English naval forces defeat the Spanish Armada - July 29th, 1588

On this day in 1588, the Spanish Armada was defeated by an English naval force off the coast of Gravelines, France.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio, Hello and welcomed. This Day in History Class,
a show that talies the winds and losses of everyday history.

(00:20):
I'm Gay Blusier, and today we're looking at a key
victory in the Anglo Spanish War, one that helped establish
England as a world power and that forever changed the
shape of naval warfare. The day was July. The Spanish

(00:43):
Armada was defeated by an English naval force off the
coast of Graveleen, France. Two months earlier, King Philip the
Second of Spain had dispatched his sizeable fleet as part
of a plan to invade and conquer England. Things went
awry when bad weather for the armata back to Spain,
giving England plenty of time to prepare for the impending attack.

(01:06):
When the Spanish fleet was finally sighted off the coast
of Cornwall on July, they were greeted by a heavily
armed English navy led by Lord Charles Howard and Sir
Francis Drake. Two days later, they began bombarding the Spanish
ships from a distance, eventually chasing them up the English
Channel to the coast of Calais, France. It was there

(01:27):
that the English pressed their advantage by launching a surprise
attack in the early hours of July. The battle lasted
eight hours, but when the smoke cleared, England stood victorious
and the Spanish armada, once thought invincible, was forced to
retreat in shame. Spain had been on much friendlier terms

(01:49):
with England during the reign of Queen Mary the First.
First starters, she was married to Spain's King Philip the Second,
but more importantly to Spain, at least Mary, he had
restored Catholicism to her otherwise Protestant country. She spilled a
lot of blood in pursuit of that goal, though prompting
many of her own subjects to dub her Bloody Mary.

(02:12):
Her brutal reign ended with her death in fifteen fifty eight,
and she was succeeded by her younger half sister, Elizabeth
the First. Although King Philip was technically her brother in law,
he still extended a marriage offer to the new queen,
though understandably she refused, and just in case that rejection
didn't sting badly enough, Elizabeth also reimposed Protestantism in England.

(02:37):
Philip considered this heresy, and relations between Spain and England
soured quickly from there. Three decades later, war still hadn't
been formally declared, but Philip was ready to attack all
the same. By that time, English raids had become a
serious hindrance to his country's trade, and if that weren't
bad enough, England was also jeopardizing Spain's foothold. In the Netherlands.

(03:02):
Protestant Dutch rebels had begun to fight back against Spanish occupation,
and Queen Elizabeth offered support to that rebellion. Fed up
with England's interference, King Philip began building a vast fleet
of ships and making preparations to launch a full scale invasion.
He was supported in this effort by Pope Sixtus the Five,

(03:24):
who hoped to restore Catholicism and the power of Rome
to England. The Spanish Armada was completed by the fall
of fifty seven, but its departure had to be delayed
until the following year after Sir Francis Drake led a
crippling raid on the fleets supplies. It was an infuriating setback,
one that only stoked Spain's resolve for the invasion. At last.

(03:48):
On May nine, fifty eight, the one hundred and thirty
ships Spanish Fleet set sail from Lisbon, Portugal. It was
armed with twenty five hundred guns and carried roughly twenty
eight thousand soldiers and crew. The plan was to seize
control of Flanders on the border of the English Channel,
and then ferry troops across to the Kent coast to

(04:11):
launch an overland assault on London. Unfortunately for the Spanish,
the weather didn't cooperate. Powerful storms routed the fleet back
to Spain and they weren't able to set out again
for several weeks. By the time they finally reached the
southern coast of England on July, the English Navy was
ready for them. The English fleet was composed of about

(04:34):
two hundred ships and was commanded by Lord Charles Howard
aboard the Ark Royal and by Sir Francis Drake aboard
the Revenge. The commanders lit beacons to alert their countrymen
to the seven mile long line of ships headed their way,
and once the armada had sailed a little closer, they
began firing their long range heavy guns to halt the advance.

(04:56):
Over the next few days, a handful of Spanish ships
were s by the cannon fire, but the majority continued
to push their way up the English Channel, pursued all
the while by Howard's fleet. After about a week of
minor skirmishes, the Armada anchored in the harbor of Calais, France,
to wait for reinforcements from the Spanish Netherlands. The invasion

(05:18):
was beginning to look like a lost cause, though. Even
if the extra troops were able to reach the Spanish
ships before the British caught up with them, they hadn't
secured the English Channel, which meant safely crossing to England
was virtually impossible. The Spanish fleet was slower and less
heavily armed than their opponents. That's largely because Spain was

(05:39):
still taking a traditional approach to naval warfare, preferring to
attack by sailing up alongside an enemy vessel, boarding it,
and then seizing control through close quarter combat. The Spanish
infantry was well trained in this offensive tactic, and if
the British hadn't kept them at bay with their long
range fire, they likely would have gotten the upper hand.

(06:01):
It was in England's best interest, then, to not give
Spain the opening to launch that kind of boarding attack,
and so shortly after midnight on July the English decided
to take advantage of their enemies exposed position. They took
eight of their oldest ships, loaded them with anything and
everything that would burn, and then directed the burning ships

(06:24):
straight toward the harbor at Calais. The sight of the
flaming ships sparked a panic among the Spanish. They immediately
cut their anchors and sailed out to sea, completely breaking
their defensive formation in the process. At dawn, the English
caught up to the splintered Armada off the coast of
grave Lein and began bombarding them with cannon fire all

(06:46):
over again. Eight hours later, and the Spanish were finally
ready to call it quits. Their invasion of England had
been a total bust, and their trip back to Spain
wouldn't be any easier. The fastest out to Spain was
blocked by the British, so the Armada had to retreat
up towards the North Sea instead. From there they hoped

(07:07):
to take the long way home by sailing around Scotland
and Ireland. That arduous journey wound up taking the better
part of three months, and along the way the Spanish
fleet was decimated both by storms and by a lack
of vital supplies. In the end, Spain lost half of
its one hundred and thirty ship fleet in its failed invasion,

(07:29):
along with more than fifteen thousand men. It was a
decisive victory for Queen Elizabeth, the first for England and
for the Protestant faith. The Battle of Graveleen also marked
a turning point to naval warfare, putting an end to
the old method of boarding and taking over ships in
favor of just blasting them out of the water from

(07:50):
long range. That shift in tactics cast doubt on Spain's
ambitions for world conquest, clearing the path for the British
to give it a try themselves. I'm Gabe Lousier and
hopefully you now know a little more about history today
than you did yesterday. If you have a second and

(08:11):
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