Third Spanish Armada

The war with Spain and England had been going on for nearly twelve years and both sides had achieved little in their goals. The result of the intervention of Philip II in the religious war in France in support of the Catholic League, meant that the Spanish had established coastal garrisons along the French and Flemish coast by the 1580s. These bases had a huge strategic value because they allowed England to be threatened by the Spanish fleet and troops. The Spaniards had captured Calais in 1596 which meant that an invasion of England could be more achievable. As a result, after desperate French demands to keep her from signing peace with Spain, the English signed the Triple Alliance with the Dutch Republic and France. England had sent an armada the next year under the Earl of Essex and Charles Howard to Cádiz which was captured and sacked. An angered Philip soon after took into consideration the defence of the peninsula. Just after they set off however the fleet was obliterated in autumn storms off Cape Finisterre causing severe losses in ships (including a few galleons known as the Apostles), men, supplies, and money. The cost was ruinous; the two ships carrying the pay-chests disappeared below the waves. As a result, the Cortes was asked to be dissolved by Philip and a financial crisis loomed. The Cádiz defeat, the failure of the Armada, as well as the war in France and the Netherlands that year meant that Philip's nation went into bankruptcy; the third of his reign. The formation of the Triple Alliance meant that grain from abroad was harder to obtain. The Armada Pedro Lopez de Soto, of Castile, the Secretary of the Adelantado, was to command the fleet. The whole force, according to Lopez de Soto's estimate was huge in terms of men, ships, and supplies. The Spanish King however intervened and ordered an attack on Brest to divert troops from the garrisons in the Low Countries. When news came however that the English had sailed in force again under Essex, and were first on the coasts of the Peninsula, and then cruising round the Azores to capture the treasure fleets, there was shock at the Spanish court. The other target as a failsafe as well as a strategic diversion was Milford Haven in Wales, a good landing ground from which Henry VII had landed his men to defeat King Richard III in 1485. A Spanish observer had noted that Milford contained many Welsh Catholics who were hostile to the English. The true intentions of the Armada, however, were confusing to the captains and officers, as they didn't really know whether this was an invasion, a raid, or a naval interception. For fear of spies and deserters in the fleet, only the high command knew, and they were taking no chances. All would be revealed only as they approached the English Channel. in Pembrokeshire, Wales The taking and holding of Falmouth or Milford was a strategy the Spanish would use to hold a piece of England in retaliation for the seizure of Cádiz. In turn this would be used as a bargaining chip to force English troops to withdraw from the continent, both in France and the United Provinces. If they did not, then the captured places would also be used as a forward base for the harassment of English and Dutch trade. In all 108 ships were at A Coruña, most others would join after departing from other ports. By 1 October the fleet consisted of 136 ships of 34,080 tons, of these were 44 royal galleons, of an aggregate tonnage of 12,686 tons; 16 merchantmen, of 5880 tons, 52 German and Flemish hulks for stores, of 15,514 tons, and 24 caravels, pinnaces, and barks. There were 8,634 soldiers, 4,000 sailors, a total of 12,634 men and 300 horses. In this squadron of 32 Andalusia troopships included Carlos de Amésquita who had raided Cornwall two years earlier. These carried the elite Spanish military units known as tercios, many were from the Spanish domains in Italy such as Naples and Lombardy and had rarely been beaten in battle. The Spanish Armada of 1597, as incomplete as it was, put to sea from A Coruña on 18 October. However, with a military force very different from that foreshadowed by Lopez de Soto's estimate. ==Execution==

The Armada left A Coruña and Ferrol after which a fleet under Admiral Diego Brochero was to meet another from Blavet in Brittany (under Spanish rule) with a thousand men under Pedro de Zubiaur. After three days of sailing in good weather, the fleet arrived in the Channel, after advancing towards the English coast without opposition. As they sailed on, an English bark was intercepted and sunk, with what was left of the crew being taken prisoner. This time however there were no catastrophic results such as those of 1588 and the Spanish were more organised in ship-to-ship communication. The galleon carrying Don Pedro Guevera – General of artillery - caught fire, blew up in a tremendous explosion, and was never seen again. The storm had a huge effect on the Spanish fleet. Several ships were swept up much further north of Cornwall to the Welsh coast. The forty-ton caravel Nuestra Senora Buenviage was driven ashore by the storm in Milford Haven, where she was captured and then plundered. Warspite was heading into the port for repairs but soon sighted a Spanish bark and a pinnace. They also learnt that the Spanish had previously gathered intelligence on the English coast a year before. The Spanish fleet had come as close as ten leagues from The Lizard, although the danger at this time was still real. The prize was a flyboat carrying an army captain and 40 soldiers besides sailors, and Bowden had boarded and taken her with a crew of only 28 men and boys. The Spanish ships were too far ahead to be intercepted however so Carew joined Howard with the main fleet to give the news. After ten days because of a lack of wind the Bear of Amsterdam could not be boarded by the militia as there were no suitable boats. She was led into Dartmouth with 70 Spaniards taken prisoner, and this being the last ship from the Armada to be captured. == Aftermath ==

By the middle of November it was clear that the Spanish Armada invasion had obviously failed and some floating remains of Spanish ships were coming ashore on the English coast. Troops that had arrived from the continent either returned to Holland or France once the situation had abated. For the English and in particular Queen Elizabeth it was more about luck as to how England had been saved. Lessons were learned however, in particular at Falmouth, where Mountjoy's consultant military engineer Paul Ivey was responsible for strengthening the castles at St Mawes and Pendennis. It was put into immediate effect – information from prisoners claimed that an invasion would be attempted the following summer but only if the taking of Falmouth or Milford had succeeded. This was confirmed by an English spy in Spain who commented on the Spanish confusion and misfortune in the aftermath but "bragged about what they would do next Spring". The Spanish would never again try sending a large naval armada directed at England. It was not as bad as the previous years failure however since gold and silver bullion was still arriving in numbers from the Americas. The final Armada was sent in 1601 in support of Irish clans under Hugh O'Neill against English rule. Although smaller -33 ships with 4,500 men, the Armada led by Juan del Águila and Pedro de Zubiaur succeeded in landing, after a severe storm again nearly put paid to the operation. The failure of the armadas thus ceded the naval initiative to England who were still able to launch expeditions to Spain without much hindrance. They could also defend the Channel when some months later a Spanish fleet of Galleys was defeated by an Anglo-Dutch force. ==Legacy==

In 1953 during the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, in Aberdyfi a local ship was fitted out to represent the Spanish caravel The Bear of Amsterdam. She was moored mid-river and set on fire. A restaurant in the same town is also named after the ship. ==Miscellany==

• The events are the plot of the historical novel, The Grove of Eagles by Winston Graham ==See also==