Spanish Armarda

In April 1588 a massive invasion fleet or Armada sailed from the port of Lisbon. It was made up of 130 ships fitted with 2,500 guns. They carried 30,000 soldiers and sailors. And with the leaders Queen Elizabeth 1st for the English and King Phillip 2nd. And the lord high admirals Sir Francis Drake for England and Duke of Meding Sidonia.
The armada started for many reasons like the piracy, death of Mary Queen of Scots, religion, refusal of marriage, Dutch revolt and the French civil war. But even before the Spanish set sail like in 1587 Drake attacked a large number of ships at the Cadiz harbour, then the barrels of food and drink went mouldy and sour because the barrels were made from new wood and were still damp which made them mouldy and sour. Then the Spanish tried to pick up some Dutch soldiers but there was confusion on where they’d be picked, because communication was very poor they could only write letters and send messengers and that took weeks for them to get across. But the biggest problem was that there lord high admiral Santa Cruz had died in 1586 and he was very good at his job so that left Phillip 2nd needing a new lord high admiral so he picked a rich and very success full called Duke of Meding Sidonia but he got sea sick so he couldn’t fight then there was a massive storm hit and the Spanish had to make repairs to their damaged ships and from that storm Phillip 2nd said and I quote ‘I sent you to fight men not the weather’ But with all the problems out the way let’s get to the tactics, England and Spain both went in to the battle strongly but the English had fire-ships that help them to defeat the Spaniards. They were designed to set fire to their ships. But the Spanish also went to the battle in a special way they went in a crescent formation. This was not unusual as most fleets sailed in this shape as it offered the ships in that fleet the most protection. The larger but slower galleons were in the middle of the crescent and they were protected by faster but smaller boats surrounding them. Smaller ships known as zabras and pataches supplied the galleons. The English celebrated their victory with a medal saying 'God Blew and they were Scattered'.
So the Spanish armada fail mainly on the communication, cause the plan was simple it was to pick up soldiers from smaller countries and then to sail to Kent and then to march though to London and dismiss Elizabeth 1st from her throne and king Phillip 2nd take over England and to turn it back to the church of Rome. But if the message would of got to Parma’s army the plan would of work but the armada received a message from Parma and said ‘that there not ready’ but Parma’s army would of been ready in just 5 hours if the spains could of just held the English off for just 5 more hours it would of worked. And the planning of the armada was done so quickly that Phillip didn’t have time to check it. So all together it failed on problems, communication, and the planning.

The Battle formations with the English on the write and Spanish on the right.
The Battle. The wining medal gave to the English.