On this day in Tudor history, 7th October 1589, William Hawkins, died.
He’s not as famous as his brother, Sir John Hawkins, but let me tell you more about this merchant, sea captain and three-time mayor of Plymouth…
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Tudor sea-captain William Hawkins
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The Spanish Armada and the Protestant Wind
On this day in Tudor history, 30th July 1588, the once-mighty Spanish Armada, already damaged by the Battle of Gravelines, was scattered and driven northwards by violent storms. Many in England saw it as divine intervention — a “Protestant Wind” sent by God to defend the realm.
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Innovation and Panic at the Siege of Antwerp 1584-5 by Loretta Goldberg
Thank you to Loretta Goldberg, author of The Reversible Mask: An Elizabethan Spy Novel for joining us today and sharing this excellent guest article on the Siege of Antwerp.
During World War II, Sir Winston Churchill said, “In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” Illusion was a tactic used in 1944 to deceive the Nazis about where the allies would land; many historians believe that the Normandy beachhead held because of the deception. 336 years earlier, in 1588, England faced invasion by Spain with its Armada of 120 ships and 20,000 troops that were meant to be supplemented by comparable forces from Spain’s soldiers and barges in the Netherlands (known as the Army of Flanders.) Illusion then also saved England.
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#OTD in Tudor history – 20 August
On this day in Tudor history, 20th August, in Elizabethan London, a thanksgiving service was held for England’s victory over the Spanish Armada, and James VI of Scotland married Anne of Denmark by proxy at at Kronborg Castle, Helsingør, Denmark…
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#OTD in Tudor history – 29 July
On this day in Tudor history, 29th July, Henry VII’s stepfather, Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby, died; Mary, Queen of Scots, married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley; and the English fleet defeated the Spanish Armada at the Battle of Gravelines…
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#OTD in Tudor history – 26 July
On this day in Tudor history, 26th July, courtier and solder George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, died; and 4,000 men gathered at Tilbury Fort to defend England against the Spanish Armada. It’s also the feast day of St Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary…
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#OTD in Tudor history – 28 May
On this day in Tudor history, 28th May, Archbishop Cranmer, proclaimed the validity of Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn; three Catholic priests were executed for a plot that may not have been real; and the Spanish Armada set sail from Lisbon in Portugal bound for the Spanish Netherlands…
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Spanish Armada Quizzes
As it’s the 434th anniversary of England’s defeat of the Spanish Armada at the Battle of Gravelines on 29th July 1588, I thought I’d share with you these two Spanish Armada Quizzes from our archives.
Have fun and good luck!
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July 29 – Mary, Queen of Scots, marries Lord Darnley, and England defeats the Spanish Armada
On this day in Tudor history, Sunday 29th July 1565, twenty-three-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots, queen regnant of Scotland, married her second husband, nineteen-year-old Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, at Holyrood Palace.
I give details of their wedding and how the couple’s marital bliss was rather short-lived…
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July 27 – Robert Dudley wanted to keep Elizabeth I out of harm’s way
On this day in Tudor history, 27th July 1588, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, wrote to Queen Elizabeth I with an invitation. He was intent on keeping the queen, the woman he loved, out of harm’s way.
What was his invitation?
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July 26 – Troops prepare for the Spanish Armada
On this day in Tudor history, 26th July 1588, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, troops prepared for the expected Spanish invasion.
4,000 men assembled at Tilbury Fort on the north bank of the River Thames in an effort to prevent the Spanish Armada from travelling up the river and attacking London.
Let me explain what had led up to this day…
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May 28 – An alleged plot and the Spanish Armada
On this day in Tudor history, 28th May 1582, Roman Catholic priests Thomas Forde, John Shert and Robert Johnson suffered full traitors’ deaths at Tyburn.
The three priests had been condemned for their alleged involvement in the Rome and Reims Plot of 1580, but many believe that this plot wasn’t actually real.
Let me explain exactly what led to these men’s executions in 1582, why Roman Catholic priests were persecuted in this manner, and what the plot was all about…
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20 August – A proxy wedding for James VI and England gives thanks
On this day in Tudor history, 20th August 1589, twenty-three-year-old King James VI of Scotland married fourteen-year-old Anne of Denmark by proxy at Kronborg Castle, Helsingør, Denmark.
James had chosen Anne of Denmark as his bride after praying and meditating over portraits of her and Catherine of Navarre, and Anne was very excited about marrying him. Unfortunately, married bliss didn’t last long.
Find out more about the proxy wedding, Anne’s eventful voyage, their real wedding and their married life…
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2 August – Spaniards land in Cornwall and cause trouble
On 2nd August 1595, as part of the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585-1604, four galleys containing somewhere between 200 and 400 Spanish soldiers landed at Mount’s Bay on the coast of western Cornwall.
The local militia fled and so the Spaniards went on to cause devastation in the area.
Find out exactly what the Spaniards did in Cornwall in today’s talk.
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29 July – England’s clever tactics against the Spanish Armada
On this day in Tudor history, 29th July 1588, the English naval fleet attacked the Spanish Armada in a battle known as the Battle of Gravelines.
England defeated Spain and it was down to the new tactics they’d learned from previous encounters with the Armada and from capturing a Spanish ship, as well as weather conditions.
What were these new and successful tactics and what happened at the Battle of Gravelines?
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May 28 – The Spanish Armada sets sail
On this day in Tudor history, 28th May 1588, the Spanish Armada set sail from Lisbon in Portugal bound for the Spanish Netherlands.
With the Pope’s blessing, King Philip II was going to invade England and depose the heretic, Queen Elizabeth I. The stop at the Netherlands was simply to pick up the Spanish forces there.
What happened next and why did the Spanish Armada fail?
Find out all about the Spanish Armada and how England was victorious in today’s talk.
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20 August – Elizabeth I gives thanks for the Protestant Wind!
On this day in Tudor history, 20th August 1588, there was a thanksgiving service at St Paul’s to thank God for his divine intervention when England defeated the Spanish Armada. It was thought that God had sent his Protestant Wind to save England from Catholic Spain.
Find out more about this in today’s talk.
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9 August – Elizabeth I’s Tilbury Speech
On this day in Tudor history, 9th August 1588, Queen Elizabeth I gave her famous Tilbury Speech to the forces gathered at Tilbury Fort.
It is a speech that has been immortalised on screen by the likes of Glenda Jackson and Cate Blanchett, and is famous for the line “I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too”, but what words did Elizabeth really speak that day?
In today’s talk,I share three versions of Elizabeth I’s Tilbury Speech.
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8 August – Elizabeth I accepts Robert Dudley’s invitation
On this day in Tudor history, 8th August 1588, Queen Elizabeth I decided to accept Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester’s invitation to visit the troops he had gathered near Tilbury Fort to guard the eastern approach to London from the expected invasion by the Spanish Armada.
In today’s “on this day in Tudor history” talk, I explain why Leicester invited his queen to visit the troops – there was more to it than just boosting morale.
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26 July – Preparations for the Spanish Armada
On this day in Tudor history, 26th July 1588, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, 4,000 men assembled at Tilbury Fort in an effort to prevent the Spanish Armada from travelling up the Thames and attacking London.
In today’s “on this day in Tudor history” talk, I explain what had led up to this day.
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April 19 – Sir Francis Drake singes the King of Spain’s beard
On this day in Tudor history, 19th April 1587, Sir Francis Drake “singed the King of Spain’s beard”, as he called it, by attacking the Spanish fleet in the harbour of Cadiz.
Drake’s actions on that day and the following few days meant that King Philip had to postpone his plans for the Spanish Armada to attack England – phew!
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Elizabeth I’s Tilbury Speech on film
Today is the anniversary of Queen Elizabeth I’s rousing speech to the troops at Tilbury Fort on 9th August 1588. While we don’t have Elizabeth I herself on film, it’s a speech that has featured in many movies and TV series. You can read the various versions we have of the original Tilbury speech in my article from 2015, but here are a few famous depictions of that day in 1588.
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New e-book available now – The Spanish Armada
Today, the anniversary of the Battle of Gravelines in 1588, is the perfect day to launch our latest Tudor Society e-book because it’s on the Spanish Armada. The book gives details of the main events of summer 1588, and also what led to them.
We hope you enjoy it!
This is the latest e-book in our collection. At the moment, we have six others, one on each Tudor monarch, and we have another one (on feast days) coming soon.
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20 August 1588 – England gives thanks
On 20th August 1588, a thanksgiving service was held at St Paul’s in London to give thanks to God for England’s victory over the Spanish Armada. The Armada had been defeated, obliterated in fact, yet the English fleet was left intact and only around 100 English men were lost in the skirmishes.
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9 August 1588 – Elizabeth I rallies the troops at Tilbury Fort
On 9th August 1588, Queen Elizabeth I appeared before her troops gathered at Tilbury Fort, on the Thames estuary in Essex, and gave her famous “Tilbury Speech”.
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8 August 1588 – Elizabeth I visits Tilbury
Even though the remaining ships of the Spanish Armada were homeward bound following the defeat of the fleet at the Battle of Gravelines and their subsequent scattering by strong winds, England was still expecting to be threatened by the troops of the Duke of Parma who could come across the English Channel as soon as the wind was favourable.
On 8th August 1588, Queen Elizabeth I decided to accept Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester’s invitation and visit the troops he had gathered near Tilbury Fort. Leicester had written a letter of invitation to the Queen on the 27th July in an attempt to stop her recklessly riding to the south coast to meet Parma’s troops. He wrote of how she could visit Tilbury and bring comfort to the troops. Against the advice of her Council, who wanted her to remain in the safety of London, Elizabeth travelled from St James’s Palace to Tilbury by state barge on the 8th August.
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The Spanish Armada Quiz 2
I hope you enjoyed the first part of our Spanish Armada quiz last week. Here’s the second part. Good luck!
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2 August 1588 – The Spanish Armada is homeward bound
By the first week of August 1588, the battered, defeated and demoralised Spanish Armada had started the first part of its long journey back home to Spain.
The Battle of Gravelines had seen England victorious, and between that and the awful weather Spain had lost five of its main ships and had suffered major damage to many others. Ammunition was pretty much non-existent and food rations were low. All the Spanish commander, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, could do was to try and salvage what was left of his fleet and men and get them home to safety. The English fleet, led by Lord Howard, pursued the Spanish ships as far north as the mouth of the Tyne but gave up on the 2nd August and turned back, dropping anchor at ports such as Harwich and Margate.
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The Spanish Armada Quiz 1
As it’s the anniversary of the Spanish Armada at the moment, I thought it was time to test your knowledge on this famous Tudor event. How much do you know about it? Test yourself with this fun quiz. Good luck!
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30 July 1588 – The wind scatters the Armada
On 30th July 1588, the day after the Battle of Gravelines and the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the wind changed and the remaining ships of the Spanish Armada were forced northwards and scattered. It really did seem that the elements, particularly the wind, were on England’s side. Sir Francis Drake wrote to Sir Francis Walsingham on 30th July 1588, saying “There was never anything pleased me better than seeing the enemy flying with a southerly wind northward. We have the Spaniards before us, and the mind, with the grace of God, to wrestle a pull with them.”
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