loss of men and ammunition (Geoffrey Parker, Why the Armada Failed). When the fleet finally returned to Lisbon it brought the treasure ships back intact but it was clear that the Armada was no longer ready to mount the full scale invasion of England. Drake had given England another year to prepare for the Spanish Armada. Philip II now realized that there was no chance of a surprise attack on England and had to devise a new strategy. He increased the size of the Armada by adding the treasure ships Santa Cruz had just shepherded home and decided to drop the diversionary invasion of Ireland (Geoffrey Parker, Why the Armada Failed).
Instead he decided to combine the strike force in Lisbon and the convoy in Calais into a single unwieldy. but overwhelmingly powerful unit directed towards the English Channel and once there they would rendezvous with Parma and his troops (Geoffrey Parker, Why the Armada Failed). The task of implementing this plan proved to much for Santa Cruz and he died of Typhus in February 1588 (Geoffrey Parker, Why the Armada Failed). Philip II chose the Duke of Medina Sidonia’s to take Santa Cruz’s place. Within three months of the duke’s appointment, all the preparations for the attack was ready.
There was just one issue, even though the duke was a very successful and respected general, he had never been to sea before and Philip II had just appointed him to be the leader of the Armada (Trueman). He even got seasick when he managed to get on board his ship (Trueman). When the Armada left their ports, a heavy storm forced them to return to get repairs. The ships included 180 priests and some 14,000 barrels of wine (Johnson). The Armada sailed in a crescent formation protecting the Armada and preventing Drake from doing any real damage.
On July 27th 1588, the Duke of Medina Sidonia anchored the fleet at Gravelines because there was no port deep enough to where the Spanish troops were for the fleet to stop (Trueman). While docked the fleet was out of their crescent formation and crowded together making the Armada very vulnerable to English fire. On July 29th the English sent eight hell burners, which are old ships that are filled with anything that could burn well and then sent on fire, to take advantage of the crowded and vulnerable Armada at Gravelines (Trueman).
Each Spanish ship was carrying gunpowder and were made out of wood and canvas salts. If they caught fire they would stand no chance and the fire would quickly spread amongst the Armada. In a panicked attempt to save the ships, each ship cut their anchor cables and set sail to try and escape (Johnson). As they did this they were completely out of formation and were extremely vulnerable and the English used this chance to attack. 4 Spanish Galleons stayed behind and stood their ground against Drake despite being outnumbered 10 to 1(Trueman).
Only three of the 4 galleons were destroyed (Trueman). The rest of the fleet was then able to escape because of worsening weather conditions. Even though the Armada managed to escape, the English blocked off the English Channel forcing the Armada to go northwards towards Scotland and from there they hoped to sail past the west coast of Ireland and make it back to Spain (Johnson). The more agile English ships did some considerable damage to the Armada while they were heading northwards. The English chased the Spanish to prevent a possible landing by the Spanish in Scotland. (Hawkins).
When the English finally stopped chasing the Armada, the Duke of Medina Sidonia made the call to return to Spain (Don Lewis de Cordua). The Spanish had insufficient supplies and quickly ran out of food and fresh water. The crew members had to eat rope to survive. On top of malnourishment, when the Armada sailed around the north of Scotland in mid September, they hit one of the worse storms in history (Trueman). Without anchors, the Armada was unable to take shelter from the storm and as a result many of the ships were dashed onto the rocks and the Armada suffered a great loss of life (Johnson).
The ships that managed to survive the dreadful storm headed to Catholic Ireland in hopes that because they were the same religion, the Irish would help them and give them supplies. They were very wrong. The Irish saw the Spanish as invaders and killed anyone that came onshore (Trueman). The struggles seemed over for those that survived the English, starvation, the storm, and the Irish but they still had to worry about disease. Many who were weakened from the journey were killed by scurvy, dysentary and fever.
By the time the Armada made it back to Spain, they had lost nearly 50% of their ships and over 20,000 Spanish soldiers and sailors had died (Trueman). Meanwhile the English won relatively unscathed losing no ships and only 100 men in battle despite losing 7,000 men due to disease (Trueman). . His decision to make Duke of Medina Sidonia in charge of the fleet was very questionable especially since he had never been to sea before. Philip II had ideas about how the English would attack from distance and he warned Santa Cruz and then the Duke of Medina Sidonia that the English would use this strategy (Geoffrey Parker, Why the Armada Failed).
Instead of devising a strategy that would help the Armada avoid these pitfalls, he chose a strategy that made the fleet a sitting target to precisely the kind of tactics he worried about (Geoffrey Parker, Why the Armada Failed). Philip II also did not meet with his senior commanders to hear their opinions on the plans that were about to doom the Armada. (Geoffrey Parker, Why the Armada Failed). Philip II had made every decision on his own and ultimately the defeat of the armada was his fault. The defeat of the Spanish Armada was a crushing blow to Philip II and his mission to create a Spanish Hegemony.
The Spanish ships were not well enough equipped to be able to defeat the far superior English naval forces. The ships that the English damaged but couldn’t defeat were taken care of by the storms that the Armada encountered throughout their invasion. Philip II believed he had everything planned out perfectly but ultimately these plans turned into the plans of the Armada’s demise. The Spanish Armada was defeated because of the Superior English Naval forces and strategies, the natural disasters that they could do nothing to defend against and because of Philip II’s one foolish mistakes.
