标题: Spanish Armada [打印本页] 作者: choi 时间: 2-2-2023 15:46 标题: Spanish Armada 本帖最后由 choi 于 2-14-2023 08:08 编辑
Stephen Brumwell, Miraculous Escape. Wall Street Journal, Jan 28, 2023, at page C7 https://www.wsj.com/articles/arm ... y-fleet-11674844489
(book review on Colin Martin and Geoffrey Parker, Armada; The Spanish enterprise and England's deliverance in 1588. Yale University Press, Feb 7, 2023)
Excerpts in two windows of print:
Remembered as a disaster, the Spanish venture to invade England came close to achieving its objective.
England enjoyed an edge at sea, but Spain would have had the advantage on land if it had actually disembarked troops.
Note:
(a)
(i) For deliverance, see deliver (vt): "to set free <and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil —Matthew 6:13 (King James Version)>" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/delivering
(ii) armada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armada
("is the Spanish and Portuguese word [noun feminine] for naval fleet * * * or an adjective meaning 'armed' [both noun and adjective (actually feminine past participle of armar) are from verb armar 'to arm']")
(b) In print (at WSJ), there is a barely visible image with caption "SO-CALLED 'The Invincible Armada Against the English Fleet' (1601)."
• German-English dictionary:
* Land (noun neuter; genitive (meaning possessive) Landes):
"1: country (territory of a nation)
2: state, province (political division of a federation retaining a notable degree of autonomy)
3: land (real estate or landed property)
4: land (part of Earth which is not covered by oceans or other bodies of water)" https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Land
^ Modern English noun land came from Old English land.
(B) Tirolean is the ENGLISH adjective (as well as proper noun for an inhabitant of Tyrol; the counterpart in Modern German is Tyroler) for the proper noun
Tyrol (state) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrol_(state)
("The state's territory is located entirely within the Eastern Alps at the Brenner Pass") 作者: choi 时间: 2-2-2023 15:55
(c) "three bulky ships ran aground on the sands of Streedagh Strand, north of Sligo. * * * The Armada evolved against a backdrop of escalating tension between Philip II, overlord of an empire spanning swaths of the Americas and Europe, and Elizabeth Tudor [That is her last name; English monarch usually had or has no last name, but founder of House of Tudor was an aristocrat, Henry Tudor, the Lancastrian who defeated Yorkist and became King Henry VII (and father of Henry VIII]. * * * Elizabeth I [reign 1558 – 1603] was a supporter of Dutch rebellions [Eighty Years' War (1566 – 1648)] against Spanish rule in the 'Low Countries,' and she encouraged notorious 'pirates' such as Francis Drake, who plundered the treasure fleets upon which Spain's power depended. * * * Her ally, the Dutch leader William of Orange, was assassinated by a Spanish agent in 1584.
(i)
(A) Grange, County Sligo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grange,_County_Sligo
(section 1 History, section 1.2 Spanish Armada)
In this Wiki page, click "County Sligo." I the new Wiki page you see see the county colored green in the island of Ireland (where Northern Ireland is pink and Republic of Ireland pale green). County town of County Sligo is Sligo (Irish meaning "abounding in shells").
(B) There is no en.wikipedia.org page for Streedagh Strand, but its French counterpart does.
Modern English dictionary:
* strand (n; from Old English strand of the same meaning; "Cognate with West Frisian strân, Dutch strand, German Strand, Danish strand, Swedish strand, Norwegian Bokmål strand"):
"shore; beach" https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/strand
^ The noun strand to mean fiber has another etymology.
(ii) Philip II of Spain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_II_of_Spain
(reign 1556-1598 (died at 76 years old) )
(iii) Francis Drake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Drake
(c 1540 – 1596)
(iv) William the Silent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_the_Silent
(1533 – 1584; known "more commonly in the Netherlands, William of Orange (Dutch: Willem van Oranje) * * * Born into the House of Nassau, he became Prince of Orange in 1544 and is thereby the founder of the Orange-Nassau branch [of House of Nassau] and the ancestor of the monarchy of the Netherlands")
(A) House of Nassau https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Nassau
("It is named after the lordship associated with Nassau Castle, located in present-day Nassau, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The lords of Nassau were originally titled 'Count of Nassau,' then elevated to the princely class as 'Princely Counts' ")
(B) Nassau, Rhineland-Palatinate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassau,_Rhineland-Palatinate
(now "is a town * * * [that] lies in the valley of the river Lahn between the towns of Bad Ems and Limburg an der Lahn")
does not have etymology.
(C) Nassau: " * * * named for a village in the Lahn valley, from Old High German nass 'wet' " https://www.etymonline.com/word/nassau
(D) Modern German-English dictionary:
* nass (adj): "wet" https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nass
(v)
(A) Prince of Orange https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Orange
("a title originally associated with the sovereign Principality of Orange, in what is now southern France and subsequently held by sovereigns in the Netherlands. The title 'Prince of Orange' was created in 1163 by the [Holy Roman] Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, by elevating the county of Orange to a principality")
(B) Orange (colour) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_(colour)
(section 3 History and art, section 3.1 House of Orange: name)
(C) The resent-day Orange is a commune:
Orange, Vaucluse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange,_Vaucluse
(section 1 Name, section 2 History: "From the 12th century, Orange was raised to a minor principality, the Principality of Orange")
(D) English dictionary:
* principality (n) https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/principality
(E) Frederick Barbarossa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Barbarossa
("He was named Barbarossa by the northern Italian cities which he attempted to rule: Barbarossa means 'red beard' in Italian; in German, he was known as Kaiser Rotbart, which means 'Emperor Redbeard' in English")
was born in present-day France, was elected emperor in 1155. Right away he set out to conquer Italy and got the title King of Italy 1155-1190 (concurrent with emperor title in Holy Roman Empire).
(F) Italian-English dictionary:
* Barbarossa (from [noun feminine] barba 'beard') + rossa 'red') https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Barbarossa
* rosso (adjective masculine; feminine rossa; from Latin adjective masculine russus '(rare) red'): "red" https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rosso
^ There are (southern) Italian surnames Dello Russo (meaning: descendant of Russo) or Russo. Regarding the latter, Dictionary of American Family Names says is: "Italian (southern) [surname]: from the southern Italian variant of the adjective rosso 'red' (see Rosso [which is northern Italian variant of the adjective and surname also]) used as a nickname for someone with red hair a red beard or a ruddy complexion and also as a personal name."
^ Operation Barbarossa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Barbarossa
(section 1 Background, section 1.1 Naming) 作者: choi 时间: 2-2-2023 15:57
(d) "The original proposal for the 'Enterprise of England,' drawn up in 1586 by its designated commander, the experienced marquis of Santa Cruz, envisaged a single amphibious task force. * * * The [land] invasion would be commanded by the king's nephew, Alexander Farnese, duke of Parma. * * * When the marquis of Santa Cruz succumbed to typhus [not to be confused with typhoid fever], the role of organizer was assumed by the duke of Medina Sidonia, despite his reluctance to accept what he regarded as a."
(i) Álvaro de Bazán, Marquis of Santa Cruz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Álvaro_de_Bazán,_Marquis_of_Santa_Cruz
("a Spanish admiral * * * died in Lisbon on 9 February 1588, during the preparations of the Spanish Armada against England")
(A) There are many places in Spain with this name:
Santa Cruzhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Cruz
(e) "In the 1570s, English shipwrights had modified the era's traditional galleon into a sleeker and speedier 'race-built' craft. Unlike the Armada's artillery, which used unwieldy carriages typical of land warfare, English guns were mounted upon compact "trucks" that were far easier to handle aboard ship. While England's western squadron of 105 ships had a complement of only 9,500 men, all were skilled mariners, and even privileged gentlemen were expected to "haul and draw" upon ropes."
(i) What a Spanish galleon looked like in 1588:
(A) Rupert Matthews, The Spanish Armada Abandons the Galleon Nuestra Senora del Rosario. The History Man, Mar 7, 2012
thehistorymanatlarge.blogspot.com/2012/03/spanish-armada-abandons-galleon-nuestra.html
(from the book Rupert Matthews, The Spanish Armada; A campaign in context. The History Press, 2009)
Click the picture to see detail.
(B) That ship was indeed part of Armada. See list of ships of the Spanish Armada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_of_the_Spanish_Armada
(ii) Mark Cartwright, Galleon, World History Encyclopedia, July 23, 2021.
(A) Please read the five paragraphs, starting from "Spanish galleons famously brought to Europe the gold of the Americas and the silver of East Asia via the Spanish Philippines
(B) What is a "beam" in a ship? It is not a mast.
• Glossary of nautical terms (A-L) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_nautical_terms_(A-L)
Quote:
"beam[:] The width of a vessel at its widest point, or a point alongside the ship at the midpoint of its length")
"galleon[:] * * * with * * * squared-off, raised stern, generally carrying three or more masts * * * Galleons were used primarily as armed cargo carriers and sometimes as warships by European states from the 16th to the 18th centuries.
This Wiki page does not include "castle" or "gentleman."
• beam: " * * * The nautical sense of 'one of the horizontal transverse timbers holding a ship together' is from early 13c, hence 'greatest breadth of a ship,' and slang broad in the beam, by 1894 of ships; of persons, 'wide-hipped,' by 1938" https://www.etymonline.com/word/beam
That is The slang broad in the beam has been used to describe a ship or a person, in the latter meaning wide-hipped.
(C) race-built galleon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race-built_galleon
("The description derived from their 'raced' or razed fore-[]and aft-castles, which, combined with their greater length in relation to their beam, gave them a purposeful, sleek look")
Castle (ship part). Encyclopaedia Britannica, undated https://www.britannica.com/technology/castle-ship-part
("Castle, in ship construction, structure or area raised above the main deck for combat or work purposes. The name was derived from early similarities to fortress turrets. The forecastle and aftercastle (or sterncastle) are at the bow and stern of the vessel")
(D) Mark Lardas, Spanish Galleon vs English Galleon. Osprey Publishing, Nov 14, 2020 (blog) https://ospreypublishing.com/us/ ... vs-English-Galleon/
• Please read five paragraphs starting from the sentence: "At first shipboard cannon were seen as adjuncts to boarding battles
• Mark Lardas (Author), Adam Hook (Illustrator), Spanish Galleon vs English Galleon; 1550–1605. Osprey publishing, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/Spanish-G ... -Duel/dp/1472839900
is a book.
Thus in (b)(i) above, the painting https://www.greatbigcanvas.com/v ... ick-cornelisz-vroom,2303047/
has Spanish Galleons in the foreground and English ones in the background. 作者: choi 时间: 2-2-2023 16:04 本帖最后由 choi 于 2-4-2023 09:20 编辑
(f) "at dawn on July 31, 1588, he became aware of another alarming development. During the night, English Adm Charles Howard's fleet had left Plymouth and slipped behind the Armada, gaining the prized following wind, or 'weather gage.' The Armada reacted by adopting its prearranged order of battle -- a crescent, with the horns capable of pivoting to face threats from the rear or front. It was a distinctive formation * * * Interestingly, the authors believe that if the Armada had constituted a self-contained force, as Santa Cruz had first intended, Howard could not have stopped a landing on English soil [this is because English fleet is BEHIND or trailing Armada]."
(i) following wind
(A) point of sail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_of_sail
• The top illustration has caption: "The points of sail: * * * E. Running downwind"
• Text of this Wiki page states, "Craft running downwind increase power from the sails by increasing total [sail] area presented to the following wind * ** "
(B) following wind: "Generally, same as tailwind; specifically, a wind blowing abaft of the beam of a vessel; the opposite of opposing wind [same as headwind]"
American Meteorological society, undated (under the heading "Glossary of Meteorology") https://glossary.ametsoc.org/wiki/Following_wind
is 顺风 in Chinese.
(ii)
(A) weather gage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_gage
("The concept is from the Age of Sail and is now antique. A ship at sea is said to possess the weather gage if it is in any position upwind of the other vessel. * * * An upwind vessel is able to manoeuvre at will toward any downwind point, since the relative wind then moves aft. A vessel downwind of another, in attempting to attack upwind, is constrained to trim sail as the relative wind moves forward and cannot point too far into the wind for fear of being headed")
• The adjective "headed" in "being headed" has no special meaning (ie, is in its ordinary meaning). See, eg, the first sentence in
sailing into the wind https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_into_the_wind
("Sailing into the wind is a sailing expression that refers to a sail boat's ability to move forward despite being headed into (or very nearly into) the wind. A sailboat cannot make headway by sailing directly into the wind * * * Sailing into the wind is possible when the sail is angled in a slightly more forward direction than the sail force. In this aspect, the boat will move forward because the keel (centerline), of the boat acts to the water as the sail acts to the wind. The force of the sail is balanced by the force of the keel. This keeps the boat from moving in the direction of the sail force * * *")
• The rest of this quotation is illustrated in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_of_sail
(section 1 The point of sail, section 1.2 Close-hauled, section 1.2.1 Sailing to windward)
The idea is akin to a train running zigzag to climb a mountain.
• As for the underlying physics, it is like this: Sailing upwind, wind may push sail (and therefore the boat) backward, but the keel of the boat will mitigate that, as water pushes back against the keel.
(B)
• gage (n; "less common spelling of GAUGE"): "3 : relative position of a ship with reference to another ship and the wind" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gage
• gauge or gage (n): "nautical the position of a vessel in relation to the wind and another vessel. One vessel may be windward (weather gauge) or leeward (lee gauge) of the other"
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged. 12th ed. HarperCollins Publishers, 2014 (interestingly, this definition is not found in Collinsdictionary.com, which may not be "Complete and Unabridged") https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Weather+gage
(C) sailing ship tactics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_ship_tactics
introduction: "Sailing ship tactics were the naval tactics employed by sailing ships in contrast to galley tactics employed by oared vessels. This article focuses on the period from c 1500 to the mid-19th century, when sailing warships were replaced with steam-powered ironclads.
section 3 Importance of the weather gage: "Holding the weather, or windward, gage conferred several important tactical advantages. The admiral holding the weather gage held the tactical initiative, able to accept battle by bearing down on his opponent or to refuse it by remaining upwind. The fleet with the lee gage could avoid battle by withdrawing to leeward, but could not force action.
(iii) order of battle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_battle
("Historically, an order of battle was the order in which troops were positioned relative to the position of the army commander or the chronological order in which ships were deployed in naval situations")
(iv) "a crescent, with the horns"
section 3 Execution, section 3.1 Action off Plymouth:
"On July 30, the English fleet was off Eddystone Rocks with the Armada upwind to the west. To execute its attack, the English tacked upwind of the Armada, thus gaining the weather gage, a significant advantage. At daybreak on July 31, the English fleet engaged the Armada off Plymouth near the Eddystone Rocks. The Armada was in a crescent-shaped defensive formation, convex toward the east. The galleons and great ships were concentrated in the centre and at the tips of the crescent's horns, giving cover to the transports and supply ships in between. Opposing them, the English were in two sections, with Drake to the north in Revenge with 11 ships, and Howard to the south in Ark Royal with the bulk of the fleet.
"Given the Spanish advantage in close-quarter fighting, the English kept beyond grappling range and bombarded the Spanish ships from a distance with cannon fire. The distance was too great for the manoeuvre to be effective and, at the end of the first day's fighting neither fleet had lost a ship in action. The English caught up with the Spanish fleet after a day of sailing.
Underneath the above text are four sheets from an atlas. I know, because I click them. In each of them (new Web page), underneath the map is a white band, the second line of which supplies an URL for Royal Museums Greenwich (RMG). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Museums_Greenwich
The rest of the white band, once you roll down, copies content from the respective RMG (Web) page.
(g) "The admiral [Howard] and his subordinates now realized that it was not necessary to destroy the Armada -- to deflect it [so that Armada could not meet Parma and his invasion army (but I wondered how or whether Howard was aware of Grand Design] would be enough to scuttle Spain's 'Grand Design.' Battered but intact, the Armada sailed on into the North Sea, shadowed at a respectful distance by English warships with sickly crews and empty shot lockers * * * Had the Armada been able to take on Parma's forces and disembark them successfully, their siege artillery would probably have made short work of Kent's feeble fortifications. * * * Another find was a ring depicting a hand clasping a heart with the inscription 'No tengo más que darte' -- 'I have nothing more to give you.' * * * the queen's Lord Deputy, Sir William Fitzwilliam, decreed a ruthless reception * * * England's death rate was comparable, mostly due to sickness, hunger and exposure [but far fewer than Armada's combat casualties. See bottom of the table in Wiki for Spanish Armada].
(i) shot locker https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Shot+locker
(from: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. 1913)
(ii) "More than 30 ships were lost off the western coasts of Scotland and Ireland"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Armada
(section 3 Execution, section 3.6 Armada in Scotland and Ireland, plus the map whose caption reads: "Route taken by the Spanish Armada")
(iii) make short/quick/light work of https://www.merriam-webster.com/ ... 20short%20work%20of
(iv) The Spanish sentence "No tengo más que darte" will be explained in the next posting.
(iv) Lord Deputy of Ireland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Deputy_of_Ireland
was the highest official in Ireland. 作者: choi 时间: 2-4-2023 09:23
—-----------------full text
ON SEPT. 21, 1588, a savage storm lashed the western coast of Ireland. As the gale intensified, three bulky ships ran aground on the sands of Streedagh Strand, north of Sligo. Part of a formidable "Armada” sent by King Philip II of Spain to conquer the kingdom of his archenemy, Queen Elizabeth I of England, the armed merchantmen had already made a remarkable odyssey. The mission had taken them from Portugal, through the English Channel in a running fight with the nimble and well-armed warships of the “Virgin Queen,” and then around Scotland on a hazardous homeward passage. Now pulverized by the unrelenting Atlantic surf, the stricken vessels broke apart, with the loss of more than 1,000 lives.
In "Armada: The Spanish Enterprise and England's Deliverance in 1588," Colin Martin and Geoffrey Parker trace the genesis, fate and legacy of a venture that is remembered as a disaster but that, in their estimation, came close to achieving its objective. The authors first met in 1973, and in the half-century since have maintained a fruitful academic collaboration. In a revised and expanded version of a book first published in 1988, the two deliver what will surely become the definitive account of what the Spanish called "the Enterprise of England.”
Mr. Parker, a professor of history at Ohio State University, draws upon his unrivaled mastery of the extensive documentary sources. Mr. Martin, a retired reader in maritime archaeology at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, deploys knowledge he has gained in directing the exploration of three Armada wrecks. Distinguished by incisive analysis, "Armada" fuses the complementary skills of the historian and the underwater archaeologist, exploiting the latest discoveries from the archives and seabed alike to help explain why the endeavor ultimately failed.
The Armada evolved against a backdrop of escalating tension between Philip II, overlord of an empire spanning swaths of the Americas and Europe, and Elizabeth Tudor. Philip enjoyed a papal blessing for his "crusade" against Protestant heretics but also had his own, strategic, reasons for invading England. Elizabeth I was a supporter of Dutch rebellions against Spanish rule in the "Low Countries," and she encouraged notorious "pirates" such as Francis Drake, who plundered the treasure fleets upon which Spain's power depended. Elizabeth, in her 50s and lacking an heir, suspected that Philip was implicated in Catholic plots to oust her. The queen's fears rested upon more than paranoia: Her ally, the Dutch leader William of Orange, was assassinated by a Spanish agent in 1584.
The original proposal for the "Enterprise of England," drawn up in 1586 by its designated commander, the experienced marquis of Santa Cruz, envisaged a single amphibious task force. Philip, an inveterate "micromanager," could not resist meddling with the plan, making it dependent upon close cooperation between the fleet and an entirely separate army. The authors show how this made the mission much more complicated.
Philip was adamant that the Armada should sail up the English Channel and rendezvous in the narrow Straits of Dover with the Spanish "Army of Flanders," which would be stationed in the Netherlands. Whatever the provocation, the Armada was to save its strength until positioned to escort almost 30,000 veterans, packed aboard specially prepared barges, to a beachhead in Kent.
The invasion would be commanded by the king's nephew, Alexander Farnese, duke of Parma. Supplied and reinforced by the Armada, Parma's army was to push inland against London, its flank braced by ships probing the Thames estuary. The king's strategic vision may have been compromised by his religious piety; the extremely devout Philip was confident that God's favor would overcome all difficulties.
The Armada's departure was delayed by the logistical challenge of assembling and supplying such a vast undertaking. In 1587, Francis Drake hampered Spanish preparations by torching stores stockpiled at Cadiz in a pre-emptive strike that he described as "singeing the King of Spain's beard." When the marquis of Santa Cruz succumbed to typhus, the role of organizer was assumed by the duke of Medina Sidonia, despite his reluctance to accept what he regarded as a poisoned chalice. The duke's administrative ability put the Armada on an even keel: By the time it eventually left Iberia, the revitalized force mustered 130 ships carrying 27,000 men. Significantly, though, two-thirds of them were soldiers with scant experience of life afloat.
Philip's master plan rested on the belief that his ships must avoid an artillery duel with the enemy and in- stead discharge their heavy guns at close quarters before grappling and boarding -- a scenario in which, the authors suggest, the Armada's seasoned shock troops would surely prevail [if the Spanish had a chance to get close to English vessels]. At sea, however, the English enjoyed crucial advantages.
"In the 1570s, English shipwrights had modified the era's traditional galleon into a sleeker and speedier 'race-built' craft. Unlike the Armada's artillery, which used unwieldy carriages typical of land warfare, English guns were mounted upon compact 'trucks' that were far easier to handle aboard ship. While England's western squadron of 105 ships had a complement of only 9,500 men, all were skilled mariners, and even privileged gentlemen were expected to 'haul and draw' upon ropes.
The fundamental flaw in Philip's scheme -- the difficulty of communicating with the distant duke of Parma on the continent -- was apparent when Medina Sidonia reached the western entrance to the English Channel without any news of Parma. Soon after, at dawn on July 31, 1588, he became aware of another alarming development. During the night, English Adm Charles Howard's fleet had left Plymouth and slipped behind the Armada, gaining the prized following wind, or "weather gage."
The Armada reacted by adopting its prearranged order of battle -- a crescent, with the horns capable of pivoting to face threats from the rear or front. It was a distinctive formation, conspicuous in the engravings and tapestries that Howard commissioned to commemorate the campaign.
Incurring a handful of losses, the Armada slowly continued up the channel toward its anticipated junction with Parma, rebuffing efforts to stop it. Interestingly, the authors believe that if the Armada had constituted a self-contained force, as Santa Cruz had first intended, Howard could not have stopped a landing on English soil. Instead, on Aug. 6, when the rival fleets anchored across the channel off Calais, they remained in tactical stalemate.
To break the deadlock, the English sent unmanned, blazing fireships to fracture the Armada's dense array. Howard's crews exploited this dislocation and finally unleashed a punishing close-range barrage. The admiral and his subordinates now realized that it was not necessary to destroy the Armada -- to deflect it would be enough to scuttle Spain's "Grand Design."
Battered but intact, the Armada sailed on into the North Sea, shadowed at a respectful distance by English warships with sickly crews and empty shot lockers; the wary pursuit was a risky bluff. Luckily for Howard, a council of war aboard the Armada on Aug 10 decided against turning back in a renewed bid to meet Parma, resolving instead to return to base by rounding northern Britain. For Queen Elizabeth, this had been a close call. "In perhaps only slightly different circumstances," the authors observe, "the Enterprise of England might have been the crowning success of Philip's reign.”
Indeed, although England enjoyed an edge at sea, on land that situation was reversed. Had the Armada been able to take on Parma's forces and disembark them successfully, their siege artillery would probably have made short work of Kent's feeble fortifications. In addition, the Spanish veterans were far superior to the raw militia mustered to oppose them. Elizabeth would likely have lost her head -- just like her mother, Anne Boleyn, and her cousin Mary Queen of Scots.
As the bedraggled Armada limped home, the ships encountered gales that inflicted far worse damage than English gunfire had. More than 30 ships were lost off the western coasts of Scotland and Ireland, and the sites of eight wrecks have been confirmed by archaeological evidence. Recovered items have amplified the documentary record and challenged previous interpretations of events. For example, an assumption that the Armada ran out of ammunition has been debunked by the discovery of numerous cannon balls. Since these were mostly of larger calibers, the authors conclude that, while the Armada used its lighter guns, it was unable to fully deploy the heavier, ship-killing artillery, which fired too slowly.
Wrecks have also yielded poignant personal artifacts, as the book notes. When Belgian diver Robert Sténuit explored the site of the Girona off Northern Ireland in the late 1960s, he retrieved a trove of gold and silver coins, along with a ruby-studded golden pendant in the shape of a salamander, a mythical creature deemed a talisman against fire (but sadly not water). Another find was a ring depicting a hand clasping a heart with the inscription "No Tengo más que darte" -- "I have nothing more to give you."
As ships foundered, exhausted survivors clawed ashore. The luckiest encountered Irish folk who robbed them but spared their lives. Many were less fortunate. Fearing a second Armada, the queen's Lord Deputy, Sir William Fitzwilliam, decreed a ruthless reception: Regardless of rank, the Spanish forces were massacred on the spot or hanged soon after. Months later, distraught relatives and friends of the missing would wander from one port to another seeking to establish their fates.
Of the men who manned the Armada, fewer than half returned to tell the tale. By the authors' estimation, England's death rate was comparable, mostly due to sickness, hunger and exposure. Shamefully neglected by the jubilant Elizabeth and her ministers, English seamen who had fought the Armada were obliged to rely upon charity.
While Philip II stoically accepted defeat as the will of God, Elizabeth and her Dutch allies celebrated the outcome as divine approval for their own cause. In "Armada," Messrs. Martin and Parker eschew taking any side, affording an unprejudiced perspective on an epic confrontation. A similar sense of generous empathy is reflected in the Armada festival staged on Streedagh Strand every September. In a spirit of reconciliation, local people welcome guests from Spain and England alike, planting rows of wooden crosses on the sands to remember men who, far from home, perished there long ago.
Mr. Brumwell's books include the prize-winning "George Washington: Gentleman Warrior."