The Spanish Armada

The authors take advantage of startling new evidence from under the sea and the vast archives of those who shaped the Spanish defeat. The result is genuinely even-handed between English and Spanish; it couples vigorous, spare and often bold writing with scrupulous scholarship. Contents Acknowledgements Note Introduction I: The Fleets Approach ‘The greatest and strongest combination' ‘A fleet to impeach it' II: God's Obvious Design 3 ‘The great bog of Europe' 4 Armed neutrality, 1558—80 5 Cold war, 1581—85 6 The Grand Design and its architect 7 Phoney war 8 The Armada takes shape III: It Came, Went, and Was 9 The advance to Calais 10 The Banks of Flanders 11 Anatomy of failure 12 ‘God breathed'' IV: The Armada in History and Legend 13 Victors and vanquished 14 If the Armada had landed Source notes and references Index A detailed and profusely illustrated large-size volume looks at events leading up to the famous sixteenth-century invasion of England, details of the campaign, and the reasons it failed. Using unique first hand sources (on which they had been working together for a decade) and information dramatically complemented and augmented by the discoveries from the Armada wrecks, (three of which Martin has excavated), the two authors have put together the pieces of the puzzle of the Spanish Armada, reaching some unexpected conclusions