Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

History Is Written By The Victors

Powerful Essays
1228 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
History Is Written By The Victors
'History is written by the Victors ': How does this help us to understand English and Spanish interpretations of the Spanish Armada?

The English and the Spanish interpretation of the outcome of the Spanish Armada differ greatly. English believed they were the true victors; that God had helped England to defeat the Spanish; for the English throughout history the Armada was seen as part of national identity. However evidence suggests that this may not have been the outcome of the Armada, and the victory was exaggerated by England.
For much of the sixteenth century Spain and England had been allies, this was due to the marriage of Philp II and Mary Tudor; Mary also had strong catholic beliefs and even killed many protestants in her reign, earning her the name ‘Bloody Mary’. However Mary’s death in 1558 meant the crown was passed to Mary’s half-sister; Elizabeth I.1 After Mary’s death Phillip had offered to marry Elizabeth, to keep the relations between Spain and England; however Elizabeth rejected his proposal and wanted to rule England on her own. When Elizabeth became queen, she introduced England to being Protestants, however the Catholics saw Elizabeth as being an illegitimate queen. The Catholics believed the rightful queen was Mary Stewart; a Catholic. After the murder of her husband; Earl of Darnley, she was imprisoned but escaped and fled to England. However after the Throckmorton plot to kill Queen Elizabeth; as well as other catholic plots. Queen Elizabeth had ordered the execution of Mary Stewart in 1587. Mary’s death developed tension between Phillip II and Queen Elizabeth; as Philip was also catholic. However it is also said that Phillip commanded the Armada due to him wanting to take the throne for himself and rule England under catholic Spain. Another reason for the Armada was Elizabeth signing the Treaty of Nonsuch and taking the side of the Dutch in the Anglo-Spanish War 1585-1604.2 Elizabeth’s involvement with the Netherlands and the help she gave to Antion; the successor- also a protestant, was seen by Phillip as damaging to his reputation. The attack on Spain in 1586 by Sir Francis Drake also caused a lot of tension between the two countries. By October 1585 Phillip II was planning the invasion of England.
Phillip II had two proposals for a plan of the Armada; the first being a plan by one of his commanders; Santa Cruz. However Cruz’s plan involved a high number of men and a vast amount of money. The other proposal was by Phillip’s nephew, the prince of Parma; his plan was a surprise attack that needed a considerably smaller amount of men and money.3 Phillip chose a combination of both the plans. The Armada was not well hidden, word got to England of Phillip’s plans to invade. However it can be argued that it was Phillip’s intention for England to be aware of his plan; hoping to panic Elizabeth. The Queen took action and Elizabeth’s main commander Sir Francis Drake was sent to attack Spain in 1587. Drake attacked Cadiz; one of the ports where many ships of the Armada were being constructed, although Cadiz were tipped off that Drake would be invading, Spanish didn’t take this seriously; Drake was able to destroy many of the Ships.4 It was then that Santa Cruz suffered a sudden death on the thirteenth of January 1588, however Phillip was quick to replace his commander with the Duke of Medina Sidonia.5 The plan was to meet Parma in the Netherlands by traveling up the English Chanel. The Duke had troops waiting for the arrival of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, then the pursuit to invade England.6 However bad weather and a lack of food and water had delayed the Armada in April 1988. It was not until May the Armada was able to sail again. However the Spanish ships were heavy and hard to manoeuvre. Therefore when the Armada hit bad weather again, the ‘famous’ crescent formation of the ships was destroyed and many of the ships were not able to recover.7 On the ninetieth June the fleet stopped at Corunna, for supplies and to fix damaged vessels. The fleet was able to set off a month later on the twenty second of July.
As Elizabeth had already heard the news of the incoming invasion. Elizabeth and her commander in charge; Baron Howard of Effingham and his Vice-Admiral, Drake, were able to raise a large army to defend England. This resulted in a battle in Plymouth, led by Drake. However the battle did very little damage to the Armada, and is said it was just a waste of ammunition. At this time the Protestant Dutch were not allowing Parma’s fleet leaving the Netherlands. English attacked again, and this time was able to break the crescent. The only port available to stop was Calais. However winds were to strong and the Spanish were worried the winds would take them to far north. Elizabeth visited some of her troop in Tilbury on the ninth of August. This is when the famous ‘Tilbury speech’ took place. However there is no evidence of the speech ever taking place, and is rumoured to be propaganda developed throughout the years; as there was no reliable eyewitness. Throughout history Elizabeth is said to have ridden on a white horse, with her armour and a helmet. However once again there is no evidence of this. It may have been an image that was manifested by the Stewarts, who saw Elizabeth as a role model.8 While the Spanish were anchored at Calais, the English had sent ‘fire ships’ in an attempt to disarm the Spanish. It is said that the Spanish has fled in a panic, abandoning their defence. However it is said that the Spanish has seen a stray fire ship and were moving to safety back to Spain9 The English for many years have claimed victory over the Spanish, due to believing the bad weather was due to God being on the English side. However the English had better ships to compete with the weather. They also had help from the Dutch rebels keeping Parma’s fleet from leaving. The English was also strategically better, and had strong commanders. It can be seen that the Victory was deserved, however can also be down to a touch of luck.

Word Count 1197

Bibliography
Adams. R, History of the Spanish Armada, Royal Museums Greenwich, (April 2008), http://www.rmg.co.uk/researchers/library/research-guides/charts-and-maps/research-guide-p3-charts-of-the-spanish-armada-by-robert-adams-in-the-museum,
Background to the Armada, British Library,http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/uk/armada/back/backd.html
Frye. S, The Myth of Elizabeth at Tilbury, The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Spring, 1992), pp. 95-114
Jensen. D.L, The Spanish Armada: The Worst-Kept Secret in Europe, The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Winter, 1988), pp. 621-641
Kelsey. H, Sir Francis Drake: The Queen 's Pirate, (Yale Nota Bene, 2000)
Hirschman. E.C, Back to the future: Islamic Spain as a model for marketing efflorescence, Marketing Theory, December (2013) vol. 13 no. 4, pp. 513-520,
Martin. C, Geoffrey Parker, The Spanish Armada: Revised Edition, (Mandolin, Manchester University Press),
Tenace. E, Spanish Armada (1588), The Encyclopedia of War, 13 NOV 2011 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781444338232.wbeow587/abstract

Bibliography: Adams. R, History of the Spanish Armada, Royal Museums Greenwich, (April 2008), http://www.rmg.co.uk/researchers/library/research-guides/charts-and-maps/research-guide-p3-charts-of-the-spanish-armada-by-robert-adams-in-the-museum, Background to the Armada, British Library,http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/uk/armada/back/backd.html Frye. S, The Myth of Elizabeth at Tilbury, The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Spring, 1992), pp. 95-114 Jensen. D.L, The Spanish Armada: The Worst-Kept Secret in Europe, The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Winter, 1988), pp. 621-641 Kelsey. H, Sir Francis Drake: The Queen 's Pirate, (Yale Nota Bene, 2000) Hirschman. E.C, Back to the future: Islamic Spain as a model for marketing efflorescence, Marketing Theory, December (2013) vol. 13 no. 4, pp. 513-520, Martin. C, Geoffrey Parker, The Spanish Armada: Revised Edition, (Mandolin, Manchester University Press), Tenace. E, Spanish Armada (1588), The Encyclopedia of War, 13 NOV 2011 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781444338232.wbeow587/abstract

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Bibliography: Alexander, Don W. "French Military Problems in Counterinsurgent Warfare in Northeastern Spain, 1808-1813" (paper presented at the Command and General Staff College, Fort Lee, Virginia, February 10, 2014).…

    • 1866 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    King Philip II of Spain was murdered on September 1, 1598, although there were many suspects from all over the world, a few stood out and were connected to each other. During the time of King Philip II’s reign, Spain was in an ongoing power struggle with another powerful country, England. Due to the power struggle, Philip and Queen Elizabeth of England weren’t on good terms, constantly trying to invade the other’s country, in order to rise as the most powerful country of Europe. Just a few years before the death of Philip, on August 8th, 1558, the Spanish Armada took place, where he wanted to send a fleet of 130 ships, in order to take over England and make them completely Catholic, once again. However, the Spanish fleet was defeated and Elizabeth…

    • 1303 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    imminent threat of invasion by the Spanish Armada. The purpose of this speech is to…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Elizabeth’s refusal to marry, and name an heir caused some discontent within her court, with many of her nobles attempting to court her, or competing for the queen’s favour. There was also the problem of her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, who was seen by many English Catholics to be the rightful heir to the throne. Mary became the focus of several Catholic rebellions, which were taken very seriously by Elizabeth. Mary was detained in England by Elizabeth, and was eventually found to have plotted an assassination attempt on Elizabeth, for which she was beheaded. Another cause for concern of the queen was the threats of invasions from foreign shores, including the threats of Phillip II of Spain, and his Spanish…

    • 1723 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Queen Elizabeth I ruled England from 1558-1603, and is considered to be one of the greatest British monarchs of all time. However, her ascension to the throne was met with many problems such as gender, succession, burdening finances, international affairs and most importantly, religion. These problems had great influence on her long reign as it was the way the queen–in-parliament dealt with these issues that influenced the 45 years that were to come.…

    • 1139 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The conflict between England and Spain had been going on for a while before the attempt to invade England. It was part of the Anglo-Spanish war of 1585-1604 and the invasion by the Spanish Armada itself took place in July of 1588. This war was never actually declared, however, there was always tension between the two countries as Catholic Spain was not happy with England being a protestant country. So they wanted to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I and introduce a Catholic King or Queen to run the country. Even though the Anglo-Spanish war finished in 1604 the Spanish Armada were officially defeated in 1588 and never made a comeback and the Spanish army were never called the Armada again. It was the end of the reign of Superiority for the Spanish’s so called invincible armada as they were finally defeated by the English naval force in July 1588.…

    • 1528 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    One of the most striking phenomena of the early modern period was the rise and then the decline of Spain between the late fifteenth and the late seventeenth centuries. Spain’s rise to be a European and global power began with the marriage (1469) of queen Isabel of Castile (1474–1504) and king Ferdinand of Aragon (1479–1516), whose realm included Aragon proper, Valencia and Catalonia. They not only united “Spain” by bringing together, very loosely, these disparate territories, but they also conquered the last Islamic realm (Granada) in Iberia, supported Columbus’ Atlantic voyages, and extended Spanish dominion in north Africa and Italy. In 1516, this inheritance passed to their grandson, the Habsburg Charles I of Spain (1516–56), the future Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. Forty years later, Spain, Spanish Italy (Naples, Sicily, Sardinia and Milan), the Spanish Low Countries (Flanders, Luxembourg and Franche Comté) and an expanding Spanish America (“the Indies”) from which foreigners were excluded and which was yielding growing revenues, passed to Charles’s son, Philip II (1556–98), under whom Spanish power and influence reached new heights. Philip secured Portugal and its empire in 1580–1 and in 1588 launched an attempt to conquer England – the Spanish Armada – which almost succeeded. Nevertheless, the Armada’s failure is widely regarded as a turning point, the beginning of a decline which became pronounced in the seventeenth century. Spanish forces continued to win victories in the 1620s and 1630s, in the Thirty Years War, but in 1639 another Spanish fleet, convoying troops to Flanders was destroyed off the English coast; a few years later, in 1643, Spain’s Army of Flanders suffered defeat in France at Rocroi. For many historians, this finally extinguished Spanish military power. Imperial retreat followed. In 1648, after a near eighty-year struggle to suppress the Dutch…

    • 3502 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Firstly, the context of Elizabeth’s religious environment has to be noted. After all, she did succeed a highly unpopular, rigidly catholic queen, Mary Tudor. Nevertheless, even before Elizabeth’s succession in 1559, she had been constantly given the idea of Catholicism being bad, and foreign, and in turn Protestantism being good, and English. This was taught in the protestant education she received, and shown in action by Mary’s suspicious love of her Spanish heritage, and her cruel, bloody intolerance of Protestants. When Elizabeth finally did become queen, England was sore from the catholic whip and was yearning for a patriotism, which Mary had never shown. Spain remained allied with England for some time, but it was a weakening relationship and they were a growing threat. All of the Marian exiles returned to England from hiding and asserted themselves to the queen, being proud, protestant, English and ready to serve her. With this context, although many were cautious of yet another female…

    • 854 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The downfall of the armada began before the ships even set sailed and concluded when Over half the crew had been wrecked. The Reason for the Armadas failure is because of Poor Planning in Spain prior to the Spanish Armada setting sail, Medina Sidonia poorly leading his troops, and the changing weather and strong navy force from the british. Chances of the Spanish winning could have increased immensely if only they had been smarter with their planning and not so one track minded with taking down the English and turning them into catholics.…

    • 1187 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    and the Nationalists. First was the fact that the military had been growing increasingly aggressive…

    • 3453 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Best Essays

    Tusell, Javier. Historia de España en el siglo XX. Vol. III. Madrid: Taurus Bolsillo, 1998. La…

    • 2358 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    Bibliography: Ellwood, Sheelagh M., 1991 The Spanish Civil War (Historical Association Studies) Basil Blackwell Ltd…

    • 1486 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    * Charles and Buckingham had tried to set up an anti-Spanish ‘front’ to force the Hasburgs to restore the Palatine to Charles’ brother in law. Parliament had only voted subsidies for a sea war – Charles and Buckingham had plans worth 2 million. If all the plans had gone well,…

    • 2384 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Conflicts began between the Spanish and the British when the Netherlands began to riot against the Catholic rule. Seeing as both the Netherlands and Britain are Protestants, Queen Elizabeth decided to support the Dutch (“The Spanish Armada, Elizabethi.org), which illustrated itself as a direct intervention in Spanish internal affairs, as well as aiding the riots instead of helping the Spanish rulers oppress them. Tensions rose following the assault that English Colonel Drake conducted in 1587, when he attacked Spanish shipping, as well as burnt the half-finished and unmanned ships at Cadiz (Pollen, the Catholic Encyclopedia). The Spanish continued to be harmed by Drake due to the blockade he administered (Martin and Parker, 109-110),…

    • 1077 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Today the Spanish armada set sail from Corunna with 130 ships with 7000 sailors and 21000 soldiers most of whom are priests, its purpose: to conquer England. Philip II king of Spain assembled the armada because Spain is the greatest power on earth but England also has a lot of power so Philip wants to take over England to gain more power. Also its a religious crusade, Philip wants, to kill Elizabeth so he can turn England into a catholic country as well as the fact English ships keep looting Spanish ships and stealing our gold. The English are also interfering with our wars; just now the English sent some troops to help the Dutch Protestants rebel against the Spanish catholic army.…

    • 1827 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays