English Armada - Execution

Execution

When the fleet sailed, it was made up of 6 royal galleons, 60 English armed merchantmen, 60 Dutch flyboats and about 20 pinnaces. In addition to the troops, there were 4,000 sailors and 1,500 officers and gentlemen adventurers. Drake assigned his vessels to five squadrons, led respectively by himself in the Revenge, Sir John Norreys in the Nonpareil, Norreys' brother Edward in the Foresight, Thomas Fenner in the Dreadnought, and Roger Williams in the Swiftsure. Also sailing with them — against the Queen's express orders — was the Earl of Essex.

Most of the ships lost in Philip II's expedition of 1588 had been armed merchantmen, while the core of the armada — the galleons of the Spanish navy's Atlantic fleet — survived their voyage home and docked in Spain's Atlantic ports for a refit, where they lay for months, vulnerable to attack.

Unforeseen delays and a fear of becoming embayed in the Bay of Biscay led Drake to bypass Santander, where most of this refitting was underway, and attack Corunna in Galicia instead. Norreys took the lower town, killed 500 Spaniards, and plundered the wine cellars, while Drake destroyed 13 merchant ships in the harbour. For the next two weeks the wind blew westerly, and while the English waited for a change a siege of Corunna's fortified upper town consumed their efforts. A pair of Spanish galleys slipped past the English fleet and repeatedly resupplied the defenders, and at length, with a favourable wind returning, the English abandoned the siege, having lost four captains and several hundred soldiers in the fighting, along with 3,000 other personnel in 24 of the transports, including many of the Dutch, who found reasons to return to England or put into La Rochelle. Those who remained then turned their attention, first to Puente de Burgos, where Norreys won a modest victory, and then to Lisbon.

Lisbon was said to be defended by a disaffected garrison, but while the English bloodied themselves at Corunna the Spaniards spent a crucial fortnight shoring up Portugal's defences. When Norreys invested the city, the expected uprising was not forthcoming and little was achieved. Drake did take the opportunity on 30 June of seizing a fleet of 20 French and 60 Hanseatic ships, which had broken the English blockade on trade with Spain by sailing all around the north of Scotland only to fetch up before the English cannon in the mouth of the Tagus. This seizure, notes R. B. Wernham, 'dealt a useful blow to Spanish preparations', but later required a publicly-printed justification, a Declaration of Causes, from the Queen's own printer, as, without booty, she and her fellow English investors faced considerable losses.

The English dealt a further blow to Spanish naval preparations and food supplies by destroying the Lisbon granaries, but despite the bravado of Essex, who thrust a sword in at the gates of the city with a challenge to the defenders, the English could not take Lisbon without artillery or open Portuguese support. The expected rising failed to eventuate, in part because of the absence of Drake, the land and naval forces having divided and lost contact after the landing at Peniche, and the defenders would not risk battle.

Essex received orders from Elizabeth to return to court, along with a refusal to send reinforcements or a siege train, the queen having no desire to carry the main burden of a land war in Portugal. It was therefore decided to concentrate on the third aim of the expedition, the establishment of a permanent base in the Azores. But the campaign had taken its toll. Drake's forces had initially caught the Spanish authorities off guard but Spain had now prepared its defences and the English were wearing out and suffering increasingly from disease. Two armed merchantmen were caught off Lisbon by nine Spanish galleys commanded by Alfonso Bazán. One of them, the William, was saved by the Revenge after being abandoned by her crew, but the ship did not have enough manpower to sail away after the battle and had to be scuttled. The other vessel was engulfed by flames after a long struggle and eventually sank along with her skipper, a Captain Minshaw. One of three boats carrying William's complement was sunk with all hands after being attacked by the Spanish warships.

It was soon understood that any attempt to land in the Azores was out of the question, and Drake made a final attempt to retrieve the mission. At this point, most men were out of action and only 2,000 were fit to be mustered. Stormy weather had also damaged a number of ships. While Norreys sailed for home with the sick and wounded, Drake took his pick of what was left and set out with 20 ships to hunt for the treasure fleet. He was struck by another heavy storm and was unable to carry out even that task, and while Porto Santo in Madeira was plundered, his flagship, the Revenge, sprang a leak and almost foundered as it led the remainder of the fleet home to Plymouth.

Without counting the 18 launches destroyed or captured at La Coruña and Lisbon, the English fleet lost about 30 ships. Fourteen of these were lost directly to the actions of Spanish forces: three at La Coruña, six were lost to naval actions led by Padilla, three to Bazan and two to Aramburu. The rest were lost in storms as the battered fleet made its return voyage. The outbreak of diseases on board were transmitted to the port town populations in England. None of the campaign's aims were accomplished and for many years the result discouraged further joint-stock adventures on such a scale. The English sustained heavy losses of ships, men and resources, but only brought back 150 captured cannon and £30,000 of plunder. The only accomplishment was, perhaps, a temporary disruption to Spanish shipping and the induced diversion of Spanish resources that might have contributed to a mutiny of Spanish forces under Parma in Flanders that August.