Miss

Task 4: Why did Philip II send the Spanish Armada to attack England in 1588?

In this essay I am going to talk about the question asked above, ‘Why did Philip II send the Spanish Armada to attack England?’ There are many reasons of which could have provoked Philip the second to attack England. Perhaps this attack was fuelled by rage against a certain English man, a difference in opinion, certain event against Englishmen at sea or even the pain of a previous wife who was residing in England, being killed. In this essay I will explain each of the reasons.
The first reason at hand which was rage against a certain English man. This English man’s name was Sir Francis Drake and he was the captain of a ship named ‘Cacafuego’ he was also a privateer employed by Elizabeth I. The captain sailed around the world but a certain event happened on the 20th April 1587 which severely upset Philip the Second of Spain. On the date of the 20th April Sir Francis Drake docked in the Cadiz Harbour and when Sir Francis Drake arrived there he set fire to 30 royal Spanish Warships. This was one of the reasons that Philip II set the Spanish Armada as this angered Philip and made him feel like he must take revenge on the English people who destroyed ships that he could have used to fight his battles.
The second reason I believe that Philip of Spain sent the Spanish Armada was due to the fact that England was Protestant. At the time of 1588, Europe experienced the Renaissance, where there was a split in religion between Catholic and Protestants and at that time Spain was Catholic due to Philip being Christian and England was Protestant due to Elizabeth I being Catholic. Philip the second also wanted to overthrow England as he held a grudge against Elizabeth as in 1559 Philip asked Elizabeth to marry him, unfortunately Elizabeth denied and this was an insult to Philip.
On the same topic of marriage, When Philip II heard that Elizabeth had executed his ex-wife, Mary, Queen of Scots in 1587 he was infuriated. The fact he had lost his previous lover which could have gained him connections with the Hierarchy of England. Another reason was that if Mary would have reproduced with Philip and they successfully reared a child, then England would have been a Spanish Empire and Philip would be the official ruler of England.
Another reason that Philip II could have been provoked by another event that happened with Sir Francis Drake. On one journey across the seas Sir Francis Drake sailed on his ship,’Cacafuego’. When Sir Francis Drake saw a Spanish ship approaching he decided to raid their ship because England and Spain had a mutual hatred for each other. This was caused by armies being better than another and by the trading that England was doing with America. On this journey, Sir Francis Drake raided the Spanish ship and came away with26 tons of silver, 360,000 pieces of eight (gold pieces) and a large amount of expensive Spanish cloth. This could have provoked Philip as he felt that the English were trying to steal his countries’ trade and he would have taken it as a threat that his country was in danger of being attacked.
The last and final reason I think might have made Philip send the Armada was Elizabeth had gathered a group of different regions to rebel against Spain. Regions like Ireland and the Netherlands were involved because many Irish people were killed by Spanish troops and when the English fought against the Spanish, the Irish formed an alliance with them. The Netherlands got involved in the alliance as when Spain attacked the Netherlands, THE English army stepped into help them, forming a trust between England and the Netherlands. This could have provoked Philip to send the Armada as he might have felt that he was going to be overthrown by such a large and powerful alliance.

Overall, I think the main reason that Philip II of Spain sent the Spanish Armada to England was because of Sir Francis Drake who was a privateer that was employed by Queen Elizabeth of England. Philip would have felt that even though this one man was sent to deliver a subliminal message, he knew that Sir Francis Drake was employed b a greater force where he could portray a message from the Queen of England and her subjects.

By Jemma McKinstry