The 130-ship Spanish Armada sailed to invade Elizabethan England in summer 1588. About 50 of its ships didn't make it home. What killed most of them?
The Channel fights didn't actually sink many ships — the English gunnery was more harassing than lethal. The fireships at Calais broke the Armada's defensive formation but sank only one or two ships directly. What killed most of the lost vessels was the route home: with the English fleet between them and the way they'd come, the Armada had to sail north around Scotland and through the North Atlantic in autumn weather, with damaged ships and bad charts. About 35 ships were wrecked on the Scottish and Irish coasts.
Read the full facts →The Spanish Armada was the 130-ship fleet sent by King Philip II of Spain to invade Elizabethan England in summer 1588. Its defeat by English naval action, adverse weather, and Spanish operational difficulties secured the Elizabethan religious settlement, established English naval reputation, and inaugurated a half-century of Anglo-Spanish maritime conflict.
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