Why The Armada Failed

Geoffrey Parker | Published in History Today Volume 38 Issue 5 May 1988

The Spanish Armada and English ships in August 1588, (unknown, 16th-century, English School)

The Armada – and in English history there is only one – set sail from Lisbon against England on May 28th, 1588. It probably was (as Sir John Hawkins somewhat nervously described it) 'the greatest and strongest combination that was ever gathered in all Christendom', for it consisted of 130 ships, 2431 guns, and 30,000 men.

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