Know about the factors that led to the defeat of the Spanish Armada in an attempt to invade England, 1588
Explore contributing factors of the demise of the Spanish Armada, King Philip II's great fleet that attempted to invade England in 1588.
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Transcript
PIETER VAN DER MERWE: The Armada is not a sea fight of the days of Nelson, of fleet against fleet. It is essentially a Spanish version of D-day. It's an amphibious invasion. Philip's plan was that he would send his fleet from Spain and Portugal, and he would then pick up an army in the Netherlands where his Viceroy, the Duke of Parma, was going to assemble it, march it to the coast, embark it. And then they were going to come across the Channel and invade England.
LORD THOMAS: It was a major battle between two great navies-- bigger navies than any Europe had seen before. The battle was very unsatisfactory to the Spaniards, who had wanted to be able to use their own grappling irons and have man to man fights on the English ships. But that didn't happen because of the English guns which had better range-- longer range-- than the Spanish ones. The English had more on them.
The Spaniards lost two or three big ships on their way up, but it wasn't a disaster. It wasn't a serious setback.
VAN DER MERWE: The Armada had actually held its position very well against all assault.
LORD THOMAS: They got to Calais still with their half moon in good shape.
VAN DER MERWE: But this was the point at which the English, under the suggestion of Drake, in the night attacked the anchored Spanish fleet with fireships, which they sent down among them.
ANTHONY OAKSHETT: Well, this painting shows the fireships which were sent towards the Spanish fleet after a Council of War. Eight small merchantmen were stripped and loaded with shot and gunpowder and floated in on the tide and the wind into the Spanish fleet.
VAN DER MERWE: And this attack, of course, caused panic. And to get away from them, the Spaniards cut their cables and moved off, which was the point. The following day, the English attacked them in confusion. And there was a great melee of a sea fight.
OAKSHETT: And that was a decisive battle. The Spanish realized that the game was up, although they weren't, in any way, too decimated at that point. And they drifted North.
VAN DER MERWE: This huge fleet, battered by a sea fight, had to make its way North around Scotland. And that, of course, is where the trouble really started for the Spaniards. They ran, going around the North, into serious weather problems slowly from the North of Scotland and particularly around on to the Irish coast. And big ships went down, and big ships went ashore. And many people drowned, and they started to have major casualties.
LORD THOMAS: The defeat of the Armada didn't mean that England was going to be independent of the new Catholic order which Philip II was trying to impose.
VISCOUNT FALKLAND: We saw that failure as an act of God. And the Spanish also saw the fact that they failed as being an act of God.
OAKSHETT: The defeat of the Spanish Armada is an extremely important event in history. Many people don't think it was a defeat, that in fact it is was the weather that defeated the Armada. But I rather think that the English won on points, that they actually succeeded in their objective, whereas the Spanish didn't.
LORD THOMAS: It was a major battle between two great navies-- bigger navies than any Europe had seen before. The battle was very unsatisfactory to the Spaniards, who had wanted to be able to use their own grappling irons and have man to man fights on the English ships. But that didn't happen because of the English guns which had better range-- longer range-- than the Spanish ones. The English had more on them.
The Spaniards lost two or three big ships on their way up, but it wasn't a disaster. It wasn't a serious setback.
VAN DER MERWE: The Armada had actually held its position very well against all assault.
LORD THOMAS: They got to Calais still with their half moon in good shape.
VAN DER MERWE: But this was the point at which the English, under the suggestion of Drake, in the night attacked the anchored Spanish fleet with fireships, which they sent down among them.
ANTHONY OAKSHETT: Well, this painting shows the fireships which were sent towards the Spanish fleet after a Council of War. Eight small merchantmen were stripped and loaded with shot and gunpowder and floated in on the tide and the wind into the Spanish fleet.
VAN DER MERWE: And this attack, of course, caused panic. And to get away from them, the Spaniards cut their cables and moved off, which was the point. The following day, the English attacked them in confusion. And there was a great melee of a sea fight.
OAKSHETT: And that was a decisive battle. The Spanish realized that the game was up, although they weren't, in any way, too decimated at that point. And they drifted North.
VAN DER MERWE: This huge fleet, battered by a sea fight, had to make its way North around Scotland. And that, of course, is where the trouble really started for the Spaniards. They ran, going around the North, into serious weather problems slowly from the North of Scotland and particularly around on to the Irish coast. And big ships went down, and big ships went ashore. And many people drowned, and they started to have major casualties.
LORD THOMAS: The defeat of the Armada didn't mean that England was going to be independent of the new Catholic order which Philip II was trying to impose.
VISCOUNT FALKLAND: We saw that failure as an act of God. And the Spanish also saw the fact that they failed as being an act of God.
OAKSHETT: The defeat of the Spanish Armada is an extremely important event in history. Many people don't think it was a defeat, that in fact it is was the weather that defeated the Armada. But I rather think that the English won on points, that they actually succeeded in their objective, whereas the Spanish didn't.