[Guest Post]: A Brief Introduction to the Spanish Armada by Justin Newland, Author of “The Island of Angels” series

Last year, I had a pleasure to host Justin Newland on my blog with his first book in The Island of Angels series – The Mark of the Salamander . Today, Justin returns with the sequel, The Midnight of Eights and a new guest post.

Guest Post

The Spanish word Armada means fleet of warships. It certainly was. 

In 1588, King Philip of Spain assembled 130 vessels in Cadiz to invade England and depose Elizabeth. Philip’s strategy was to transport an 18,000 strong invasion force from Cadiz to the Netherlands, where they would pick up the Duke of Alba’s battle-hardened troops, and ferry them across the English Channel and overthrow Elizabeth.

When the Armada set sail in July 1588, Spain was at the zenith of her power and closely allied to the might of the Catholic Church. The massive galleons were virtual floating fortresses, but these square-rigged vessels could only sail with the wind at their back. The English had recently developed smaller ships that could sail closer to the wind (i.e. they didn’t need the wind at their back to proceed forward).

At dawn on 29th July, 1588, Captain Fleming of The Golden Hind spotted the massed ranks of the Armada off the Scilly Isles. He sailed back to Plymouth to inform Howard, Hawkins and Drake, and famously interrupted their game of bowls on the Hoe.

Unbeknown to the English, the Spanish had no intention of attacking any of the English south coast ports, and sailed along past the Isle of Wight, followed all the way on the cliff tops by crowds of fearful and excited peasants. 

The Armada was arranged with the larger and slower ships in the middle, the faster ships on the horns. This crescent formation made it difficult for the English to engage the Spanish and so the latter were obliged to attack at speed and use their long-range guns, but this proved ineffective against the thick-hulled Spanish vessels.

By the time the Armada anchored off Calais on 7th August, their ships mostly remained intact, with only a few stragglers picked off by the increasingly-desperate English. The two fleets were moored so close to each other they could hear the shouts of their opponents. 

That night was a full moon, a heavy doleful Harvest moon no less. The English prepared fire ships of pitch, wood and tar. The cannon were stuffed with flammable material to create huge explosions. The marine tactic was well-known to the Spanish as well, so their commander prepared ships to intercept the Hellburners aka the fire ships.

At midnight on the night of the 7th/8th August, 1588, the English despatched 8 fireships downwind into the massed ranks of the Armada. Instead of retreating in an orderly fashion, the Spanish panicked, cut their anchor chains and fled into the night. 

The next day saw the two fleets unleash repeated salvos of cannon fire, as they met head on for the first time at the Battle of Gravelines, a small town just north of Calais. Despite having the upper hand, Howard and Drake were forced to prematurely call off the attack due to shortage of shot and powder.

The Spanish fled north, the English fleet in full sail following behind them.

Then, four days later, on 12th August, the barrel man spotted heads bobbing in the flow behind the Spanish vessels. What were they? Had they thrown men overboard? Was it a mutiny? No, the heads turned out to be horses. Scores of them. When Drake and Howard saw this, they called off the chase, turned and set sail for Deptford and for home. The Spanish had given up any hope of invading England’s shores. That was why they had jettisoned their horses. Also, it meant that the Spanish no longer had the supplies to feed them. 

Photo #1: The Armada Route, courtesy of Wikipedia

The Armada was defeated. The ragged ships sailed north around the coast of Scotland. 

On 19th August, Elizabeth rode into the camp set up on the Thames at Tilbury adorned in a silver breast plate over a white velvet dress and a truncheon in her hand. In a famous address, she spoke to the troops, “I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm: to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms.”

On the same day, the Spanish fleet, desperate for food, bought fish from a fisherman somewhere between Shetland and Orkney in north Scotland.

A couple of days later, four days of storms ship-wrecked more Spanish vessels on the Irish coast. Their decision to cut their anchor chains meant that they could not safely anchor anywhere, forever bound to motion with the flow.

The greatest fleet in the world was humbled by winds and storms, and eventually limped home during the Autumn, having lost 60 ships and suffered 15,000 casualties.  

On 22nd September Elizabeth struck an Armada medal with the inscription Flavit Jehovah et Dissipati Sunt which means Jehovah blew with His winds, and they were scattered.

Photo #2: The Armada Medal, courtesy of Wikipedia 

To this day, the wind that scattered the Armada is known as the Protestant Wind. 

About the Book

In the Island of Angels Series, Book 2

(Can be read as a standalone)

Genre: Historical Fiction

Date Published: 28th October 2024

Publisher: The Book Guild

1580.

Nelan Michaels is a young Flemish, Protestant immigrant who seeks to right the wrongs committed against his family by Catholic Spain, the most powerful nation of the time.

On the way to delivering a message to Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth’s spymaster, Nelan finds a plough head buried in the ground. It sparks a premonition that shapes his future.

Nelan sets out to find Eleanor, his long lost love. During his search, he meets a Gypsy shaman who prophesies that he’s to become a Fyremaster and play a leading role in the unfolding destiny of the Island of Angels.

In 1588, Nelan meets his destiny on the night of the Harvest Moon off Calais in France. It was midnight when it happened. His mysterious intervention changed the course of the sea battle between the English fleet and the Spanish Armada, and changed England’s destiny.

It was a midnight of eights. 

The Midnight of Eights is the final book in The Island of Angels series: a two-book saga that tells the epic story and secret history of England’s coming of age during the Elizabethan era.

In Book 1, The Mark of the Salamander, Nelan is pressed onto the Golden Hind. During the circumnavigation, he embarks on a voyage of discovery of himself, and learns the arcane arts of the salamander, the mysterious spirit of fire.

About the Author

JUSTIN NEWLAND’s novels represent an innovative blend of genres from historical adventure to supernatural thriller and magical realism. Undeterred by the award of a Maths Doctorate, he conceived his debut novel, The Genes of Isis (Matador, 2018), an epic fantasy set under Ancient Egyptian skies.

His second book, The Old Dragon’s Head (Matador, 2018), and is set in Ming Dynasty China in the shadows of the Great Wall. Set during the Great Enlightenment, The Coronation (Matador, 2019) speculates on the genesis of the most important event in the modern world – the Industrial Revolution. The Abdication (Matador, 2021) is a mystery thriller in which a young woman confronts her faith in a higher purpose and what it means to abdicate that faith. The Mark of the Salamander (Book Guild, 2023), is the first in a two-book series, The Island of Angels. Set in the Elizabethan era, it tells the epic tale of England’s coming of age.

The latest is The Midnight of Eights (Book Guild, 2024), the second in The Island of Angels series, which charts the uncanny coincidences of time and tide that culminated in the repulse of the Spanish Armada.

His work in progress is The Spirit of the Times which explores the traumatic events of the 14th Century on the Silk Road and featuring an unlikely cast of Genghis Khan, the Black Plague, all shrouded in the mystery of a nursery rhyme that begins ‘Ring a-ring a-roses’.

Author, speaker and broadcaster, Justin gives talks to historical associations and libraries, appears on LitFest panels, and enjoys giving radio interviews. He lives with his partner in plain sight of the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England.

Contact Links

Website: https://www.justinnewland.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/justin.newland.author/

Twitter: @JustinNewland53

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/jnewland

Pinterest: @jnewland0711 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjustinnewland/

Book Bub: https://partners.bookbub.com/authors/4862998/

Purchase Links

Barnes and Noble 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-midnight-of-eights-justin-newland/1146325263?ean=2940185990643

Kobo 

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-midnight-of-eights

My Book

https://mybook.to/TheMidnightofEights

Giveaway

Signed copy