The great struggle of the Reformation was by no means fully decided.  The counter-reformation and the activity of the Jesuits, had regained for the Roman Church a considerable amount of the loss caused by the Reform Movement.  The greatest military and naval power in Europe at that time was Spain and she was strongly bound to the Papacy.  The Pope, Sixtus V Felix Peretti, was an able man and seeking a European power that he could engage in the conquest of England.  He regarded our island as a vassalage of the Papacy which he could donate to any Catholic Prince to rule as a State controlled by the Vatican.  This was because in 1209 King John had laid his crown at the feet of the Papal Legate Pandoff and was ordered to pay 1,000 Marks a year in tribute at the close of an interdict.

SPAIN - THE CHAMPION OF THE PAPACY
Roman Catholics, in England and Europe generally, looked to Spain as the champion of the Vatican.  Both Bishop John Fisher of Rochester and Mary Queen of Scots had contacted the Spanish Government seeking armies to invade England.  The great wealth Spain had acquired by her American conquests enabled her to agree to the request of the Pope, who promised financial help of 200,000 Crowns and a further 100,000 when Spanish troops had landed.  At the outset this was to be a joint venture between our country's most constant and implacable foe - the Papacy and Spain.  The entire concept was religious.  Twelve of the principal ships of the Spanish Fleet were named after the Apostles.  On one of the vessels was Don Martin Allacon, Administrator and Vicar General of the "Holy Office of the Inquisition".  The conquest of England would have been followed up with the setting up of this cruel and unjust tribunal and the very apparatus of this infamous institution was on board the ships with 180 of its Monks.  When Napoleon Bonaparte dissolved the Inquisition in Spain, it had been guilty of some 665,000 murders in the Iberian Peninsula and further large numbers elsewhere.  It should be a matter for great thanksgiving that this infamous institution was not set up here in England.

THE GREAT DEMONSTRATION OF TRUTH
The Armada was the great trial of strength between our evangelical, Bible based, Protestant faith, and the Church of Rome.  The Reformation had drawn great strength from the awful persecution in the reign of Mary I (Tudor).  At every martyr fire there were conversions.  The constancy of the humble folk who suffered; often testifying to the Gospel at their burning, had kindled a horror in the minds of the population.  An enquiry into the Biblical faith of these very ordinary people, endued with such extraordinary courage, often resulted in conversions.  The far greater availability of the Bible and the public reading of it in English had spread the Gospel and implanted its teaching in so many hearts.  Mary I (Tudor) by her persecution of the Protestants had established their beliefs.

HOLLAND PLAYED HER PART
The European situation was that Holland was menaced by Spain under the Duke of Parma.  This capable military Commander was expecting to ferry his army across to England augmenting the Armada in its conquest of England.  He was seeking to maintain the rule of Spain in the Netherlands and the destruction of Protestantism with the help of the Inquisition.  This shows how religious the whole effort was.  As soon as the Armada sighted the British coast the great banner depicting the "Blessed Virgin Mary" was unfurled showing that the purpose, with the blessing of the Pope, was to bring England back into the Roman fold.

THE ARMADA - AN AWESOME SIGHT
Well might the English Captains have trembled at the sight of the ships crowded with soldiers and the equipment for a conquest on both land and sea; they were heavily armed and larger than the English ships, yet for their size their sails were small.  The forests of Spain and elsewhere had yielded their timber to provide these floating fortresses, but their design was faulty; they were heavy and cumbersome and slow in movement.  The English ships carried more sail, were lower in the water and able to deliver a broadside or single shot and then were away out of the range of the Spanish guns.

THE GREAT "CATHOLIC" FLEET
Many of the Spanish vessels had the names of the saints, whereas the British ships had such names as The Bear, The Revenge, The Lion and The Ark.  Ever since they had left Spain misfortune dogged the Spaniards.  Their most able Maritime Commander, The Marquis Santa Cruz, died.  He would have been of invaluable service to the whole venture.  His place was taken by a very wealthy nobleman, the Duke of Medina Sidonia.  He was an inexperienced and untried man with a dislike of the whole affair.  His orders were to effect  a fusion of his forces with those of the Duke of Parma, a most able General from the Netherlands, and to destroy Elizabeth and her Protestant Monarchy.  The nervousness and incompetence of this Admiral was a large factor in the subsequent defeat.  They set out from Spain and Portugal and encountered in the Bay of Biscay a mighty storm which dispersed them and caused some loss.  Re-assembling they eventually were sighted off the Lizard on 19th July 1588 (Julian Calendar).

THE ENGLISH ACTION BEGINS
The Beacons lit throughout England announced the coming of the foe.  Hurriedly the English ships prepared for the great onslaught.  The mighty crescent of more than 130 ships sailed proudly up the Channel.  As they passed Plymouth, the English slipped out of the harbour to harry and worry them, favoured by the south-westerly wind.  During their first night in the Channel two of the great ships collided and one, the Santa Catalina, fell prey to the English.  A quarrel on board another ended in a great explosion, killing many of her people and yet not sinking; she fell prey to the English, together with her bullion and gunpowder, which was very welcome to the English!

The running battle continued up the Channel, often watched anxiously from the shore, the fleet joined by armed merchant ships from south coast ports.  The Spaniards lost the opportunity to land on the Isle of Wight, preferring to stand off Calais awaiting the Duke of Parma.  The English were now joined by the ships that had been guarding the Thames.  The whole fate of England was in the balance.  The Dutch prevented the Duke of Parma from coming out of the ports of the Netherlands and the Armada awaited him off Calais.  It was then that the "fire ships", old hulks filled with combustible material, their sails and masts treated with pitch, sailed toward the anchored Spanish vessels.  At a given signal they were abandoned to go on their way blazing and exploding.  The terrified Spaniards cut cables and fled up the North Sea.  A mighty engagement was fought and some of the enemy went aground on the sandbanks off Holland to fall prey to the Dutch; others were sunk or captured.  No possibility remained of their joining Parma.  They fled northward in disorder to sail round the British Isles into the Atlantic for Spain.  However, the British had to ride out a storm while following the foe to the Firth of Forth.  The Spaniards were dispersed and many of their ships wrecked on the coasts of Scotland, its Isles and Ireland.

THE DIVINE INTERVENTION
The Hand of God is seen in this whole affair.  The god-fearing Protestants were influenced by the Geneva Bible, recalling the recent persecution under Mary I (Tudor).  Men like Drake, Frobisher, Hawkins and Lord Howard of Effingham, had under God manfully played their part, but it was GOD who controlled the winds, who sent the storms and scattered our foes.  Sir Francis Drake was a deeply committed Christian, a personal friend of John Foxe.  Lord Howard of Effingham was NOT a Roman Catholic.  He and Drake had knelt together to receive the Holy Communion before the battle.  Many times in our history God has raised up deliverers who have been godly men, to meet our need.  May He yet be gracious to this sinful people.

TO GOD ALONE BE THE GLORY.
 

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