The Demise of the Spanish Armada

It’s been over four centuries since 1588. But the rout of the massive fleet sent by King Philip II of Spain to conquer and subjugate the England of Queen Elizabeth I continues to reverberate through history to this day.

The saga of the supposedly invincible Spanish Armada, launched from Spanish ports with overwhelming force in May of 1588, was illustrated in a talk Friday at the Rose History Auditorium. As lecturer Nancy Maxwell laid out the geopolitics of the time, this was a conflict between Spain, uncompromisingly Catholic and the most powerful empire of its day, and the isolated island nation of Great Britain, which had recently converted to the new Protestant flavor of Christianity.

“Philip,” said Maxwell, “set out to restore the one true faith throughout Europe and the world.” In league with Dutch Protestants in the Low Countries, England was threatening Spain’s holdings in what is now Belgium and the Netherlands, which were by far the most lucrative of Philip’s colonial possessions – Antwerp alone brought in seven times the revenue of all the colonies in the New World. Philip’s Armada sailed with 180 priests and indulgences from the Pope.

The Protestant Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII, had no allies in Europe besides the Dutch rebels. She had been declared illegitimate, denied the throne for years, and excommunicated in 1570.

“Elizabeth didn’t want a war – Elizabeth couldn’t afford a war,” said Maxwell. But war came to England regardless of her desires. What Elizabeth did have was a band of “sea dogs,” a scrappy navy of small, maneuverable ships led by officers who, when they weren’t officially fighting in the Royal Navy, were busily and profitably employed as privateers, one step away from pirates, plundering Spanish ships and ports.

The most famous, Sir Francis Drake, was supposed to have said, when the Spanish fleet was sighted while he was bowling on the green in Plymouth, “There is time to finish the game, and beat the Dons as well.” Drake matched the Spaniards’ religious zealotry, having declared it “God’s will that all Catholics be destroyed,” and dispatching thousands with his own efforts.

With innovative tactics, pounding the Spanish ships with cannonballs rather than grappling and fighting hand to hand, and sending in fireships to disrupt and scatter the armada while it lay at anchor, the English corsairs harried the Spaniards and prevented them from meeting up with the thousands of Spanish troops waiting on barges in Flemish harbors to surge across the Channel and roll over the outnumbered English troops.

But it was the weather, not the English ships, that dealt the heaviest blows to the Spanish Armada. Winds prevented them from returning south to Spain, and they had to make their retreat all the way around the British Isles, with dozens of ships wrecking on the wild Irish shores, where the savage local inhabitants typically plundered them and put them to death.

The Spanish Armada, or the Enterprise of England, as the Spanish called it, was a disaster for Spain. Between one third and a half of the Armada’s ships failed to return home, and many that did were grievously damaged from storms or English guns. The specific numbers are debated, but more than 10,000 sailors died, with the survivors in a terrible state. Another 10,000 of Spain’s troops in the Low Countries were casualties.

The English didn’t fare that well, either. Sailors died in droves from disease when compelled to remain aboard their ships in tight quarters with rotten provisions and found no pay when they did get ashore.

If the Armada had succeeded, Catholicism would have been reestablished throughout Britain and probably Europe, with unknown consequences for subsequent events like the sailing of the Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock 38 years later. It would likely have led to Spanish colonies, rather than English, along the east coast of the New World.

There is an even closer connection to the Armada here in Southwest Florida. The slow, unweatherly, cumbersome Spanish galleons that fought in the Armada were the same ships that came to colonize Spain’s possessions in the Caribbean and Florida and sailed right by the shores of Marco Island.

The Marco Island Historical Society presents programs on all facets of local history. Asked why the topic of the Spanish Armada was chosen, Marco Island Historical Society CEO Pat Rutledge said, “Frankly, we wanted something that would appeal to the gentlemen as well as the ladies.”

Upcoming programs include tribute concerts featuring Frankie Valli on February 19 and the Rat Pack on February 24, the Marco Island Historical Gala on March 7, and the Ed Sullivan Variety Show concert on March 19. Native American culture will be explored at “Seminole History Through the Ah-Tah-Tiki Museum Collection” on Tuesday, March 3, presented by Ah-Tah-Tiki Museum Curator Tara Backhouse.