Elizabeth's Pirates

The Armada

Introduction | Spain v England
Myth and fact | Map: The Spanish Armada

Myth and fact

The attack of the Spanish Armada in 1588 – when plucky little England smashed mighty Catholic Spain – has come down to us as a truly David and Goliath moment. But is this really what happened? Here we attempt to winnow out the truth from the heroic tales that have sprung up over the last 400 years.

Myth
The Armada was a surprise attack.

Fact
An attack had been brewing for several years and England knew it was coming. Spain and England were fiercely at odds: each state supported rebellions against the other, and English piracy against Spanish ships was a continuing grievance for Philip II. The English knew that Spain was amassing a fleet for future action, and in the mid-1580s, it reconstructed its own fleet to meet the threat. In the summer of 1588, England not only knew – through a leaked document – that the Armada was on its way, it knew its exact size and firepower.

Myth
The trigger for the launch of the Armada was Francis Drake's attack on Spanish ships in Cadiz harbour – when he was said to have 'singed the king of Spain's beard'.

Fact
The raid on Cadiz took place in 1587, when Philip's preparations for war were already well under way. In fact, the raid actually delayed the sailing of the Armada because it put 24 Spanish ships out of action.

Myth
The attack of the Armada was an attempt to invade and conquer England. The ships carried huge numbers of Spanish troops, armed with siege engines and other land-war weapons as well as cannon for fighting at sea.

Fact
Philip did not really believe he could conquer England. But he did intend to land troops and march on London, to force Elizabeth to negotiate. And the Armada was heavily equipped for a land war. However, when it sailed into the Channel from the west, its main fighting force – the duke of Parma's 18,000-strong army – was not yet aboard. The Spanish plan was to sail up the Channel to the Low Countries (Belgium), rendezvous with Parma's army and escort them to a landing in Kent. Poor communication meant the rendezvous was never made.

Myth
When the Armada was sighted, Francis Drake was playing bowls on Plymouth Hoe. In a characteristic display of bravado, he finished the game before he took to sea.

Fact
There's no evidence that Drake was playing bowls at the time. But if he was, he might as well have gone on to finish his game, as the English fleet couldn't get out of the harbour. The wind was blowing from the south-west and the tide was coming in, trapping the ships in port for several hours. Still, at least that gave the ships' commanders time to round up their crews from taverns and lodging houses all over town.

Myth
Sir Francis Drake led the British fleet against the Armada.

Fact
Charles Howard of Effingham was the lord admiral of the fleet and sailed in the flagship, the Ark Royal. Drake was vice-admiral, in the Revenge, and Sir John Hawkins was rear-admiral, in the Victory. After the initial battles, Howard organised the fleet into four independent squadrons commanded by himself, Drake, Hawkins and Sir Martin Frobisher.

Myth
The Spanish Armada was bigger and more powerful than the English fleet.

Fact
When the Armada sailed into the Channel, it was in a crescent formation seven miles wide. It looked vast, but consisted of just 130 ships to the English fleet's 197. Many of the Spanish ships were hulks, carrying land weapons and supplies but ill-equipped to defend themselves. On their fighting ships, the Spanish had bronze cannon that were slow to reload; the English iron cannon could fire almost three times as fast. Many of the key English ships had been built with low forecastles, making them faster and more manoeuvrable than their Spanish counterparts. In almost every respect, the English fleet was the more technologically advanced fighting force.

Myth
The English outclassed the Spanish with seamanship and flair.

Fact
Yes and no. The English were skilled mariners and they fought the Armada with courage and expertise. But their strategy was to engage in long-range cannon battles. It was the Spanish who took the more piratical approach, attempting to board the English ships with grappling hooks and fight hand to hand. The English sailors easily steered their nimble ships away.

Myth
The English defeated the Spanish in battle.

Fact
The so-called 'battle' of the Armada was a series of inconclusive engagements during which the Spanish fleet struggled up the English Channel. Several ships were damaged and one Spanish ship accidentally exploded, but no ship on either side was sunk or destroyed by enemy fire. On the night of 7 August, the English used fireships (small ships packed with inflammables and set alight) to scatter the Armada. Then storms swept the Spanish into the North Sea, and they were scattered round the Scottish coast, and many ended up wrecked off Northern Ireland.

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