The Spanish Armada started with a jealousy act by King Philip II of Spain. After his wife Mary died, he asked to marry her sister Elizabeth. Elizabeth replied with a no and the rivalry began. Elizabeth was busy combining and compromising the religions of her father and sister. She was working on making the Catholic and Church of England churches as one. As she was going about doing this, King Philip II was trying to get Elizabeth to keep England Catholic. He wanted to bring back the “true church” and to bring back and reopen some old churches and lands King Henry VIII had sold.
King Philip II’s plan for restoring England was a fleet of ships. He had two main purposes for this fleet: To protect the Duke of Parma’s ships from attack and to carry supplies. Yet a problem occurred. The Armada army and Parma’s army never actually held a meeting to discuss each other’s plans. Many more problems occurred with communication, weather, and other armies interfering.
King Philip II put in charge the Duke of Medina Sedonia of the fleet. The Duke was not interested to go, and asked to be dismissed. However, King Philip II said no and kept the “land warrior” in charge of the ships. Even though the Spanish were trying to keep things quiet and took many precautions, the English knew about the plan of attack. Sir Francis Drake, leader of the English fleet, sailed a small English ship that was on fire towards a large number of Spanish ships. The English ship burned and sunk many ships and left before the Spanish could do anything in return. The Armada returned home and was sent out on their second voyage in July 1588.
The supposedly “Invincible Armada” had over 130 ships and 30,493 men sailing in the fleet; it turns out, though, that the Armada was not as equipped as they could have or should have been. Many of the ships weren’t built for wars, but instead to hold cargo. But, the Spanish didn’t want to engage in a battle with the English. The ships were just supposed to carry the men to a landing point and then drop them off. The Spanish were supposed to sail up the English Channel and meet the Duke of Parma, leader of the Spanish fleet in the Netherlands. The Duke of Parma resented the Duke of Medina Sedonia and did very little to help.
Philip made many mistakes with the Armada. First of all he put himself in charge, which wouldn’t have been bad, except for the fact that he wouldn’t listen to others ideas or inputs and he had very little military intelligence. He also didn’t meet with his commanders very often, leaving poor communication and confusion between him and his commanders. He believed that God was guiding him and that his mission would be a successful one. The English had beacons set up and sent word that the Spanish fleets had been spotted: July 19, 1588.
When the Spanish were sailing up the Channel, an English fleet met them. Both fleets were about equal with number of ships, but since the Spanish hadn’t prepared themselves correctly, the English fleet outnumbered the Spanish when it came to artillery and maneuverability. The English had quite a few fire ships that they let the tide carry towards the Spanish. The Spanish had prepared for the English’s tactic and slipped anchor.
On July 29, the English and Spanish met in yet another battle. The Duke of Medina Sedonia wanted to return home to Spain; however, the English had blocked the Channel at the southern exit causing the Spanish fleet to sail north around Scotland and Ireland in order to return home. By the time they arrived home, many soldiers had died because of disease and ships were lost due to weather.