Resources:
Videos:
Armada – 12 Days to Save England available from the BBC Shop in the UK
Websites
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/adams_armada_01.shtml#five
http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/uk/armada/back/backd.html
http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/spanish-armada/
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/spanish-armada-defeated
Books
The Spanish Armada
The Confident Hope of a Miracle: The True History of the Spanish Armada by Neil Hanson
Imprudent King, a New Life of Phillip II by Geoffrey Parker (really, anything by Geoffrey Parker is highly recommended)
People
The Spanish Side…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/armada_gallery_04.shtml
the Duke of Parma
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Farnese,_Duke_of_Parma
the Duke of Media Sidonia
http://spartacus-educational.com/TUDmedina.htm
Juan Martinez de Recalde, the Spanish Admiral
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Mart%C3%ADnez_de_Recalde
And in the English corner…
Charles of Effingham
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Howard,_1st_Earl_of_Nottingham
Martin Frobisher
http://www.biography.com/people/martin-frobisher-20978133
John Hawkins
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hawkins_(naval_commander)
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Episode Transcript:
Hello, and welcome to the Renaissance English History Podcast Episode 40 – The Armada, the 12-day battle. I’m your host, Heather Teysko, and I’m a storyteller who makes history accessible because I believe it’s a pathway to understanding who we are, our place in the universe, and being more deeply in touch with our own humanity.
So I have a really quick admin note for you this week. I have just joined the Agora Podcast Network. It’s a growing network of independent podcasts who work to sort of grow the entire podcast audience. Agora is a marketplace of the mind where intelligent independent podcasts meet curious and discerning listeners. And somehow I have convinced them that this podcast should qualify to be part of that. So as part of joining Agora, I’m switching hosting services. And I’m a little bit nervous about this because I’ve been with my current host Hipcast for almost seven years now. But I am assured that the switch should be painless and straightforward. But if you notice any sort of downtime, or if you experience any problems, please do let me know. Also, as part of this move, you’re going to hear ads on this podcast. So I’ve debated for a long time about ads. I never wanted to flood my podcast with ads. But as it stands right now, they are pretty much a basic way to generate a bit of income to help pay for the expenses of this podcast. And most of the podcasts I listen to myself do have ads, and all of the other Agora podcasts, many of whom you’re probably already listening to if you listen to this, they also have ads that are fairly unobtrusive at the beginning and the end of the episode. So let me know what you think. My hope is that being part of Agora will help grow this audience as well as the audiences of history podcasts in general, which is something I’m really committed to, a rising tide lifts all ships, and all of that. So that’s what I’m doing. And that’s the note on that.
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Finally, don’t forget that there are show notes for this episode. I’ve put together a really extensive list of links of all the people involved, everything like that. And that’s at Englandcast.com. And you can now text the listener feedback line, which is 8016TEYSKO or 8016839756. And before we kick off officially, the Agora podcast member that I want to plug this month is the History of the Papacy Podcast from Stephen Guerra. I talk a lot about religion on this podcast because it’s such a big influencer of the history of the time, Renaissance England wouldn’t be Renaissance England without the particular brand of Protestantism that emerges out of the Reformation. So if you want more background on the Pope and on Catholic history, check out this podcast. Again the History of the Papacy from Steven Guerra.
So with all of that out of the way, let’s move on to the Armada! When last we spoke, Philip of Spain was on a holy mission to eradicate Protestant England and restore England to Catholicism, and most likely imprison or kill Elizabeth. This is the unsinkable Armada, the most powerful empire in the world coming after our teeny, tiny little outpost of an island which has hardly any defenses. Woe is me. How will we ever survive? What to do? What to do? But it’s important to remember that things weren’t all doom and gloom for England. First off, they had a home-court advantage, right? That’s a pretty big deal. Practically news of the developments could be carried to Elizabeth and Richmond in about 12 hours. Whereas Philip was in Spain in his compound, El Escorial, North of Madrid. Changes to the battle plan could be made on the fly much more easily. Also, psychologically, it’s much easier to rally troops to defend their homeland and their families than it is to get them to fight, to capture another country, that’s this foreign country that they probably don’t even care about.
And as we talked about in other episodes, England’s shipbuilding technology at this time, mixed with the small industrial revolution going on in the Weald with the blast iron furnace and the cannon, this meant that technologically, England was far more advanced than other countries at this time. Spain was relying on the fact that they had the best foot soldiers in the world. But none of these foot soldiers mean anything if your enemy won’t grapple with you, and instead favors shooting your ships with their cannon. Also, England had a cast of characters that were extremely talented. And the people who dictated policy didn’t micromanage to the same level as Phillip. And they let the talented sailors like Drake and Frobisher and Hawkins make their own decisions as much as possible. So while this was really scary, and a major threat, England wasn’t the sitting duck that it is so often portrayed to be.
Let’s look at the cast of characters on each side. In the Spanish corner, you have Philip II. He is a bureaucrat, in every sense of the word. He loves to micromanage. I would have hated to have him as my boss. He believed that this was his holy mission. He felt little need to meet with his commanders and to understand their perspectives. Because his directions were given to him directly by God. How could his mission fail? He was on a mission from God. Early on in planning the Armada, they looked at previous invasions of England and saw that in general, invasions tend to be pretty successful. Even the Tudors really were from an invasion, when Henry Tudor came in and killed Richard III at Bosworth Field. So they looked at this history of invasions, back through the Vikings and through the Romans, and they saw that really invasions of England, when you look at them, tend to be pretty successful. And Philip said, “How can ours be any different? How can ours not be successful? We’re coming from God, right?” This was really part of his plan.
So his Armada team includes the Duke of Parma, who is heading the Spanish Army of 30,000 soldiers in the Netherlands. He has doubts about the success of this whole operation. And he resents the command that has been given. The command of the operation has been given to someone else, the Duke of Medina Sidonia. He wasn’t directly obstructionist, but he didn’t help nearly as much as he could have. Then the Duke of Medina Sidonia, was an army commander and got seasick on ships. In fact, he didn’t want anything to do with the Armada. He begged to not have to be appointed to be the head of it. He didn’t have the money. He didn’t like boats. He had no experience, but he was good at following orders. And when Philip ordered him to do something and gave him the plan, he carried it out to the letter. Finally, the third person carrying out these plans was Juan Martinez de Recalde. He was the Drake equivalent in Spain, he was the best Admiral they had. Time and time again, he felt that if he were given the chance to deviate from the battle plan, even just a teeny bit smidgen, he could have defeated the English. But there was no deviating from the battle plan. Philip set this battle plan and the Duke of Medina Sidonia followed it out. And that was what they were going to do. So that’s the Spanish side.
On the English side, we have Elizabeth. Elizabeth is clearly a woman, and so she is not really expected to participate in making wars so much, so she delegates. The Lord High Admiral is Charles Howard, Howard of Effingham. And while he doesn’t have the same naval skills kind of like Medina Sidonia, he trusts the renegades, his admirals, people like Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher. He is put in place to be a check on them and to sort of keep their energy in control, but he doesn’t overrule them to the same extent that Medina Sidonia did with Recalde. Then we have these brilliant sailors and admirals, these famous and familiar names that we know like Sir Francis Drake, John Hawkins, and Martin Frobisher, people that I remember hearing about in fifth grade. So they’re the people. They’re the cast of characters that’s going to defend England.
So the Armada set sail in May 1588 with 130 ships, 30,000 men 180 priests, 11 million pounds of ships biscuit, 40,000 gallons of olive oil, 600,000 pounds of salted pork, 11,000 pairs of sandals, 14,000 barrels of wine. That’s really super important, right? The 14,000 barrels of wine, was a pretty well-supplied Armada. These 130 ships were largely converted merchant ships, they weren’t really meant for a naval battle. But a naval battle wasn’t part of the plan. The plan was to use the ships simply to transport these amazing foot soldiers, the best foot soldiers in the world to their land invasion. So the plan in theory was a pretty sound one. You send the ships up, you meet with the Duke of Parma from the Netherlands and his 30,000 troops, you sail across to Dover, you land these amazing foot soldiers, they marched to London, they get the queen, they restore Catholicism, and they burn some Protestants, right? Sounds pretty easy. But there are some problems.
The biggest one, of course, is that communication at sea, before texting or phones, was really difficult. There’s this idea that you could just have all of these ships meet up with this whole crew of other ships, somewhere in the ocean, they’re just gonna find each other. And it’s really, really quite absurd to think about that. And yet, that’s what the plan was calling for.
So by July, the English Navy is in Plymouth, waiting to see where the Armada is going to arrive. When Drake first heard that the Armada was spotted, he moved his ships into the channel. And he began what would be sort of the unique method of English fighting, which is simply to harass and shoot at the Spanish ships. Not really engage them, but to simply fire cannon after cannon at them broadside. And rather than turn back and attack, the Spanish fleet kept sailing, trying to figure out how and where to meet up with the Duke of Parma. Recalde actually wanted to attack them in Plymouth, and he was overruled by Medina Sidonia. Who knows what would have happened if he actually did engage them directly? But he didn’t, they just kept sailing on. After one of these early exchanges, the Spanish did lose a carrack and a galleon, the Rosario and San Salvador, which were abandoned and Francis Drake boarded these ships and captured about the equivalent of two and a half million pounds of gold and a huge supply of gunpowder and ammunition.
So this harassment went on for several days like this with the Spanish sailing, trying to look for Parma, and the English just kind of nipping at them like annoying yappy dogs. The Spanish, they were trying to get into the Solent, which was the bit of land in between the Isle of Wight and the English mainland. They hoped that they could have a protected base there and then meet Parma. This was where really the first attack from the English comes into play. It’s really important to remember that in that Elizabeth had put all of her resources into the Navy. If the Spanish are allowed to land anywhere, there’s hardly any army there to protect the mainland. They simply cannot allow the Spanish to land anywhere near English soil. So the English break up into four groups and they attack in different ways. They know the water, they know where the currents are, they know where it’s dangerous, they’re able to force the Spanish back out into the open sea.
And the Spanish head for Calais. They’re still not even exactly sure what’s going on with Parma, but they’re going to Calais. So on July 27, the Armada was anchored off Calais in a defensive formation close to where Parma’s army was meant to be waiting. That army in the Spanish Netherlands was dealing with disease, was actually reduced to about how half of its intended size about 16,000 men and the Armada finds out the Parma’s army is actually still not able to be transported or assembled in port, that was going to take about another six days. So another very important thing is that the port where they were meant to be waiting was being blockaded by the Dutch fleet. So really, this plan is just not as good in practice, as it might have been in theory.
Parma suggested that the Armada should separate and use some of the ships to drive away the Dutch. But Medina Sidionia, he was like, “I need all those ships for my protection. You worry about that.” And the Dutch blockade had actually been there for a while, it seems as if nobody in Spain really took the Dutch seriously, they were always going to have to cross this bit of the sea that was kind of in the Dutch zone. But it didn’t seem like a very big deal to them in the planning. As it was, it was something that was pretty insurmountable, they weren’t going to be able to get past the Dutch.
So that night, as the Spanish are anchored there near Calais, the English sent 8 fire-ships into the Spanish fleet. They sacrificed some of these warships, they packed them with pitch, brimstone, gunpowder, and tar. They sent them into the densely packed group of Spanish ships that are all tightly together in this defensive formation. The Spanish see them coming, of course, and they managed to intercept two of them and tow them away. But the other ones floated into the fleet. So these ships have to cut their anchors, they’re drifting around scattering, there’s a lot of confusion, you can imagine how terrifying it would have been. It’s dark, it’s the middle of the night, and here come these fire-ships. And it was fairly common, it was something that people were always afraid of. But you can just imagine the kind of confusion that people would have felt having to cut these anchors and drift away, sail away from these fire-ships. So in all of that, there actually weren’t any Spanish ships that were lost. But they did lose this tightly packed defensive position that they had and the English were able to take advantage of this confusion and close in for a battle.
And the battle lasted for over 8 hours. During this time, the English, they were utilizing their kind of superior maneuverability. They got shot after shot off at the Spanish. the Spanish guns were actually different, they took longer to reload, and they were really unwieldy. They weren’t as light and easy to use as the English guns. The Spanish again, were relying on grappling, and Drake and the English knew this and they stayed well away from them. And after 8 hours, the English were actually running out of ammunition. They had to pull back. Five Spanish ships were lost. But even more important, this Spanish-planned meetup with Parma was clearly not going to happen, and the Spanish Armada drifted north. And this provided England a little bit of space to relax. But it was clear that they were still a threat. It wasn’t completely over yet.
Howard harassed the Armada all the way into Scotland. And then he called off the pursuit. And Medina Sidonia decided to go back to Spain via the North Sea around the tip of Scotland, in the side of Ireland. And there was still fear in England that an invasion from the Netherlands from Parma’s army could come. And so Robert Dudley Elizabeth’s favorite, the Earl of Leicester, he had a force of just 4000 soldiers in Essex to defend the Thames Estuary. And this is where we get that famous speech by Elizabeth to rally her troops. I’m going to quote some of it, because it’s worth it. It’s one of the most famous things that Elizabeth ever said. And so I’m gonna quote some of it. She says,
“My loving people, we have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes for fear of treachery; but, I do assure you, I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear, I have always so behaved myself, that under God I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and goodwill of my subjects; and, therefore, I am come amongst you as you see at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of battle, to live or die amongst you all – to lay down for my God, and for my kingdoms, and for my people, my honour and my blood even in the dust. I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king – and of a King of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which, rather than any dishonour should grow by me, I myself will take up arms – I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.”
So that was Elizabeth’s fantastic speech that will go down and has gone down in history as being this rallying cry. Of course, those troops never needed to fight because the Armada was well and truly away. And they were now running, running into their own struggles.
So that brings us into September, and the Armada is a wreck. They’re sailing around Scotland, and Ireland, into the North Atlantic, and the ships are just a mess. Some of the ships are only staying afloat because there are holes, that are tied up with cables. And remember that raid that Drake did in Cadiz? The payoffs of him capturing hoops and staves to make barrels are really showing themselves, now the men are getting sick because they’re eating food that is not well preserved, because the barrels aren’t well seasoned. And so these men are getting sick, supplies of water and food are really scarce. The perfect plan would have been to keep well away from the coast of Scotland and Ireland to sail way out into the North Atlantic, and then back down into Spain. But remember, there’s no way to accurately measure longitude at this time. And the Spanish weren’t aware that the Gulf Stream was actually carrying them north and east, and they eventually turned south. And this was really bad. This was a really bad mistake. Because off the coast of both Scotland and Ireland, way closer to the coast than they wanted to be, they ran into a series of winds. These winds are often called the Protestant Winds. This drove many of the damaged ships off, it was just too much for these ships that were already damaged to be able to handle. And remember, they had to abandon their anchors during the fire-ship scare. And so they were unable to secure any kind of shelter as they approached Ireland, and they wound up being driven back into the rocks, and locals looted the ships. It’s estimated that 5000 men died by drowning, starvation, and even slaughter by some of the English forces that were in Ireland.
In the end, only 67 ships, and fewer than 10,000 men survived. Many men also like Recalde survived, but were deathly sick, and they died back in Spain. And it said that when Philip learned of all of this, his response was, “I sent the Armada against men, not God’s winds and waves.” The war between England wasn’t over yet, it wouldn’t actually be over until Elizabeth died. But England had secured the safety of the channel, and she wouldn’t be threatened like that again by the Spanish.
So for the book recommendation this week, I’m recommending The Confident Hope of a Miracle: The True History of the Spanish Armada by Neil Hanson. And I’m going to put up a link on the website and the Facebook page. The Facebook page is Facebook.com/Englandcast. And remember, there are extensive show notes for you for this episode, including lots of links to dive into more deeply. The Spanish Armada is something that you just can’t talk about in just a couple of podcasts properly. So this is really meant to be sort of an introduction. Maybe in the future, we’ll go into things a bit more deeply. And if you want to go into it more deeply yourself, I have this whole list of resources in the show notes for these past two episodes. And again, you can get all of that and sign up for the mailing list, etc. at www dot England cast.com.
Next episode in a couple of weeks, I’m going to be posting an interview I just did with a PhD student at work, Benjamin Redding, his research is into the development of the Tudor Navy. And I think it’s really a nice way to sort of round out this little boat and battle phase that we’ve been in for the last couple of episodes. We had the little art break, but in general, we had the Tudor Navy, and then the iron industry, and so this Armada stuff. So I think that having this interview with Benjamin Redding is going to be a nice way to kind of sum up a lot of the things that were going on in the Navy during the 16th century. And then we’re going to move on to that wonderful Elizabethan institution – the theatre later on in February and moving into March. So that’s the plan. Thank you so much for listening. And I will be speaking with you again soon. Thanks.
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast, the original Tudor history podcast, started in 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. In 2019 she created Tudorcon, which is now a yearly event, in addition to writing books, and running TudorFair.com - a whimsical Tudor Merch shop.
She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 30 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history (how exciting when she got to interview Alison for the first time!). In addition to history, she is passionate about travel, and has lived in 3 countries and 4 states (not counting her perpetual state of confusion), and her family (who help her host her YouTube channel occasionally).
