Failure of the Century: The Spanish Armada, Part Three - Enter the Duke

Part 1
Part 2

I have to apologize. By Episode 3 we should probably be wrapping this up, but here we are, just getting started putting the Armada together. It's easy to get caught up in the details (hey, I'm a history major), but the point of this shitty blog is succinctness.

Alvaro de Bazan, the Marquis of Santa Cruz

In any case, here we are. It is the spring of 1588, and Spain is ready to go back to war with England and the Protestant Queen Elizabeth, public enemy no. 1 for the Catholics and their enforcer, King Philip II of Spain. Placed in charge of constructing this massive project is the venerable seafaring legend of Spain, the mighty Marquis of Santa Cruz, Alvaro de Bazan. Yes, names were way sweeter back then.

Now, there are many, many reasons for the (spoiler alert) ultimate failure of the armada, and we will explore these, but there is one that has historically, and for good reason, taken the proverbial cake.

In 1588 Santa Cruz was 61 years old, had fought in countless battles and led a stressful life as top admiral in the largest empire on the planet, and had spent the previous winter working his fingers to the bone preparing for his magnum opus, a massive invasion of England. Unfortunately, this proved to be too much for the old man, and he died. Some sources claim that it was the stress of this final job that finished him off, but what is not in doubt is the fact that he stopped breathing in early February, and left Philip scrambling for a replacement.

'Replacement' is not a great word. 'Shadow' is more appropriate; maybe 'facsimile.' The Marquis of Santa Cruz was not easily replaceable. He had led a reserve of Allied Christian ships at Lepanto in 1571. He served as Philip's naval ringer during the takeover of Portugal in the 1580s. You could count his naval equals, on the face of the earth at this time, on one hand.

Hey, I'm Alvaro Perez de Guzman, Duke of Medina Sidonia

The Duke of Medina Sidonia, Alonso Perez de Guzman was not a seafaring genius or brilliant leader of men.

His ancestors, however, had been. The Guzmans were likely descended from Norse raiders in the 10th century, and ruled the Spanish district of Andalusia (southern Spain). Enrique Perez de Guzman, several issues before our hero Alonso, had been a general of the Reconquista, and died during the siege of Gibraltar. He was not alone, however: it is said that the Guzmans earned their nickname, "el bueno" (The Good) through military prowess. The Guzmans had produced generals and colonial governors - in all, the family  had almost 600 years of military heritage.

And so, in February of 1588, Philip II of Spain sent a messenger to somebody who had fighting in his blood. What the Duke of Medina Sidonia didn't have was any kind of military or naval experience, or really any desire to leave home. After his father died, Medina Sidonia became the richest noble in the kingdom, and he was perfectly content hanging out at his Spanish villa all day and not organizing an invasion of England. In fact, he did his very best to get out of Philip's scheme. Here is an excerpt from a letter Medina Sidonia sent to the king following his assignment:

"But sir, I have no health for the sea, I know from the small experience I have had afloat that I am always seasick and catch cold. Besides this... my house owes 900 000 ducats, and I am therefore quite unable to accept the command, I have not a penny I can spend on the expedition. Apart from this, neither my conscience nor my duty will allow me to take this service. The fleet is so great, and the undertaking so important, that it would be wrong for a person like myself, with no experience of seafaring or warfare, to take charge of it. ... I possess neither the aptitude, ability, health, or fortune for the expedition. The lack of any of these qualities would be enough to excuse me, and much more the lack of them all, which is the case with me at present."

How much of this is true is irrelevant: either Medina Sidonia was not cut out for the job, or he wanted no part of it; either way, he was the wrong choice. According to most stories, it is the former. Medina Sidonia threw himself into the project and did everything in his power to make it work, but he simply had no business being there - we'll get back to this. 

There are two stories that continue from here: one where the secretaries of the king dared not show the letter to Philip, and responded to Medina Sidonia telling him as much, and another version where the king replied, ignored his qualms, and told him to get his ass to Lisbon.

Speaking of Lisbon, Portugal plays its own part in this tale. I'll return to Medina Sidonia in a moment, bear with me. Philip had taken control in a play for the throne of Portugal in 1581, and ruled from Madrid through his nephew, Albert. The Spanish king was not particularly popular in Portugal, but he did do his best to run the place properly. He let the country mostly run itself, left the Portuguese Inquisition to its own devices, instilled Portuguese nobles in his own court, allowed middle-class secretaries to reach positions of influence in Portugal, and constructed a special council to advise him on the matters of Portugal. By all accounts, Philip wanted to be a good king.

This is all academic, of course. Portugal matters when it comes to the Armada for two reasons:

i) The Armada was launched from Lisbon, which is one of the sweetest natural ports in the world. This provided an excellent place to gather the fleet and an excellent place from which to launch it, the nearest great port to England that the Spanish had. It was at Lisbon that the banner of the Armada was blessed on 25 April, and it was at Lisbon that the Armada set sail on 28 May.

ii) The Portuguese are historically some of the best seamen on the planet. Their navy, which was seized in Philip's annexation of Portugal, was one of the finest in the world - their ships state-of-the-art, and their sailors brilliant at their craft. The Spanish inducted 12 ships of the line and four 50-gun galleys into the Armada, forming the Portugal Squadron, the elite group of the Armada. One of the 12 galleons was the San Martin, formerly the pride of the Portuguese navy, Sao Martinho. The San Martin was brand new, had two gun decks consisting of 48 cannon, was perhaps the greatest ship afloat, and was chosen by Medina Sidonia as his flagship.

And speaking of the good Duke, it's time to return to the narrative.

So the Duke of Medina Sidonia set off for Lisbon in a hurry, and immediately upon arrival set to work. Medina Sidonia was not completely out of his element at this stage: Philip had many reasons for choosing him (lineage, wealth, trust), but Medina Sidonia was regarded as one of the best organizers and delegaters in Spain, and his fingerprints were all over the formation of the Navy, even though he only got to it in its final stages.

Coordination, logistics, planning - this the Duke could do. What he didn't know about seamanship he would fake, or try to learn as fast as possible by surrounding himself with grizzled veterans from the Spanish navy. The official admiral for the Armada was a daring, fantastic old commander named Juan Martinez de Recalde, and Medina Sidonia shadowed him from the time he met him, soaking up every ounce of information that Recalde would share.

 The Armada was not built to succeed. It was made up of 130-odd ships, and some of these were fantastic galleons like the Portuguese Squadron - but many were shitty galleys, barely maneuverable, and constructed with the Mediterranean in mind - not the open black seas of the English Channel. At least those galleys were able to hold cannon, though - many of the ships in the Armada were commandeered merchant craft that had cannons strapped to every available surface. However, in this jury-rigged environment, the Duke of Medina Sidonia set to work.

Medina Sidonia completely reorganized the fleet, consolidating it into the grand armada we know from history, giving it more punching power and less maneuverability. He convinced Philip to add galleasses from Naples and even took ten galleons and four fighting merchant ships from the Indian Guard, the squadron that guarded Spain's silver shipments. These ships of the Indian Guard became the Squadron of Castile, which was likely the most competent group in the armada, after the Squadron of Portugal.

A Spanish galleon, the most powerful fighting ship in the ocean in the 16th century

The Duke upped supplies from what was initially distributed, which included raising the allotted shot from 30 rounds per gun to 50. Medina Sidonia was preparing for war and he wasn't messing around. The Duke gave a good account of himself as an administrator in the weeks before the launch, organizing what had been a thoroughly incompetent distribution of guns and ammunition. Even though he hated sailing and had never helmed a warship, the Duke had a little experience in this field as the Captain General of the Coast of Andalusia, and had prepared the ships of his own region to join the Armada in the previous couple of years.

I can't write about the preparations of the Armada much longer. What you need to know you've read, and if you're interested, here are the final tallies of the armada:

130 ships
59 000 tons
26 000 soldiers and sailors
2500 guns

By late spring, the fleet was as ready as it was going to be, and on 28 May, 1588, the greatest seafaring endeavor since Agamemnon set sail for Troy. And next time, we'll see just how well the Armada will fare.