The Armada’s leader,
the Duke of Medina
Sidonia, did not want
the command
Sir Francis
Drake was
more
interested
in looting booty
than fighting
Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, 7th
Duke of Medina Sidonia, was an
administrator who had never been
to sea. He told the Spanish king:
“I know by the small experience
I have had afloat that I soon become
sea-sick.” However, he had been the
first to reinforce Cádiz during Drake’s
raid on that city in 1587, and had
been appointed captain-general of
Andalusia as “conspicuous proof of
the king’s favour”.
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. Philip’s counsellors, horror-struck
at its electrifying contents, dared not
show the letter to the king. “Do not
depress us with fears for the fate of
the Armada because in such a cause,
God will make sure it succeeds,” they
begged the new admiral.
As for his suitability for command,
“nobody knows more about naval
affairs than you”. Then their tone
became menacing: “Rememberthat the reputation and esteem you
currently enjoy for courage and
wisdom would entirely be forfeited
if what you wrote to us became
generally known (although we shall
keep it secret).”
But when storms scattered and
damaged the Armada after it left
Lisbon, Medina Sidonia’s grave
doubts about his mission returned.
He wrote to Philip: “I am bound to
confess that I see very few, or hardly
any of those in the Armada with any
knowledge or ability to perform the
duties entrusted to them.” Better,
he advised, to agree “some
honourable terms with the enemy”
while the Armada was being repaired
in A Coruña.
On receiving this letter, Philip spent
all “day and night in prayer”. His
mood was not improved by a warning
from the commander of his land
forces in the Spanish Netherlands
that they did not have suitable cross-
channel transport for the troops.
But Philip admonished Medina
Sidonia, writing: “I have dedicated
this enterprise to God. Pull yourself
together then and do your part!”The Armada was sighted off the Lizard
on 19 July. After the first fight south of
Cornwall two days later, Drake was ordered
to shadow the Spanish fleet with a light
burning at his stern as a guide to the
following English fleet. However, during
the night after that first clash, the light
disappeared. Drake had left his station to
loot the stricken Rosario.
At dawn Ark Royal, carrying the English
admiral Lord Howard of Effingham, and
two other English ships found themselves
hard up against the Armada’s rearguard.
They hastily retreated. Drake claimed
afterwards that he had sighted strange
sails to starboard at midnight and, believing
them to be Spanish, doused his lantern and
set off in hot pursuit. They turned out to be
innocent German merchant ships.
Doubtless Howard deemed it impolitic to
court-martial one of England’s naval heroes
at a time of national emergency – even
though through his actions the English fleet
had lost both time and distance in chasing
the Spaniards.
Martin Frobisher, commanding Triumph,
seethed: “Drake’s light we looked for but
there was no light to be seen... Like a
coward he kept by her [the Rosario] all night
because he would have the spoil... We will
have our shares or I will make him spend
the best blood in his belly.”5
6
The Duke of Medina Sidonia (left), commander-in-chief of the
Spanish Armada, depicted on a contemporary English playing cardSir Francis Drake, painted by Marcus
Gheeraerts the Younger in 1591, three
years after the Armada’s ill-fated attack
ALAMYElizabethans and the world / Armada