| Summary : In 1588, during the Anglo-Spanish war (1585-1604), a Spanish fleet or Armada left Lisbon for the invasion of England under Elizabeth I, being sighted off the Lizard in July of that year. Part of the Armada fleet was involved in a skirmish off Cornwall before the main engagement, sinking two ships (1583117, 1583118). The English under Howard, Drake, Frobisher and Hawkins, first encountered the Spanish under Medina-Sidonia on 21/31 July west of the Eddystone (1583135). The SAN SALVADOR was captured by the English after blowing up and was wrecked later that year (900416). Ordnance from the SAN SALVADOR, and the captured ROSARIO, was offloaded for English use in the subsequent actions as the Spanish moved up Channel, off the Bill of Portland on 23 July/2 August (1583299) and off the Isle of Wight on 25 July/4 August (1583329). The final action took place off the coast of France at Gravelines on 27 July/8 August when English fireships attacked the Spanish. The English, aided by the weather, had won a victory, and the Armada was unable to return through the English Channel. The pursuing English forced the Armada into the North Sea and 'northabout', rounding Scotland and Ireland, where a number of ships were wrecked, notably EL GRAN GRIFON, GIRONA, and LA TRINIDAD VALENCERA. The GIRONA is now designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973. The SAN PEDRO MAYOR hospital ship came to grief in Devon in October (1062417). The ARK ROYAL, Howard of Effingham's flagship against the Armada, was bilged and sunk by her own anchor in the Thames in 1636 (1180031). The English victory under a Protestant queen was to have a lasting cultural impact, bolstering a sense of national unity under Elizabeth I and her naval commanders. It left a legacy of images of the battle and the queen which became part of the national iconography, inspiring commentary, imagery, and literature, and a physical impact in the scattering of Armada wrecks throughout the British Isles. |
More information : It should be noted that the primary sources differ in dating along national lines, with the English still adhering to the Julian or Old Style Calendar which the Spanish had discarded for the Gregorian or New Style Calendar (still in use today), with a discrepancy of 10 days. Events according to the English calendar are therefore dated 10 days behind Spanish accounts of the same events.
Chronology and summary of Armada events and legacy, with relationships to other monuments:
War with Spain was declared in 1585, with a defensive chain across the Medway to protect Chatham Dockyard and Upnor Castle first recorded in that year (1584707).
For details of the skirmish between Land's End and the Isles of Scilly, in which a portion of the Armada which had become detached from the remainder and arrived too early to join the main body of the fleet off the coast of England, please see the records for the two ships sunk in that action in June 1588 (1583117 and 1583118).
From the first news of the sighting of the Armada the lighting of beacons spread the news and raised the country. A Cornish beacon at St. Agnes (76339) is a scheduled example of one such beacon, while others associated with the Armada are at Penhill (48644) and Portsmouth (238532): further beacon sites are also said to have Armada associations.
For details of the individual actions derived from primary documentary sources, please see respectively the engagements off the Eddystone (1583135), the Bill of Portland (1583299) and the Isle of Wight (1583329). Each action was broadly similar, taking place on alternate days, as the English harrassed the Spanish from astern. Throughout the Spanish largely kept to their crescent formation, which threatened a pincer movement from the 'horns' to any ship daring to attack the centre, a chief feature of Spanish tactics throughout the Channel; while the English kept out of range but were able to manoeuvre to keep station with the Spanish and launch firepower at a greater range.
Tangible evidence of these actions may come from 16th century cannonballs recovered from dredging activity in the English Channel between the Bill of Portland and Isle of Wight (1496781, 1567646, 1567694, and 1567700) although these may, of course, be associated with other engagements or privateering activity.
Individual squadrons of English ships used their agility to 'corral' the Spanish away from potential landing sites at Plymouth, Portsmouth and the Solent, while also trying to drive the Spanish towards known hazards at Portland Race and the Owers Shoal off Sussex.
The greater manoeuvrability of English ships and their greater armament was noted at the time on both sides.
The action off Gravelines, in which the Spanish were attacked by English fireships, lies outside English waters, as do the majority of the subsequent wrecks as the Spanish were forced to continue northwards and around the coasts of Scotland and Ireland to regain the Channel. As the fleet were swept northwards with the English in pursuit, preparations were made to protect London, including the levying of men from Essex.
Elizabeth I then made her famous speech at Tilbury (413465, for Tilbury Fort), which is depicted in a panel painting at St. Faith, Gaywood, King's Lynn, dating from the early 17th century (1580163). This panel painting depicts the use of fireships and thus telescopes the narrative in both time (events at different times, that of the Battle of Gravelines clearly being intended, and the speech at Tilbury which took place 10 days later) and space (locations in England and France).
Those wrecks which have been located outside territorial waters are EL GRAN GRIFON, off Stroms Heelor, Fair Isle, Scotland, lost 27 September 1588 (1); GIRONA, lost off Lacada Point, Northern Ireland on 28 October 1588, artefacts recovered from that wreck being displayed at the Ulster Museum, Belfast (2), including a salamander jewel, and which is a designated wreck; and LA TRINIDAD VALENCERA, lost in Kinnagoe Bay, Republic of Ireland, 16 September 1588 (3), with artefacts being displayed in Derry Museum, Northern Ireland.
Other ships were wrecked along the western coasts of Ireland, while the SAN PEDRO EL MAYOR was lost on the Devon coast in October 1588 (1062417). Numbers and locations are unclear and remain the subject of debate, but the identities and locations of some are known.
The SAN SALVADOR, having already been captured, was wrecked in a separate event unrelated to the losses among the Armada fleet attempting to return home (900416).
The impact of the Armada was so great that most, if not all, the ships recorded as lost in 1588 (seven as of 2014) can be seen through the prism of the Armada event (other losses are likely to have been lost to history through selective recording, particularly in the case of an event of overriding importance such as this one, document loss, and other causes). The MYNYON in a victualling role was sunk at Dover in late 1588, (902045), suggesting that she comprised part of the English naval fleet; while a vessel which came ashore at Slapton Sands was carrying a cargo of bullion (1477858). This is likely to have been exaggerated to some extent since it does not appear in the Calendar of State Papers Domestic, since it would otherwise have been of great interest domestically in the light of recent events, which had naturally put a strain on the exchequer. Finally, the PEREIRA (882113) is said to have been an Armada wreck in Ramsgate Roads, but documentary evidence for this event remains unidentified: it is included for completeness.
There was a further 'wreck outcome' of the Armada when, in 1589, ships of the Duke of Cumberland's fleet captured two Spanish prizes in the ill-fated and unsuccessful Terceira expedition and sent them for England, only for them to be wrecked off the coast of Cornwall (1496831 and 1496845).
The Anglo-Spanish War continued until 1604, with a further action at the Battle of the Goodwin Sands (1572890).
There were also subsequent wrecks which took place much later of ships which took part in the Armada. The English flagship from the Armada action, the ARK ROYAL, was, as the ANNE ROYAL, wrecked in Tilbury Hope in 1636 (1180031). The ROYAL PRINCE (1033746), wrecked in 1666 on the Galloper during the Four Days' Battle (1583919), is also said to have had her origins in another English ship which sailed against the Armada, the VICTORY. The VANGUARD (1179295), though rebuilt twice since participating in the Armada, was finally lost after being scuttled near Rochester during the Raid on the Medway (1584349).
The documentary legacy of the Armada event is considerable, the contemporary documentation being preserved in the State Papers Domestic and State Papers Spain (Simancas), (7)(8)(9), with a series of contemporary cartographic representations of the Armada from the first sighting off the Lizard to the 'northabout' route also being made. (10)
Contemporary artistic representations include the three 'Armada portraits' of Elizabeth I at Woburn Abbey (4), the National Portrait Gallery (5) and at Shardeloes in Buckinghamshire, and a stylised and highly patterned depiction of the event in which the two fleets are intermingled, of the 16th century English school (11).
It is not believed to depict any single action, although Gravelines may be a possibility: it is difficult to tell whether the sinking ships represent real events, however stylistically portrayed, or are part of the conventions of representing naval battles pictorially. However, it does not depict the use of fireships.
Nevertheless, the catalogue states that the ships are depicted with some accuracy, including a single-masted barge-type vessel, which may allude to the Dutch 'sea beggars' who were involved in harrying the fleet from Gravelines onwards. The painting also illustrates the use of firepower and the principal ships of the action in the foreground, ARK ROYAL, the SAN MARTIN (the flagship of the Duke of Medina-Sidonia, although she is inaccurately depicted as a galleass with oars), and, possibly, Drake's REVENGE.
The subsequent artistic and literary legacy of the Armada is also well-documented with, for example, a number of poems on the subject by such figures as Macaulay, which, while much romanticised, encapsulates later attitudes towards the Armada as a key event of Elizabeth I's reign and of British history as a whole.(6).
The Armada has also, therefore, been the subject of much published commentary and analysis, and a select bibliography is listed here, namely, (12)(13)(14)(15) and (16). (17)
Location:
The present record is the 'head' or 'parent' record for the overall action of which the individual engagements are the 'child' records and can be individually depicted spatially. The location of this parent record has been given as a single record, in the approximate mid-point of the action within English waters, from the Lizard to the Straits of Dover. (17)
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