English Armada

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The English Armada was a fleet of warships led by Admiral Sir Francis Drake and General Sir John Norreys , which was brought to the Iberian coast by Queen Elizabeth I in 1589 against the backdrop of the Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1604) was sent. The Spanish invasion of England had failed a year earlier .

During the venture, Spanish warships were to be tracked down and sunk, the Portuguese rebels in Lisbon supported and the Azores conquered. The undertaking ended in high losses for the English side without actually achieving their set goals. Spain under King Philip II and Philip III. was able to expand his sea power again after the Treaty of London at the latest .

course

Queen Elisabeth contributed a quarter to the financing of the company.

The fleet started from Plymouth . It included six Royal Navy ships , namely the Revenge , the Nonpareil, the Foresight, the Dreadnought, the Swiftsure and the Earl of Essex , 77 armed merchant ships and 60 Dutch vlie boats . There were 3,300 English and 900 Dutch sailors on board, as well as 11,000 soldiers, including around 1,000 volunteers.

The original plan was to attack Santander , where parts of the Spanish fleet were being repaired, but Drake decided to attack La Coruña . Norreys conquered the lower city. Drake destroyed 14 Spanish merchant ships. The siege of the old town failed because of the resistance of the small garrison and above all because of the resistance of the citizens of La Coruña, not least the women. Parts of the fleet decided to turn back. The reduced fleet sailed to Puente de Burgos .

In order to attack Lisbon from the land side, troops were put ashore at Peniche . Drake's fleet did not reach Lisbon, so the artillery support failed to materialize. The Spaniards were meanwhile informed of the English activities and had prepared Lisbon for the siege. The hoped-for revolt in the city did not materialize. Lisbon was successfully defended by the Spanish.

Drake attacked and sacked the island of Porto Santo in the Madeira archipelago .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ George Malcolm Thomson: Sir Francis Drake. Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd., London, 1972, p. 281 ff.
  2. ^ The Beginning of the End: The Drake-Norris Expedition. In: Hans P. Kraus: Sir Francis Drake. A Pictorial Biography.
  3. ↑ J. Wesley Ulm: The Defeat of the English Armada and the 16th-Century Spanish Naval Resurgence: A More Detailed Look at the Spanish Armada, its Immediate Results, its Long-Term Effects, and its Lesser-Known Aftermath.
  4. ^ Julian Stafford Corbett: Sir Francis Drake . Macmillan, London 1890 (Reprinted: Forgotten Books, 2015).
  5. ↑ Manuel Fernández Álvarez : Felipe II y su tiempo . Espasa, Madrid 1998, ISBN 84-239-9736-7 , p. 575.
  6. ↑ Manuel Fernández Álvarez: Felipe II y su tiempo . Espasa, Madrid 1998, ISBN 84-239-9736-7 , p. 576.