the Isle of Wight, the English commander
Sir Francis Drake attacked, chasing the Ar-
mada out of the Channel. After passing
the southern English coast the Spanish an-
chored off the port of Calais, where the
English attacked with fireships. Greatly
fearing these dangerous ships that were
packed with explosives and gunpowder,
the Spanish scattered from Calais and
sailed north to Gravelines, prepared to ren-
dezvous with the Spanish infantry under
the Duke of Parma.
At Gravelines, the faster and more ma-
neuverable English ships dodged the heavy
Spanish cannons that were used ineffec-
tively by the Armada, and stayed well out
of grappling range in order to avoid hand-
to-hand fighting. Several Spanish ships
were lost, and the Armada retreated from
the coast under strong northwesterly
winds. With the threat of a land invasion
thwarted, the English shadowed the Ar-
mada as it sailed up the eastern coast of
England, then attempted a return home
via the coasts of Scotland and Ireland.
With food and water running low, the
Spanish commander ran into a heavy
storm that destroyed 24 of his ships off
the western coast of Ireland. Hundreds of
sailors were drowned or captured after
swimming to land, where the Irish—al-
ways hostile to English power—gave some
of them food and shelter.
As the Spanish fleet limped home, the
English gathered an armada of their own
and prepared for a counterattack. This ex-
pedition failed, but the defeat of the Span-
ish Armada gave a boost to the Protestant
cause in Europe and to the prestige of
Queen Elizabeth, who at a crucial moment
had rallied her country’s troops with a stir-
ring speech. England continued its sup-
port of the rebellion in the Low Countries
and also supported the efforts of priva-
teers and its navy against Spanish interests
in the New World.SEEALSO: Drake, Sir Francis; Elizabeth ISpenser, Edmund ............................
(1552–1599)
English poet and essayist who was an im-
portant figure in the founding of a new
English poetic tradition during the Renais-
sance. The son of a tailor, Spenser was
born in London, where he attended the
Merchant Taylors’ School. He enrolled at
Cambridge, where he studied classical
Latin and Greek writing, worked as a ser-
vant to wealthier students, and translated
poetry of the medieval Italian poet Pe-
trarch. After earning a master’s degree in
1576, he became secretary to John Young,
the bishop of Rochester, in 1578, and
joined a literary circle led by Sir Philip
Sidney. In Rochester he began work on his
first major poem,The Shepherd’s Calendar,
which was published in 1579. A series of
twelve poems that imitated the allegorical
Latin poetry of Virgil,The Shepherd’s Cal-
endardisguised praise of Queen Elizabeth
and the Tudor dynasty, and biting com-
mentaries on current events in England,
with the form of “pastoral” poetry and
imagined conversations among shepherds.
The success of this volume encouraged
Spenser in the laborious endeavor of writ-
ing a much larger and more difficult epic
poem,The Faerie Queene, which would be
his major work of poetry.
On considering the meager prospects
for poets, Spenser sought to win a secure
position in government service, and took
up the study of law. In 1580 he gained an
appointment as the secretary to Lord Grey,
England’s lord deputy of Ireland. He spent
much of the rest of his life in Ireland
where, after helping to put down a rebel-
lion by the Irish natives, he was rewardedSpenser, Edmund