The Spanish Armada by Sam Willis

Author:Sam Willis
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781405933889
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2018-05-03T16:00:00+00:00

After these twin disasters, Medina Sidonia decided to boost the morale and discipline of his men. He tried to achieve this by sending ships through the fleet with gallows erected on deck and hangmen standing by. His message was clear: any loss of resolve would be punishable by death.

It did little to sweep away the cobwebs of suspicion and reproach which were beginning to settle on his men. Medina Sidonia was chosen to command the Armada for his administrative experience, not for his ability to manage or lead men, and when first appointed he had written to the King begging to be bypassed, in his own words ‘possessing no experience of seafaring or of war’. Nowhere is this lack of experience or understanding clearer than in his fleet’s hangmen.

In contrast, Howard, the commander of the English fleet, chose to reward two key men at the next crisis point in the campaign, the battle at the Isle of Wight.

Here was Spithead, an excellent, sheltered anchorage that would allow the Spanish to land some troops. Here also was the moment when Medina Sidonia first considered abandoning his unworkable orders to make contact with Parma in Dunkirk.

The Armada headed for Spithead, still in excellent formation. Now, however, they came to be harried even more closely by the English fleet, which, also in excellent formation, forced the entire body to turn away from its landward course.

Howard was so impressed that, on the deck of his flagship the Ark Royal, he knighted Martin Frobisher and John Hawkins, who had taken command of two divisions of the English fleet in the day’s attack. This reveals Howard for the exceptional commander that he was. Both tactful and generous, he had acute and natural insight into the minds of his men.

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