Henry VII of England
Henry VII was the King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 to his death on 21 April 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor. Henry attained the throne when his forces defeated King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field, the culmination of the Wars of the Roses, he was the last king of England to win his throne on the field of battle. He cemented his claim by marrying Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV and niece of Richard III. Henry was successful in restoring the power and stability of the English monarchy after the civil war, his supportive stance of the British Isles' wool industry and his standoff with the Low Countries had long-lasting benefits to all of the British economy. However, the capriciousness and lack of due process that indebted many would tarnish his legacy and were soon ended upon Henry VII's death, after a commission revealed widespread abuses. According to the contemporary historian Polydore Vergil, simple "greed" underscored the means by which royal control was over-asserted in Henry's final years.
Henry can be credited with a number of administrative and diplomatic initiatives. He paid close attention to detail, instead of spending lavishly he concentrated on raising new revenues and after a reign of nearly 24 years, he was peacefully succeeded by his son, Henry VIII; the new taxes were unpopular and two days after his coronation, Henry VIII arrested his father's two most unpopular ministers, Sir Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley. They were charged with high treason and were executed in 1510. Henry VII was born at Pembroke Castle on 28 January 1457 to Countess of Richmond, his father, Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond, died three months before his birth. Henry's paternal grandfather, Owen Tudor from the Tudors of Penmynydd, Isle of Anglesey in Wales, had been a page in the court of Henry V, he rose to become one of the "Squires to the Body to the King" after military service at the Battle of Agincourt. Owen is said to have secretly married the widow of Catherine of Valois. One of their sons was Edmund Tudor, father of Henry VII.
Edmund was created Earl of Richmond in 1452, "formally declared legitimate by Parliament". Henry's main claim to the English throne derived from his mother through the House of Beaufort. Henry's mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, was a great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, fourth son of Edward III, his third wife Katherine Swynford. Katherine was Gaunt's mistress for about 25 years, thus Henry's claim was somewhat tenuous: it was from a woman, by illegitimate descent. In theory, the Portuguese and Castilian royal families had a better claim as descendants of Catherine of Lancaster, the daughter of John of Gaunt and his second wife Constance of Castile. Gaunt's nephew Richard II legitimised Gaunt's children by Katherine Swynford by Letters Patent in 1397. In 1407, Henry IV, Gaunt's son by his first wife, issued new Letters Patent confirming the legitimacy of his half-siblings, but declaring them ineligible for the throne. Henry IV's action was of doubtful legality, as the Beauforts were legitimised by an Act of Parliament, but it further weakened Henry's claim.
Nonetheless, by 1483 Henry was the senior male Lancastrian claimant remaining, after the deaths in battle or by murder or execution of Henry VI, his son Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, the other Beaufort line of descent through Lady Margaret's uncle, the 2nd Duke of Somerset. Henry made some political capital out of his Welsh ancestry, for example in attracting military support and safeguarding his army's passage through Wales on its way to the Battle of Bosworth, he came from an old, established Anglesey family that claimed descent from Cadwaladr, on occasion Henry displayed the red dragon of Cadwaladr. He took it, as well as the standard of St George, on his procession through London after the victory at Bosworth. A contemporary writer and Henry's biographer, Bernard André made much of Henry's Welsh descent. In reality, his hereditary connections to Welsh aristocracy were not strong, he was descended by the paternal line, through several generations, from Ednyfed Fychan, the seneschal of Gwynedd and through this seneschal's wife from Rhys ap Tewdwr, the King of Deheubarth in South Wales.
His more immediate ancestor, Tudur ap Goronwy, had aristocratic land rights, but his sons, who were first cousins to Owain Glyndŵr, sided with Owain in his revolt. One son was executed and the family land was forfeited. Another son, Henry's great-grandfather, became a butler to the Bishop of Bangor. Owen Tudor, the son of the butler, like the children of other rebels, was provided for by Henry V, a circumstance that precipitated his access to Queen Catherine of Valois. Notwithstanding this lineage, to the bards of Wales, Henry was a candidate for Y Mab Darogan – "The Son of Prophecy" who would free the Welsh from oppression. In 1456, Henry's father Edmund Tudor was captured while fighting for Henry VI in South Wales against the Yorkists, he died in three months before Henry was born. Henry's uncle Jasper Tudor, the Earl of Pembroke and Edmund's younger brother, undertook to protect the young widow, 13 years old when she gave birth to Henry; when Edward IV became King in 1461, Jasper Tudor went into exile abroad.
Pembroke Castle, the Earldom of Pembroke, were granted to the Yorkist William Herbert, who assumed the guardianship of Margaret Beaufort and the young Henry. Henry lived in the Herbert household
William Maitland (historian)
William Maitland was a Scottish merchant, known as a historian and topographer. Born at Brechin, about 1693, Maitland travelled as a hair merchant in northern Europe, he settled for a time in London, on 12 April 1733 was elected fellow of the Royal Society, on 13 March 1736 member of the Society of Antiquaries of London. He resigned from the latter in December 1740. In 1739 Maitland published The History of London, from its Foundation by the Romans to the present time.... With the several accounts of Westminster, Middlesex and other parts within the Bill of Mortality; the whole illustrated with a variety of fine cuts, London, 1739. An edition enlarged and continued to 1772, by John Entick, appeared in 1775; the illustrations were by William Henry Toms after Robert West. His next publication was The History of Edinburgh, from its Foundation to the present time... with the several accounts of the Parishes... within the Suburbs, the antient and present state of Leith, and... a great variety of cuts of the principal buildings, Edinburgh, 1753.
Around 1750 Maitland planned to write a general description of Scotland, sent a printed letter and a list of queries to every minister in the country. The response was inadequate, his History and Antiquities of Scotland from the earliest account to the Death of James I... 1437. Attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed.. "Maitland, William". Dictionary of National Biography. 35. London: Smith, Elder & Co. Media related to William Maitland at Wikimedia Commons
Cotton library
The Cotton or Cottonian library is a collection of manuscripts once owned by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton MP, an antiquarian and bibliophile. It became the basis of what is now the British Library, which still holds the collection. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, many priceless and ancient manuscripts that had belonged to the monastic libraries began to be disseminated among various owners, many of whom were unaware of the cultural value of the manuscripts. Cotton's skill lay in finding and preserving these ancient documents; the leading scholars of the era, including Francis Bacon, Walter Raleigh, James Ussher, came to use Sir Robert's library. Richard James acted as his librarian; the library is of special importance for sometimes having preserved the only copy of a work, such as happened with Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. At the time of the dissolution of monasteries, official state records and important papers were poorly kept, retained neglected or destroyed by public officers.
Sir Robert bound over a hundred volumes of official papers. By 1622, his house and library stood north of the Houses of Parliament and was a valuable resource and meeting-place not only for antiquarians and scholars but for politicians and jurists of various persuasions, including Sir Edward Coke, John Pym, John Selden, Sir John Eliot, Thomas Wentworth; such important evidence was valuable at a time when the politics of the Realm were disputed between King and Parliament. Sir Robert knew his library was of vital public interest and, although he made it available to consult, it made him an object of hostility on the part of the government. On 3 November 1629 he was arrested for disseminating a pamphlet held to be seditious and the library was closed on this pretext. Cotton was released on 15 November and the prosecution abandoned the following May, but the library remained shut up until after Sir Robert's death. Sir Robert's library included his collection of books, manuscripts and medallions.
After his death the collection was maintained and added to by his son, Sir Thomas Cotton, grandson, Sir John Cotton. Sir Robert's grandson, Sir John Cotton, donated the Cotton library to Great Britain upon his death in 1702. At this time, Great Britain did not have a national library, the transfer of the Cotton library to the nation became the basis of what is now the British Library; the early history of the collection is laid out in the introductory recitals to the British Museum Act 1700 that established statutory trusts for the Cotton library: "Sir Robert Cotton late of Connington in the County of Huntingdon Baronett did at his own great Charge and Expense and by the Assistance of the most learned Antiquaries of his Time collect and purchase the most useful Manuscripts Written Books Papers Parchments and other Memorialls in most Languages of great Use and Service for the Knowledge and Preservation of our Constitution both in Church and State which Manuscripts and other Writings were procured as well from Parts beyond the Seas as from severall Private Collectors of such Antiquities within this Realm are esteemed the best Collection of its Kind now any where extant And whereas the said Library has been preserved with the utmost Care and Diligence by the late Sir Thomas Cotton Son of the said Sir Robert and by Sir John Cotton of Westminster now living Grandson of the said Sir Robert and has been much augmented and enlarged by them and lodged in a proper Place in the said Sir Johns ancient Mansion House at Westminster, convenient for that Purpose And whereas the said Sir John Cotton in pursuance of the Desire and Intentions of his said Father and Grandfather is content and willing that the said Mansion House and Library should continue in his Family and Name and not be sold or otherwise disposed or imbezled and that the said Library should be kept and preserved by the Name of the Cottonian Library for Publick Use & Advantage...."The acquisition of the collection was better secured and managed by the British Museum Act 1706, under which the trustees removed the collections from the ruinous Cotton House, whose site is now covered by the Houses of Parliament.
It went first to Essex House, The Strand, however, was regarded as a fire risk. From 1707 the library housed the Old Royal Library. Ashburnham House became the residence of the keeper of the king's libraries, Richard Bentley, a renowned theologian and classical scholar. On 23 October 1731, fire broke out in Ashburnham House, many manuscripts were lost, while others were badly singed or water-damaged: up to a quarter of the collection was either destroyed or damaged. Bentley escaped while clutching the priceless Codex Alexandrinus under one arm, a scene witnessed and described in a letter to Charlotte, Lady Sundon, by Robert Freind, headmaster of Westminster School; the manuscript of The Battle of Maldon was destroyed, that of Beowulf was damaged. Damaged was the Byzantine Cotton Genesis, the illustrations of which remain an important record of Late Antique iconography. Mr. Speaker Onslow, as one of the statutory trustees of the library and supervised a remarkable programme of restoration within the resources of his time.
The published report of this work is of major importance in bibliography. Copies of some of the lost works had been made, many of those
Brandon, Suffolk
Brandon is a small town and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk. Brandon is located in the Breckland area on the border of Suffolk with the adjoining county of Norfolk. Surrounded by Forestry Commission and agricultural land it is considered a rural town. According to Eilert Ekwall the origin of the name is "Brandon, usually'hill where broom grows'", the earliest known spelling being in the 11th century when the town expanding up and along the rising ground of the river valley, was called Bromdun. From prehistoric times the area was mined for flint as can be seen at Grimes Graves, a popular Brandon tourist destination. Much more the town was a major centre for the production of gunflints; the Domesday Book records. In medieval times and beyond Brandon was renowned for its rabbit fur. On 14 May 1789, the town suffered a Great Fire, a report of which can be found at the Brandon Heritage Centre. While all the young men were away at a fair day in nearby Thetford, a fire caused by a lightning strike set fire to the surgeon's house which spread to the surrounding properties.
Eleven houses were damaged and 8 of them were destroyed. The hardest hit was Francis Diggon, the saddler, who lost all of his property and possessions, costing a total of 381 pounds, 2 shillings. Brandon's first cinema was brought to the town by Stanley Lingwood toward the end of 1917. Stanley had just been pensioned out of the Army due receiving a severe hand wound at The Somme and his father, a wealthy furrier in the town named Palmer Lingwood, died that same time, he purchased the cinema from Shropshire and erected it between the family home, Avenue House, the Church Institute, along Victoria Avenue. It was a wooden building and he named the cinema'Electric Palace', it stayed in his possession until December 1933 when he sold it to a King's Lynn businessman named Ben Culey, who had a cinema in neighbouring Thetford. Six months after Ben purchased the cinema it burnt to the ground in a mysterious fire and in February 1935 he opened another cinema on the site of the burned down one, which he named'AVENUE'.
This new cinema was state of the art with the latest projector and acoustics, the building proved popular during the Second World War. The building still stands on the site today, having been a bingo hall although it is empty and becoming derelict; the town's current population is recorded as 9,636 people in the 2011 UK Census. Brandon has three schools. Brandon's population has increased since the Second World War due to immigration. After the war there was an influx of servicemen from Poland who settled in the town and in nearby Weeting, Norfolk; the Cold War saw their families billeted in and around the town. The Greater London Council oversaw the building of a large Council estate off Thetford Road and Bury Road in the 1970s and many London families were relocated to Brandon during that time. Brandon has a thriving football junior club for ages 5 years up to under 16; the Brandon Lads and Lasses A. F. C has squads of boys and girls competing in the Ipswich & Suffolk Youth League, South Norfolk Youth League, Mid Norfolk Youth League.
Brandon has a lawn bowls club, Brandon Town Bowling Club, which plays outdoors in the summer. The leisure centre, run by Anglia Community Leisure offers badminton, tennis, an indoor 5 a-side hall and an outdoor 6 a-side pitch. Brandon Fern Hoppers, the local running club meet at the leisure Centre on Tuesdays & Sundays meeting on Thursday nights for structured training, at the leisure Centre in summer months and the industrial estate during the winter; the Fern Hoppers organise the Wibbly Wobbly Log Jog running event held in Thetford Forest. Brandon is situated on the A1065 Mildenhall to Fakenham road, it suffers severe congestion due to large amounts of commuter traffic, holiday traffic travelling to the Norfolk Coast and HGVs. Several bus routes pass through the town as well. Brandon railway station has an hourly service to Cambridge and Ely to the West and to Thetford and Norwich in the East. Regular bus services operate from Brandon to the neighbouring towns of Bury St. Edmunds and Thetford.
There are infrequent services to Downham Market, King's Lynn and Norwich. Flowing in an easterly direction the Little Ouse river is navigable through the town. Brandon Country Park Official website Brandon Country Park Brandon during the Second World War
John Lyly
John Lyly was an English writer, poet and courtier, best known during his lifetime for his books Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit and Euphues and His England, best remembered now for his plays. Lyly's mannered literary style, originating in his first books, is known as euphuism. John Lyly was born in Kent, England, in 1553/1554, to Peter Lyly and his wife, Jane Burgh, of Burgh Hall in the North Riding of Yorkshire; the first of eight children, he was born in Canterbury, where his father was the Registrar for the Archbishop Matthew Parker and where the births of his siblings are recorded between 1562 and 1568. His grandfather was the grammarian. According to Anthony Wood, at the age of 16 Lyly became a student at Magdalen College, where he earned his bachelor's degree in 1573 and his master's two years later. In 1574 he applied to Lord Burghley for the Queen's letters to admit him as fellow at Magdalen College, but the fellowship was not granted, Lyly subsequently left the university, he complains about a sentence of rustication passed on him at some time, in his address to the gentlemen scholars of Oxford affixed to the second edition of the first part of Euphues, but nothing more is known about either its date or its cause.
Wood said. "For so it was that his genius being bent to the pleasant paths of poetry did in a manner neglect academical studies, yet not so much but that he took the degrees in arts, that of master being compleated 1575."After he left Oxford, where he had the reputation of "a noted wit", Lyly seems to have attached himself to Lord Burghley. "This noble man", he writes in the Glasse for Europe, in the second part of Euphues, "I found so ready being but a straunger to do me good, that neyther I ought to forget him, neyther cease to pray for him, that as he hath the wisdom of Nestor, so he may have the age, that having the policies of Ulysses he may have his honor, worthy to lyve long, by whom so many lyve in quiet, not unworthy to be advaunced by whose care so many have been preferred." Lyly became the private secretary of Burghley's son-in-law Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, himself a playwright to whom the second part of Euphues is dedicated, who seems to have acted as patron to most of Lyly's literary associates when they left Oxford for London.
Starting in 1580, Lyly received control over the Blackfriars Theatre having his plays performed by the Children of Paul’s in the presence of the Queen. Two years a letter from Lyly to the treasurer, dated July 1582, protests against an accusation of dishonesty which had brought him into trouble with his friend and patron, Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, demands a personal interview in order to clear his name. However, neither from Burghley nor from Queen Elizabeth I did Lyly receive any substantial patronage, he began his literary career by the composition of Euphues, or the Anatomy of Wit, licensed to Gabriel Cawood in December 1578 and published in the spring of 1579. In the same year he was incorporated M. A. at the University of Cambridge, saw his hopes of court advancement dashed by the appointment in July of Edmund Tylney to the office of Master of the Revels, a post at which he had been aiming. Euphues and his England appeared in 1580, like the first part of the book, won immediate popularity.
For a time Lyly was the most successful and fashionable of English writers, hailed as the author of "a new English", as a "raffineur de l'Anglois". After the publication of Euphues Lyly seems to have deserted the novel form, much imitated, to have thrown himself exclusively into play-writing still with a view to the mastership of revels, his Campaspe and Sapho were produced at Court in 1582 through the earl of Oxford's station as Lord High Chamberlain. In total eight Lyly plays were acted before the queen by the Children of the Chapel and by the Children of Paul's between the years 1584 and 1591, one or two of them being repeated before a popular audience at the Blackfriars Theatre, their brisk lively dialogue, classical colour and frequent allusions to persons and events of the day maintained that popularity with the court which Euphues had won. Lyly sat in parliament as a member for Hindon in Wiltshire in 1580, for Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire in 1593, for Appleby in Westmorland in 1597 and for Aylesbury a second time in 1601.
In 1589 Lyly published a tract in the Martin Marprelate controversy, called Pappe with an hatchet, alias a figge for my Godsonne. Though published anonymously, the evidence for his authorship of the tract may be found in Gabriel Harvey's Pierce's Supererogation, in Nashe's Have with You to Saffron-Walden, in various allusions in Lyly's own plays. About the same time he made his first petition to Queen Elizabeth; the two petitions, transcripts of which are extant among the Harleian manuscripts, are undated, but in the first of them he speaks of having been ten years hanging about the court in hope of preferment, in the second he extends the period to thirteen years. It may be conjectured with great probability that the ten years date from 1579, when Tylney was appointed Master
Royal court
A court is an extended royal household in a monarchy, including all those who attend on a monarch, or another central figure. Hence the word court may be applied to the coterie of a senior member of the nobility. Royal courts may have their seat in a designated place, several specific places, or be a mobile, itinerant court. In the largest courts, the royal households, many thousands of individuals comprised the court; these courtiers included the monarch or noble's camarilla and retinue, nobility, those with court appointments and may include emissaries from other kingdoms or visitors to the court. Foreign princes and foreign nobility in exile may seek refuge at a court. Near Eastern and Eastern courts included the harem and concubines as well as eunuchs who fulfilled a variety of functions. At times, the harem was separate from the rest of the residence of the monarch. In Asia, concubines were a more visible part of the court. Lower ranking servants and bodyguards were not properly called courtiers, though they might be included as part of the court or royal household in the broadest definition.
Entertainers and others may have been counted as part of the court. A royal household is the highest-ranking example of patronage. A regent or viceroy may hold court during the minority or absence of the hereditary ruler, an elected head of state may develop a court-like entourage of unofficial, personally-chosen advisors and "companions"; the French word compagnon and its English derivation "companion" connote a "sharer of the bread" at table, a court is an extension of the great individual's household. Wherever members of the household and bureaucrats of the administration overlap in personnel, it is reasonable to speak of a "court", for example in Achaemenid Persia, Ming China, Norman Sicily, the Papacy before 1870, the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A group of individuals dependent on the patronage of a great man, classically in ancient Rome, forms part of the system of "clientage", discussed under vassal. Individual rulers differed in tastes and interests, as well as in political skills and in constitutional situations.
Accordingly, some founded elaborate courts based on new palaces, only to have their successors retreat to remote castles or to practical administrative centers. Personal retreats might arise far away from official court centres. Etiquette and hierarchy flourish in structured court settings, may leave conservative traces over generations. Most courts featured a strict order of precedence involving royal and noble ranks, orders of chivalry, nobility; some courts featured court uniforms. One of the major markers of a court is ceremony. Most monarchal courts included ceremonies concerning the investiture or coronation of the monarch and audiences with the monarch; some courts had ceremonies around the sleeping of the monarch, called a levée. Orders of chivalry as honorific orders became an important part of court culture starting in the 15th century, they were the right of the monarch, as the fount of honour, to grant. The earliest developed courts were in the Akkadian Empire, in Ancient Egypt, in Asia in China during the Shang dynasty, but we find evidence of courts as described in the Neo-Assyrian Empire and in Asia in the Zhou Dynasty.
Two of the earliest titles referring to the concept of a courtier were the ša rēsi and mazzāz pāni of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. In Ancient Egypt we find a title translated as high great overseer of the house; the royal courts influenced by the court of the Neo-Assyrian Empire such as those of the Median Empire and the Achaemenid Empire would have identifiable developed courts with court appointments and other features associated with courts. The imperial court of the Achaemenid Empire at Persepolis and Pasargadae is the earliest identifiable complex court with all of the definitive features of a royal court such as a household, court appointments and court ceremony. Though Alexander the Great had an entourage and the rudimentary elements of a court it was not until after he conquered Persia that he took many of the more complex Achaemenid court customs back to the Kingdom of Macedonia to develop a royal court which would influence the courts of Hellenistic Greece and the Roman Empire; the Sasanian Empire adopting and developing the earlier court culture and customs of the Achaemenid Empire would influence again the development of the complex court and court customs of the Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire.
The imperial court of the Byzantine Empire at Constantinople would contain at least a thousand courtiers. The court's systems became prevalent in other courts such as those in the Balkan states, the Ottoman Empire, Russia. Byzantinism is a term, coined for this spread of the Byzantine system in the 19th century; the courts of Chinese Emperors were among the most complex of all. The Han Dynasty, Western Jin Dynasty, Tang Dynasty occupied the large palace complex at Weiyang Palace located near Chang'an, the Manchu dynasty occupied the whole Forbidden City and other parts of Beijing, the present capital city of China. However, by the Sui Dynasty the functions of the royal household and the imperial government were divided. During the Heian period, Japanese Emperors and their families developed an exquisitely refined court that played an important role in their culture. After the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, a true court culture can be recognized in the entourage of the Ostrogoth Theodoric the Great and in the court of Charlemagne.
In the Roman East, a brilliant court continued to surround the Byzantine emperors. In
Spanish Armada
The Spanish Armada was a Habsburg Spanish fleet of 130 ships that sailed from A Coruña in late May 1588, under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, with the purpose of escorting an army from Flanders to invade England. Medina Sidonia was an aristocrat without naval command experience but was made commander by King Philip II; the aim was to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I and her establishment of Protestantism in England, to stop English interference in the Spanish Netherlands and to the harm caused to Spanish interests by English and Dutch privateering ships that interfered with Spanish interests in America. English ships sailed from Plymouth to attack the Armada, were faster and more manoeuvrable than the larger Spanish Galleons, enabling them to fire on the Armada without loss as it sailed east off the south coast of England. There was an opportunity for the Armada to anchor in the Solent between the Isle of Wight and the English mainland and to occupy the Isle of Wight, but Medina Sidonia was under orders from King Philip II to meet up with the Duke of Parma's forces in The Netherlands.
This was so that England could be invaded by Parma's soldiers and other soldiers carried in ships of the Armada. Meanwhile, damage to the Armada had been done by English guns and a Spanish ship had been captured by Sir Francis Drake in the English Channel; the Armada anchored off Calais. While awaiting communications from Duke of Parma, the Armada was scattered by an English fireship night attack and abandoned its rendezvous with Parma's army, who were blockaded in harbour by Dutch flyboats. In the ensuing Battle of Gravelines the Spanish fleet was further damaged and were in risk of running aground on the Dutch coast when the wind changed; the Armada, driven by southwest winds, withdrew north, with the English fleet harrying it up the east coast of England. On return to Spain round the north of Scotland and south around Ireland, the Armada was disrupted further by storms. A large number of ships were wrecked on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland and over a third of the initial 130 ships failed to return.
As Martin and Parker explain, "Philip II attempted to invade England. This was due to his own mismanagement including appointing an aristocrat without naval experience as commander of the Armada, unfortunate weather, the opposition of the English and their Dutch allies including the use of fire-ships sailed into the anchored Armada.". The expedition was the largest engagement of the undeclared Anglo-Spanish War; the following year, England organised a similar large-scale campaign against Spain, the English Armada, sometimes called the "counter-Armada of 1589". The word armada is from the Spanish: armada, cognate with English army. From the Latin: armāta, the past participle of armāre,'to arm', used in Romance languages as a noun for armed force, navy, fleet. Armada Española is still the Spanish term for the modern Spanish Navy. Armada was the Portuguese traditional term of the Portuguese Navy. Henry VIII began the English Reformation as a political exercise over his desire to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.
Over time it became aligned with the Protestant reformation taking place in Europe during the reign of Henry's son, Edward VI. Edward died childless, his half-sister Mary I ascended the throne. A devout Catholic, Mary began to reassert Roman influence over church affairs, her attempts led to over 260 people being burned at the stake, earning her the nickname'Bloody Mary'. Mary's death in 1558 led to Elizabeth I, taking the throne. Unlike Mary, Elizabeth was in the reformist camp, reimplemented many of Edward's reforms. Philip, no longer co-monarch, deemed Elizabeth a illegitimate ruler of England. In the eyes of the Catholic Church, Henry had never divorced Catherine, making Elizabeth illegitimate, it is alleged that Phillip supported plots to have Elizabeth overthrown in favour of her Catholic cousin and heir presumptive, Queen of Scots. Elizabeth retaliated against Philip by supporting the Dutch revolt against Spain, as well as funding privateers to raid Spanish ships across the Atlantic. In retaliation, Philip planned an expedition to invade England in order to overthrow Elizabeth and, if the Armada was not successful, at least negotiate freedom of worship for Catholics and financial compensation for war in the Low Countries.
Through this, it would end the English material support for the United Provinces – the part of the Low Countries that had seceded from Spanish rule – and cut off English attacks on Spanish trade and settlements in the New World. The King was supported by Pope Sixtus V, who treated the invasion as a crusade, with the promise of a subsidy should the Armada make land. A raid on Cádiz, led by Francis Drake in April 1587, had captured or destroyed some thirty ships and great quantities of supplies, setting preparations back by a year. Philip favoured a triple attack, starting with a diversionary raid on Scotland, while the main Armada would capture the Isle of Wight, or Southampton, to establish a safe anchorage in the Solent; the Duke of Parma would follow with a large army from the Low Countries crossing the English Channel. Parma was uneasy about mounting such an invasion without any possibility of surprise, he was alarmed by the costs that would be incurred and advised Philip to postpone or abandon it.
The appointed commander of the Armada wa
