What was the defeat of the spanish armada

On board the battle-damaged San Mateo , beached between Ostend and Sluis after the battle of Gravelines, two Englishmen were killed by Dutch sailors — one named as William Browne, a brother of Viscount Montague.

Other Englishmen were reported to having been aboard this ship, eating with her captain, Don Diego Pimentel. We do not know their surnames. Philip was forced to ask the pope for a loan to help meet the rocketing costs of preparing the Armada.

Sixtus meanwhile had a pet project to buy the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks and rebuild it in Rome — or recover it by force of arms. The remainder would be in equal instalments every two months thereafter. Philip could bestow the English crown on whomever he wished, providing that the realm was immediately returned to the Catholic faith.

He was an administrator, and had never been to sea. After considering his appointment for two days, Medina Sidonia made clear his absolute conviction that the Armada expedition was a grave mistake and had little chance of success.

Only a miracle, he added in a frank and outspoken letter, could save it. Do not be deceived by anyone who may wish to persuade you otherwise. His mood was not improved by a letter from Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, commander of his land forces in the Spanish Netherlands and the general in charge of the invasion army. Pull yourself together then and do your part! After the first fight south of Cornwall, Drake was ordered to shadow the Spanish fleet with a light burning at his stern as a guide to the following English fleet.

But sometime that night, the light disappeared. The English ships had cannon they could fire at a safe distance and could be reloaded quickly. The design of the Spanish cannon meant that they could only fire over short distances and were slow to re-load. The lack of a secure port where the Spanish could take shelter meant that the Spanish ships were buffeted by the wind. He also had a political reason to go to war with England because Spain ruled the Netherlands, but the people there were rebelling against Spanish control and England had been helping them.

The English were worried about the threat of invasion and they attacked the Spanish ships as they sailed along the Channel, but the Armada was so strong that most of the ships reached Calais safely. While the Armada tried to get in touch with the Spanish army, the English ships attacked fiercely.

However, an important reason why the English were able to defeat the Armada was that the wind blew the Spanish ships northwards. To many English people this proved that God wanted them to win and there were pictures and medals made to celebrate this fact.

Use this lesson to work with original documents which tell the story of England and the invasion of the Spanish Armada. As the war ended, Philip II of Spain wanted to stay on good terms with the new queen, Elizabeth I, and even suggested that they marry but Elizabeth politely refused.

However, Elizabeth also wanted to stay friends with Spain because there was an alliance between Scotland and France — a situation which was very dangerous for her. Until Elizabeth married and had children, the next in line for the throne was her relative, Mary Stuart, the Queen of Scotland.

To make matters worse, Mary was going to marry the French prince, so it was possible that French and Scottish armies would invade England to make Mary queen.

Luckily for Elizabeth, Philip did not want to see France becoming so powerful and he was willing to protect her, even though she made England Protestant again. When Philip had to deal with a rebellion in the Netherlands, it was even more important to him to be on good terms with England because his ships had to sail along the English Channel.

However, England felt some sympathy with the people in the Netherlands because one of the reasons they were rebelling against Spain was that some of them wanted to be Protestant.

On top of this, there was a lot of anger among English sailors and traders because Philip would not let other countries share in the wealth that had been found in the areas Spain controlled in Central and South America.

Also, two groups in France were fighting for control, which meant there was far less danger to England. By the s, the two countries were clearly enemies and Spain was supporting attempts to make England Catholic again. Plans for an invasion began in but had to be delayed when Francis Drake burned some ships and destroyed lots of water barrels.

Students are introduced to a range of different original documents. The first is an extract from a letter giving details of the progress of the Spanish Armada from Lord Howard of Effingham, the Admiral of the English fleet and a letter from John Hawkins, a sea captain and one of the earliest English people to be involved in the Transatlantic Slave trade and was later funded by Elizabeth I.

He was knighted for his service in the fleet against the Spanish invasion. He had survived after being shipwrecked on the Irish coast and was then interrogated by the English. All documents are provided with transcripts and simplified transcripts will be added. Students can work through the questions individually or in pairs and report back to the class.