The Defeat of the Spanish Armada

The Spanish Armada was formed mainly to defeat the English. That goal was never achieved therefore causing a change in the world. King Phillip II was the king of Spain and being Catholic had caused Protestants in the Netherlands to revolt in 1566, but one fact cannot be over looked about this revolt it was assisted by Protestants in England. King Phillip II knew he couldn't conquer the Dutch Protestants without conquering their aiding country England.

King Phillip had tried to marry Elizabeth so he could unite their countries together, but Elizabeth declined. With that idea down the drain he decided to attempt to conquer England. Conquering England would be a great accomplishment for King Phillip II. If he were to dethrone Queen Elizabeth I the Protestant ruler of England he would benefit greatly. By dethroning Queen Elizabeth I he would end the fighting over religion and covert England back to Catholicism. Keeping those ideas in mind he came up with his plan to conquer England.

As king, Phillip needed to organize a fleet. "-insert book quote and site-"This amazing fleet was composed of 130 ships. With these 130 magnificent ships came Alonso PÐ"©rez de GuzmÐ"ÐŽn. He was the duke of Medina-Sidonia and also the leader of the massive armada which consisted of 130 ships. Alonso PÐ"©rez de GuzmÐ"ÐŽn also had to lead the crew of 30,000 men who manned the newly formed Spanish Armada. When King Phillip II established his fleet after two years of preparation they were ready to set out and achieve victory only to be delayed.

In 1587, the Spanish Armada had reached Cadiz, Spain and was delayed due to the English fleet. The English fleet was lead by one Lord Charles Howard but the delay also has to be credited to Sir Frances Drake as well. Sir Frances Drake raided Cadiz, Spain which lead to the delay of the Spanish Armada for nearly a year till July of 1587. On top of the delay the governor of the Netherlands, the duke of Parma, was trying to postpone the incoming war because of the problems with docks in the Netherlands and tried to explain to King Phillip II that he didn't have large enough docks to support his fleet. King Phillip II wouldn't hear of it though and continued on with his plan.

Furthermore the conquest of England was not an option. Philip was unable to suppress a revolt in the tiny Netherlands, where Spain had already gathered troops, which allied with Spain under the Hapsburg crown. Whereas that England, a country with more people and bigger territory, with no historical linkage to the Hapsburg Crown and no entrenched garrison of Spanish soldiers, with all the associated problems presented by a distant island nation. The contingency of a Spanish conquest of England was out of the question. However, King Philip has a straight-forward plan of the English and a Spanish victory to deal a devastating punch to the inclination of Protestant forces on the Continent, and therefore both sides prepared for a brutal meeting during 1587.

The plan of the Spanish was to transport to the well trained armed forces of Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma, the dexterous and efficient general of Philip's armies in the Netherlands, and maybe the most daunting opponent in Europe during that period. Protestant Dutch naval forces and pirates had endangered Parma enough that he held any potential invasion fleet in barges all across the canals and channels of the Netherlands and northern France. Philip conceived the Spanish Armada, a force of nearly 130 ships-many of them Mediterranean-style galleons- and almost 30,000 soldiers, to be led by the Duke of Medina Sidonia. He believed that Parma could gather and transport his fleet to England only with the support of an escort to meet with him in the English Channel. The plan was prolonged both by Drake's Sack of Cadiz in 1587 and stormy weather, but in May of 1588, Medina Sidonia's fleet set sail from Lisbon.

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