Original subtitles

[Music]

in July 1588 beacons were lit across

England to warn of the arrival of the

Spanish Armada

Elizabeth's darkest fears had come true

England was at war open war at last it

was something that Elizabeth had twisted

and turned for 20 years to avoid it is

worth hated war because it was so

expensive it was all so unbelievably

risking the loss of Calais that

destroyed her sister Mary's reputation

and Elizabeth well knew that a similar

unforeseen disaster could undo all her

old work Elizabeth loathed war because

as a woman she couldn't lead her own

armies instead she had to give their

command the hot willed man who would

disobey her orders and might even turn

her own forces against her

the slide into war had begun nearly 20

years before

[Music]

by the early 15 70s Elizabeth had

triumphed over her opponents in England

she had seen off a rebellion and

executed the ringleaders including her

own cousin the Duke of Norfolk

there was a fragile piece in England but

Elizabeth was in constant danger

she had powerful enemies abroad headed

by the Pope who like a 16th century

Ayatollah had signed a fatwa on the

Protestant English Queen whosoever sends

her out of the world with the pious

intention of doing God's service not

only does not sin but gains merit

Elizabeth the powerful Catholic enemies

at home as well Mary Queen of Scots that

been Elizabeth's prisoner since her

desperate flight from Scotland in 1568

Mary had a strong claim to the English

throne through her great-grandfather

Henry the Sabbath on her arrival in

England Mary identified herself

passionately with Catholicism

[Music]

there is faith set her on a collision

course with Elizabeth

especially as relations between

Catholics and Protestants in Europe were

about to explode

in Paris on st. Bartholomew's day the

24th of August 1572 Catholics began a

massacre of their Protestant neighbors

[Music]

everywhere there were people who fled

and others who ran after them crying

kill kill there was no mercy either for

age or for sex

it was in very truth on massacre the

streets were strewn with naked mutilated

corpses the river was covered with them

[Music]

Sir Francis Walsingham Elizabeth's

ambassador in Paris barely escaped with

his life the Queen recalled him to

London and gave him a new job

masterminding England's security

Walsingham quickly identified public

enemy number one

nothing is more necessary than that the

realm might be delivered of her if the

sole be not solved I feel we shall have

a Bartholomew breakfast Mary was a

figurehead for Catholics everywhere who

wanted to depose Elizabeth and Mary knew

that there could be only one way out of

her confinement

I will not leave my prison savers Queen

of England

the symbol demure Massacre heightened

the fear of a bloody Catholic rising in

England

it also plunged France into civil war

Elizabeth had relied on France as a

counterbalance to the mighty Spanish

Empire which controlled much of Europe

including the Netherlands that is

modern-day Holland Belgium and

northeastern France but although England

might fear the Catholic neighbors she

couldn't live without them because in

the Netherlands was England's biggest

export market the booming city of

Antwerp in 1532 the year before

Elizabeth birth this magnificent new

exchange was built and - it was now a

combination of the city and Wall Street

and the most important commodity traded

was English wool the English traders

held center stage doing their deals here

in the middle of the trading floor as

usual money talks

and the volume of the London Antwerp

trade meant that the Netherlands were

normally England's chief overseas Ally

and the rulers of the Netherlands in the

sixteenth century were the Hapsburgs one

of them was Philip of Spain who had been

married to Mary Tudor Elizabeth's sister

when Mary died Philip tried to keep hold

of England by proposing to Elizabeth but

the new Queen refused him neither

Elizabeth nor her people wanted to be

ruled by a foreigner again

the people of the Netherlands didn't

much like Spanish rule either and in

1576 they united behind Prince William

of Orange he was horrified by the

brutality of Spanish rule and he turned

to Elizabeth as a fellow Protestant for

help Elizabeth now proved herself to be

a queen of deception instead of

intervening directly as her father Henry

the eighth's might have done Elizabeth

preferred to get others to do her dirty

work for her

Elizabeth's policy towards the

Netherlands Trotta tightrope

she didn't wish to be seen giving open

help to Philips rebellious subjects

because that would break the rules of

the Royal Club to which both she and

Philip belong

nor on the other hand did she want to

see Philip re-establish a real power

over the Netherlands that would enable

Philip to resume the persecution of the

Protestants still worse it would enable

him to turn the Netherlands into a

springboard for the invasion of England

so every time Philip looked as though he

was getting the upper hand

Elizabeth threw large amounts of gold at

the Dutch rebels to stiffen their

resistance

but mighty Spain would not be beaten by

a Dutch Revolt

and Williams rebellion began to buckle

under the force of Spanish arms

Elizabeth needed someone else to try to

stop Philip

until the duke of anjou

his mother had put him forward as a

husband Phil is abbath when he was just

18 and she was 39 but he was reputedly

puny and scarred by smallpox and

Elizabeth hadn't been interested but six

years later he began to intrigue her the

Duke belonged to the French royal family

but as the youngest son he had little

chance of inheriting the throne so he

had to look elsewhere for a kingdom of

his own he hoped to find one in the

Netherlands if Elizabeth could pull the

right strings all she would be a perfect

puppet to oppose Philip Elizabeth

flourished a diplomatic trump card now a

bit worn and passed its best but still

playable marriage was on the table again

the latest today said to the Lord

assault on Jews ambition needed money he

began a secret correspondence with

Elizabeth but his letters didn't talk of

interest rates instead they used the

language of love she was his bell

majesty he was her slave his

declarations combined devotion and

passion with just a tasteful hint of

eroticism

Arzu sent a close friend Jean see me a

to England to continue the seduction and

the financial negotiations on his behalf

[Music]

Joe peasantry net the Moussa logic see

me I was described as a most choice

quarter exquisitely skilled in love toys

and caught balances Elizabeth was more

than half in love with his master

without even having met him all you

arrived at Greenwich in the small hours

of the 17th of August 1579 his first

thought was to rush straight to the

Queen's bedchamber instead see me I

persuaded him to take some rest

but then see me I wrote a letter to

Elizabeth that was almost as titillating

as though the Duke really had burst in

on the slumbering Queen I got him

between the sheets

Samia wrote and would to God you were

there too so that he could explain his

mind to more easily

Elizabeth allows you heated off

immediately

she'd steel herself to meet an ugly

little fellow what she saw instead was a

mature and attractive man she nicknamed

him a frog

the Spanish ambassador Mendoza remarked

the Queen has with difficulty being able

to entertain the Duke being captivated

overcome with love she told me she's

never found a man whose nature and

actions suited her better Elizabeth was

in love the ice maiden had melted of the

Virgin Queen was longing to become a

blushing bride

Anjou had caught her on the rebound she

just learned that Robert Dudley Earl of

Leicester a favorite of 20 years

standing had betrayed her by daring to

get married in secret but she was also

fascinated by Anjou himself all of the

Englishman who detracted her from Thomas

Seymour when she was a teenager to

Leicester himself were bold athletic men

who barnstormed their way into

Elizabeth's favour

oh she was different with his quirky

face his expressive hands in his French

ways he charmed her into love Elizabeth

was in love with a man twenty years her

junior a Catholic and a Frenchman

what would the marriage be a real one

that's to say was Elizabeth unlike her

sister Mary still able to have children

a minister Burley had thought of this

problem too and he had confidential

discussions with her doctors and her

ladies-in-waiting

and they'd all said the same thing that

she was apt to have children even at

this day

after just two weeks the lovers were

torn apart our shoe was recalled to

Paris after friend was killed in a duel

he sent Elizabeth three love letters

tied with pink ribbons before he had

even left English soil calling himself

the most faithful and loving slave on

earth Elizabeth intoxicated with the

attention couldn't wait for him to

return

[Music]

Elizabeth old favorites were enraged

Robert Dudley the Earl of Leicester was

particularly jealous Leicester is much

put out and all the councillors are

disgusted a close friend of Leicester

tells me he's cursing the French a

pamphlet appeared on the streets of

London

it was venomous in its opposition to the

match Elizabeth will be drawn into a

Catholic den of idolatry if she died in

childbirth

Anjou might become King of England

besides the Frenchman probably had the

pox Elizabeth was incandescent with rage

she ordered that the author John Stubbs

and his printer have their right hands

struck off Stubbs spoke of his loyalty

to the Queen before having his hands

severed with a butcher's cleaver and the

stumps seared with a red-hot iron public

opinion turned viciousness and a phobic

hop off few frogs the Tudor England

wasn't a democracy the men whose

opinions Elizabeth would listen to were

the members of her Privy Council the

council debated the marriage all day

finally opinion was split 50-50 for and

against in those circumstances the

council felt that could offer the Queen

no formal opinion Elizabeth was

genuinely astonished the 20 years and

ministers have been telling her she had

to marry now she found the ideal

marriage and they refused to endorse it

she took her counsels lukewarm reaction

as an effective veto on the Arzu

marriage

so Elizabeth wouldn't marry her prince

charming she remained extremely sad

after the conversation and was so cross

and melancholy that it was noted by

everyone who approached her she's been

greatly alarmed by all this

Elizabeth wrote to anjou explaining why

public opinion made it impossible for

her to marry him the public practice of

the Roman religion so sticks in their

hearts I begged you to consider this

deeply as a matter which is so hard for

Englishmen to bear that it passes all

imagination

for my part I confess there is no prince

in the world to whom I think myself more

bound nor with whom I would rather pass

the years of my life both for your rare

virtues and sweet nature with my

commendations to my dearest frog

Elizabeth thought she'd seen the last of

him

I will not leave my prison savers Queen

of England

Mary Queen of Scots had now been

Elizabeth's prisoner for 11 years she

dreamed of rescue and she dreamed of

taking her captors throne so she became

the center of a web of Catholic

conspiracy keeping contact with her

supporters at home and abroad vast

secret letters some of these letters

contained encouraging news

although Catholicism in England had been

driven underground Jesuit priests were

being trained abroad to keep the faith

alive the Jesuits were spiritual

revolutionaries who were being smuggled

into England in disguise

among them was Edmund Campion one of the

outstanding churchmen of his age Campion

had left the Church of England to become

a Catholic we have the zeal of convert

[Music]

champion landed in England in 1580

posing as a traveling merchant his

mission was spiritual to minister to

Catholics he had no plans to stir up

rebellion but he knew that the

Protestant authorities would treat him

as a traitor

I cannot long escape the hands of the

heretics the enemy have so many eyes so

many tongues so many scouts and crafts I

often changed my name

threatening edicts come forth against us

daily I read letters sometimes that tell

news that Campion has taken Campion had

a very attractive personality clearly a

man of integrity man of ambition man of

great intelligence at the present

authorities viewed him as a dangerous

individual because he was so gifted

because he was so attractive because he

had such a great name already in the

country from his early days at Oxford

and dessert member of the Anglican

Church he represented a new kind of

religion not just establishment religion

of either sort if you like enthusiastic

religion and that's always dangerous

particularly if you're trying your best

as Elizabeth was very understandably

from her point of view to form an

established Church which didn't satisfy

anybody particularly but kept everybody

more of this contained and more or less

quiet one thing Campion was not was

quiet the Catholic Mass was illegal in

England that didn't stop Campion moving

from house to house saying massed and

hearing confessions

he published pamphlets which challenged

the very basis of Elizabeth's church

Elizabeth had met Campion at Oxford 15

years earlier before he had converted to

Catholicism she had been greatly

impressed by him but she couldn't ignore

the gauntlet that he was now throwing

down like it or not she had to treat him

as the enemy Elizabeth and Campion

actually had a lot in common both

believe that it should be possible to

distinguish between religion and

politics at the beginning of her reign

Elizabeth had claimed passionately that

she wouldn't make Windows into men's

souls whilst Campion

for his part insisted that he had no

political motives and was the Queen's

loyal subject but in the circumstances

of the European cold war between

Protestant and Catholic the distinction

between religion and politics was almost

impossible to maintain after all

Campion was the loyal servant of the

Pope and the Pope claimed authority to

depose Elizabeth he had already in the

1560s authorized her subjects to rebel

against her and he could and would do so

again champions solitary journey now

brought him to life at Grange near

Oxford here a priest capture discovered

him and alerted the authorities the

house was ransacked and after search of

two days a chink of light betrayed

Campion's hiding-place

Campion was taken to London where he had

a secret meeting with Leicester and

Elizabeth herself the Queen offered him

pardoned and preferment if he would

recant Campion refused and in turn

reminded Elizabeth of her glorious

Catholic ancestors whom she had betrayed

Campion was returned to the tower and

five days later was put to the rack to

extract a confession of treason at his

trial he was found guilty and sentenced

to be hanged drawn

and quartered on the scaffold Campion

prayed to God to grant the Queen a long

quiet reign with all prosperity the

effect of Campion's death on the

Catholic world was tremendous

strengthening and as always you know

when you make martyrs you usually

increase the cause you're trying to

oppose and that certainly is the case

with Campion and word got round of his

heroic death by any standards so

tremendous encouragement for the

Catholic world the very thing that

Elizabeth was trying to cool down

enthusiastic commitment and religion of

any sort was the very thing that he

strengthened

[Music]

Elizabeth was provoking her Catholic

enemies most aggrieved of all was

Philippa spay whilst Campion's death and

insulted his faith another of Elizabeth

subjects had been busy emptying his

pockets on September the 26th 1580 a

battered ship dropped anchor in

Southampton Harbor the ship was the

Golden Hind

the captain was one of the most

outstanding Elizabethan seamen Sir

Francis Drake Driggs voyage had begun

three years before as a pirate

expedition to the Pacific one of the

investors was the Queen herself Drake's

target was the Spanish treasure ships

[Applause]

Drake had waged a private war against

the most powerful empire on earth as he

sailed back into Southampton Drake must

have had the odd doubt whether or not

the Queen would still welcome her pirate

subject I think Drake would have had a

great deal of trepidation when they

returned he had been away for three

years and he obviously had no idea what

had happened during that time and I

think the first one of the first things

he asked was was the Queen's still alive

as coming back with all that gold and

silver if the political situation had

trained changed dramatically he could

have been hailed as a hero or condemned

as a villain when he had returned to

England Shores Creek was lucky Elizabeth

was fascinated by his stories and

entranced by his loot and in the event

his piracy suited her devious foreign

policy gold from the new world paid for

Spain's troops in the Netherlands sue by

diminishing the supply

she had weakened Philips grip but his

anchorage at Deptford drake ship renamed

the Golden Hind

quickly became a tourist attraction and

in April Queen Elizabeth herself joined

the throng Elizabeth

despite the outraged protests of the

Spanish ambassador had already pocketed

her share of Drake's loot

this amounted to the staggering sum of

nearly one year's parliamentary revenue

and represented a 5,000 percent return

on the money that she'd invested now

she'd arrived to confer respectability

in the most public fashion possible on

Drake she jokingly told him that she

brought a buildin sword with which to

cut off the head of this notorious

pirate instead Elizabeth gave the sword

to the Duke of Anjou representative and

told him tonight Drake here on the deck

of the Golden Hind by asking the

frictional tonight her pet pirate

Elizabeth was making her allegiances

very clear England was still range with

France against Spain the allows with

France meant that her liaison with the

Duke of Anjou would continue after an

absence of two years he returned asking

for more money for his campaign against

the Spanish in the Netherlands

accompanied by the French ambassador he

also decided to pop the marriage

question again Elizabeth's answer was

astonishing

you may write this to your King at the

Duke of Aldrin shall be my husband

[Music]

at the age of 48 Elizabeth was engaged

it was a formal public betrothal in

front of witnesses messengers were

dispatched around Europe with the

astonishing news and church bells were

rung in Antwerp back home in England the

reaction was more mixed Burley rejoiced

Leicester was furious and other

courtiers burst into tears that same

evening the opponents of the marriage

instructed it as a bus ladies-in-waiting

to paint in graphic terms the

restrictions of married life and the

horrors of childbirth with the result of

the Queen spent a miserable and

sleepless night the one extraordinary

moment

Elizabeth's heart that ruled her head

but it didn't last long in the morning

she told Anjou that she couldn't marry

him because the welfare of her subjects

must come first before her own happiness

[Music]

what accounts for this extraordinary

on-off behavior Elizabeth that's

certainly abandoned any serious

intention of marrying Anjou two years

earlier but he was politically useful

and she found his company attractive so

for one moment she fondly allowed

herself to imagine what might have been

then the following morning in the cold

light of day the pretense was abandoned

and she ditched with many expressions of

regret her dream lover Elizabeth might

have thrown her French suitor back in

the water

but her frog didn't swim away he stayed

on for three months begging for more

money

finally Elizabeth was driven to pay him

10,000 pounds but Anshu set sail for the

Netherlands to pursue his quest for

another Kingdom

she would never see him again

[Music]

she could no longer pull the strings of

her puppet Prince for instead of helping

the people of the Netherlands fight the

Spanish alls you tried to set them

against each other in a cynical attempt

to seize absolute power for himself but

his plan failed in 1583 Anjou retreated

to France in disgrace

a year later he died Elizabeth was

genuinely sound

she wrote to his mother if you could see

a picture of my heart he would see a

body without a soul

there would be no more pretense of

marriage Elizabeth would rule alone and

she would die without a natural heir

[Music]

Elizabeth had always avoided open war

and she had maintained peace by

persuading others to fight her battles

for her but her policy was about to

collapse thanks to events in the

Netherlands at about midday on the 10th

of July 1584 William Prince of Orange

was dining with his family in the

Princeton hoff in Delft William had

already survived several attempts on his

life

so by 16th century standards the

security around him was tight and here

in his own house at least he should have

been relatively safe about 2 o'clock

William left the dining room to go

upstairs to his study he was going to

meet a recent contact the man had

introduced himself as Balthazar gerra

a French Protestant a William had

decided to send him to France with

letters he give me money to buy clothes

for the journey

Balthazar girar wasn't the Protestant at

all wasn't even his real name instead he

was an undercover Catholic fanatic and

he'd spent Williams money not on clothes

but on pistols he fired three shots at

the prince two bullets pass to Williams

body and lodged in the wall the prince

died a few minutes later our triggers

his last words God have mercy on my soul

and on my poor country his death was

appalling news feliza birth it left her

as the only Protestant leader in Europe

Spain could overrun the whole of the

Netherlands and then invade England

there was no one left to fight England's

battles for her

Elizabeth had no choice she finally had

to send English troops overseas

old friend Robert Dudley the love Lester

was in command but still Elizabeth was

wary of declaring all-out war she

discouraged Lester from going on the

offensive she hoped the display of

English muscle would scare off the

Spanish but Lester's opponent was the

Duke of Parma Philips greatest general

him England and Spain were war and he

didn't hesitate to attack the war put

Elizabeth and a huge strain

she was now at her most contrary and

things weren't helped by Lester's

mixture of high-handedness and

incompetence in defiance of Elizabeth's

explicit instructions he accepted the

governor-general ship of the Netherlands

and he proved openness as a general as

well

so Palmer's troops swallow the

Netherlands bit by bit

[Music]

Elizabeth recalled Leicester her

favorite had failed her only the sea now

stood between England and invasion there

was one person in the kingdom who

welcomed the news Mary Queen of Scots in

January 15 85 Mary was brought here to

the hilltop Castle of tuck debris in

Staffordshire the assassination of

William our arns abroad and a series of

plots in England brought home the danger

that Mary presented to Elizabeth's life

so far Mary had been kept in honourable

custody now it became a real

imprisonment

she had a jailer the harsh unsympathetic

Puritan sir Amyas Paulette there were

armed soldiers who patrol the

battlements and Mary was cut off from

all correspondence with the outside

world she was isolated bored and

resentful but the devil in the form of

Sir Francis Walsingham soon found work

for Mary's idle hands

Elizabeth patient spymaster set a trap

and then waited for Mary to walk into it

[Music]

the servant offered to smuggle Mary's

letters in a beer bottle from a local

brewery the servant and the brewer were

in Walsingham's pay every letter she

sent to received was intercepted and

decoded by Walsingham's private

secretary Thomas Phillips

[Music]

six months after the setting up of the

barrel post Mary received a letter from

Anthony Babington Babbington came from a

rich Derbyshire family he was young

Catholic and idealistic and he just

organized a plot to assassinate

Elizabeth Babbington saw the murder in

terms of high heroics even had a group

portrait painted himself and his fellow

conspirators with the motto we are

comrades United in danger it was

intended to be their monument instead it

was there to instill a mystique became

involved in the plot against Elizabeth

mainly due to his connections with Mary

Queen of Scots while she was imprisoned

early on in her life

and while he was a young Paige in her

service we can only believe that he had

a crush on her and was infatuated by her

and if not besotted which quedan for

most his life and her life Anthony was

was politically knave

he was very impressionable and he was

used by conspirators who had much

stronger beliefs and and he has on the

wider European front

Abingdon wrote to Mary saying that he

and his friends would dispatched the

usurper Elizabeth and then rescue Mary

Spanish would invade and Mary would take

the English throne

[Music]

marah's reply when it came a few days

later was clear enough the affair being

thus prepared and forces in readiness

within and without the realm then shall

it be time to set the six gentlemen to

work upon the accomplishment of their

design I may suddenly be transported out

of this place at last there was evidence

enough to send Mary to the scaffold

[Music]

Babbington his fellow conspirators were

arrested a few days later they were

tortured tried for treason and sentenced

to a traitor's death pressure from the

countryand Council was now building up

they were determined to have mary's head

add elizabeth was forced to agree to a

trial the trial was to take place at

fotheringhay castle and Burleigh himself

throughout the seating plan but despite

these careful preparations the trial

nearly didn't take place at all Mary

Queen of Scots absolutely refused to

accept the jurisdiction of the court I

am NOT a subject she said I would rather

die a thousand deaths than acknowledge

myself as one instead she was a

sovereign Prince and so answerable to

God alone Elizabeth retaliated you have

in various ways attempted to take my

life and to bring my kingdom to

destruction

I have never proceeded so harshly

against you on the contrary I have

maintained you and preserved your life

it is my will that you arm southern

Nobles and peers of the kingdom as if I

were myself present

[Music]

eventually a form of words was found

that enabled the trial to go ahead Mary

defended herself a Blee in two days of

examination she denounced the Babbington

letters as forgeries

and she managed to wriggle out of the

most incriminating questions but finally

she was call it she could only say that

she had to be believed because she spoke

on the word of a prince this cut no ice

with her judges the court adjourned to

Westminster for the final decision the

verdict guilty the sentence death

Elizabeth now had to decide Mary's fate

the two queens had never met although

Mary had been Elizabeth's prisoner for

twenty years yet Elizabeth agonized over

the decision she was reluctant to

execute Mary because she too was a

member of the royal club cutting her

head off might set a very unwelcome

precedent

Elizabeth asked Mary's jailer sir Amyas

Paulette to assassinate her by poison or

suffocation so that the Queen would not

have to take responsibility for her

death

Paulette refused

[Music]

as Elizabeth hesitated England sees with

rumours the Spanish had invaded London

had been burned finally on the 1st of

February 1587 Elizabeth signed the death

warrant seven days later the sentence

was carried out in the Great Hall of

fotheringhay castle Mary herself behaved

with the theatrical courage she included

Elizabeth in her final prayers then her

ladies removed her outer clothes to

reveal a petticoat

of scarlet the Catholic colour of

martyrdom she knelt at the block but the

execution of bodged his task and he took

two strokes of the axe to remove her

head still worse when he tried to hold

up the head he found himself clutching

only a wig whilst the head with its thin

graying stubble rolled at his feet

England celebrated Mary's death

Elizabeth grieved

a countenance changed her words faltered

she gave herself over to GUI putting

herself into mourning weeds and shedding

abundance of Tears

[Music]

what a performance it was even more

complex and self-contradictory than it

is abbath usual behavior some of those

tears were real Elizabeth had been

profoundly reluctant to execute Mary and

when the deed was actually done she was

horrified but they're also tears of rage

she strongly suspected that she'd been

jumped into the action by the council

they'd met secretly and decided not to

tell her that the warrant had been

dispatched to fotheringhay that's why

she tore strips off her ministers and

Secretary William Davison in particular

who'd actually dispatched the world he

was imprisoned fined and even threatened

with hanging but finally they were

crocodile tears as well by exaggerating

her grief and scapegoating Davison

Elizabeth was trying to deflect

responsibility from where it really and

finally lay with her the news of Mary's

execution exploded across the Catholic

world it gave Philip of Spain the excuse

he needed to declare war on the heretic

Queen Philip order the Duke of Parma to

prepare an army in the Netherlands for

the invasion of England the Armada would

sail from Spain to collect Palmer's

force and land them on the English coast

Philips deadly intentions were no secret

reluctantly Elizabeth ordered that the

English fleet be readied for the threat

even now she hoped to avoid war

she tried negotiating with Parma as the

Armada set sail but there was no mood

for compromise amongst her Catholic

opponents

she's an incestuous bastard begotten and

born in sin of an infamous courtesan

Cardinal William Allen June 15 88

English lookouts scour the horizon the

enemy's sails

they cited them on July the 19th the

Spanish did not really expect to be

challenged on their voyage of the

channel the English fleet was half the

size of the Armada but what they lacked

in numbers they made up for in design

the English ships were much smaller than

the Spanish ships the Spanish ships

tended to have large for castles and

large after castles which were fortified

areas on the ship where they could house

men when they engaged in battle men who

could then board other ships but as the

rig's were fairly small in fact too

small really for powering the ships

along it meant that the Spanish ships

were largely only abused in trade wooden

sailing in following the routes between

Spain and the Americas rather than in

tactical fighting within the English

Channel and I think that is where the

English ship scored because they were

relatively smaller and therefore more

maneuverable and had the tactical

advantage the English still weren't

ready to engage the Spanish fleet

head-on Sir Francis Drake now promoted

to vice admiral favored skirmishing

tactics as the Armada sailed up the

channel

there was a scatter vicious dogfights

Elizabeth went on a morale-boosting

visit to her troops on land finally she

had found a rhetorical way of

reconciling the paradox of being a woman

and being a leader in war I am come

amongst you not for my recreation and

Dysport but being resolved in the midst

and heat of the battle to live or die

amongst you all to lay down for God and

for my kingdom and for my people my

honor and my blood even in the dust I

know I have the body of a weak and

feeble woman but I have the heart and

stomach of a king and think foul scorn

that Spain or any Prince of Europe

should dare to invade the borders of my

realm to which rather than any dishonour

shall grow by me I myself will take up

arms but Elizabeth did not need to take

up arms herself the English had a secret

weapon

they called it the hellburner

they packed five ships with pitch and

timbre set fire to them and put them

adrift amongst the Spanish galleons

there was panic many of the Spanish

ships up anchor and fled and were

scattered by the wind

incredibly Medina Sidonia the Spanish

Admiral managed to reunite his scattered

ships they even resumed their powerful

Crescent formation then of Gravlin on

the coast of the Netherlands the two

fleets for the first time came into

battle at close quarters each side used

its favorite tactics the spaniards tried

to board the english brought their heavy

guns into play at close quarters and it

was the english guns that won the day

they killed thousands of spaniards and

they did terrible damage to the

structure of the spanish ships the only

a handful actually went down

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the winds and the weather now finished

what the English fleet had begun many of

the Spanish ships were wrecked off the

coasts of the British Isles as they

tried to find their way home

the defeat of the Armada was England's

and Elizabeth's finest hour little

wonder that she had this portrait

painted as a symbolic memorial Elizabeth

was now mistress of the seven seas as

well as of her own people

Elizabeth had entered the war against

Spain with a deep sense of foreboding

but she'd emerged triumphant above all

she'd show that a woman could be an

inspirational leader in war as well as

in peace of course the weather had

played its part in the victory over the

Armada God's winds blew and they were

scattered as it said on the back of the

commemorative medal but this fact does

nothing to diminish the extent of the

English victory or the scale of Spain's

defeat than humiliation at the beginning

of Elizabeth's reign the heralds have

proclaimed that she was Empress from the

Orkney Isles to the Pyrenean mountains

then the claim to English overlordship

of the Seas was emptied bombast with the

defeat of the Armada it became sober

reality it was an astonishing

achievement the only problem now was

living up to it

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