Drake and the Spanish Armada
The Spanish Armada , or “Invincible Navy”, was formed in 1588 to attack England. Its defeat, probably one of the most notable events in the history of England, came with much sacrifice.
In the sixteenth century, Spain was considered one of the largest superpowers in the world. Philip II was its well-loved leader. Under his father’s leadership, Spain had taken ownership of much of the Americas. Philip II wanted to expand Spain’s influence. Portugal and the Netherlands were conquests that Spain had already exhibited control over, and England’s new Queen Elizabeth belonged to the relatively new Protestant Church. A Catholic that was feeling threatened by the growing support of the Counter-Reformation in England, Philip II decided it was time to take England and bring it back to its Catholic roots. In addition, he was compelled to stop the encouragement that the British Monarchy had of English pirates that would bully foreign boats returning from The New World.
In 1585, Philip II’s stepped up the construction of a fleet of boats that would overpower the British via the English Channel. When the construction was completed, the Spanish Armada was made up of 130 boats along with well over 2000 guns. The boats were designed to hold 8,000 sailors and 18,000 soldiers. On May 28, 1588, the Armada departed from the Portuguese port off Lisbon. At around the same time, a fleet of ships left from the Netherlands, controlled by the Duke of Parma. Altogether, the total number of people in the Spanish Armada reached 50,000.
Right before the Spanish Armada’s departure, rumors of the forming Spanish Armada had spread to the English. Queen Elizabeth’s ambassador to the Netherlands met with its government to try to stop the invasion, but negotiations fell through. Therefore, Elizabeth was forced to set up sea forces to defend England from the Spaniards. Although the naval forces of the English were not as well-tailored to battle as those of the Spanish, the number of boats and weapons outnumbered what the Spanish Armada boasted.
The Spanish Armada, delayed by weather, was sighted near Cornwall, England on the 19th of July. The fleet of English ships, led by Lord Howard of Effingham and Sir Francis Drake, departed from Plymouth and approached the Armada upwind of them, giving them a weather-related advantage. Queen Elizabeth left her palace and stood with her soldiers to protect England, and in the meantime, the Spanish were being forced back toward the European mainland. The Battle of Gravelines, which occurred closest to the Spanish Netherlands, was a defining point in the war against England. While the Spanish had entered the port of Gravelines to try to improve their forces, the English had moved in and had used knowledge of the Spanish Armada’s weaknesses to overpower the fleet. Eventually, because of the large presence of war-seeking English ships through the Channel and the growing thirst and exhaustion of the crew, the Spanish Armada was forced to retreat back to Spain by sailing around Scotland and Ireland. The forces of the Spanish Armada had been defeated.
