The Spanish Armada campaign of 1588 is reconstructed as a sequence of naval decisions rather than as a single climactic battle. The account follows the Spanish fleet’s movement up the English Channel, English efforts to harass and contain it, the attempted junction with forces in the Low Countries and the eventual dispersal after the fighting off Gravelines.
Orders of battle and command structures are used to compare the strengths and limitations of the opposing fleets, while the narrative reassesses familiar claims about ship design, gunnery and tactics. The final sections consider the Armada’s difficult return around Scotland and Ireland and the wider consequences of Philip II’s failed attempt to secure control of the Channel and support an invasion of England.
Julian Stockwin
29 books
Christopher Nicole
49 books
Geoffrey Trease
44 books
Colin Falconer
22 books