The Tudor Navy and Spanish Armada

 

The Tudor Navy and Spanish Armada

Elizabeth’s conquest of the Spanish Armada is one of her important achievements. It made the supremacy of England’s navy.

Cause of the naval battle

Queen Elizabeth remained a virgin all her life. She gave false promises of marriage to a large number of men in order to keep them subordinate to herself. It was her trick in the political game. Philip II, the king of Spain, was one of the men. He was deeply disappointed when she abandoned him. It created a friction between the two countries.

Spain was monarch of the sea for long. Spanish traders were troubled by English pirates.These  pirates were called sea-dogs. Philip’s galleon had colonized Portugal, Southern and Central America, and Indies. The Spanish galleons looted these countries and brought their gold and silver to Spain.

The Tudor monarchs wanted to have a share in the growing maritime trade. Henry VIII supported John Calbot who discovered Labrador. A team of private merchants from England established trade contacts with South America. A new English company called ‘The Company of Merchant Adventures’ was formed. Sebestian Calbot, son of John Calbot was the Chief of the company. It had trade with Baltic and Scandinavian markets.

John Hawkins, was a famous navigator, who brought negroes in West Africa and sold them at a huge profit to the Spaniards in America to work in their mines. Philip disliked the intrusion of Hawkins and tried to capture him. Hawkins escaped and returned to England. In the same way Fancis Drake and Martin Frobisher also looted the Spaniards. Queen Elizabeth supported Hawkins, Drake and Frobisher and gave them jobs in her navy.

Philip sponsored Mary, Queen of Scots. He planned to throw out Elizabeth and make Mary the queen of England. Her execution and the suppression of the Catholics in England angered Philip. Drake sailed into the harbor of Cadiz and sank a Spanish ship, so Philip declared an open war against England.

The Spanish fleet called the Armada anchored in the shape of the crescent moon. It was captained by the Duke of Medina Sidonia. It consisted of one hundred and thirty ships. The horns of the crescent were seven miles long. The Spanish ships were huge merchant ships. They were unfit for war. The English fleet was captained by Lord Howard of Effingham and assisted by Hawkins, Drake and Frobisher.

The Spanish ships were anchored off Calais. At night the English admiral set fire to some old ships of his and let the wind carry them. The ships were loaded with inflammable material. On seeing this moving inferno, the Spanish sailors panicked. They sailed in confusion. The English sailors pursued them and destroyed most of them. This was a decisive victory for England.

The victory of England was greeted by the Protestants both in England and abroad. They considered this as God’s punishment for Philip’s action. Having gained naval supremacy, England was able to establish many colonies unhindered by rivals. After this, Elizabeth started to concentrate on internal problems and work for the progress of England.