CHAPTER 5
In 1585, Protestant England went to war with Catholic Spain.
On July 30, 1 588, English observers on the cliffs above the English Channel
first caught sight of the supposedly invincible Spanish Armada, a force of
130 ships. On the night of August 7, the English fleet attacked King Philip
IPs Armada along the English coast. After the Armada anchored near Calais,
the English sent ships set on fire against the Armada, which caused the
Spanish ships to break their tight tactical formation. With the help of strong
winds, the English then pinned the Spanish ships against the shore, and
destroyed six of them, in the longest and most intense naval artillery battle,
much of it at such close range that the sailors could hurl insults at each
other. Superior English cannon, shot, and gunners took their toll on the
Armada. More than 1,000 Spaniards died during the long battle that day.
The captain of one Spanish ship that had failed to answer the flagship’s call
for help was hanged from a yardarm, his body hauled from ship to ship to
reestablish discipline.
The English ships failed to follow up their advantage, however, letting the
Spanish galleons escape. The rough winds of the Channel carried the Span
ish ships away from the dangerous Flemish shoals toward the North Sea and
then on a long, northern voyage up to the straits between the Orkney and
Shetland Islands. This was decidedly the long way to reach the safety of
Spanish ports. More than thirty Spanish ships sank in gales off the western
coasts of Scotland and Ireland. When some of the ships of the Armada
limped into port in Spain, the fleets captain wrote King Philip II, “1 am
unable to describe to Your Majesty the misfortunes and miseries that have
befallen us, because they are the worst that have been known on any voyage;
and some of the ships that put into this port have spent the last fourteen
days without a single drop of water.” Of the 130 ships that had sailed against
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THE RISE OF THEATLANTIC ECONOMY:SPAIN AND ENGLAND