Alonso Pérez de Guzmán

Alonso Pérez de Guzmán

Alonso Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno y Zúñiga, Duke of Medina-Sidonia (born September 10, 1550 in Sanlúcar de Barrameda , † 1615 ibid) was a Spanish grandee of the 16th century and in 1588 the commander of the Spanish Armada in the fight against England .

origin

He was the son of Don Juan Carlos Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno, the eldest son of the 6th Duke of Medina Sidonia and his wife Doña Leonor Manrique de Zuñíga y Sotomayor. His father died in 1555, Don Alonso became a duke and heir to a large fortune at the age of 9 after the death of his grandfather. The dukes of Medina Sidonia were among the oldest and most distinguished Spanish grandees .

Youth and career

In 1565 Don Alonso was betrothed to Ana de Silva y Mendoza, daughter of the famous Princess of Eboli , and married her in 1572. Since she was only 12 years old at that time, a papal dispensation had to be obtained. In 1581 he was knighted by the Golden Fleece and received the title of Captain General of Lombardy.

The Spanish Armada

In 1587/88 Philip II had a large fleet built to support a planned invasion of England by Spanish troops stationed in Flanders under the command of Alessandro Farnese , Duke of Parma . This went down in history as the Great Armada or, according to the term chosen by the king himself, despite its unfortunate fate as the Invincible Armada .

When the commander-in-chief of the Spanish Armada, the Marquis of Santa Cruz , died unexpectedly on February 9, 1588, Philip II appointed Don Alonso as the new commander-in-chief. The duke, who had previously worked in the administrative service and had no nautical knowledge, tried to persuade the king to withdraw his appointment. In a letter to Philip he pointed out his ignorance of the sea, his poor health, his tendency to get seasick and his debts; Facts that made it impossible for him to take command. However, the appointment was not canceled.

Don Alonso organized the further preparation of the armada, in particular the chaotic conditions in the distribution of cannons and ammunition. This resulted in a significant improvement in the supply situation.

The Armada, consisting of 130 ships, left Lisbon from May 28th to 30th. The clumsy galleons , galeats and transport ships needed 13 days for the 160 nautical miles to Cape Finisterre . Since the drinking water threatened to become brackish and food spoiled, the duke decided after a council of war to call at the port of La Coruña . A storm dispersed the fleet, so that initially only about 50 ships entered La Coruña. In a letter to King Philip, the Duke described the difficulties and tried again to end the company. However, the king demanded their continuation without changing the previous orders.

Only on July 21, after the storm damage had been repaired, the now full fleet was able to leave again. The Armada made the journey across the Bay of Biscay quickly. At the heights of Plymouth, Don Alonso learned from the sealed royal directives that he was to sail just below the French coast to Dunkirk to support the landing operation of the Duke of Parma's Flemish troops. On July 31, the Armada met the English fleet commanded by Admiral Howard in the English Channel. The Armada formed the crescent-shaped dwars line . The agile English ships were able to avoid a boarding battle, but on the other hand could not cause any significant damage to the Spanish ships. In the next few days, the English pursuing the Armada dared to make multiple artillery raids. Due to their more powerful and faster reloaded artillery, they were clearly superior to the poorly trained Spaniards.

As a fleet commander, the duke acted cautiously and rather defensively; this behavior was reinforced by the advisor Don Diego de Valdes assigned to him by the king . When there was a slack while driving through the canal, he failed to attack the occasional drifting English with his belt-operated and therefore wind-independent galleys and galleys.

When the Armada on the coast between Calais and Gravelines anchored, it was possible the Englishmen, they at night by Brander damaging. The Spanish ships sought their salvation in flight - the next morning the Duke saw only five combat ships from his flagship, the San Martin , the sixth, the galeas San Lorenzo lay with a broken oar half stranded on a sandbank and was after bitter struggle taken by the English. The remaining Spanish ships fought doggedly against the enemy attacking from the favorable windward position , the duke succeeded in shaping the armada into a crescent-shaped battle order again by the afternoon and passing the Strait of Dover with the wind turned to the southwest. Damage and a lack of ammunition, however, did not allow another battle, a union with the invading army was no longer possible. On August 9, Medina Sidonia decided after a council of war to retreat by circumnavigating Scotland and Ireland.

On this retreat, the Armada lost many more ships to storms. Spaniards stranded on the Scottish and Irish coasts were mercilessly slain by the hostile population. The San Martin entered Santander on September 22nd , followed by sixty-six damaged Spanish ships. According to legend, Philip II spoke the famous sentence when he received the news: "I did not send my fleet against storms and waves, but against people".

Later years

Despite the defeat of the Armada, Don Alonso retained the favor of his king, he served him for another 10 years as governor of Andalusia and for further years as his successor. He died in 1615.

literature

• Geoffrey Parker : The uprising of the Netherlands 1549-1609 , Verlag Georg DW Callwey Munich 1979, p. 261 f
• János Erdödy: Changing of the Guard on the Ocean. (Original title: Örségváltás az óceánon ) Corvina Kiado, Budapest 1983, ISBN 963-13-1568-1 .
• Heinz Neukirchen: Maritime power as reflected in history. Gondrom, 1988, ISBN 3-8112-0368-1 .