4: The Battle Against the Spanish Armada | Battlefield Britain

00:00:37 “In the summer of 1588, England stood alone against the greatest superpower the world had ever seen. ”
00:00:47 “A vast Spanish invasion fleet, the mightiest ever assembled,”
00:00:51 “was sweeping towards the Channel,”
00:00:54 “and the only thing that stood between the invaders and the conquest of England”
00:00:59 “were the ships of the Royal Navy.”
00:01:02 “Together with my son Dan, I’ll be tracing day by day”
00:01:06 “the massive struggle that took place in these very waters.”
00:01:10 “For a week the future of the British Isles depended on the bravery and skill of the English sailors. ”
00:01:17 “None of them had ever fought a battle on this scale before.”
00:01:24 “Faced with this overwhelming force,”
00:01:27 “they had to use new tactics and new technologies to outwit the Spanish.”
00:01:34 “They pushed themselves and their ships to the limit.”
00:01:37 “I’ll be exploring how the opposing commanders used very different strategies,”
00:01:44 “and how chance played a key role in deciding the fate of both sides.”
00:01:49 “And I’ll be finding out just how effective their weapons were.”
00:02:01 “And trying out the revolutionary sailing techniques that swung the battle.”
00:02:07 “The skill of the English, the agility of the boats – we had never encountered anyt
00:02:15 “For the Spanish, it was a religious crusade against an island of heretics and Pira
00:02:21 “For the English, it was a battle for survival against the might of a Spanish armada
00:02:48 “In 1588,”
00:02:50 “Spain was busy assembling vast fleet, an armada.”
00:02:58 “Spain was the largest superpower on Earth,”
00:03:02 “and this armada would be the greatest concentration of naval power ever assembled.
00:03:10 “Its purpose -to invade and conquer England.”
00:03:24 “Spain was Catholic and wanted a Catholic world.”
00:03:31 “Spain’s King Philip II was a man driven by religious obsession.”
00:03:37 “For him, empire building was about extending the power of the Catholic Church.”
00:03:42 “Standing in his way was Protestant England, led by heretic Queen Elizabeth.”
00:03:48 “It is the duty of every Catholic to make sure that Queen Elizabeth is killed.”
00:03:54 “They are a barbarous, savage race…”
00:03:59 “..who need to be brought into line,”
00:04:02 “who need the grace of God.”
00:04:04 “And God willing, we will drive them into the sea and show them that grace.”
00:04:09 “But the conflict between England and Spain wasn’t just about religion.”
00:04:19 “Spain’s empire spanned half the globe”
00:04:22 “and it controlled all the riches of the New World.”
00:04:26 “England wanted a share, but was kept out by force.”
00:04:33 “For years, Elizabeth had fought back,”
00:04:35 “sending out her sailors to raid Spanish treasure ships.”
00:04:42 “Then relations between the two countries edged even closer to all-out conflict.”
00:05:06 “Here, in Flanders, the Spanish army was already fighting its own religious war.”
00:05:12 “30,000 troops were scattered throughout the region,”
00:05:15 “defending fortified towns like this one from the Protestant rebels.”
00:05:19 “To the fury of the Spanish, England sent troops to help the Dutch rebels.”
00:05:28 “To the Spanish king this was the final straw.”
00:05:32 “England was now taking Spanish gold,”
00:05:34 “insulting its religion and interfering with its wars.”
00:05:38 “Enough was enough.”
00:05:40 “It was time to sort out this irritating little country once and for all.”
00:05:47 “Philip’s plan was to mount an ambitious combined operation”
00:05:51 “using his army in Flanders and the fleet he was assembling.”
00:05:55 “This massive armada would sail all the way from Spain”
00:06:00 “packed with soldiers and naval firepower.”
00:06:03 “Its task would be to sail right up the English Channel to its narrowest point here
00:06:10 “and there it would meet up with that Spanish army in Flanders”
00:06:14 “and escort it across to England.”
00:06:16 “Philip hoped that this combined force would be unstoppable.”
00:06:22 “This was to be a military operation on an unprecedented scale.”
00:06:26 “The Armada would have to carryover 20,000 men and their weapons and supplies 1,00
00:06:34 “and then launch an invasion.”
00:06:36 “Philip had to find the right man to lead the Armada,”
00:06:40 “but he chose most unlikely candidate.”
00:06:45 “The man he picked was the Duke of Medina Sidonia.”
00:06:51 “From the little that’s known, this is what he might have looked like.”
00:06:55 “He was one of the richest noblemen in Europe but he was not an experienced naval c
00:07:01 “In fact, he had never fought at sea.”
00:07:05 “Even Medina Sidonia’s own mother didn’t think he was up to the job.”
00:07:09 “He did everything he could to get out of it.”
00:07:13 “He even complained to the king he got seasick and caught colds at sea.”
00:07:17 “But Philip wouldn’t hear of it.”
00:07:19 “To him, more important than experience was social standing,”
00:07:23 “and Medina Sidonia had plenty of that.”
00:07:33 “Anyone who doubted that Medina Sidonia was the right man was soon silenced.”
00:07:38 “In no time at all, every port in Spain was buzzing with activity.”
00:07:47 “People were galvanised into action by their new commander’s efficient organisation
00:07:54 “In a few months, supplies were stockpiled, weapons were issued and crews assembled
00:08:02 “On board the ships, the men were blessed”
00:08:05 “to make sure that God would smile on this enterprise.”
00:08:10 “People were not allowed blasphemy gambling on board.”
00:08:15 “We were all confessed and absolved before leaving.”
00:08:18 “We were prepared for death, to fight for what was right.”
00:08:21 “I was happy to do God’s work,”
00:08:24 “to serve my country.”
00:08:26 “To the Spanish, this wasn’t just an invasion force.”
00:08:31 “It was a religious crusade.”
00:08:33 “The Spanish Armada was now a reality. All that was needed was the order to sail to England. ”
00:08:58 “Queen Elizabeth had got word from her spies that an attack was imminent.”
00:09:05 “She knew that England’s only hope lay in her navy.”
00:09:11 “So in May 1588 she scraped together every ship she could find”
00:09:16 “and ordered the main force to Plymouth.”
00:09:22 “Just as well.”
00:09:24 “Even as the ships were assembling, the Armada set sail from Spain.”
00:09:32 “The Spanish Armada was a breathtaking military force.”
00:09:40 “Medina Sidonia had gathered 130 ships.”
00:09:44 “The fleet carried 7,000 sailors and nearly three times as many soldiers.”
00:09:55 “Never before had the world seen such a concentration of naval power.”
00:10:03 “And it was heading straight for England.”
00:10:18 “Along the southern coast of England, people waited nervously for the arrival of th
00:10:24 “In the villages, men prepared to fight with any weapons they could lay their hands
00:10:29 “In huts like this, and all along the Cornish coast,”
00:10:32 “lookouts stared out to sea, waiting for the first signs of the invasion fleet.”
00:10:39 “Then on Friday 29th of July,”
00:10:41 “the watchers spotted a forest of masts and sails looming on the horizon.”
00:10:47 “The Spanish Armada had reached the British coast.”
00:10:54 “The only thing that now blocked the path of the Armada were the ships of the Royal
00:11:00 “And the man in charge, on his flagship Ark Royal,”
00:11:04 “was Admiral Lord Howard.”
00:11:09 “Lord Howard was a natural-born leader,”
00:11:12 “but like his counterpart Medina Sidonia,”
00:11:16 “he’d got the job more through family connections than through experience.”
00:11:20 “He was the Queen’s cousin.”
00:11:22 “But the English were not exactly short on seamanship. Second in command was Sir Fr
00:11:28 “Drake was very different from Howard.”
00:11:32 “Born the humble son of a farmer,”
00:11:34 “he had become the greatest sailor in England.”
00:11:39 “He was deeply feared by the Spanish”
00:11:41 “for his frequent raids on their ships and ports,”
00:11:45 “but his own men respected, even loved him.”
00:11:49 “One of the great things about Drake is all men are equal on his ship.”
00:11:53 “He’s willing to put himself shoulder to shoulder with the next man,”
00:11:57 “to stand next to you and burn his hands on the rope.”
00:12:00 “Sir Francis Drake, er, rightly…gets my respect, every bloody time.”
00:12:07 “The country’s future now depended on these two commanders and the men they led.”
00:12:12 “They were eager to set out to sea to fight the Spanish,”
00:12:16 “but there was something that stood in their way.”
00:12:25 “When the Armada was spotted,”
00:12:27 “the wind was blowing inland and the tide was flooding in.”
00:12:32 “I’m in the middle of the narrowest point of Plymouth harbour at the moment,”
00:12:37 “straining away against about a 2- or 3-knot tide.”
00:12:40 “It must have been incredibly frustrating for them”
00:12:43 “knowing that just a few miles away at sea was the Spanish Armada”
00:12:47 “and they couldn’t get to grips with them, because they were stuck here.”
00:12:57 “There was nothing Drake or Howard could do”
00:13:01 “but calmly finish their famous game of bowls and wait for the tide to turn.”
00:13:07 “But their calm belied the danger of the situation.”
00:13:12 “The English ships were trapped while the enemy drew nearer.”
00:13:21 “The Spanish now had an extraordinary opportunity -to launch an attack on the Engl
00:13:26 “while they were still vulnerable here in Plymouth harbour.”
00:13:30 “It might have won them a quick victory, and some Spanish officers argued fiercely
00:13:35 “But Philip’s orders had been clear -”
00:13:38 “do not engage the enemy unless absolutely necessary.”
00:13:42 “The fleet’s task was to keep heading for Calais to meet up with that Spanish army
00:13:48 “So the Armada sailed on,”
00:13:50 “ignoring what might have been an opportunity to strike a decisive blow.”
00:13:56 “They weren’t intent on causing damage while we were anchored.”
00:14:00 “Indeed they waited while the tides became more favourable to ourselves.”
00:14:04 “And that is something I shall never understand to this day,”
00:14:09 “other than being a man of faith, I suppose that God smiled on us that day.”
00:14:14 “It was only as the tide turned that evening that the English had their chance to t
00:14:20 “They headed out of Plymouth Sound to face the enemy.”
00:14:25 “Here is the English coast,”
00:14:27 “from Plymouth right the way along into Cornwall.”
00:14:30 “The westerly wind was blowing the Armada, here, steadily eastwards.”
00:14:34 “Drake and Howard, coming out of Plymouth harbour here,”
00:14:39 “decided to split their forces.”
00:14:42 “Howard’s plan was to take the main body of the fleet out to sea,”
00:14:46 “whilst Drake was to head westward along the coast.”
00:14:51 “Their aim was to get to the west of the Spanish Armada.”
00:14:56 “This was critical because the wind was blowing from the west,”
00:15:00 “and if they could get round to this side,”
00:15:03 “then they would have the all-important advantage of having the wind behind them.”
00:15:09 “But to get to that position they had to sail into the wind,”
00:15:14 “and sailing into the wind was very tricky, and it still is.”
00:15:22 “Now the trouble about sailing into the wind – the wind’s coming almost straight of
00:15:27 “is that you can’t go straight at it.”
00:15:29 “If you do, the sail just flaps helplessly and you stop.”
00:15:33 “So, you go off the wind, each side of the wind,”
00:15:36 “and you zigzag, you tack, as it’s called into the wind.”
00:15:39 “So here we go now, we’re on one tack…”
00:15:42 “and to go up there into the wind, I’ve got to go through like this.”
00:15:46 “Imagine this in a great big square-rigged sailing ship -”
00:15:50 “it would take a long time to get the yards and sails around.”
00:15:55 “Sailing with the wind behind you is much easier.”
00:15:59 “There’s two major advantages to going downwind.”
00:16:02 “It’s pretty much the quickest way of sailing, you’re going very fast,”
00:16:06 “and you’ve got a lot of control over the direction of the boat.”
00:16:10 “You can go that way, you can go that way, you can go any way you want. It’s a very
00:16:16 “The advantage of having the wind behind you becomes clear in a race.”
00:16:21 “I’m heading into the wind.”
00:16:24 “Dan is sailing with the wind.”
00:16:27 “First to the buoy wins and I’ve got a head start.”
00:16:31 “Hooray, we’re off! And the big race has begun.”
00:16:34 “I’ve the wind behind me so technically I can go straight from A to B.”
00:16:39 “I can head straight for the mark. Dad’s got to zigzag the whole way.”
00:16:44 “Zigzagging to windward.”
00:16:47 “Come on, Dan, I’m going to beat you yet!”
00:16:50 “No, you won’t, Dad. Even with that head start you can’t beat me.”
00:16:54 “Well, I’m going to have to try another tack, that’s all.”
00:16:59 “There you go. Zigzagging into the wind is a terrible way of having to race someone
00:17:04 “And look at him – he’s almost at the buoy already. ..All right, you win! Ha-ha-ha!
00:17:11 “Oh, dear.”
00:17:12 “It’s clear the boat going downwind can go faster and straighter.”
00:17:16 “You zigzagging all around and going slowly, it wasn’t fair.”
00:17:19 “The whole strategy of every battle at sea was to fight for the position on the wind
00:17:25 “That way you had what they call the weather gauge of it, you were actually able to
00:17:31 “Sailing into the wind is hard work, even on a modern sailboat.”
00:17:37 “On the huge square-rigged galleon of the time it required great skill and co-ordination.”
00:17:45 “But if the English were to gain that vital position, they would have to use their
00:17:52 “to tack westwards into the wind and slip past the Spanish fleet.”
00:18:03 “All the next day the Spanish continued heading east towards the meeting point with
00:18:09 “The lookouts strained to catch sight of the English fleet,”
00:18:13 “expecting them to appear somewhere in front of them.”
00:18:16 “Then at dawn on Sunday 31st, two days after they’d arrived,”
00:18:20 “they finally spotted them,”
00:18:22 “but to their shock and amazement the English ships were now behind them,”
00:18:27 “and worse still, they were getting ready to attack.”
00:18:31 “The scene was now set for the first battle of the conflict.”
00:18:44 “The wind was blowing steadily from over here, from the west,”
00:18:48 “and the two squadrons of the English fleet”
00:18:51 “had zigzagged into the wind to get it behind them, giving the man advantage over t
00:18:57 “The English fleet numbered just 55 ships, including the 11 in Drake’s squadron.”
00:19:05 “The Spanish fleet was more than twice that size, over 120 ships.”
00:19:11 “They’d now formed into a prearranged battle formation,”
00:19:14 “a huge crescent two miles across.”
00:19:17 “At each haul of the crescent were two big fighting squadrons,”
00:19:22 “huge galleons, these, of up to 50 guns each.”
00:19:25 “In the centre, Medina Sidonia himself,”
00:19:28 “commanding more big fighting ships,”
00:19:32 “whilst all around them, the less well armed supply ships, protected within that cl
00:19:38 “It was an effective defensive formation,”
00:19:41 “almost impossible to break up.”
00:19:43 “And the Armada had another advantage -”
00:19:47 “each vessel was loaded with soldiers,”
00:19:50 “as many as 350 on a single ship.”
00:19:53 “The Spanish fought in the age-old traditional way -”
00:19:56 “they took grappling hooks like this, then they hurled them across at enemy ships,”
00:20:01 “dragged the ships together and then would leap across and fight it out hand-to-hand
00:20:06 “In this kind of fighting the Spanish had a massive advantage – their huge ships br
00:20:12 “The English, with their smaller ships and smaller crews, liked to keep their distance”
00:20:17 “and instead battered their enemy into submission with their guns.”
00:20:21 “The two sides weren’t only using different tactics,”
00:20:25 “they also sailed in very different formations.”
00:20:33 “This is like the Armada would have been -”
00:20:36 “tightly packed, difficult for the British to get in and fire broadsides -”
00:20:40 “but equally very difficult for US to fire broadsides because we only shoot each ot
00:20:46 “Also not very manoeuvrable, because if I turn or they turn”
00:20:49 “we’ll hit each other, and a lot of collision went on inside the Armada.”
00:20:53 “The English had to be manoeuvrable to keep clear of the Spanish grappling hooks,”
00:20:58 “so they tried something new.”
00:21:00 “They went in line astern, one after the other, so the leader could control where e
00:21:12 “It also meant that the guns, which are all down the sides of the ships,”
00:21:16 “could all fire at once against the Spanish, much more effective.”
00:21:27 “The English hoped that their information would enable them to run rings around
00:21:34 “whilst the Spanish hoped that their defensive formation”
00:21:38 “would enable them to withstand any attacks.”
00:21:46 “The English commanders were about to find out if their new battleplan would out
00:21:57 “Now with the wind behind them, the English could put this new strategy into action
00:22:02 “in a ferocious two-pronged attack on the Armada.”
00:22:05 “Howard now swung around,”
00:22:07 “aiming to attack the southern half the crescent”
00:22:11 “using the English line astern formation.”
00:22:14 “Meanwhile Drake was going to concentrate his attack on the northern tip.”
00:22:19 “The two commanders knew the fate of England was in their hands.”
00:22:27 “As each ship turned to face the Armada,”
00:22:30 “the English sailors hoisted up every sail they could”
00:22:34 “and used the favourable wind to carry them headlong into battle.”
00:22:38 “Heave! Heave! Heave!”
00:23:10 “As they approached the giant Spanish ships for the first time,”
00:23:14 “they realised just how powerful their adversary was.”
00:23:21 “MEN SHOUT”
00:23:29 “But this was an enemy they had to defeat or England would fall.”
00:23:39 “Below decks the gunners loaded the cannons ready for firing.”
00:23:49 “At last the Armada was just a quarter of a mile away.”
00:23:54 “The Ark Royal was leading the attack”
00:23:57 “and the Spanish ships were not within range of its cannons.”
00:24:01 “The order was given to fire.”
00:24:27 “Down here on the cramped gun decks the noise would have been unbelievable.”
00:24:35 “The well-trained English fired broadside after broadside,”
00:24:39 “firing and reloading continuously.”
00:24:46 “No amount of preparation prepares you for the noise and the sweat”
00:24:50 “and the fear and the sound.”
00:25:00 “You’re more an animal than a man,”
00:25:03 “you just keep going, you keep going…”
00:25:07 “until someone tells you to stop.”
00:25:11 “Following one after another, the English were able to outmanoeuvre the Spanish”
00:25:17 “and bring their guns to bear on the ships of the Armada.”
00:25:25 “And all the while,”
00:25:27 “the English kept their distance to avoid being boarded.”
00:25:31 “Their strategy was working.”
00:25:41 “For the Spanish this was a major blow.”
00:25:45 “They couldn’t get close enough to use their grappling hooks,”
00:25:49 “and whilst most of the Spanish ships were protected by their tight formation,”
00:25:54 “the ships at the tip were on the receiving end”
00:25:58 “of wave upon wave of English cannon fire.”
00:26:01 “What was amazing was the…”
00:26:05 “..the skill of the English, the…agility of the boats.”
00:26:09 “We had never encountered anything like that before.”
00:26:15 “Finally the English pulled back,”
00:26:18 “triumphant that not a single one of their ships had been boarded.”
00:26:23 “But despite firing over 2,000 cannonballs,”
00:26:26 “they failed to sink single Spanish ship.”
00:26:33 “We’d as yet been unable to cause any real damage to the Spanish Armada ourselves.”
00:26:40 “We HAD hit them, of course, but not hard enough.”
00:26:47 “The Armada was still intact and as powerful as ever.”
00:26:54 “The English had done nothing that day to dent the invasion plan.”
00:27:00 “For some reason the English canon simply weren’t doing enough damage.”
00:27:32 “Right, let’s load this thing.”
00:27:34 “OK, here’s the charge…nice and gently.”
00:27:39 “I’m going to ram it down. How long would this take on a ship?”
00:27:42 “They could do it pretty quickly with a trained crew.”
00:27:46 “I think you’d get a round away in a minute. About a round a minute? Yeah.”
00:27:50 “Then the next thing to go would be the shot.”
00:27:53 “Weighs about 3lb? 3lb of cast iron.”
00:27:56 “And they went up to, oh, ten times that size.”
00:28:01 “There she goes. There it is.”
00:28:03 “To stop it falling out we put in the top wad, which on a ship would be old rope. H
00:28:09 “Because when the ship rolls, we don’t want the ball… The shot falling out, it ke
00:28:15 “You give that a good tap home.”
00:28:17 “Get ready for priming. I’m pricking a little hole in the cartridge inside.”
00:28:21 “That releases the powder so that when you light it, the powder goes off and the ba
00:28:27 “That right. There you go – physics. But the gun hasn’t yet been aimed.”
00:28:31 “Right, OK, let’s go left a bit…”
00:28:33 “ah, a little more…”
00:28:35 “Too much, back a tiny shade…yeah, that’s it, that’s spot-on.”
00:28:39 “‘For safety, we went to set the cannon off remotely from a very reinforced bunker.
00:28:44 “See the thickness of the roof which we’ll be under?”
00:28:48 “Right, now, I’m going to take money on this hitting the very, very centre of the t
00:28:54 “I’ll offer you 5-1 on. How about that?”
00:28:57 “No, I’m not a betting man, but I think you’re going to hit it.”
00:29:02 “Five, four,”
00:29:03 “three, two,”
00:29:05 “one, fire.”
00:29:12 “Whoa! Nice! Straight through. We hit it.”
00:29:15 “We aimed well, Damyean, well done, Dad.”
00:29:18 “Let’s go and have a look. Good.”
00:29:28 “If we can manage this here, why didn’t the English do more damage?”
00:29:33 “You can make a 3-inch-diameter hole in the side of a ship”
00:29:37 “but that won’t sink a ship because it’s easily fixable. It’ll cause casualties and
00:29:42 “but to actually sink a ship you have to pepper the side of the boat.”
00:29:46 “The Spanish running around with a big plug, shoving it in… Taking casualties but
00:29:52 “And ships not sinking, even though peppered with holes like this.”
00:29:56 “No. We imagine shells that rip the side out of a ship, but all that’s doing is mak
00:30:05 “On that first day of battle the English sailors kept their distance.”
00:30:10 “But that meant only the occasional cannonball hit its mark,”
00:30:16 “and so at the end of that day”
00:30:18 “the Armada sailed on virtually unscathed.”
00:30:24 “After seven hours of fighting, neither side had done decisive damage to the other.
00:30:29 “The worst damage the Spanish suffered, they’d done themselves.”
00:30:33 “In the chaos of battle, two of their ships had collided.”
00:30:41 “Rather than break up its formation, the Armada continued towards its ultimate goal
00:30:47 “One of the disabled ships was left behind.”
00:30:52 “At night, Drake was charged with following the Spanish ships”
00:30:56 “with his lantern lotto guide the fleet.”
00:30:59 “But then he did something quite outrageous.”
00:31:02 “He couldn’t resist the lure of Spanish treasure.”
00:31:05 “So he snuffed out the lantern”
00:31:07 “and slipped off to loot the crippled ship.”
00:31:11 “And that was something to be proud of.”
00:31:14 “We kept a ship from the Spanish”
00:31:17 “and it was laden with gold, let me tell you.”
00:31:20 “It was a profitable night for Drake, but the rest of the English fleet paid a heav
00:31:26 “Without his lantern to guide them, they got scattered, and by dawn they were in co
00:31:31 “It took them a day to re-form”
00:31:34 “and the Armada continued its relentless voyage eastwards.”
00:31:42 “The English had to catch up with the Spanish or else all was lost.”
00:31:46 “Fortunately they had something that would help them -”
00:31:51 “the design of their ships.”
00:31:54 “It’s the shape of a ship that determines how effective it is at sailing -”
00:31:58 “the sleeker the vessel, the more manoeuvrable it is.”
00:32:08 “Spanish ships were built very high out of the water. They were very top-heavy and
00:32:14 “They were ready to take lots of men and supplies – floating fortresses.”
00:32:18 “The English ships were faster, more manoeuvrable.”
00:32:21 “They’d taken the traditional galleon design and made it sleeker.”
00:32:28 “With their faster ships, the English set off in pursuit of the Armada,”
00:32:33 “and after a day of hard sailing, they caught up with them.”
00:32:41 “It was now Tuesday 2nd August, five days after the Armada had arrived.”
00:32:46 “Medina Sidonia had led his ships as far as this -Portland Bill in Dorset.”
00:32:52 “People watching here would have seen the ships clearly out to sea there.”
00:32:58 “This was the scene of a second fierce battle.”
00:33:10 “Once again the Spanish formation held firm.”
00:33:14 “Once again the English failed to make any impact.”
00:33:21 “I do remember at that time feeling frustrated and somewhat concerned,”
00:33:25 “because we had done our darndest get in there and have a go”
00:33:29 “but still that bloody Armadale sailing on.”
00:33:33 “Hardly troubled it, it appeared.”
00:33:35 “But in fact Medina Sidonia was very concerned.”
00:33:38 “He’d been expecting to get word from the Spanish troops in Flanders”
00:33:43 “to confirm that they were prepared for the invasion,”
00:33:47 “but he’d heard nothing. He was not a critical point in the voyage.”
00:33:51 “He was approaching the Isle of Wight”
00:33:53 “and he still didn’t know whether the army in Flanders was ready.”
00:33:58 “It’s a quirk of English geography that there are many big harbours west of the Isl
00:34:03 “but none at all beyond it to the east on this stretch of coast.”
00:34:07 “So once past this point, there was no place for the Armada to shelter,”
00:34:11 “not even in Flanders itself.”
00:34:13 “If the Spanish sailed on,”
00:34:15 “they’d be taking a gamble that the army was all set to go.”
00:34:22 “Medina Sidonia’s safest option”
00:34:25 “was to occupy the Isle of Wight and make it a temporary base.”
00:34:34 “This would be an easy task for his troops,”
00:34:37 “and he could then wait there, safe in the shelter in the Solent,”
00:34:41 “until he got word that the army was ready.”
00:34:51 “The English knew they had to stop the Spanish from getting into the Solent at all
00:34:57 “but that day, unlike today, there was another problem -there was no wind at all.”
00:35:02 “The English didn’t let that deter them.”
00:35:04 “They put small boats like this into the water and dragged their big galleons into
00:35:10 “Go for it, Dan, come on, heave-ho!”
00:35:13 “That’s it, you’re pulling us along.”
00:35:16 “I’m not sure I’m going too fast here. She’s moving.”
00:35:21 “I can see why the rowers are on a high carbohydrate diet. I feel like the need for
00:35:26 “I don’t want to break it to you, but I think we’re going slightly backwards. I know
00:35:33 “Later that morning, the wind at last picked up.”
00:35:38 “Now the real battle could commence.”
00:35:40 “The two fleets were here, just south of the Isle of Wight.”
00:35:44 “The Armada seemed to be heading for the sheltered waters just around the corner in
00:35:50 “where they could seize the Isle of Wight.”
00:35:53 “The English had just hours in which to stop them.”
00:35:58 “Howard and Drake had decided”
00:36:00 “to split the English fleet into four separate squadrons”
00:36:04 “to give them maximum freedom to fight independently.”
00:36:08 “Drake took his squadron south.”
00:36:10 “Another squadron attacked the Armada from the north.”
00:36:16 “But this attack did little damage to the Spanish.”
00:36:20 “The two remaining squadrons then joined the fierce melee heading for the centre of
00:36:28 “But through the dense gun smoke the English could see the Armada”
00:36:33 “drifting ever closer to the vulnerable entrance to the Solent.”
00:36:38 “The campaign was now to take a decisive turn.”
00:36:41 “Drake made a brilliant move.”
00:36:43 “He’d already led his ships out to sea.”
00:36:46 “He now appeared from the open sea”
00:36:49 “and brought his firepower to bear”
00:36:51 “on the ships of the southern tip of the Spanish formation.”
00:36:55 “Medina Sidonia saw this and sent reinforcements southwards to their defence.”
00:37:02 “Drake had distracted the Spanish commander at the critical moment.”
00:37:10 “Instead of turning into the sheltered waters of the Solent, the Spanish Armada fou
00:37:17 “for one of the most treacherous hazards of the English Channel -”
00:37:21 “the dreaded sandbanks of the Owers.”
00:37:25 “English sailors had left the Armada with no choice.”
00:37:31 “To avoid running aground on the Owers,”
00:37:33 “the Spanish had to turn away from the Isle of Wight into the open sea.”
00:37:39 “For the time being, the Spanish had been prevented from setting foot on British so
00:37:46 “For Medina Sidonia the die was now cast.”
00:37:49 “For better or worse, the Armada was set on a one-way course towards Flanders to me
00:37:57 “It all went according to the Spanish plan.”
00:38:00 “They could still launch a joint invasion in a matter of days.”
00:38:22 “Here in Flanders the army of Spain was still fighting Dutch Protestant rebels.”
00:38:28 “They were ready to break off their land war and gather together for the invasion o
00:38:33 “as soon as they heard that the Armada was getting close.”
00:38:37 “But they would need at least a week to complete their preparations,”
00:38:41 “so it was vital that they got advanced warning of the Armada’s arrival.”
00:38:56 “In fact, Medina Sidonia had been desperately trying to get a message to the army”
00:39:02 “ever since he arrived off Cornwall eight days earlier.”
00:39:05 “But communication at sea was very unreliable.”
00:39:10 “He had no idea whether his message has actually got through.”
00:39:15 “On Saturday 6th of August,”
00:39:17 “the Armada was finally nearing its destination.”
00:39:21 “Despite all the best efforts of Drake and Howard, it had sailed the entire length
00:39:26 “without losing a single ship to those English guns,”
00:39:30 “and now it was in the Straits of Dover, the narrowest part of the Channel,”
00:39:35 “and within 25 miles of that Spanish army in Flanders.”
00:39:39 “Medina Sidonia was still hoping”
00:39:42 “that the 30,000 Spanish troops would be ready and waiting on the coast.”
00:39:51 “But they were nowhere near ready.”
00:39:53 “In fact, word had only just reached the troops of the Armada’s progress.”
00:39:59 “They started gatherings fast as they could,”
00:40:03 “but the preparations would still take days.”
00:40:06 “This was disastrous news for Medina Sidonia.”
00:40:09 “It would mean the Armada waiting around in the open sea at the mercy of the elements”
00:40:16 “It was a naval commander’s worst nightmare.”
00:40:19 “But from the point of view of the English sailors, the situation looked equally de
00:40:26 “For all they knew, the Armada was about to be joined by the troops”
00:40:30 “for the final assault on England.”
00:40:32 “We were all completely and utterly exhausted.”
00:40:36 “We’d all been awake for near enough a week,”
00:40:40 “with hard sailing and fighting on a daily basis,”
00:40:45 “and now the Armada had reached its destination,”
00:40:49 “and it seemed we had but hours to achieve…”
00:40:53 “what we hadn’t been able to achieve in a week.”
00:40:58 “It was their last chance to destroy the Spanish fleet.”
00:41:02 “So far the Armada’s tight formation had proved immune to attack”
00:41:06 “and somehow the English had to find a way to break it up.”
00:41:10 “So on Sunday 7th of August,”
00:41:13 “Drake and Howard metro plan their attack.”
00:41:16 “And they decided to use weapon that struck fear into every sailor on a wooden she
00:41:23 “fire.”
00:41:32 “On the night of August 7th,”
00:41:35 “English sailors prepared eight full-sized ships for sacrifice.”
00:41:39 “They loaded them with barrels of tar.”
00:41:42 “They even put two cannonballs each cannon”
00:41:45 “so that when the flames reached the powder they would explode at random.”
00:41:49 “The moon was full that night, which meant the tide would run strong.”
00:41:54 “At midnight, the English sailors the ships alight”
00:41:58 “and let the wind and tide carry them right into the middle of the Spanish fleet.”
00:42:06 “As the fire ships drifted towards the Armada, the Spanish raised the alarm.”
00:42:28 “It was like a storm of fire coming towards us. You could feel the heat and it was
00:42:37 “The terrified soldiers desperately tried to haul the burning boats out of the way.
00:42:43 “We would…clear one boat…”
00:42:46 “divert it away from the Armada, and another would follow.”
00:42:50 “We would clear that and another would follow and we’d clear that one,”
00:42:54 “and another would follow and another behind that. It was relentless.”
00:43:05 “Most of the ships simply cut their cables and abandoned their anchors in the mad r
00:43:11 “In the confusion the Spanish ships were scattered far and wide.”
00:43:15 “There were several collisions and one even ended up grounded.”
00:43:19 “Even though not a single Spanish ship actually caught on fire,”
00:43:23 “the fear was enough to achieve the required objective.”
00:43:26 “By the morning, the Spanish Armada was in disarray.”
00:43:33 “At last the Spanish formation was broken,”
00:43:36 “its ships spread along the coast of Gravelines, north of Calais,”
00:43:41 “An area of treacherous sandbanks and shallow waters.”
00:43:46 “The Spanish were now in a perilous position.”
00:43:49 “Their armada was scattered”
00:43:51 “and it was the ideal time for the English to strike.”
00:43:55 “But Drake suddenly discovered that Howard and more than 20 English ships had compl
00:44:02 “Incredibly, at this critical moment,”
00:44:05 “Howard had shown that he too had a deep piratical streak”
00:44:09 “and they’d gone off to loot Spanish ship that had gone aground.”
00:44:16 “Once again, the greed of the English cost them valuable time.”
00:44:21 “While Howard chased after Spanish booty, Drake led the rest of the English fleet”
00:44:27 “into a conflict unlike any that had been fought before, the Battle of Gravelines.”
00:44:35 “What followed was a frantic struggle which both sides knew would decide the fate o
00:44:41 “The Armada had been scattered by the fire ships and was spread out along the coast
00:44:46 “only Medina Sidonia’s flagship and four others”
00:44:50 “had managed to stand their ground.”
00:44:54 “They bore the brunt of Drake’s first attack.”
00:45:10 “For over an hour, Medina Sidonia held back the English onslaught,”
00:45:15 “giving the rest of the Armada time to reform.”
00:45:24 “Finally, Howard returned from his private looting expedition and joined in the at
00:45:29 “but, by now,50 of the Spanish ships had formed their own defensive crescent”
00:45:35 “and Drake sailed on to attack it, realising this main body of Spanish ships had to
00:45:44 “Drake decided to take an enormous risk – he led his ships much closer than in any
00:45:51 “Soon, they were in amongst the ships of the Armada.”
00:46:29 “The experience for those on board would have been different from the other battles
00:46:34 “The ships were so close either side could fire muskets and even hurl abuse at each
00:46:40 “One English ship came so close toa Spanish ship, an English sailor jumped aboard,
00:46:55 “We were so close we could hear the Spanish talking, and then we knew we were in mu
00:46:58 “We were so close we could hear the Spanish talking, and then we knew we were in mu
00:47:11 “But, by getting near, the English were at last able to hit the Armada”
00:47:16 “with shot after shot, doing terrible damage to the ships and their crews.”
00:47:24 “The Spanish were suffering huge numbers of casualties as the English ships pounded
00:47:36 “Below decks on the Spanish ships, cannonballs smashed through the hull meaning dea
00:47:42 “and sending splinters the size of daggers flying through the air.”
00:48:05 “The deck just ran red with blood,”
00:48:08 “every…every moment”
00:48:12 “it seemed that someone was crying with pain,”
00:48:16 “screaming with agony.”
00:48:23 “Whilst the English were blasting away, the Spanish guns were only managing to fire
00:48:29 “but what slowed them down was lack of experience.”
00:48:36 “These guns are complicated to fire and the Spanish ships had more priests on board
00:48:42 “Instead, it was the job of soldiers to fire the guns, but they had no experience
00:48:48 “So, for most of the battle, the Spanish couldn’t even fight back.”
00:48:54 “It was…horrific”
00:48:56 “and…”
00:48:59 “I remember praying to God”
00:49:01 “and thinking that would be my last moment.”
00:49:52 “After eight hours of fighting, the English were running out ammunition.”
00:50:00 “We’d fired so much and done so much damage”
00:50:04 “that, by the end of the battle, we were grabbing anything -using chain instead of
00:50:10 “loading anything we could get our hands on.”
00:50:21 “Around four in the afternoon, the English fired their last shots”
00:50:26 “and were forced to pull back, hoping they’d inflicted fatal damage on the Spanish.
00:50:40 “The Spanish fleet was in tatters.”
00:50:44 “Over 600 Spanish were dead, many hundreds more were badly wounded.”
00:50:49 “One Spanish ship had been sunk, two driven ashore and the rest severely damaged.”
00:50:55 “And now the wind was blowing them helplessly towards the treacherous sandbanks of
00:51:07 “With the English fleet hovering out to sea and the wind pushing the Armada onto th
00:51:13 “there was a hush on the ships and everyone’s attention was on one man.”
00:51:18 “He was in charge of throwing a line into the water to measure the depth.”
00:51:25 “If the ships went aground, it would be certain death, either by drowning”
00:51:30 “as the ship broke up in the surf at the hands of the English.”
00:51:34 “As the sandbanks drew nearer, the depths got more threatening.”
00:51:38 “60 feet, 50 feet”
00:51:41 “and then 40 feet. The biggest Armada ships needed about 30 feet of water. Destruct
00:51:55 “On board ship, the priests took final confessions.”
00:51:59 “Most of the sailors couldn’t even swim. Death seemed inevitable.”
00:52:07 “Just as the ships were on the point of being wrecked, the wind changed -it came r
00:52:13 “and blew the Armada into the North Sea.”
00:52:16 “They believed they’d been saved by the will of God.”
00:52:26 “The wind may have saved the Spanish from the sandbanks,”
00:52:29 “but it drove them away from their army.”
00:52:32 “Philip’s plan to conquer England and return it to the Catholic fold had failed.”
00:52:40 “For the Royal Navy, it was an astonishing achievement.”
00:52:45 “Drake and Howard had taken on the most powerful nation on Earth and won.”
00:52:52 “But for the Spanish, the story was to take a final devastating turn.”
00:53:03 “The Spanish sailors now had only one aim – to get home.”
00:53:08 “The English were blocking the Channel, so the Armada’s only route home was round S
00:53:14 “and circling back to Spain. It was a long and arduous journey.”
00:53:19 “Soon supplies were running low.”
00:53:21 “By the time the fleet arrived off Ireland, men were dying from hunger and thirst.”
00:53:27 “Conditions on board must have been horrific.”
00:53:30 “You would hear moaning, people dying around you all the time,”
00:53:34 “the stink of sweat, of death – there was a smell of death in the air.”
00:53:39 “Some of the ships,”
00:53:42 “one in particular, had no water, no food – nothing.”
00:53:47 “It was a terrible disaster.”
00:54:02 “It was the weather that dealt the final blow to the Armada.”
00:54:07 “Many of the surviving ships were caught by fierce storms”
00:54:11 “as they crawled down the west coast of Ireland.”
00:54:16 “The broken ships and weakened men were no match for the elements -”
00:54:21 “they were too poorly equipped to cope.”
00:54:27 “Dozens of ships were wrecked, thousands of sailors were drowned and, of those who
00:54:35 “many were robbed by the locals, and the rest were captured, and then butchered by
00:54:48 “Only the nobles were spared, kept prisoner until they could be sold back to Spain.
00:54:56 “Everything I once owned is gone.”
00:55:04 “I…I look at myself now…I look around this room and feel I have lost everything
00:55:21 “Only a third of the men came back alive.”
00:55:25 “Medina Sidonia himself almost died of dysentery,”
00:55:29 “his second-in-command died of shame only days after he arrived home.”
00:55:34 “The Armada was worse than failure – it was a national tragedy.”
00:55:50 “The English sailors fared little better.”
00:55:56 “They’d risked everything, fighting heroically for England and suffering less than
00:56:06 “But now that they’d served their purpose, the English Crown seemed to lose interest
00:56:12 “Instead of being rewarded as England’s saviours, they were kept on board where dis
00:56:20 “Officially, they were therein case the Spanish returned,”
00:56:24 “but many suspected it was so they didn’t have to be paid.”
00:56:28 “Weakened by hunger and illness, the English sailors were dying by the day.”
00:56:35 “I heard that the Lord Chancellor is happy for us to die,”
00:56:40 “because the more of us die, the less he’ll have to pay.”
00:56:43 “I’ve been willing to give my life”
00:56:48 “and now I’m told that my life is worth little or next to nothing.”
00:56:54 “The men’s commanders, Drake and Howard, did what they could -”
00:56:59 “Howard even pawned his silver, but it wasn’t enough.”
00:57:02 “It is said that, of the men who fought the Spanish Armada, only half were alive a
00:57:11 “It was a tragic end for the men of the Royal Navy,”
00:57:14 “but, for England, the defeat of the Armada was a turning point,”
00:57:19 “a triumph that will become legendary.”
00:57:24 “England had defended its faith, and to this day Britain remains a Protestant state
00:57:31 “The coming centuries would see Spain decline and Britain taking a turn as Europe’s
00:57:38 “The Royal Navy would play a central role”
00:57:41 “in winning Britain an empire greater than any the world had ever seen,”
00:57:46 “and it all began with the defeat of the Spanish Armada.”
00:58:08 “In the next programme,350 years ago,”
00:58:11 “a battle was fought that would shake the British monarchy to its core.”
00:58:16 “It was a turning point in a civil war”
00:58:19 “that had ripped the country apart for three years.”
00:58:22 “The battle is seen by many as the birthplace of British democracy,”
00:58:26 “but it was a birth that was drenched in blood -”
00:58:29 “blood shed on the battlefield of Naseby.”