Armada: A celebration of the four hundredth anniversary of the

by Peter Padfield

Hard to Find book

Genres: History, Naval History

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Daniel Cicero · Rating 5 out of 5]

A concise, beautifully illustrated, balanced account of the Armada Campaign. Peter Padfield finds new and interesting things to say about a topic that's been analyzed and discussed for 400 years. I was particularly impressed with his even-handed discussions of Medinia-Sidonia and the Duke of Parma. Too many other histories of the campaigns portray these men as incompetent or simply out of their depth. Padfield shows how they struggled, from even before the campaign began, to impress upon Phillip the difficulties and risks associated with what he was asking them to do. Padfield's use of contemporaneous communications between these three men portrays them as professionals, doing their best to carry out the King's orders, but defeated by realities they saw from the very beginning.

Padfield is also fair about Elizabeth. Other histories portray her as much more heroic, and he makes the case that she was financially limited and did not seem to have a strategic view of her conflict with Spain. She learned nothing from the campaign.

And Phillip, too, gets a new look. What was he trying to achieve? Padfield presents evidence I hadn't seen before that he didn't expect the invasion to actually happen, that he used the Armada as a show of force to obtain more favorable terms in his negotiations with Elizabeth over the Netherlands.

This is a wonderful book, now out of print, but highly recommended if you can find a copy.

[Gunsonm]

A balanced, well researched work, beautifully illustrated, with map endpapers. Easy to read with a flowing narrative.

[Rob Markley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative in depth coverage. A great book.