain to invade Elizabethan England. The rmada is for the English the classic foreign threat to their country and a powerful icon of national identity

Battle

: The Spanish Armada.

Date

: June to September 1588.

Place

: The English Channel, the North Sea and the seas around the North and West of Scotland, theOrkneys and the West of Ireland.

The English Fleet gives battle to the Spanish Armada: A Spanish galeas occupies the

foreground, an English “race” galleon to her left and right. English ships carry the red cross

of St George on a white background.

Combatants

: The Armada (Spanish for “Fleet”), manne

d by Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, Germans,Dutch, Flemings, Irish and English against the English Fleet assisted by the Dutch Fleet.

Generals

: The Duke of Medina Sidonia andthe Duke of Parma against Lord Howard of Effingham, High Admiral of England, SirJohn Hawkins, Sir Martin Frobisher, SirFrancis Drake, Lord Henry Seymour and SirWilliam Winter.

Size of the navies

: The Spanish Armadasailed with around 160 ships. The Englishmobilised up to 200 ships in the Channel.Unknown numbers of Dutch vesselsharassed and attacked the Armada and

hemmed the Duke of Parma’s forces into

their harbour of Dunkirk.Ships, organization, tactics and equipment:he descent of the Spanish Armada onEngland in 1588 ocurred at a time of profound change in sea warfare. TheSpanish represented the old tradition whilethe English fought with a new design of warship and new tactics.In medieval warfare at sea soldiers addedcastles to the merchant trading vessel atthe front and the rear (fore castle and aftercastle) and at the top of the mast andfought their fleets as if on land, dischargingarrows and handguns, boarding the enemyships and conducting hand to hand fighting.

The Armada: Lord Howard in the Ark attacks SanMartin, flagship of the Duke of Medina Sidonia.Both ships carry the red cross on the whitebackground, the crusader symbol and the symbol of St George.

he ships incorporated by the Spanish in the Armada represented this tradition. The main Spanishvessels were galleons, sailing ships that rode high out of the water with towering fore and after castlesfrom which handheld firearms were discharged; while the crews grappled the enemy ships so thatsoldiers could board and capture them. Their height and broad beam made these ships awkward to sail.

The route of the Spanish Armada in 1588 up the Channel, into the North Sea and North About into the Atlantic and down the west coast of Ireland. The map shows the knownwrecks of Armada ships. Of the 120 ships in the Armada half were lost, many justdisappearing. The map shows the sites of the engagements between the Armada and theEnglish fleet at Eddystone, Portland, Isle of Wight, Calais and Gravelines. Of the Armada'scomplement of 30,000 soldiers and sailors 20,000 were lost.

English captains, particularly John Hawkins and Francis Drake, inspired a new form of ship for the

Queen’s Navy, the “race ship”, of which around 25 were built. Lower in the water, with a long prow and

much reduced fore and after castles, these sleek ships carried more sophisticated forms of rigging,enabling them to sail closer to the wind, making them faster and more manoeuvrable than the Spanishships.England had no standing army, so her naval vessels were crewed by sailors alone. English fighting shipsrelied increasingly on gunnery, rather than boarding, to defeat an enemy.