The armada's contribution to the tenacious survival of Spanish hegemony.

In this dramatic hour-by-hour, blow-by-blow account of the Spanish Armada's attempt to destroy Elizabeth's England, Robert Hutchinson spins a compelling and unbelievable narrative. After the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558, Protestant England was beset by the hostile Catholic powers of Europe, including Spain. In October 1585, King Philip II of Spain declared his intention to destroy Protestant England and began preparing invasion plans, leading to an intense intelligence war between the two countries and culminating in the dramatic sea battles of 1588. Popular history dictates that the defeat of the Spanish Armada was a David versus Goliath victory, snatched by plucky and outnumbered English forces. In this tightly written and fascinating new history, Robert Hutchinson explodes this myth, revealing the true destroyers of the Spanish Armada—inclement weather and bad luck. Of the 125 Spanish ships that set sail against England, only 60 limped home, the rest wrecked or sank with barely a shot fired from their main armament. Using everything from contemporary eyewitness accounts to papers held by the national archives in Spain and the United Kingdom, Hutchinson re-creates one of history's most famous episodes in an entirely new way.

Combining approaches and insights from cultural, social and military history this study traces the evolution and decline of the Spanish officer corps and general staff during the Eighty Years War in connection with contemporary trends such as modernization and aristocratization.

The reasons behind the disastrous demise of the Spanish Armada are explored four hundred years later using new evidence found in archives and under the sea

Many of the most significant studies devoted to Ambrogio Spinola have focused on one particular aspect of his life: his successful military career. This volume, through its interdisciplinary and cultural approach, breaks open this all too narrow perspective and expands our understanding of Spinola and his world. As a great military strategist and Catholic knight, entrepreneur in the international finance market, courtier, and diplomat, Spinola was certainly a Genoese, but he was also a member of the transnational Iberian elite, to which he linked his fate and that of his children. His life's journey between Italy, Flanders, and Spain, and the reinterpretations of his life by his contemporaries in art, literature, and the press, give us the opportunity to reflect on the multiple identities and the physical and mental wanderings of many Europeans of the Early Modern Age. Ambrogio Spinola offers an example of humanity that is impossible to capture in a single reading and is much more contemporary than we can imagine. Ambrogio Spinola between Genoa, Flanders, and Spain allows the reader to better understand not only his military activities, but also (and above all) the family, social and political foundations of his successful career, as well as the various forms of art and communication (literature, architecture, paintings, sculptures, engravings, newspapers, etc.), which were used to celebrate him both during his life and beyond.

This book examines the large but neglected topic of the development of maritime power from both an historical and a contemporary point of view. Navies have never been more important than they are now, in a century becoming, as widely expected, increasingly and profoundly maritime. The growing competition between China and Russia with the United States and its allies and partners around the world is essentially sea-based. The sea is also central to the world's globalised trading system and to its environmental health. Most current crises are either sea-based or have a critical maritime element to them. What happens at sea will help shape our future. Against that background, this book uses both history and contemporary events to analyse how maritime power and naval strength has been, and is being, developed. In a reader-friendly way, it seeks to show what has worked and what has not, and to uncover the recurring patterns in maritime and naval development which explain past, present and future success - and failure. It reflects on the historical experience of all navies, but in particular it poses the question of whether China is following the same pattern of naval development illustrated by Britain at the start of the 18th century, which led to two centuries of naval dominance. This book will be of much interest to students of maritime power, naval studies, and strategic studies, as well as to naval professionals around the world.

The definitive history of the Spanish Armada, lavishly illustrated and fully revised “Will surely become the definitive account.”—Stephen Brumwell, Wall Street Journal In July 1588 the Spanish Armada sailed from Corunna to conquer England. Three weeks later an English fireship attack in the Channel—and then a fierce naval battle—foiled the planned invasion. Many myths still surround these events. The genius of Sir Francis Drake is exalted, while Spain’s efforts are belittled. But what really happened during that fateful encounter? Drawing on archives from around the world, Colin Martin and Geoffrey Parker also deploy vital new evidence from Armada shipwrecks off the coasts of Ireland and Scotland. Their gripping, beautifully illustrated account provides a fresh understanding of how the rival fleets came into being; how they looked, sounded, and smelled; and what happened when they finally clashed. Looking beyond the events of 1588 to the complex politics which made war between England and Spain inevitable, and at the political and dynastic aftermath, Armada deconstructs the many legends to reveal why, ultimately, the bold Spanish mission failed.

The confrontation between Spain and the Dutch Republic was a key factor in European and world history. In this collection, Jonathan Israel explores the various aspects of this many-sided struggle, at the level of government policy, military strategy and diplomacy; and in respect of the differing fortunes of regions, towns and groups, and the Sephardic Jews.

Revised second edition of the classic study, looking at Habsburg Spain's handling of the Dutch Revolt.

With the launch of the Spanish Armada in 1588, England suffered its greatest threat since the Norman invasion some 500 years before. This book details the background to the campaign, the opposing fleets, and the whole campaign, including the Armada's disastrous return voyage around Scotland and Ireland.