8-2SpanishArmada

WHAT WAS THE DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA? WHY IS THIS EVENT SIGNIFICANT?

// Prepared by Tieg G //

====The Spanish Armada was the name for the famous Navy of Spain that was said to be invincible. During the invasion of England it consisted of 22 war ships, and 108 merchant vessels that were converted to satisfy the needs of the Spanish Navy.==== ==== According to J.H. Pollen of the New Advent magazine the main cause of this invasion was that “Spain and England’s relationship had deteriorated over some time for reasons such as that Britain was a protestant nation and Spain was a Catholic nation.” Also the Spaniards hated Queen Elizabeth and thought that she had no right to the British throne, and had openly tried to remove her from her seat of power. Further more, Queen Elizabeth had encouraged British pirates to raid and take Spanish ships in retaliation. This enraged the king of Spain who was King Philip.====

====As early as 1585, the Spanish government created an Armada. The original goal for the Armada was to liberate the Queen of Scotts who was being held captive by Queen Elizabeth for conspiring to kill her. They wanted to rescue Queen Mary because she was going to marry the Spanish king. This was futile though because Queen Mary was executed before they got the chance to rescue her. King Philip was not pleased, so he thought he had a claim to the throne as Queen Elizabeth was an incompetent leader. So the Armada’s new objective was to dispose of the Queen of England and place King Phillip on the throne. The man chosen to lead the attack was Santa Cruz, but he soon died and was replaced by the Duke of Medina Sedonia, who was poorly suited for the task. After numerous setbacks for the Spanish their fleet finally sailed for England in May of 1588.====

====The Spanish plan was very concise and planned out, and it was believed that the Spanish fleet would crush the small English Navy and take the Queen. The English were not though completely taken by surprise. They had heard things from messengers and had put Britain in a state of alert, looking for the first Spanish cruiser. Queen Elizabeth was a rallying figure near the battlefield (English channel), and inspected her troops. She made a very famous speech which can be found if you search (Queen Elizabeth- speech at Tilbury), which rallied her troops to ultimately win the battle. In the Channel where the fighting was thick, the Spanish were suffering a mega-defeat. The inferior Spanish ships and war tactics lent to a humiliating defeat on the part of the Spanish. This is a brief summery of the Defeat of the Spanish Armada. This event is significant because if the English lost there would be no Queen Elizabeth, and without Queen Elizabeth, The Elizabethan era would be much different than it is today and maybe not at all.====

Work Cited
Martin, Colin, and Geoffrey Parker. //The Spanish Armada//. 2nd. Manchester University Press, 2002. Print. McDermott, James. //England and the Spanish Armada//. 1st. Yale University Press, 2005. Print. Thomas, Heather. "The Spanish Armada." //Elizabeth R// Web.16 Apr 2009. . Winwar, Frances, and C. Walter Hodges. Q//ueen Elizabeth and the Spanish Armada//. 1st. 1954. Print.