![]() The king’s austere style of dress reflects the increasing rigour of his outlook in the later years of his reign. Propaganda: a typical depiction of religion-inspired atrocities, in this case perpetrated by Protestants. But the accession of his eldest daughter, the devoutly Catholic Mary, in 1553 not only brought England back to Rome but in 1554 seemed to herald the union of the two kingdoms when King Philip II of Spain married Queen Mary. Relations were strained when Henry VIII divorced his Spanish wife, Catherine of Aragon, and in defiance of the pope established the Church of England with himself as its head. The earlier Tudor monarchs had maintained amicable relations with their Spanish counterparts, united by distrust of their common neighbour, France. Little more than thirty years before the Armada sailed in 1588, few would have anticipated war between England and Spain. Included are full orders of battle showing the chains of command and the effective strengths and fighting capabilities of the opposing fleets.There is also an in-depth analysis of the far-reaching consequences of the wreck of Philip II’s great enterprise. He questions common assumptions about the battle and looks again at aspects of the action that have been debated or misunderstood. In this compelling new account John Barratt reconstructs the battle against the Armada in the concise, clear Campaign Chronicles format, which records the action in vivid detail, day by day, hour by hour. The running battle along the Channel between the nimble English ships and the lumbering Spanish galleons has achieved almost legendary status. The defeat of the Spanish Armada is one of the turning points in English history, and it was perhaps the defining episode in the long reigns of Elizabeth I of England and Philip II of Spain. The political machinations, the strategies, and the hour-by-hour accounts of the war that locked Elizabeth I and Philip II in a battle for naval supremacy.
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