Spanish Armada

TASK 1. This is an extract from a letter to the English government which gives details about the progress of the Armada.

·         How useful do you think this information would be to the English government?

In my opinion this letter had a lot of useful information that was used to prepare the defense of the United Kingdom and also to have the details of the ships, leaders, sailors and soldiers of the Spanish Armada.

·         Why were there more soldiers than sailors?

There were around 11000 soldiers, because the intention of Phillip II was to conquer England to expel Isabel I of England because she was not catholic and was supporting protestant rebels from Flanders.

Phillip II was a catholic king and wanted that the whole Europe was catholic too.

TASK 2. This is a report from Lord Howard of Effingham, the Admiral of the English fleet.

·         How do you think the news that the Spanish Armada had been sighted was able to reach Lord Howard so quickly when he was at Plymouth, over a hundred miles away?

The letter was able to reach on time to the English Government because the ship called Golden Hind saw the Spanish ships in a daily review of the sea near the UK cost. The watchers in the coast fired a light that was repeated until Plymouth, where the English army was. As a consequence of that, this message reached the UK government.

·         Why do you think Howard complained to Walsingham about the wind?

This meteorological fact was very important in order to favor the landing of the Spanish troops.

·         Howard says that the Spanish fleet was ‘soe strong’. What made it strong?

The Spanish Armada was so strong because it was composed by 120 ships, with 4 galleasses and many big ships.

TASK 4. An extract from a Spanish captain’s account of the events. He had survived after being shipwrecked on the Irish coast and was then interrogated by the English, but eventually returned home to Spain.

·         The Spanish Armada fought the English fleet for two days without losing any ships. What happened next that changed this?

This day 25 English ships came to Callis to support the ones that were there, and in the night, they sent 6 fired ships into the Spanish army anchored in Callis making a great ship burned and more ships go away.

·         Why was it a good thing that the Spanish plans were stopped?

Because the Spanish had planned to see the prince of Parma that was giving the army 7000 men to join them and invade England.

Also, was a good thing because the ships that went into the sea suffered a terrible weather the next days, changing the wind direction and making the English have advantage so they were fired by the English army.

·         If you could change one thing to give the Spanish a better chance of winning what would it be and why?

In my opinion the worst fact the election of the Duke of Medina Sidonia as the leader of the Spanish fleet. He was the general captain of the Spanish army but he was a man with no experience in maritime fighting. His decisions went from bad to worse.

·         The English celebrated their victory with a medal saying ‘God Blew and they were Scattered’ – how would the Spanish have explained their defeat?

The Spanish troops justified their defeat in the bad military organization, their bad leader and also due to the meteorological conditions they suffered.

TASK 6. Explain in a short paragraph why many people thought that God had helped the English defeat the Spanish Armada.

They thought that God had helped them because the wind pushed the Spanish fleet first against the Dutch coast and afterwards to the North, and looked as if God didn´t wanted them to fight, he didn´t let the Spanish conquer England. And that´s why England won.