Page 29 - Pilgrims in Georgia

1588 -The Spanish Armada takes a Beating

When Dutch Protestants in Holland seceded from the Spanish domination of King Phillips rule, Queen Elizabeth, had been
on their side and supported them in their rebellion. As retribution King Philip planned to invade England to overthrow

Elizabeth’s Protestant government ending the English support for the Dutch and English attacks on Spanish trade ships
and settlements in the New World. The Roman Catholic Pope, Sixtus V, was supportive of King Philip who treated the
expedition as a crusade, promising that if the invasion made it onto English soil, that he would help pay for it. The English
were greatly outnumbered against the “Invincible Armada” but when the Spanish reached England, in initial battles in
English channel, the English succeeded in injuring the Armada with their long-range guns and spirited attacks. Next, they
were able disrupt and disorganize the Spanish formations with their fire ships. Injured and low on supplies, the Spanish
commander decided that the fleet should return to Spain. When they attempted to sail north and west around Scotland
and Ireland the English chased them as far as Scotland, where severe storms assailed the Armada destroying at least 24
vessels on the west coast of Ireland. Thousands of Spanish sailors and soldiers died, by drowning at sea, starvation, and
slaughter at the hands of English forces in Ireland. Wrecked, without supplies, and diseased, what was left of the fleet
limped home to Spain. It is estimated that about half of the Armada had been destroyed. Out of 130 ships and 28,000
men, 67 ships came home, and less than 10,000 men survived. When Philip II heard of the loss, he declared, "I sent the

Armada against men, not God's winds and waves". The English lost only 50–100 dead with 400 wounded, and none of
their ships had been sunk. As a result of this defeat, English confidence and pride increased in their nation and in Queen
Elizabeth, and the in feeling that God had intervened not only for England but for Protestant Europe. This can be seen in
Commemorative medals that were made to celebrate the event having inscriptions like "1588. Flavit Jehovah et Dissipati
Sunt“, with "Jehovah" in Hebrew letters ("God blew, and they were scattered"), and man proposes, God disposes.