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La Contra Armada, the Spanish rematch that England hid
The greatest disaster of the English Navy, greater than that of the Invincible Armada, is an unknown episode.
There are few Spaniards who do not know of the bitter episode of the Invincible Armada that cost the lives of 11,000 men, but even fewer know that 430 years ago, in 1589, a year after the disaster of the Great Navy of Philip II, England gathered a fleet even greater than the Spanish one and that was defeated in the Spanish and Portuguese ports. It is known as the Contra Armada and was disastrous for English interests. But England managed to hide the shameful retreat, in which 20,000 men died, for centuries. However, the story that has remained and permeated in the popular cultural heritage is that after the Armada Invincible began the fall of the Spanish Empire. Nothing is further from reality.
In 1589, now 430 years ago, the Spanish ships that survived the failed Invincible Armada are retreating in the ports of northern Spain. England makes a military movement to take advantage of the moment of weakness of the Navy. In front of the 137 ships that Felipe II sends to England, Isabel I gathers a fleet of between 190 and 200 ships to give a stroke of luck to Spain. They leave from Plymouth on April 28.
If you are one of those who did not know this chapter, you should not feel bad because, as Ivan Negueruela explains, director of the National Museum of Underwater Archeology of Cartagena (ARQVA), "until a few years ago, except for a minority of specialists, the Contra Armada almost Nobody knew anything. I have met many people of great culture and intellectual level who had never heard of it. "
In order to shed light on the events that surrounded both the Invincible Armada and the Armed Contra have met this week, until yesterday Friday, English, Scottish, Portuguese and Spanish experts in the first international congress dedicated to treat in a scientific way These military adventures: The Spanish Armada of 1588 and the Contra Armada Inglesa of 1589.
"We have organized this international congress to cover both sides of the conflict, both Spanish and English, Scottish and Portuguese investigators addressing what happened to the Invincible Armada and explain to the population around the world what happened when Queen Elizabeth I sent an fleet of ships that we call the Contra Armada ", explains Negueruela to El Independiente. "But with documentation and from a scientific and academic point of view. Without ideologies or nationalisms, "he adds. "In this congress it has been analyzing from the number of boats, who were the captains who were on the boats the medical equipment ... It is a very ambitious congress".
La Coruña, Lisbon and Azores
Although the first intention of the English Navy, commanded by Francis Drake and John Norris, is to attack Santander and kill the Spanish Navy, choose to attack Galicia. Unlike the Great Navy that Felipe II sends against England, which is a national company, paid by the Crown, "the English, who have a much more economistic approach, organized this armada as a private company. The Queen of England put her money, Drake put his own, along with many English bankers to see if they made a profit. While the Spanish company was a Real or national company, not profit oriented, "explains El Independiente Hugo O'Donnell and Duque de Estrada, of the Royal Academy of History and National History Award.
María Pita
Shipowners seeking benefits prioritize the attack on the then small city of La Coruña, of just 4,000 inhabitants, in search of an easy booty. On May 3 the English manage to land but are repelled by the civilian population. "The reaction of the Coruñeses was as it would have been on the part of the English if the Spanish Navy had landed on English lands. It was an opposition and an open confrontation in which the figure of María Pita stood out, "says the director of the museum. In the Galician city women joined the fight against the superiority of the English. Maria Pita killed an English officer and became the heroine of the battle. In the definitive retreat of the English, the powerful artillery that counted the city, an artillery coming from ships returned from the Invincible Armada, was key.
Faced with the impossibility of taking the city, the English go to Lisbon. But Drake has not managed to take La Coruña, and needed it to replace food, a failure that will pay dearly. Plague and famine begin to do much damage to the English company. Once in Lisbon, the Contra Armada wants to impose on the throne Antonio Prior de Crato, a bastard son of Luis de Portugal who claimed the Portuguese crown that had been inherited by Felipe II. The English fleet is repelled by Spanish and Portuguese ships.
While the plague continues to damage the morale and the lives of the crews, the fleet heads to the Azores. This is the third military and strategic objective of Isabel I for the Contra Armada, take the Plaza de las Azores to control the routes to America. But they could not get to the islands, a flotilla commanded by Martín Padilla avoided it. Hunger, plague and riots ended with the most disastrous naval company in the English Navy. "If the English had conquered the Azores, they would have defeated the Empire that grew in America," says Negueruela.
A story won by England
Felipe II and Isabel I failed with their respective Armed. The war was still open but it was shown that "the invasion was impossible. It showed that Spain was unconquerable and that England was unconquerable, "says Hugo O'Donnell. "Isabel I decreed secret about this defeat. For England it was a terrible failure. It is surprising that the English internationalist version has been imposed for centuries and nobody talked about the Contra Armada, "reflects Negueruela.
The English historians have passed as by embers for the subject, and in Spain little was known The great initiator of the knowledge of the Contra Armada was the teacher María Rodríguez Salgado, of The London School of Economics, who wrote in 1988 on the Contra Armada. Nineteenth-century historians mention it but do not go into it and, since the English did not do it either, they did not feel the need to do it, "says academic Hugo O'Donnell.
For Negueruela it is difficult to "understand that Spanish, Portuguese and French historians have never rescued this episode". O'Donnell finds an explanation in the fact that "it is a time of great victories and this was not a military victory, but the English had to retire by the plague. It was a failure with a very high cost in number of lives. Historians have failed to highlight this episode of the Contra Armada, which for England was a much bigger stick than for Spain the Armada Invincible. But it was not a glorious fact, that's why historians, and military historians, have not underlined it. "
Felipe II realized the importance of having a more powerful Navy for the traffic with the Americas and that supposed a rearmament
Against the myth that we handle, including the Spanish, that the failure of the Invincible Armada supposed the beginning of the collapse of the Spanish Empire, in fact the opposite happened. After these two episodes, "Felipe II realized the importance of having a more powerful Navy for traffic with the Americas, and that meant a rearmament and the construction of even better ships. The Invincible Armada did not cause any bankruptcy of any kind neither in the commerce with America nor in the defense of our ports ", concludes the director of the ARQVA. The Empire would still live its best years.
https://www.elindependiente.com/ten...Lp78yJl4pENL9R87Iuvo40e9N1dUSq-na17_ege7uHPiU
The greatest disaster of the English Navy, greater than that of the Invincible Armada, is an unknown episode.
There are few Spaniards who do not know of the bitter episode of the Invincible Armada that cost the lives of 11,000 men, but even fewer know that 430 years ago, in 1589, a year after the disaster of the Great Navy of Philip II, England gathered a fleet even greater than the Spanish one and that was defeated in the Spanish and Portuguese ports. It is known as the Contra Armada and was disastrous for English interests. But England managed to hide the shameful retreat, in which 20,000 men died, for centuries. However, the story that has remained and permeated in the popular cultural heritage is that after the Armada Invincible began the fall of the Spanish Empire. Nothing is further from reality.
In 1589, now 430 years ago, the Spanish ships that survived the failed Invincible Armada are retreating in the ports of northern Spain. England makes a military movement to take advantage of the moment of weakness of the Navy. In front of the 137 ships that Felipe II sends to England, Isabel I gathers a fleet of between 190 and 200 ships to give a stroke of luck to Spain. They leave from Plymouth on April 28.
If you are one of those who did not know this chapter, you should not feel bad because, as Ivan Negueruela explains, director of the National Museum of Underwater Archeology of Cartagena (ARQVA), "until a few years ago, except for a minority of specialists, the Contra Armada almost Nobody knew anything. I have met many people of great culture and intellectual level who had never heard of it. "
In order to shed light on the events that surrounded both the Invincible Armada and the Armed Contra have met this week, until yesterday Friday, English, Scottish, Portuguese and Spanish experts in the first international congress dedicated to treat in a scientific way These military adventures: The Spanish Armada of 1588 and the Contra Armada Inglesa of 1589.
"We have organized this international congress to cover both sides of the conflict, both Spanish and English, Scottish and Portuguese investigators addressing what happened to the Invincible Armada and explain to the population around the world what happened when Queen Elizabeth I sent an fleet of ships that we call the Contra Armada ", explains Negueruela to El Independiente. "But with documentation and from a scientific and academic point of view. Without ideologies or nationalisms, "he adds. "In this congress it has been analyzing from the number of boats, who were the captains who were on the boats the medical equipment ... It is a very ambitious congress".
La Coruña, Lisbon and Azores
Although the first intention of the English Navy, commanded by Francis Drake and John Norris, is to attack Santander and kill the Spanish Navy, choose to attack Galicia. Unlike the Great Navy that Felipe II sends against England, which is a national company, paid by the Crown, "the English, who have a much more economistic approach, organized this armada as a private company. The Queen of England put her money, Drake put his own, along with many English bankers to see if they made a profit. While the Spanish company was a Real or national company, not profit oriented, "explains El Independiente Hugo O'Donnell and Duque de Estrada, of the Royal Academy of History and National History Award.
María Pita
Shipowners seeking benefits prioritize the attack on the then small city of La Coruña, of just 4,000 inhabitants, in search of an easy booty. On May 3 the English manage to land but are repelled by the civilian population. "The reaction of the Coruñeses was as it would have been on the part of the English if the Spanish Navy had landed on English lands. It was an opposition and an open confrontation in which the figure of María Pita stood out, "says the director of the museum. In the Galician city women joined the fight against the superiority of the English. Maria Pita killed an English officer and became the heroine of the battle. In the definitive retreat of the English, the powerful artillery that counted the city, an artillery coming from ships returned from the Invincible Armada, was key.
Faced with the impossibility of taking the city, the English go to Lisbon. But Drake has not managed to take La Coruña, and needed it to replace food, a failure that will pay dearly. Plague and famine begin to do much damage to the English company. Once in Lisbon, the Contra Armada wants to impose on the throne Antonio Prior de Crato, a bastard son of Luis de Portugal who claimed the Portuguese crown that had been inherited by Felipe II. The English fleet is repelled by Spanish and Portuguese ships.
While the plague continues to damage the morale and the lives of the crews, the fleet heads to the Azores. This is the third military and strategic objective of Isabel I for the Contra Armada, take the Plaza de las Azores to control the routes to America. But they could not get to the islands, a flotilla commanded by Martín Padilla avoided it. Hunger, plague and riots ended with the most disastrous naval company in the English Navy. "If the English had conquered the Azores, they would have defeated the Empire that grew in America," says Negueruela.
A story won by England
Felipe II and Isabel I failed with their respective Armed. The war was still open but it was shown that "the invasion was impossible. It showed that Spain was unconquerable and that England was unconquerable, "says Hugo O'Donnell. "Isabel I decreed secret about this defeat. For England it was a terrible failure. It is surprising that the English internationalist version has been imposed for centuries and nobody talked about the Contra Armada, "reflects Negueruela.
The English historians have passed as by embers for the subject, and in Spain little was known The great initiator of the knowledge of the Contra Armada was the teacher María Rodríguez Salgado, of The London School of Economics, who wrote in 1988 on the Contra Armada. Nineteenth-century historians mention it but do not go into it and, since the English did not do it either, they did not feel the need to do it, "says academic Hugo O'Donnell.
For Negueruela it is difficult to "understand that Spanish, Portuguese and French historians have never rescued this episode". O'Donnell finds an explanation in the fact that "it is a time of great victories and this was not a military victory, but the English had to retire by the plague. It was a failure with a very high cost in number of lives. Historians have failed to highlight this episode of the Contra Armada, which for England was a much bigger stick than for Spain the Armada Invincible. But it was not a glorious fact, that's why historians, and military historians, have not underlined it. "
Felipe II realized the importance of having a more powerful Navy for the traffic with the Americas and that supposed a rearmament
Against the myth that we handle, including the Spanish, that the failure of the Invincible Armada supposed the beginning of the collapse of the Spanish Empire, in fact the opposite happened. After these two episodes, "Felipe II realized the importance of having a more powerful Navy for traffic with the Americas, and that meant a rearmament and the construction of even better ships. The Invincible Armada did not cause any bankruptcy of any kind neither in the commerce with America nor in the defense of our ports ", concludes the director of the ARQVA. The Empire would still live its best years.
https://www.elindependiente.com/ten...Lp78yJl4pENL9R87Iuvo40e9N1dUSq-na17_ege7uHPiU