location of spanish armada naval battles

Knowing that the tide would take a while to allow English ships out of port, Drake declared that there was time enough to finish his game of lawn bowls, via Torbay Weekly The Armada in Sight by John Seymour Lucas, 1880, depicts the moment Sir Francis Drake was informed of the arrival of the Spanish Armada.

The English fleet actually outnumbered the Spanish fleet but were mostly light ships and carried fewer cannons than their Spanish counterparts, who had the English heavily outgunned. One hundred thirty ships carrying thousands of cannons, and 18,000 soldiers (excluding 8,000 sailors) aimed to rendezvous with the rest of the army (another 30,000 soldiers and hundreds of flyboats) in the Netherlands. New ships were built while others were upgraded, and on May 28, 1588, the Spanish Armada set sail from Lisbon under the command of Admiral Medina Sidonia. With the Pope’s blessing, the action was deemed an official Crusade.

Philip II of Spain decided that Spain was powerful enough to launch an invasion of England, but to transport tens of thousands of soldiers, a massive fleet would have to be built, as well as have the necessary power to neutralize English naval threats in the Channel. The Spanish Armada Sets Sail Famed English privateer Sir Francis Drake, via With her husband being Philip II of Spain, her desire to see England return to Catholicism saw hundreds of “heretics” burned at the stake and earned her the name “ Bloody Mary.” After her death in 1558, her half-sister, Elizabeth, took the throne and reinstated the Protestant reforms.

However, England’s path towards Protestantism was reversed when Henry’s son, Edward VI, died without an heir, leaving the throne to his half-sister Mary, a devout and zealous Catholic. England aligned itself with the Protestant Reformation happening on the continent, and it drew much concern from the Catholic nations, especially Spain, which was, at the time, an extremely powerful country enriched by its plunder of the New World. He was searching for a way to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, who was Spanish and Catholic. In the 16th century, King Henry VIII started the English Reformation.

Why the Spanish Armada Was Organized Queen Elizabeth I, via

Location of spanish armada naval battles