Armada, Spanish

In 1588 the king of Spain, PHILIP II, attacked England with a war fleet called the Spanish Armada. The naval battle was a crushing defeat for Spain. Although this battle did not end the conflict between the two nations, both the Spanish and the English came to see it as a turning point in history.

On Course for War. Politics and religion both contributed to the conflict between Spain and England. In the early 1580s, Spain had used its naval forces to take over Portugal and its overseas empire. Both England and France opposed Spain's expansion. France responded by sending ships and troops to support Portuguese rebels. After the Spanish navy smashed a combined French and Portuguese fleet, the victorious Spanish commander suggested to Philip that the navy might settle matters with England, too.

England and Spain stood on opposite sides of a religious divide. Spain was a Roman Catholic nation, but England had become Protestant. The English queen ELIZABETH I had aided Protestant rebels in the Netherlands, which was then a territory of Spain. She also allowed English seafarers such as Francis DRAKE to make piratical attacks on Spanish ships and ports. Philip, in turn, supported Catholic plots against Elizabeth.

By mid-1585 Philip's army seemed close to crushing the Protestant revolt in the Netherlands. England declared its support for the rebels, setting the stage for war with Spain. Philip sought advice from his naval commander, the marquis of Santa Cruz, and his governor-general in the Netherlands, the duke of Parma. They planned to send a massive fleet into English waters to take on the English navy, considered the best in Europe. Meanwhile, 30,000 of Parma's troops would cross the English Channel for a surprise attack on England. Such plans, however, could not remain secret. Drake learned of the plot and decided to strike first. In 1587 he attacked the Spanish port of Cádiz, destroying several dozen ships and slowing Spain's preparations.

The Battle. Before the fleet could sail, Santa Cruz died. His replacement, the duke of Medina Sidonia, lacked experience in naval combat. Storms then delayed the fleet's departure. In July of 1588 the Armada finally sailed for the English Channel with 125 vessels and 28,000 men.

Some of the Armada's sailors wanted to attack the English port of Plymouth. However, on Philip's orders, Medina Sidonia bypassed Plymouth and directed the Armada toward the planned meeting with Parma's force. The English fleet, which was stationed at Plymouth, slipped out of port at night and worked its way to the Armada's rear. It attacked the Armada on July 31, doing little damage. However, the Spanish lost two ships to accidents. The battle that followed centered on about 30 ships from each side.

The English tested the Spanish defenses for two days. On the third day the Armada lashed back. Knowing that the English had better shipboard guns, the Spanish planned to get close to English ships and then board them for hand-to-hand fighting. But the English kept their distance, peppering the Spanish fleet with cannon fire. The Armada anchored off Calais, France, to await Parma's force, but Parma was not quite ready to sail. The English did not wait. They attacked at night with fire ships—launching empty vessels toward the Spanish fleet and setting them on fire. The Armada fled from its anchorage and out into the North Sea. The Spanish officers decided to retreat to Spain by going north around Scotland and Ireland. They lost more than two dozen ships to storms on the return voyage. Barely half the Armada returned to Spain.

After the Armada. The defeat of the Armada brought joy to England and to Dutch Protestants. The war, however, raged on, with successes and failures on both sides, until JAMES I of England and Philip III of Spain made peace in 1604.

To the English, the victory over the Armada came to represent the dawn of a heroic age of empire. The English also tended to see the battle as the defeat of a large force by a smaller but braver one, forgetting that their navy had had bigger guns and better ships. For the Spanish, the defeat of the Armada became a sign of the long decline that ended in the loss of their empire.