Page 65 - 1992 - XVIII Congresso Internazionale di Storia Militare

ENGLAND AGAINST SPAlN, EUZABETH l VERSUS PHILIP II:
A SUCCESSFUL CHALLENGE TO SPANISH HEGEMONY?

DAVID G. CHM'DLER

"Under the Grace af Gad, ir is upan rhe Navy thac the safery and prasperiry
af rhis Realm dotb depend"- wrore che Elizabethan sea-dog, courrier and explorer
Sir W alter Raleigh, destined co di e o n the block in 160 l as a gesrure affrìendship
to Spain as che newly-crawned KingJames l sougln a rappr()(hemmr and a marriage
alli ance far his eldesr san, Prince Henry, with che Spanish House of Hasburg. Alas
tbe inrenr failed: Henry dled afa cold caught playing rayal·tennis, and Anglo-Spanish
reladans rapidly resumed their deep hoscilicy as Prince Chacles, James rs second
san and now the heir apparent, married a French princess, Hendetra Maria -
so perhaps Sir W alter (repuredly the imraducer - far berrer or warse- of bath
tabacco and the potato into English !ife) farfeired his handsome head on Tower
HiJl one chilly Navember morning wholly unecessarilly, ''pirace'' or no.
Nevertheless, chis evenr marked the formai dasing of a long chapter of Anglo·
Spanish hostilicy which had reached ics peak witb anather beheading- this time
ar Fatheringay Cascle in 1587 - af the cathalic Mary, Queen af Scacs. Bue there
is no denying thac in che intervening periad the Elizabethan navy had undergone
ics bapcism of fire - in ics pre-emptive strike under Francisco el Draque upon
Cadiz in 1587, which every Brirish child far aver 400 years 'has known as "singe·
ing the King af Spain's bea:rd" , and even more so three years larer in ics splendid
fighe againsc the felicùsima Armada - albeir assisred by Ducch-builr infernal fire·
ship machines and one of chose helpful "Procescant Winds" thar have severa! rimes
affeaed aur insular hiscory far decidedly the better in the late 16th and l 7th cenruries.
As milirary histarians, l expect we ha ve aU learm the need co weave a delicate
pach through aggregations of mych and legend which so richJy encrusr dimacteric
momenrs in our various national hiscories. lr is, alas, ali coo aften the cruth where
"folk-hiscocy" is concerned rhac ir is nor che srrict and precise truth thar seems ro
matter bue rather wh~t is be/ieved ro be rrue. Propaganda, borh black and whire,
clouds tbe scene. Thus Sir Francis Drake never calmly played bowls on Plymouth
Hoe, when, co eire three couplets af Lord Macaulay's poem, The Armad.r.
lt was abou.r the lovely dose of a waun_ summer day
There carne a gallane mercham-ship full sai! co Plymourh Bay;
Her crew hath seen Cascile's black fleec, beyond Aurigny's isle,