Spanish Armada (1588): Philip II's Invasion Fleet Against England

The Spanish Armada was a great fleet sent by Philip II of Spain in the summer of 1588 to invade England and overthrow Elizabeth I. Some 130 ships sailed up the English Channel to collect an army from the Spanish Netherlands, but English attacks, fireships off Calais and the Battle of Gravelines broke the plan. Driven north into the North Sea, the Armada returned to Spain around Scotland and Ireland, where storms wrecked many of its ships.

Dates in this article follow the Gregorian (New Style) calendar used in Spain; England still used the Julian calendar, ten days behind.

Background and causes

Relations between Protestant England and Catholic Spain had worsened for decades. English privateers such as Francis Drake attacked Spanish treasure fleets and colonies, and Elizabeth I gave growing support to the Dutch rebels fighting Spanish rule, described in the article on the Dutch Revolt and the Eighty Years’ War. In 1585 the Treaty of Nonsuch sent an English army to the Netherlands, which Philip II regarded as an open act of war.

Religion gave the conflict a crusading tone. Pope Sixtus V promised Philip a large subsidy, payable once Spanish troops landed in England. The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots in February 1587 removed the Catholic claimant who had been the obvious replacement for Elizabeth, and Philip now planned to restore Catholicism himself.

The plan

Philip’s “Enterprise of England” combined two forces. A fleet would sail from Lisbon up the Channel, while the Duke of Parma’s veteran army in Flanders, commonly estimated at around 17,000 to 27,000 men, would cross to Kent in barges under the fleet’s protection.

The weakness was that the two forces had no deep-water port in which to meet. Parma’s barges could not leave Dunkirk or Nieuwpoort while Dutch flyboats under Justinus of Nassau patrolled the shallow coastal waters, and the Armada’s large ships could not come close inshore to protect them.

Preparations were delayed by Drake’s raid on Cádiz in 1587. When the experienced Marquis of Santa Cruz died in February 1588, command passed to Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia, a capable administrator but not a seaman.

The fleets

The Armada that left Lisbon at the end of May 1588 numbered about 130 ships. They included around 20 galleons, armed merchantmen, four Neapolitan galleasses, transports, and smaller dispatch vessels. It carried roughly 18,000–19,000 soldiers and 7,000–8,000 sailors.

The English fleet, commanded by Charles Howard, Lord Howard of Effingham, with Drake as vice-admiral and John Hawkins and Martin Frobisher among the squadron commanders, eventually totalled around 190–200 ships of all sizes, though only a core of royal galleons and large armed merchantmen did most of the fighting. English ships were generally handier, and many had been rebuilt to a lower, faster design under Hawkins. The English relied on long-range gunnery, while the Spanish preferred to close, grapple and board.

The voyage up the Channel

Storms forced the Armada to shelter at A Coruña in northern Spain in June. It sailed again on 22 July and was sighted off the Lizard in Cornwall on 29 July. Beacons carried the news across England.

The Armada advanced in a strong defensive crescent formation that the English found hard to break. In a series of engagements off Plymouth (31 July), Portland Bill (2 August) and the Isle of Wight (3–4 August), the English fired at long range but did little decisive damage. The Spanish lost two major ships through accidents: the San Salvador after an explosion, and Nuestra Señora del Rosario, flagship of Pedro de Valdés, which was disabled in a collision and surrendered to Drake.

On 6 August Medina Sidonia anchored off Calais and sent urgent messages to Parma. Parma’s army was not ready to embark, and in any case could not safely leave port.

The fireships at Calais and the Battle of Gravelines

On the night of 7–8 August the English sent eight fireships, old vessels packed with combustibles and loaded guns, drifting on the wind and tide towards the anchored Armada. Fearing the “hellburners” that had devastated Spanish troops at Antwerp in 1585, many Spanish captains cut their anchor cables and fled in confusion. No ships were burned, but the crescent formation was broken.

At dawn on 8 August the English attacked the scattered fleet off Gravelines, on the Flemish coast. In the Battle of Gravelines the English closed to shorter range and inflicted heavy damage. Several Spanish ships were lost or ran aground, and hundreds of men were killed. The next day a shift in the wind saved the Armada from being driven onto the sandbanks of Zeeland, but it could not turn back against the wind into the Channel.

Medina Sidonia decided to return to Spain by sailing north around Scotland and west of Ireland. The English pursued as far as the Firth of Forth before turning back on 12 August, short of ammunition.

Tilbury

With the threat of Parma’s army still unclear, Elizabeth visited her troops at Tilbury in Essex on 18 and 19 August (8 and 9 August in the English calendar). The famous version of her speech, in which she declared that she had “the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too”, survives in a text published in the 17th century from the recollection of a chaplain, Leonel Sharp. Historians accept that she spoke to the troops, though the exact words are uncertain.

The voyage home and the wrecks

The return voyage was a catastrophe. Ships damaged in battle, short of anchors lost at Calais and carrying spoiled food and water faced Atlantic gales off Scotland and Ireland in September. Around two dozen ships were wrecked on the Irish coast, from Donegal to Kerry. Many survivors who reached the shore were killed by English forces or local people, though some were sheltered and escaped to Scotland; the Spanish captain Francisco de Cuéllar left a vivid account of his survival in Ireland.

The galleass Girona, carrying survivors from other wrecks, sank off the Giant’s Causeway in October with the loss of most of the estimated 1,300 people on board. Medina Sidonia reached Santander in late September with a battered remnant of the fleet.

Key people

• Philip II of Spain (1527–1598): king of Spain and Portugal, who conceived and directed the enterprise.
• Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, Duke of Medina Sidonia (1550–1615): commander of the Armada, who kept the fleet together under great pressure.
• Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma (1545–1592): commander of the army in the Netherlands that was meant to invade England.
• Charles Howard, Lord Howard of Effingham (1536–1624): Lord Admiral and commander of the English fleet.
• Sir Francis Drake (c. 1540–1596): vice-admiral and the most famous English commander of the campaign.

By the numbers

Consequences

England was saved from invasion, and Elizabeth’s regime emerged with great prestige. Yet English sailors were also badly treated: thousands died of typhus, dysentery and food poisoning in the weeks after the battle, often unpaid.

The defeat did not end Spanish naval power. Philip rebuilt his fleet, and further armadas were sent in 1596 and 1597, both scattered by storms. An English counter-attack, the “English Armada” of 1589, also failed. The Anglo-Spanish War continued until the Treaty of London in 1604.

Myths and facts

“Tiny English ships defeated giant Spanish galleons.” The fleets contained ships of broadly similar size; the English advantage lay in gunnery, ship handling and the design of their best warships.

“The English navy destroyed the Armada.” Only a few Spanish ships were lost in battle. Most were wrecked by Atlantic storms on the way home.

“Drake finished his game of bowls.” The story first appeared in print more than 30 years later and cannot be confirmed.

Legacy

In England and the Dutch Republic the defeat was celebrated as a sign of divine favour. Dutch medals carried the Latin phrase meaning “God blew and they were scattered”, and the victory became a central part of English national and Protestant identity. Paintings, tapestries and later works of art such as Philip James de Loutherbourg’s dramatic canvas kept the story alive. Wrecks such as the Girona and La Trinidad Valencera have since been excavated by underwater archaeologists, revealing guns, coins and personal objects. The Armada also appears alongside the Battle of Lepanto as one of the defining naval events of Philip II’s reign.

Timeline

• 1587, 29 April: Drake attacks the shipping at Cádiz.
• 1588, 9 February: The Marquis of Santa Cruz dies; Medina Sidonia takes command.
• 1588, late May: The Armada leaves Lisbon.
• 1588, 22 July: The fleet sails from A Coruña after repairs.
• 1588, 29 July: The Armada is sighted off the Lizard, Cornwall.
• 1588, 31 July – 4 August: Engagements off Plymouth, Portland and the Isle of Wight.
• 1588, 7–8 August: English fireships scatter the Armada off Calais.
• 1588, 8 August: Battle of Gravelines.
• 1588, September: Storms wreck many ships off Scotland and Ireland.

Why it matters

The failure of the Spanish Armada preserved Protestant England and the Dutch revolt at a decisive moment. It did not end Spanish power, but it showed that Philip II could not easily conquer England, and it became a lasting symbol of national survival in English memory.