Anglo-Spanish War

1585 – 1604

Overview

Relations between England and Spain had been getting worse for years before open war began. Elizabeth I was a Protestant queen, Philip II the leading Catholic ruler of Europe, and English sailors such as John Hawkins and Francis Drake had raided Spanish trade and colonies since the 1560s. The war began in 1585, when Elizabeth signed the Treaty of Nonsuch and sent an army under the Earl of Leicester to support the Dutch rebels against Spain. Drake raided the Caribbean in 1585 and 1586 and attacked Cádiz in 1587. Philip's answer was the Spanish Armada of 1588, which failed to carry the Duke of Parma's army to England. The next year an English counter-expedition under Drake and John Norris failed at A Coruña and Lisbon. In 1591 the galleon Revenge was lost fighting a Spanish squadron in the Azores, and in 1595 and 1596 both Hawkins and Drake died of disease on a last expedition to the Caribbean. In 1596 an English and Dutch force under the Earl of Essex and Lord Howard captured and sacked Cádiz. Spain sent new armadas in 1596 and 1597, but both were scattered by storms. In 1601 a Spanish force landed at Kinsale in Ireland to support the Irish rebellion of Hugh O'Neill, but the Irish were defeated outside the town and the Spanish surrendered early in 1602.

Ships and Weapons

The war at sea was fought mainly by the Galleon, armed with long guns like the Culverin, alongside armed merchant ships and privateers. The English favored fast, low 'race-built' galleons and fighting at a distance, while the Spanish relied on soldiers and boarding. The Fire Ship broke the Armada's formation off Calais in 1588. On land, in the Netherlands, France and Ireland, both sides fought with pike and shot: the Pike, the Arquebus and the heavier musket, with infantry wearing helmets such as the Morion Helmet. Spain's Army of Flanders was the most experienced army in Europe.

Legacy

Neither side won outright. Philip II died in 1598 and Elizabeth in 1603, and their successors, Philip III and James I, made peace in the Treaty of London in 1604. Spain kept its American empire and its treasure fleets, which were rarely caught, and England gave up its open support for the Dutch. But England had survived as a Protestant state, the Dutch Republic had established itself, and English sailors had gained the experience and confidence that later helped build colonies in North America. In English memory the defeat of the Armada became one of the founding stories of the nation's sea power.

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