Spanish Armada

battle_name=Battle of Gravelines

Consequences

The Armada was forced to return to Spain by sailing around the northern coasts of Scotland and Ireland; a dangerous voyage during which the Armada was buffeted by severe September storms that caused enormous damage. It is reckoned that 5,000 men died, whether by drowning and starvation or by execution at the hands of English authority in Ireland; the reports from Ireland abound with strange accounts of brutality and survival, and attest on occasion to the brilliance of Spanish seamanship (see 5,000 Men Dead (1969)). In the end, 67 ships and around 10,000 men survived. It was reported that, when Philip II learnt of the result of the expedition, he declared, "I sent my ships to fight against men, not against the elements".

Related Topics:
Scotland - Ireland - September - Element

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English losses were minimal and none of their ships was sunk, but the English sailors were themselves decimated by the deadly typhus epidemic, as well as a possibly concurrent outbreak of dysentery, which killed an estimated 6,000–8,000 soldiers according to varying estimates. English sailors also suffered from exposure and a demoralising financial dispute after England's persistent fiscal shortfalls left many of the Armada defenders unpaid for months, in contrast to the assistance given by the Spanish authorities to their Armada's survivors.

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The victory was still regarded by the English as their greatest since Agincourt. The effects on national pride lasted for years, and those on Elizabeth's legend persisted well after her death. Dignitaries around Europe had to acknowledge England as a military power in its own right, accorded a respect not seen since English triumphs in the Hundred Years' War with France. The Armada's defeat gave great heart to the embattled Protestant cause across Europe. The Armada engagement also revolutionised naval warfare and provided valuable seafaring experience for English oceanic mariners, but England's indisputable dominance over the seas did not begin until more than two centuries later (Battle of Trafalgar, 1805).

Related Topics:
Agincourt - Hundred Years' War - Battle of Trafalgar

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The Armada's defeat enabled the English to persist in their high seas buccaneering against the Spanish and to continue sending troops to assist Philip II's enemies in the Netherlands and France, but with decreasing success. It was not a decisive battle. Paradoxically, Spain drew new vigour: her seamen learned their lesson, and she built a greatly improved war navy that was finally able to repel the buccaneer attacks against the treasure fleet.

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In 1589 an "English Armada" under the command of Drake and Sir John Norris was dispatched to torch the Spanish Atlantic navy, which had largely survived the Armada encounter and was moored in Santander and San Sebastian in northern Spain, as well as to capture the incoming Spanish treasure fleet and expel the Spanish from Portugal, which Philip had ruled since 1580. Like its Spanish predecessor, the English Armada failed in all its objectives. The English invading forces were repelled and similarly beleaguered by unrealistic planning and storms, suffering heavy casualties and imposing severe financial losses upon the Elizabethan treasury. The limitations of the naval power of the era was demonstrated again when Spain's greatly improved navy attempted two further armada invasions that were dispersed and forced back by fierce Atlantic storms.

Related Topics:
English Armada - John Norris - Santander - San Sebastian - Spanish treasure fleet - 1580

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England's treasure was wasted in a brutal war in Ireland (the Nine Years' War, 1595-1603), which was fitfully supported by Spain and proved the most expensive military campaign waged by the English for over a hundred years; such was the expense, that Elizabeth's government was drawn to the brink of bankruptcy.

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In 1595, a Spanish infantry force of about 400 men landed in Cornwall, where they forced a much larger English militia to retreat in panic. They then collected supplies, burned a number of towns and even conducted a mass, before setting sail for home, when they evaded a fleet under the command of Sir Walter Raleigh.

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England would be on the losing side of most of the remaining battles with Spain, and was plunged into debt with its colonial ambitions frustrated. Spain reached the climax of its military power, both at sea and on land, during the half century after the Armada defeat. Its long dominance at sea was only broken by the Dutch at the Battle of the Downs (1639); and the strength of its tercios, the dominant fighting unit in European land campaigns for over a century, was broken by the French at the Battle of Rocroi (1643).

Related Topics:
Battle of the Downs - Tercios - Battle of Rocroi

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By the end of the long war with England in theTreaty of London of 1604 Spain had achieved some of its aims that had originally been intended by the failed "knockout" blow of the Armada, but England remained true to its protestant revolution and was now free to pursue its commercial interests in North America. Two further wars between England and Spain were waged in the 17th century.

Related Topics:
Treaty of London of 1604 - 17th century

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