21: Gloriana - Elizabeth I & The Spanish Armada

19th July 1588, on his ship, the Golden Hinde, Thomas Flemming peered out into the swirling mists off the Lizard peninsula, Cornwall. And here off the very southern most tip of England he waited.

Suddenly he saw them…with crosses on their main sales, ships as far as he could see… bearing down on England.

He had seen all he needed to and Flemming steered a course for the port of Plymouth to raise the alarm that the Spanish Armada had arrived to take Queen Elizabeth’s throne.

Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, and succeeded to the throne of England upon the death of her half-sister, Queen Mary I in 1558.

But is was touch and go as to whether she would ascend the throne of England.

When her father had executed her mother in the 1530’s, Elizabeth had been declared illegitimate by her own father.

Her half-sister Mary had never forgiven Elizabeth’s mother for destroying her own mother’s marriage to Henry. Moreover, not only was she the daughter of, what many Catholics called, “the Great Whore”, she was also a Protestant, a heretic.

That to Mary and to many of her Catholic subjects, was, and continued to be, a huge cause for concern

The ideal solution for Mary was to give birth to a child who could inherit the throne from her.

That however, did not happen.

Mary and her husband, Phillip of Spain, looked at the options available.

Mary & Elizabeth were Henry VIII’s sole surviving children.

Meanwhile, the grand-daughters of Henry’s younger sister whilst legitimate, were Protestant.

The obvious line of succession, as far as Catholics, were concerned was through Henry’s older sister, Margaret.

As you may recall from previous episodes, Margaret had married the King of Scotland and now her, Catholic granddaughter sat on the throne of Scotland - the 15 year old Mary, Queen of Scots.

Mary Stuart was the obvious catholic and legitimate heir to the Tudor crown…with one small problem.

In the April on 1558, 6 months before Mary Tudor was to pass away, her Scottish namesake married the Dauphin of France.

A Catholic match, so far so good.

Unfortunately, even in  Catholic Christendom, there were rivalries, none more so than the one between Spain and France  in there middle of the 16th century.

Phillip was horrified that if the English crown passed to Mary Stuart, England would line up with France (& Scotland) in a war against Spain.

So, in a classic case of “Real Politic”, Phillip urged his wife to pass the crown to her half-sister.

Better a Protestant England than a Catholic one allied to France.

As Queen Mary I drew her last breath on the 17th November 1558, messengers galloped out of St. James’s Palace.

Their destination, Hatfield House, a stately home about 20 miles north of London in Hertfordshire.

And there on bended knees, they gave the news to the Lady Elizabeth and proclaimed the 25 year-old Queen of England.

England rejoiced in their new Queen. She was crowned on the 15th January 1599.

As Elizabeth left the Tower of London en route to Westminster Abbey she must have remembered the last time she was in the Tower, when Mary had imprisoned her there nearly 5 years before after a Protestant Rising. 

Many of Mary’s supporters, including Phillip of Spain, had wanted to execute her but there was a lack of evidence as to her involvement in the plot.

And now, after years of house arrest and walking on egg shells here she was Queen of England.

And her subjects (apart from some Catholics) adored her and cheered her loudly through the streets of London.

Mary had hardly been buried in Westminster Abbey when her widowed husband, made his marriage proposal to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth’s rejection of his hand, was the first of a long-line of royal suitors who failed to woo the Queen of England.

It was also the first sign to Phillip that England was going to travel a separate path from Spain.

But that was 30 years ago and those separate paths were on a collision course.

As a Protestant Queen of the strongest Protestant state in Europe, it was natural that England would been seen as a beacon for those struggling to free themselves from, as they saw it, Catholic tyranny.

That Catholic tyranny was represented by the Catholic super-power, Spain, under Elizabeth’s former brother-in-law.

In the 1560’s a Protestant rebellion broke out in the Netherlands, which at the time was ruled by Spain.

A large Spanish army was sent to suppress the rebellion and the Protestants looked across the North Sea to England for help.

In 1585, the Queen signed the Treaty of Nonsuch (the name of a former palace in south London) promising to supply the Protestants with arms, horses and money.

Phillip saw this as tantamount to a declaration of war by England.

Against her better judgement, Elizabeth was persuaded by her favourite, Robert Dudley, to send an army to the Netherlands. Commanded by Dudley himself, it engaged the Spanish army and came off second best.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth was facing increasing Catholic plots to her throne. Nearly all of them planned to replace Elizabeth with the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots, who was now under house-arrest in England (see my previous episode for that story).

Suffice to say, that the Spanish were more than aware of these plots, which in turn made Elizabeth see them as a dangerous and aggressive enemy.

So Phillip saw Elizabeth interfering in a rebellion in the Spanish Netherlands (including sending Dudley and his soldiers to actually fight his own troops) and so intriguing to remove Elizabeth was fair game.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth saw it in the opposite light - Spain supporting rebels in her own country to oust her and so supporting the Dutch Protestants was a tit-for-tat.

Eventually, when Mary Queen of Scots corresponded in writing with the Babbington Plotters, encouraging them to overthrow Elizabeth and install her as their rightful Catholic queen, Elizabeth acted decisively. Mary was executed in 1587.

But it was at sea that this rivalry came to a head.

For the previous 100 years the Portuguese and then the Spanish had started to explore the world’ oceans, open up new trade routes and establish overseas empires.

The Portuguese had dominated the routes down the west coast of Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope and onwards to the East Indies.

The Spanish had sailed west and had established a massive empire, at the expense of the Aztecs, Incas and other indigenous peoples through Central and South America.

The conquered lands of the Americas were awash with gold.

England had a history of privateers going back to Elizabeth’s grandfather and beyond.

Privateers were essentially state-sponsored pirates.

They were given a charter by the monarch and allowed to raid ships of specific (principally hostile nations). If they were captured or killed it was their problem, they were not officially working for the state.

By the way, the English were not the only ones who played the privateer game. Other European nations did so too, notably the French (who attacked English ships).

The booty captured from those ships was split between the privateers and the monarch.

So the privateers got rich, the monarch got rich and hostile nations lost valuable treasure.

And the Spanish ships travelling from the Americas were laden with treasure.

A rich prize and a nation that seemed to be supporting Catholic plots to overthrow the English Queen.

From the 1570’s English privateers such as John Hawkins, Francis Drake and Martin Frobisher led attacks not just on Spanish ships but also on Spanish ports in the Americas.

Phillip was enraged, especially as the English were not technically attacking him, it was English privateers. 

Often the privateers would also carry out trading and exploration agendas alongside their privateering.

Frobisher found fame searching for the fabled North West Passage around northern Canada.

John Hawkins was the first Englishman to transport slaves across the Atlantic.

Drake had whilst becoming the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, also raided Spanish treasure ships on his voyage.

Phillip was faced with a Protestant England and its queen , who were increasingly flexing their muscles:

Privateers raiding his treasure fleets, Actively supporting the Dutch rebellion, repressing Catholics in England, and executing the main Catholic replacement for Elizabeth.

Phillip finally snapped.

If the English Catholics were unable to rise up and dismiss the heretic Elizabeth, he would do it himself.

He began to assemble a huge fleet - or Armada - to transport a massive army to England.

Even as he prepared the fleet, the English privateers struck once more.

In 1587, just 2 months after the shock of Mary Queen of Scots execution, Francis Drake raided the main Spanish naval port at Cadiz. His attack destroyed 20 ships destined for the invasion of England. Over the next three months, Drake worked his way up the west coast of Iberia, attacking ports such as La Coruna and capturing Treasure ships (treasure ships that were needed to bankroll the invasion).

These attacks on his very home ports, which became known as “the singeing of the King of Spain’s beard” were both an embarrassment and an affront to Phillip. There was no way back from war now.

That “Singeing” had however, bought England time and it wasn’t until July in the following year that Phillip’s invasion fleet could set sail.

On the 12th July 1588, La Felicissima Armada (the Most Fortunate Fleet) set sail from Lisbon.

150 ships carrying 8,000 sailors and 18,000 soldiers sailed north into the Bay of Biscay.

Their aim was to rendezvous with the Spanish Commander in the Netherlands, the Duke of Parma, and escort his army of 30,000 across the English Channel to land in England.

Phillip’s plan was to defeat the English in battle and overthrow Elizabeth - maybe taking the throne himself. After that, England would be returned to the Roman Catholic Church, peacefully if all went well, by the force of the Spanish Inquisition if necessary.

I don’t have the time to go into huge detail about the Spanish Armada, so just to keep our story on track here is a potted history of events.

7 days after the Armada had left Lisbon, it was spotted off the Lizard, in Cornwall, by Thomas Flemming. Beacons were lit, spreading the message to London that the mighty Spanish fleet was close at hand.

Sir Francis Drake in the epitome of calm Englishness, supposedly finished playing a game of ball in Plymouth. That story seems to have been told some time after the event (suggesting it might not have happened). The reality was that an incoming tide meant the English fleet couldn’t put to see - so he had nothing else to do…except play bowls. 

Spanish captains were keen to use that very tide to sail into Plymouth and attack the English ships at anchor (a suitable reprisal for Drake’s attack on Cadiz). The King, however, had given strict instructions.

The Armada was to head up the Channel and escort Parma's invasion - no “if’s or but’s”.

The English fleet now left port to engage them.

Commanded by Lord Howard of Effingham, on the Ark Royal, the second-in command was Drake on the Revenge  and the Rear Admiral was Sir John Hawkins on The Victory.

Isn’t it interesting to see how some of the names of the greatest English and British battleships pass down through the ages - the Ark Royal, the Victory, and The Dreadnought (commanded by George Beeston)?

Frobisher - explorer of the North West Passage and Baffin Island in Canada - was also there commanding the Triumph.

As the Spanish sailed up the Channel they maintained a strict crescent formation but the English ships, which were faster and had both more guns and longer range kept harrying them.

When the massive Spanish fleet moored off Calais the English attacked them with fireships - 8 ships filled with combustible materials which could collide with the Armada setting the wooden ships ablaze.

Rather like the harrying up the channel, the fireships had little material impact on the giant fleet.

But what they did do was force the panic-struck cSpanish captains to break their formation.

The following day the English attacked and once more the already fragmented Spanish fleet started to break apart.

And then the wind began to blow the Spanish northwards, away from Parma’s army.

With the English fleet bearing down on them, the Spanish commander gave the order to sail for home, around the north coast of Scotland.

It took the mighty Armada 3 months to return to Lisbon.

Of the 150 ships that had set out in July, only 65 made it home.

The rest, mainly sunk or wrecked trying to get around Scotland and Ireland.

The defeat of the Spanish Armada was a defining monkey in Elizabeth’s reign and also in England’s growing self confidence.

As the Armada approached, Queen Elizabeth had addressed her troops at Tilbury, awaiting the expected invasion.

Wearing an armoured breastplate, resplendent on a white horse she spoke these defiant words:

“I know I have the body but of a weak, feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.”

It is those words and that defiance shown by the red-haired Tudor Queen that have often been drawn upon to give resilience to future generations when England has been threatened.

There was something deeper too.

Phillip’s Armada had been a catholic crusade.

Accompanied by 180 priests, many sails adorned with crosses and with an implicit aim to conquer England and replace its Protestant Queen.

And his Armada had failed.

The English fleet had held them at bay, but it was the wind that broke up their formation and sent them on their disastrous voyage around the British Isles.

If Phillip’s Armada was a catholic crusade then surely the wind that fragmented that fleet was a sign from God.

Commemorative medals struck to mark the victory bore this inscription:

“He blew with his winds and they were scattered”.

God had blown a Protestant Wind.

Not just to protect Protestant but more specifically, Protestant England.

The Armada helped instils not just a defiance in the English but a growing sense of confidence, that they were on God’s winning side.

In his poem, “The Faeri Queen”, Edmund Spencer called Elizabeth “Gloriana”.

Gloriana - the defiant queen with the heart of a king of England.

This was the high point of the ElizabethanElizabethanElizabethanElizabethan Age.

The English under Sir Walter Raleigh established fledging colonies in North America - the colony named after the Virgin Queen - Virginia.

Along the south bank of the River Thames, theatres such as the Globe burst into life bringing plays from amongst others, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare to the fore. 

Of the 38 plays attributed to Shakespeare, 25 were written between the defeat of the Armada and Elizabeth’s death.

New trading companies - The East India Company and the Levant Company - brought exotic goods from India, North Africa and the Ottoman Empire.

England was firmly on the world stage.

All presided over by Good Queen Bess, the resplendent monarch.

And yet, beneath all the glory cracks were developing.

Despite the victory of the Armada, the English were never able turn it to a decisive advantage at sea.

A counter strike against Spain the following year was defeated and attacks by Grenville on the Azores and Drake on Puerto Rico were ineffective.

In 1596 an attempt at a second “Singeing of the King of Spain’s bears” when an attack on Cadiz by the commander against the Armada, Lord Howard of Effingham, along with two new favourites at court - Sir Walter Raleigh and the Earl of Essex was a failure.

Raleigh two attempts at colonies in Virginia were less than successful…especially when compared to the Spanish colonies in Central and South America.

And Gloriana, was cosmetic.

The makeup and wigs were covering up the fact that Good Queen Bess was now in her 60’s.

The white Ceruse make up that she wore on her face and hands was laced with lead that, rather than staving off old age had a corrosive effect on her skin.

Her teeth were black and starting to fall out.

Around her, the men whom she had relied upon for so long, Robert Dudley, Sir Francis Walsingham and William Cecil had passed away, allowing new ambitious youngsters to rise in the court. Youngsters like Sir Walter Raleigh and the Earl of Essex, who were headstrong when the older generation had been more pragmatic.

The economy was stagnating under a burden of high taxes and bad harvests.

In the countryside, the enclosures of common land and the creation of yeoman farmers created a growing army of “have nots” resulting in a migration to the cities and also a growing crime wave - with cutpurses operating the towns and Footpads ambushing travellers on country roads.

The treasury was being bled dry by a rebellion that had broken out in Ireland in 1593 led by Hugh O’Neill. This “9 Years War” was not only costing the exchequer, it wasn’t going well either.

In 1598 the English suffered one of their worst defeats ever in Ireland, losing 1,500 men at the battle of Yellow Ford.

The following year, the young Earl of Essex personally commanded the English forces and was defeated at Curlew Pass.

Recalled in disgrace, the Earl of Essex attempted a coup in 1601.
 It was put down and Elizabeth ordered his execution.

Two years later, the old queen lay dying at Richmond Palace.

And the question that had plagued her reign still hadn’t been answered.

Who would be her successor?

The carefully cultivated aura of the Virgin Queen had kept Europe’s suitors on tender hooks.

Everything was in with a chance of marrying the Queen of England.

So who would make enemies of her.

It was a good diplomatic move…even Phillip had tried his luck a long time ago.

But now it had run its course.

She had no husband and no children.

As she lay dying, unable to speak, her ministers asked her once more, who was to wear the crown.

As they listen the candidates they received no response.

Finally when the mentioned the King of Scotland, she made a circle in the air…the sign of a crown.

After everything that had happened over so many tumultuous years, the crown of England would be worn by James VI of Scotland  - the son of Mary Queen of Scots .

On the 24th March 1603, Queen Elizabeth I finally passed away.

England’s Golden Age had passed and with it so had the Tudors.

They had lasted just three generations but what an incredible impact they made on England.

England had merged onto the world stage as a confident, defiant, independent-minded nation.

Now England was to embark on a new journey with a new Royal dynasty - The Stuarts.