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Elizabeth | The Spanish Armada | The pirates
Websites
Elizabeth I 1533-1603
www.luminarium.org/renlit/eliza.htm
Comprehensive biography with speeches, letters and a timeline.
The Life and Times of Queen Elizabeth I
www.elizabethi.org
Enthusiast's website that contains a great deal of good information
on the queen and the culture of the time.
Modern History Sourcebook
www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1588elizabeth.html
Has Elizabeth I's speech at Tilbury as she gathered her troops to
fight against the Spanish Armada in 1588.
Books
Big Chief Elizabeth: How England's adventurers gambled and won the
New World by Giles Milton (Sceptre, 2001) £6.99
The author, a contributor to the Channel 4 documentary Elizabeth's Pirates,
vividly evokes the courage and hardships of the 16th-century English colonists,
with first-hand accounts of the mystery surrounding the first English settlements.
Elizabeth, the Queen by Alison Weir (Pimlico, 1999) £9.99
Looks at the private life of Elizabeth I, portrayed as both a woman and a queen,
an extraordinary female in a patriarchal age. Elizabeth's dealings with her
family and her long affair with Robert Dudley are also examined.
Elizabeth Regina: The age of triumph 1588-1603 by Alison Plowden
(Sutton, 2000) £8.99
This concluding part of Plowden's biography presents Elizabeth I at the peak
of her form – tough, vigorous and autocratic, her appetite for the pleasures
and problems of life seemingly unquenchable.
Websites
The English Mercurie 1588
www.adelpha.com/~davidco/History/drake1.htm
Reproduction of a newspaper report of Drake's role in the Spanish
Armada.
The Spanish Armada
www.newadvent.org/cathen/01727c.htm
A scholarly article on the Armada from the Catholic point of view.
The History of the Spanish Armada (1588)
www.pensacola.com/~rbethke/Armada.htm
Enthusiast's site with lots of good information and interesting
questions, such as: 'Why was Philip II's Armada remembered as a naval
engagement when he intended it as an amphibious assault?'
Books
The Voyage of the Armada: The Spanish story by David Howarth
(Cassell, 2001) £6.99
Brilliantly conveys the drama of the Spanish Armada's progress and brings to
life the personalities of the men who influenced its course.
The Spanish Armadas by Graham Winston (Penguin, 2001) £9.99
This account places the three Spanish Armadas (1588, 1596, 1597) in their true
context, as the most spectacular of Spain's continued attempts to return
England to Catholicism, first through friendship, then by marriage and finally
through war.
The Defeat of the Spanish Armada by Garrett Mattingly (Pimlico,
2000) £10.50
First published in 1959, this classic gives a compelling account of the attack
of the Armada and its defeat in the wider European context.
Exploring the Spanish Armada by Winifred Glover (O'Brien Press,
2001) £8.99
Focuses on the court intrigue, the success of the English onslaught, battle
formations, religious crusading and the scattering of Spanish ships against
the Irish coast by violent storms. It also reveals the treasures and historical
artefacts found in the wrecks.
Grand Strategy of Philip II by Geoffrey Parker (Yale University
Press, 2000) £12.95
Looks at Philip of Spain's motivations, priorities and execution of the Armada.
The Spanish Armada by Colin Martin and Geoffrey Parker (Mandolin,
1999) £12.99
Examines startling new evidence from under the sea and the vast archives of
those who shaped the Spanish defeat.
Merchants and Revolution: Commercial change, political conflict and
London's overseas traders, 1550-1653 by Robert Brenner (Verso Books,
2001) £15
Details the transformation of English commerce in the century after 1550, explaining
the factors behind the opening of long-distance commerce to the south and east
and profiling the new colonial traders.
Websites
Trading, Slaving, Piracy and the Spanish Armada
www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/sceptred_isle/page/54.shtml?question=54
Short article from the BBC's 'This Sceptred Isle' website.
Pirate Cove
www.vleonica.com/pirates.htm
Large enthusiast's site with information on about 50 pirates, including
Francis Drake and John Hawkins.
Francis Drake
www.mariner.org/age/drake.html
Short article on Drake's circumnavigation of the world, including
a map showing his major voyages.
Sir Francis Drake
www.mcn.org/2/oseeler/drake.htm
Website written by Oliver Seeler, mainly concerned with his theories about
where Drake landed on the west coast of North America in the summer of 1579,
during his circumnavigation.
Sir Walter Raleigh's American Colonies
www.btinternet.com/~richard.towers/jim/raleigh1.html
Gives detailed information of the expeditions to the New World that
Ralegh financed.
Inuit & Englishmen: The Nunavut voyages of Martin Frobisher
www.civilization.ca/hist/frobisher/frint01e.html
Terrific site from the Canadian Museum of Civilization that concentrates
on Frobisher's encounters with Native Canadians.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert
www.nps.gov/fora/gilbert.htm
Long article about Gilbert, from the Roanoke Revisited Heritage Education
Program.
Sir Richard Grenville and the Last Fight of the Revenge, 1591
www.militaryhistoryonline.com/renaissance/revenge/default.aspx
Article about Grenville's last battle and death, from Military History
Online.
Books
Elizabethan Sea Dogs by Angus Konstam (Osprey, 2001) £9.99
The swashbuckling English sea captains of the Elizabethan era were a particular
breed of adventurer, with a seemingly insatiable appetite for Spanish treasure.
Covers Drake, Ralegh, Hawkins and Frobisher in colourful detail, including
their daring exploits in the New World.
Sir Francis Drake: The queen's pirate by Harry Kelsey (Yale University
Press, 2000) £11.99
Lively biography that shatters the legend of Drake as a pious and brave seaman
and draws on new evidence portraying him as an amoral privateer who never waged
traditional warfare with any success.
Drake and Tudor Exploration by Brian Williams (Heinemann, 1995)
£5.99
Illustrated account of English explorers during the reign of Elizabeth I. Describes
how and why seafarers such as Drake, Frobisher and Ralegh captured treasure,
redrew maps and planted the seeds of an overseas empire.
Martin Frobisher: Elizabethan privateer by James McDermott (Yale
University Press, 2001) £25
Looks at the life and exploits of the adventurous and wilful sea-commander
and privateer, from his voyages in search of his fabled Northwest Passage to
his courageous resistance to the Spanish Armada.
Museums
Ulster Museum
Museums & Galleries of Northern Ireland
Botanic Gardens
Belfast BT9 5AB
Tel: 028 9038 3000
Website: www.ulstermuseum.org.uk
In its 'Treasures of the Armada' exhibition, you can see pieces from the amazing
range of material excavated from the wrecks of the Girona,
the La Trinidad Valencera and the Santa Maria de la Rosa.
Find out more
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