The Spanish Armada and Anglo-Irish Relations

Published in Kelly, L., and Scott, B. (eds), Leitrim History and Society: Interdisciplinary essays on the history of an Irish county, Geography Publications, Dublin, 2019, pp 153-93.
It examines the career of Brian ‘na Múrtha’ O’Rourke as lord of West Breifne/County Leitrim. For twenty-four years he retained control over the north Connacht lordship, which coincided with efforts by the Elizabethan regime to extend crown authority into heretofore Gaelic-controlled territories. A decisive turning point was reached in his relations with the crown during the Spanish Armada crisis of September/October 1588. Not only did he provide safe haven to shipwrecked Spanish Armada personnel, he sought to instigate rebellion in the northwest. This stance led to the breakdown of dialogue with the regime, to open revolt, and expulsion from Breifne in 1590. The essay explores why O’Rourke acted in this manner. What influenced his decision-making? Were his motivations parochial, limited solely to his retention of power in Breifne? Or were his actions influenced by external factors as well? What of the armada crisis in the northwest? Was its effect merely transitory, or can we regard it as contributing to the descent into the general conflict of the 1590s?

Captain Francisco de Cuellar of Spain´ service records were found in Archivo General de Simancas and are published in this paper. Cuellar went to Brazil before his journey to Ireland and served in the spanish army in France, Italy and Indias until 1603.

This well-known phrase consciously interprets the defeat of the Armada (1588) as a mighty act of God. The phrase has a biblical background, but there are also parallels in other literature from the ancient Near East, for instance in the Hittite annals of Mursili II.

Abstract: After the forces of Philip II entered Lisbon, it became the logistical base for both the Portuguese and the Castilian Armadas. Despite all the difficulties, including, for example, the dif- ferent measures standards that existed between both kingdoms, the king would use Lisbon as the departure base for several Armadas. However, Philip II implemented a separated naval logistical structure to reflect the constitutional and juridical separation that existed. Each crown prepared its forces. Even though the Portuguese Carreira da India fleets sailed yearly from Lisbon, since the early 16th Century, it was different from preparing the new Spanish Armadas. These fleets had more ships and personnel and placed an enormous strain to the Portuguese logistical capabilities. Through an impressive amount of documentation that exists mainly in the Archive of Simancas, we can understand how Portuguese and Spanish officials established a logistical base in Lisbon. From the Portuguese capital the Gran Armada, and many others sailed to face the North European foes. This paper will examine the logistical problems that occurred in Lisbon during the preparation of more than 130 ships that sailed in May 1588, and the role played by the Portuguese galleons in the Gran Armada.
Keywords: Gran Armada. Lisbon. Portuguese Galleons.

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... traveller's tale, embellishment or a true story.49 120 A. Samson Page 11. The duke of Osuna's spectacular fall from power was associated with accusations that echo Howell's description. A poem attributed to the Count Villamediana ...

Parmi les séminaires établis après la Réforme, le Collège de St-Alban de Valladolid a joué un rôle politique et religieux particulièrement significatif. Dès ses premières années, la couronne espagnole a démontré son soutien envers le Collège des Anglais, et exprimé ses objectifs à travers une série de visites royales. Chaque visite était différente, mais elles ont en commun le fait que le collège a souligné ces occasions au moyen d’une commémoration riche du point de vue littéraire et imaginative. Des poèmes et des emblèmes étaient affichés sur les murs et récités par les séminaristes, et des récits ont par la suite été imprimés et ont circulé en anglais et en espagnol pour faire connaître publiquement ces célébrations et ainsi réaliser leurs buts politiques et religieux. Cet essai examine les premières années d'existence du Collège des Anglais de Valladolid, en situant son rôle dans le contexte politique, religieux et culturel, et en se concentrant sur les événements dont le co...

The performance of Samuel Daniel's masque The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses at court on January 8, 1604 took place in the midst of the preliminary negotiations that would lead to the signing of the Anglo-Spanish peace at Somerset House the following August. Philip III sent a special ambassador to England to congratulate James on his accession, and a series of tussles between Juan de Tassis and his French counterpart ensued. As a recently-discovered document in the Archivo General de Simancas reveals, Anna of Denmark intervened personally to insure that de Tassis, and not the Frenchman, attended the masque. This was a clear signal of James and Anna's peace aims, which de Tassis conveyed to the King of Spain; moreover, he enclosed in his dispatch a text of Daniel's masque which he clearly considered both political intelligence and of interest to the theater-loving Hapsburg monarch. The Simancas text of the Daniel masque is a new version, hitherto unknown, which adds to our knowledge of the circumstances in which the first Stuart masque was performed. Here we present a transcription and annotated translation of both de Tassis' letter and the text of the masque he had compiled for Philip III. (B. C.-E. and M. H.)

Beyond the Armada

A reflection on the Ragusans of Dalmatia and the Spanish Armada: shipwrecked, murdered, or lost in Ireland. An essay on the struggle of exiles and emigrés in the cause of legitimization, preservation and advancement of their identity – even if this led in some cases to exalted self-perception and the aggrandizement of histories of origin in the early evolution of what became in due course the modern European nation-states. What lessons does their legacy hold for us today?

This well-known phrase consciously interprets the defeat of the Armada (1588) as a mighty act of God. The phrase has a biblical background, but there are also parallels in other literature from the ancient Near East, for instance in the Hittite annals of Mursili II.

Título: Sanz Camañes, Porfirio. Los ecos de la Armada. Madrid: Silex Ediciones, 2012. ISBN: 9788477375708
Autor (es): Rivero Rodríguez, Manuel
Editor: IULCE-UAM
Fecha de edición: 2013
Cita: Libros de la Corte.es 6 (2013): 210-212
ISSN: 1989-6425
Materias: Historia
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10486/13301

La cuestión de Gibraltar y la hostilidad ideológica hacia el franquismo de los gobiernos laboristas en los años sesenta impidieron que Gran Bretaña sacara partido de los intentos españoles de diversificar sus fuentes de suministro de armamento y equipo militar durante la complicada renegociación de los Pactos de Defensa con Estados Unidos. Los desencuentros sobre Gibraltar continuaron entorpeciendo la cooperación militar bilateral durante la Transición, a pesar del interés de los gobiernos de Margaret Thatcher (1979-1989) por entrar en el mercado de defensa español y su apoyo a la entrada de España en la OTAN. Utilizando fuentes de archivo británicas esta comunicación describe la evolución de las relaciones militares bilaterales hispano-británicas durante el tardofranquismo y la Transición y las diferentes actitudes hacia éstas de los diferentes gobiernos laboristas (Harold Wilson 1964-1970; 1974-1976; James Callaghan 1976-1979) y conservadores (Edward Heath 1970-1974; Margaret Thatcher 1979-1989). El estudio detallado de la promoción del sistema de misil antiaéreo de baja cota Rapier para el Ejército español a partir de 1980 ilustra las dificultades británicas para entrar en el mercado español de defensa, poniendo de relieve el peso de los condicionamientos políticos en la adquisición de armas y equipamiento militar. The question of Gibraltar, together with the Labour Governments’ hostility to Franco’s regime, prevented Great Britain from contributing to the modernization of the Spanish Armed Forces in the late sixties, when Spain was seeking for alternative sources of supply for her military equipment during the renegotiation of her Defence Agreements with the United States. After the end of the dictatorship Gibraltar continued to be an obstacle for the bilateral military cooperation between Spain and Britain, despite the eventual support of Margaret Thatcher’s government to Spain’s membership of NATO. Using British official records, this paper describes the evolution of Anglo-Spanish military relations during the last years of the Franco regime and the Transition to democracy, and the positions taken by the different Labour (Harold Wilson 1964-1970; 1974-1976; James Callaghan 1976-1979) and Conservative governments (Edward Heath 1970-1974; Margaret Thatcher 1979-1989). The study of the efforts of Thatcher’s Administration to promote the sale of the Rapier low level air defence system to the Spanish army after 1980 illustrate British difficulties to enter the Spanish market and the weight of political factors in arms and military equipment sales.

The Leander expedition of Francisco de Miranda (2 September 1805 – 31 December 1807) became the first formal attempt to organize a revolution for the independence of Spanish America. This study reconstructs the relations of Miranda with British civil and naval officials both in London and in the British Caribbean possessions adjacent to the Spanish Main: Trinidad, Barbados and Grenada, as well as with his British volunteers, in 1805–1807. Though the London cabinet, being aware of Miranda’s designs, did not endorse them, the Venezuelan received extensive support from the British in the Caribbean, primarily from the Commander of the Leeward Islands Station Rear Admiral Alexander Inglis Cochrane (1758–1832) and from the Royal governor of Trinidad Thomas Hislop (1764–1843) who hoped that, if Miranda were successful, independent Spanish America would provide crucial commercial benefits to Great Britain. London never punished Cochrane and Hislop for their arbitrary decisions, just as Captain Home Riggs Popham (1762–1820) was simply ‘severely reprimanded’ by a court-martial for his adventurous failed attack on Buenos Aires from Cape Town in the summer of 1806 and continued his career. Thus, we may infer that the calculations of Cochrane and Hislop were correct, and London, not planning to prepare and promote the revolution in Spanish America, would have supported it in the case of its victory.

El paper intenta un análisis comparativo de las políticas de los gobiernos laboristas británicos hacia las dictaduras y cambios de régimen del Sur de Europa (Portugal, Grecia y España) durante los años sesenta y setenta, un momento en que la OTAN ve con preocupación la inestabilidad de su flanco sur en un momento clave de la Guerra Fría. La comparación no sólo pone de relieve las contradicciones internas del Partido Laborista entre ideología y la realidad del interés nacional a la hora de diseñar su política exterior, sino que ayuda a comprender mejor la peculiaridad (o falta de ella) del caso español.

y su proyección en el folclore y en la literatura-de su patria y de otros lugares del mundo hispano-, ahora nos proponemos analizar las tradiciones que rodean a algunas de las supuestas reliquias de la Armada que se conservan en Gran Bretaña e Irlanda.