Anglo-Spanish War (Part I)

The Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) was an intermittent conflict between the kingdoms of Spain and England that was never formally declared.  The war was punctuated by widely separated battles, and began with England's military expedition in 1585 to what was then the Spanish Netherlands under the command of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester in support of the resistance of the State’s General to Spanish Habsburg rule.

The English enjoyed some victories at Cádiz in 1587, and saw the Spanish Armada retreat in 1588, but then suffered severe defeats of the English Armada in 1589 and the Drake–Hawkins and Essex–Raleigh expeditions in 1595 and 1597 respectively. Two further Spanish armadas were sent in 1596 and 1597 but were frustrated in their objectives mainly because of adverse weather and poor planning.

The war became deadlocked around the turn of the 17th century during campaigns in the Netherlands, France and Ireland. It was brought to an end with the Treaty of London, negotiated in 1604 between representatives of the new King of Spain, Philip III, and the new King of England, James I. England and Spain agreed to cease their military interventions in the Spanish Netherlands and Ireland, respectively, and the English ended high seas privateering.

Causes

In the 1560s, Philip II of Spain was faced with increasing religious disturbances as Protestantism gained adherents in his domains in the Low Countries. As a defender of the Catholic Church, he sought to suppress the rising Protestant movement in his territories, which eventually exploded into open rebellion in 1566. Meanwhile, relations with the regime of Elizabeth I of England continued to deteriorate, following her restoration of royal supremacy over the Church of England through the Act of Supremacy in 1559; this had been first instituted by her father Henry VIII and rescinded by her sister Mary I, Philip's wife. The Act was considered by Catholics as a usurpation of papal authority. Calls by leading English Protestants to support the Protestant Dutch rebels against Philip increased tensions further as did the Catholic-Protestant disturbances in France, which saw both sides supporting the opposing French factions.

Opposing Monarchs

Philip II of Spain

Elizabeth I of England

Complicating matters were commercial disputes. The activities of English sailors, begun by Sir John Hawkins in 1562, gained the tacit support of Elizabeth, even though the Spanish government complained that Hawkins's trade with their colonies in the West Indies constituted smuggling. In September 1568, a slaving expedition led by Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake was surprised by the Spanish, and several ships were captured or sunk at the Battle of San Juan de Ulúa near Veracruz in New Spain. This engagement soured Anglo-Spanish relations and in the following year the English detained several treasure ships sent by the Spanish to supply their army in the Netherlands. Drake and Hawkins intensified their privateering as a way to break the Spanish monopoly on Atlantic trade. Francis Drake went on a privateering voyage where he eventually circumnavigated the globe between 1577 and 1580. Spanish colonial ports were plundered and a number of ships were captured including the treasure galleon Nuestra Señora de la Concepción. When news of his exploits reached Europe, Elizabeth's relations with Philip continued to deteriorate.

Soon after the Portuguese succession crisis of 1580, English support was provided to Prior of Crato who then fought in his struggle with Philip II for the Portuguese throne. Philip in return began to support the Catholic rebellion in Ireland against Elizabeth's religious reforms. Both Philip's and Elizabeth's attempts to support opposing factions were defeated.

In 1584, Philip signed the Treaty of Joinville with the Catholic League of France to stop the rise of Protestantism there. In the Spanish Netherlands, England had secretly supported the side of the Dutch Protestant United Provinces, who were fighting for independence from Spain. In 1584, the Prince of Orange had been assassinated, leaving a sense of alarm as well as a political vacuum. The following year was a further blow to the Dutch with the capture of Antwerp by Spanish forces led by Alexander Farnese, the Duke of Parma. The Dutch rebels sought help from England, which Elizabeth agreed to as she feared that a Spanish reconquest there would threaten England.  The Treaty of Nonsuch was signed as a result – Elizabeth agreed to provide the Dutch with men, horses, and subsidies but she declined overall sovereignty. In return, the Dutch handed over four Cautionary Towns which were garrisoned by English troops. Philip took this to be an open declaration of war against his rule in the Netherlands.

War

The Anglo-Spanish War broke out in 1585, following the seizure of English merchant ships in Spanish harbors. In response the English Privy Council immediately authorized a campaign against the Spanish fishing industry in Newfoundland and off the Grand Banks.  The campaign was a huge success, and subsequently led to England's first sustained activity in the Americas.  In August, England joined the Eighty Years' War on the side of the Dutch Protestant United Provinces, which had declared their independence from Spain.

The Queen through Francis Walsingham ordered Sir Francis Drake to lead an expedition to attack the Spanish New World in a kind of preemptive strike. Drake sailed in October to the West Indies, and in January 1586 captured and sacked Santo Domingo. The following month they did the same at Cartagena de Indias and in May sailed North to raid St. Augustine in Florida. When Drake arrived in England in July he became a national hero. In Spain however, the news was a disaster and this now further buoyed a Spanish invasion of England by King Philip.

Dutch Revolt (1585–1587)                        

Siege of Grave in 1586

Robert Dudley, The Earl of Leicester was sent to the United Provinces in 1585 with a dignitary party and took the offer of Governor of the United Provinces. This, however, was met with fury from Elizabeth who had expressed no desire for any sovereignty over the Dutch. An English mercenary army had been present since the beginning of the war and was then under the command of veteran Sir John Norreys. They combined forces but were undermanned and under financed, and faced one of the most powerful armies in Europe led by the famed Alexander Farnese, the Duke of Parma.

During the siege of Grave the following year Dudley attempted its relief but the Dutch garrison commander Hadewij van Hemert surrendered the town to the Spanish. Dudley was furious on hearing of Grave's sudden loss and had van Hemert executed, which shocked the Dutch.  The English force then had some successes - taking Axel in July and Doesburg the following month. Dudley's poor diplomacy with the Dutch however made matters worse. His political base weakened and so too did the military situation. Outside Zutphen an English force was defeated in which notable poet Philip Sidney was mortally wounded, which was a huge blow to English morale. Zutphen itself and Deventer were betrayed by catholic turncoats William Stanley and Rowland York which further damaged Leicester's reputation. Finally Sluis with a largely English garrison was besieged and taken by the Duke of Parma in June 1587 after the Dutch refused to help in the relief. This resulted in mutual recriminations between Leicester and the States.

Leicester soon realized how dire his situation was and then asked to be recalled. He resigned his post as Governor - his tenure was a military and political failure, and as a result, he was financially ruined.  After Leicester's departure, the Dutch elected the Prince of Orange's son Count Maurice of Nassau as the Stadtholder and Governor. At the same time Peregrine Bertie took over English forces in the Netherlands.

Spanish Armada

On 8 February 1587, the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots outraged Catholics in Europe, and her claim on the English throne passed (by her own deed of will) to Philip. In retaliation for the execution of Mary, Philip vowed to invade England to place a Catholic monarch on its throne. In April 1587 Philip's preparations suffered a setback when Francis Drake burned 37 Spanish ships in the harbor of Cádiz, and as a result the invasion of England had to be postponed for over a year.

On 29 July, Philip obtained Papal authority to overthrow Elizabeth, who had been excommunicated by Pope Pius V, and place whomever he chose on the throne of England. He assembled a fleet of about 130 ships, containing 8,000 soldiers and 18,000 sailors. To finance this endeavor, Pope Sixtus V had permitted Philip to collect crusade taxes. Sixtus had promised a further subsidy to the Spanish should they reach English soil.

On 28 May 1588, the Armada under the command of Duke of Medina Sidonia set sail for the Netherlands, where it was to pick up additional troops for the invasion of England. As the armada sailed through the English Channel, the English navy led by Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham and Francis Drake fought a battle of attrition with the Spanish from Plymouth to Portland and then to the Solent, preventing them from securing any English harbors.  The Spanish were forced to withdraw to Calais. While the Spanish were at anchor there in a crescent-shaped defensive formation, the English used fireships to break the formation and scatter the Spanish ships. In the subsequent Battle of Gravelines the English navy inflicted a defeat on the Armada and forced it to sail northward in more dangerous stormy waters on the long way home. As they sailed around Scotland, the Armada suffered severe damage and loss of life from stormy weather. As they approached the West coast of Ireland more damaging stormy conditions forced ships ashore while others were wrecked. Disease took a heavy toll as the fleet finally limped back to port.

Philip's invasion plans had miscarried partly because of unfortunate weather and his own mismanagement, and partly because the opportunistic defensive naval efforts of the English and their Dutch allies prevailed. The defeat of the Armada provided valuable seafaring experience for English oceanic mariners. While the English were able to persist in their privateering against the Spanish and continue sending troops to assist Philip II's enemies in the Netherlands and France, these efforts brought few tangible rewards.  One of the most important effects of the event was that the Armada's failure was seen as a sign that God supported the Protestant Reformation in England. One of the medals struck to celebrate the English victory bore the Latin/Hebrew inscription Flavit יהוה et Dissipati Sunt (literally: "Yahweh blew and they were scattered"; traditionally translated more freely as: "He blew with His winds, and they were scattered".)

English Armada

An English counter armada under the command of Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norreys was prepared in 1589 to torch the Spanish Atlantic navy, which was refitting in Santander, Corunna and San Sebastián in northern Spain. It was also intended to capture the incoming Spanish treasure fleet and expel the Spanish from Portugal (ruled by Philip since 1580) in favor of the Prior of Crato. The English fleet departed from Plymouth on April 13 but was then delayed for nearly two weeks by bad weather. Drake, as a result, had to bypass Santander where the majority of the Spanish fleet was being refitted.

On May 4, the English force eventually arrived at Corunna where the lower town was captured and plundered, and a number of merchant ships were seized. Norreys then won a modest victory over a Spanish relief militia force at Puente del Burgo. When the English pressed the attack on the citadel, however, they were repulsed. In addition, a number of English ships were captured by Spanish naval forces. With the failure to capture Corunna the English departed and headed towards Lisbon, but owing to poor organization and lack of co-ordination (they had very few siege guns) the invading force also failed to take Lisbon. The expected uprising by the Portuguese loyal to Crato never materialized. With Portuguese and Spanish reinforcements arriving the English retreated and headed North where Drake sacked and burned Vigo. Sickness then struck the expedition, and finally, a portion of the fleet led by Drake headed towards the Azores, which was then scattered in a storm. Drake then took the best part of the fleet and plundered Porto Santo in Madeira before they limped back to Plymouth.

The English Armada was arguably misconceived and ended in failure overall. In the end, Elizabeth sustained a severe loss to her treasury.

Dutch Revolt (1588–1595)

Soon after the defeat of the Armada, the Duke of Parma's force stood down from the invasion. In the autumn Parma moved his force North towards Bergen op Zoom and then attempted to besiege the English-held town with a substantial force. The English in a ruse however managed to repel the Spanish and forced Parma's retreat with heavy losses which boosted both Dutch and English morale. The following year Bertie under orders from the Queen left for France with a force to help the Protestants in their fight against the Catholic League. Sir Francis Vere assumed command of English forces thereafter - a position he retained during fifteen campaigns, with almost unbroken success.

In 1590 an Anglo-Dutch force under Maurice and Vere respectively launched a campaign with the aim of taking Breda. In a remarkable feat, a small assault force hid in a peat barge before a successful surprise assault that captured the city. With Spanish forces in France supporting the Catholic League as well as in the Low Countries, Maurice was able to take advantage, and thus started the gradual recapture of the Netherlands. This was known by the Dutch as the 'Ten glory years'. Soon after Breda the Anglo-Dutch retook Zutphen and Deventer which restored English prestige after their earlier betrayals. After defeating the Spanish under the Duke of Parma at Knodsenberg in 1591 a new confidence in the army took shape. English troops by this time composed nearly half of the Dutch army. The reconquest continued with Hulst, Nijmegen, Geertruidenberg, Steenwijk and Coevorden all being taken within the next two years.  In 1593 a Spanish attempt led by Francisco Verdugo to recapture Coevorden ended in failure when the Anglo-Dutch under Maurice and Vere relieved the place during the Spring of 1594. Finally, the capture of Groningen in the summer of 1594 resulted in the Spanish army being forced out of the Northern provinces which led to the complete restoration of the seven provinces.

After these successes, Elizabeth could view the high confidence in the army and renewed the treaty with the States in 1595. English troops having been given high praise by the Dutch were kept at around 4,000 men. They were to be paid for by the States and the Queen would also be repaid on the Crowns expenses in instalments until a conclusion of peace was made.

In 1595, Maurice's campaign was resumed to retake the cities of the Twente region from the Spanish. This was delayed after Huy was besieged in March but Maurice was unable to prevent its fall. When Maurice did go on the offensive an attempt to take Grol in July ended in failure when a Spanish force under a 90-year-old veteran Cristóbal de Mondragón relieved the city. Maurice then tried to make an attempt on the city of Rheinberg in September but Mondragon defeated this move at the Battle of the Lippe. Maurice was then forced to cancel further planned offensives as the bulk of his English and Scots troops were withdrawn to take part in the attack on Cadiz. The Spanish under the new commander Archduke of Austria took advantage of this lull and recaptured Hulst the following year which led to a prolonged stalemate in the campaign and delayed the reconquest.

Naval War and Privateering

In this period of respite, the Spanish were able to refit and retool their navy, partly along English lines. The pride of the fleet were named The Twelve Apostles – twelve massive new galleons – and the navy proved itself to be far more effective than it had been before 1588. A sophisticated convoy system and improved intelligence networks frustrated English naval attempts on the Spanish treasure fleet during the 1590s. This was best demonstrated by the repulse of the squadron that was led by Effingham in 1591 near the Azores, who had intended to ambush the treasure fleet. It was in this battle that the Spanish captured the English flagship, the Revenge, after a stubborn resistance by its captain, Sir Richard Grenville. Throughout the 1590s, enormous convoy escorts enabled the Spanish to ship three times as much silver as in the previous decade.

English merchant privateers or corsairs known as Elizabeth's Sea dogs however enjoyed more qualified success.  In the three years after the Spanish armada more than 300 prizes were taken from the Spanish with a declared total value of well over £400,000.  English courtiers provided money for their own expeditions as well as others, and even Elizabeth herself would make investments. The Earl of Cumberland made a number of expeditions and a few did yield profit - his first being the Azores Voyage in 1589. Others failed however due to bad weather and his 1591 voyage ended in defeat with Spanish galleys off Berlengas. Cumberland with Sir Walter Raleigh and Martin Frobisher combined financial strength and force that led to the most successful English naval expedition of the war. Off Flores Island in 1592 in a naval battle the English fleet captured a large rich Portuguese carrack, the Madre de Deus as well as having outwitted a Spanish fleet led by Alonso de Bazán. The expedition's reward equaled nearly half the size of the Kingdom of England's royal annual revenue and yielded Elizabeth a 20-fold return on her investment.  These riches gave the English an excited enthusiasm to engage in this opulent commerce.  Raleigh himself in 1595 went on an expedition to explore the Orinoco River in an attempt to find the mythical city of El Dorado in the process the English plundered the Spanish settlement of Trinidad. Raleigh however exaggerated the wealth there on his return to England. Supporting Raleigh with his expedition was another led by Amyas Preston and George Somers known as the Preston Somers expedition to South America notable for a daring overland assault that saw the capture of Caracas.

Many of the expeditions were financed by famed London merchants, the most notable of these being John Watts. An expedition Watts financed to Portuguese Brazil led by James Lancaster saw the capture and plunder of Recife and Olinda - which was highly profitable for both.  In response to English privateering against their merchantmen, the Spanish monarchy struck back with the Dunkirkers devastating English shipping and fishing in the largely undefended seas around England.

By far the most successful English privateer was Christopher Newport who was backed financially by Watts.  Newport set out in 1590 to raid the Spanish West Indies and in the ensuing fight saw the defeat of an armed Spanish convoy but Newport lost his right arm in the process. Despite this Newport continued the ventures - the blockade of Western Cuba in 1591 was the most successful English privateering venture made during the war.  Both Drake and Hawkins died of disease on the later 1595–96 expedition against Puerto Rico, Panama, and other targets in the Spanish Main, a severe setback in which the English suffered heavy losses in soldiers and ships despite a number of minor military victories.

In August 1595, a Spanish force on patrol from Brittany, led by Carlos de Amésquita, landed at and raided Cornwall, burning Penzance and several nearby villages.