Defeat of the Spanish Armada
Philip II sent 130 ships and some 30,000 men against England in the summer of 1588, and lost roughly two-thirds of the fleet without a decisive battle. The plan was not an invasion by the Armada itself. It was to sail up the Channel, join the Duke of Parma's veteran army of 27,000 waiting in Flanders, and escort them across in barges. Its defects were structural. Parma's army had no deep-water port, since the Dutch rebels held the approaches with shallow-draught flyboats the Armada could not follow; and there was no way for the two commanders to communicate on any useful timescale. The Duke of Medina Sidonia, who commanded, had asked to be excused on the grounds that he knew nothing of the sea and was always ill on it. The English ships were faster, lower and better gunned for firing at range, and refused to close for boarding, which was the Spanish tactic. Running fights up the Channel did little damage to either side. The Armada anchored off Calais on 7 August, and the English sent eight fireships into the crowded roadstead at midnight. The Spanish cut their cables and scattered, and were caught next day off Gravelines in the one real engagement. A southerly wind then prevented any return through the Channel, and the fleet ran north around Scotland and Ireland into autumn gales, wrecking on the Irish coast. Elizabeth's Tilbury speech was delivered after the fighting was over. Two further Armadas were sent and failed.
- Year: 1588 CE
- Category: Military
