The Spanish Armada

The death of Mary gave Philip an immediate claim to the English throne. He did not want that throne for himself, but wished to establish his favorite daughter, Isabella, as queen of England; and with this end in view he hurried forward the preparations for the great Armada, which had been going on in dilatory fashion for two years. In England, as well as in Spain, the execution of Mary Queen of Scots had caused a great shock. Conspirators were discouraged. Moderate Catholics, who had been ready to support the cause of Mary Stuart as long as she lived, would not transfer their allegiance to Philip, because in so doing they would have been disloyal to their nationality. They now stood shoulder to shoulder with the Protestants in resisting Philip's aggression. Protestants rejoiced in the death of the Catholic queen and showed their devotion to England and Elizabeth in demonstrations of loyalty. The foreign powers, willing perhaps to aid Philip in conquering England for the Catholics, would not raise a finger to aid him in increasing the territory and power of Spain. The pope, Sixtus V, though anxious to bring England back into the fold of the church, strongly opposed Philip's proposal to seize the English throne for Isabella. The great duel was to be between mediaeval, ecclesiastical, autocratic Spain on one side, and young, national, Protestant England on the other. All other powers held aloof. Preparations for the great expedition, which had been hastened by the death of Mary Stuart, were delayed by Drake's attack on Cadiz in the spring of 1587, whereby damage to the extent of a million ducats was inflicted on Spain. Philip was enraged at Drake's insolence, and even Burghley, who was still struggling to preserve the peace, was angry. But the English people were delighted at this "singeing of the Spanish king's beard" and made Drake a national hero.

At last, in the summer of 1588, the Armada started for England, reaching the Channel in July. It presented an imposing array of one hundred and thirty-two vessels, but was in fact ponderous and unwieldy, badly equipped and provisioned, and commanded by an incompetent admiral, the duke of Medina Sidonia. Confronting it were the English ships, light in tonnage and few in number, but manned by experienced crews and led by Drake, Hawkins, Frobisher, and others, the heroes of a hundred sea-fights. The plan of the Armada was to sail to Flanders, take on board six thousand of Parma's men, and land them on the English or the Scottish coast. But the great fleet never reached Flanders. Beset on every side by the English vessels during its voyage up the Channel, it was finally utterly defeated in a hard fight off Gravelines and compelled to take flight northward through the North Sea. Still further harassed by the storms of the north coast, it suffered final disaster in rounding Scotland and Ireland, and only fifty-three vessels ever again reached Spain.

After the Armada: Significance of the Victory

The defeat of the Armada did not by any means destroy the power of Spain, and for a decade Englishmen constantly feared a renewal of the attack. A counter expedition in 1589 was led by Drake and Essex against Spain, for the purpose of aiding Don Antonio, claimant to the throne of Portugal, which had been annexed by Philip to Spain in 1580. But the expedition failed. During the years that followed, -while Englishmen watched for a second armada and suspected Jesuit plots, English vessels continued to prey on Spanish fleets and to bring home rich prizes. In 1596 their suspicions were nearly realized. An armada, planned to land a strong Spanish army on the coast of Ireland for the aid of Tyrone, was destroyed by storms, October 28, off Cape Finisterre. Then Lord Howard, Essex, and Ralegh sailed boldly into the harbor of Cadiz, and after destroying the shipping, captured and sacked the city. Another similar expedition in 1597 failed.

These acts of retaliation marked the close of the conflict. All were weary of the struggle and desired that it should end. In France and England the great religious war was over. In the former, Roman Catholicism had won; in the latter, Protestantism. France had emerged from her period of civil war a united Catholic state. Henry IV had renounced Protestantism in 1593, had made his peace with the Huguenots in 1598 by granting religious toleration in his edict issued from Nantes, and in the same year had made peace with Philip in the treaty of Vervins. England, rich and prosperous, had become a national and Protestant kingdom, no longer in the leading strings of France and Spain, but independent and self-reliant, ready for the great future that was before her. Philip lay dying in the mountains of Guadarrama,' knowing that England was lost to Catholicism, and that his own country was exhausted. In the same year Burghley died in London. With the exception of the queen, he was the greatest of those who had won for England her victory. Events had often thwarted his policy, but in the main it had prevailed. That it was a useful policy was shown later when Burghley's son and successor, Robert Cecil, in order to prevent Flanders from falling into the hands of France, united England and Spain in an alliance which lasted for twenty-five years.