Editing Francis Drake (section)

===Defeat of the Spanish Armada===
[[File:DrakeMonumentTavistock.jpg|thumb|Drake was reportedly playing bowls when first informed about the approach of the Armada.]]

[[File:Loutherbourg-Spanish Armada.jpg|thumb|''[[Defeat of the Spanish Armada]]'' by [[Philip James de Loutherbourg]]. A Depiction of the Battle of Gravelines showing [[fire ship]]s]]

[[File:Valdés surrenders to Francis Drake aboard Revenge.jpg|thumb|Admiral Pedro de Valdés surrendering his sword to Francis Drake aboard ''Revenge'' during the attack of the Spanish Armada, 1588. Oil on canvas by [[John Seymour Lucas]] (1889)]]

The Spanish Armada set sail for England in May 1588, and arrived on the English coast on 29 July, near [[Cornwall]]. An English fleet consisting of 55 ships set out from Plymouth to confront the Armada, under the command of [[Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham|Lord Howard of Effingham]], with Sir Francis Drake serving as vice admiral, commanding from the galleon [[English ship Revenge (1577)|''Revenge'']]. As the English fleet pursued the Armada up the English Channel in closing darkness, Drake broke off and captured the disabled Spanish galleon ''[[Spanish ship Nuestra Señora del Rosario (1587)|Nuestra Señora del Rosario]]'', along with Admiral Pedro de Valdés and most of his crew. The Spanish ship was known to be carrying substantial funds to pay the Spanish Armada.<ref name="Kendall2022" /> Drake's ship had been leading the English pursuit of the Armada by means of a lantern.<ref name="Hughes-Hallett2010">{{cite book |last1=Hughes-Hallett |first1=Lucy |title=Heroes: A History of Hero Worship |date=2010 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=978-0307485908 |pages=352–353 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qsDm5hjMcBsC&pg=PT352}}</ref> By extinguishing this for the capture, Drake put the English fleet into disarray overnight.<ref name="Fernández-Armesto1988">{{cite book |last1=Fernández-Armesto |first1=Felipe |title=The Spanish Armada: The Experience of War in 1588 |date=1988 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0198229261 |page=177 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BWZnAAAAMAAJ&q=%22show%20a%20lantern%22%20%22guide%20the%20rest%22}}</ref> 

The [[Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia|Duke of Medina Sidonia]], whom Philip had appointed to command the Armada despite his complete lack of military experience on land or at sea, made his way up the Channel towards the French shore in his flagship ''San Martín'' with the English in pursuit, thinking that if he anchored in the [[roadstead]] of [[Calais]] they would not dare molest the Spanish ships in French waters.<ref name="Callender1912">{{cite book |last1=Callender |first1=Geoffrey |title=Sea Kings of Britain: Hawkins. Drake. Howard. Grenville. Blake |date=1912 |publisher=Longmans, Green, and Company |pages=79–81 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tigyAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA79}}</ref>

A council of war was held aboard Howard's flagship [[English ship Ark Royal (1587)|''Ark'']], where Howard, Drake, Seymour, Hawkins, [[Martin Frobisher]], and two or three others, decided to launch [[fire ships]]. That night the English launched eight fire ships into the midst of the Armada at its moorings, forcing its captains to cut their anchors and sail out of Calais into the open sea.<ref name="Perrett2012146">{{cite book|author=Bryan Perrett|title=The Changing Face Of Battle|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cew3AgAAQBAJ&pg=PT146|date=2012|publisher=Orion Publishing Group|isbn=978-1780225258|page=146}}</ref> The [[Naval battle of Gravelines|decisive action]] was fought the next day on the shoals off [[Gravelines]], where Frobisher, Drake, and Hawkins pounded the Spanish ships with their guns. Drake's squadron gave Medina Sidonia's flagship ''San Martin'' a single [[Broadside (naval)|broadside]] and moved on; Frobisher, directly behind him in the English line, stayed with the ''San Martin'' at close range and poured cannon shot into her oaken flanks, but failed to take her.<ref name="McDermott2001">{{cite book |last1=McDermott |first1=James |title=Martin Frobisher: Elizabethan Privateer |date=2001 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0300083804 |page=363 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YeMcPYIKNYUC&pg=PA363}}</ref> Five Spanish ships were lost.

Drake wrote as follows to Admiral Henry Seymour after coming upon part of the Spanish Armada, whilst aboard ''[[English ship Revenge (1577)|Revenge]]'' on 31 July 1588 (21 July 1588 [[Old Style and New Style dates|OS]]):

{{blockquote|The 21st we had them in chase, and so coming up unto them, there hath passed some cannon shot between some of our fleet and some of them, and as far as we perceive they are determined to sell their lives with blows.<ref name="Newbolt1925">{{cite book |last1=Newbolt |first1=Sir Henry John |title=Sea-life in English Literature from the Fourteenth to the Nineteenth Century |year=1925 |publisher=T. Nelson & Sons, Limited |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KzfPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA70}}</ref>}}

The Armada, having failed in their aim, were unable to sail back via the English channel. The English ships, including ''Revenge'', pursued them to prevent any landing on English soil, although by this time most of Howard's ships were almost out of shot. Nevertheless, the battered Spanish fleet were forced to sail instead around the British isles and encountered heavy storms off the coast of Ireland. The fleet eventually limped back to Spanish ports having lost overall some 63 ships and vessels.{{sfn|Whiting|1988|pp=230–232}}

The most famous (but probably [[apocrypha]]l) anecdote about Drake relates that, prior to the battle, he was playing a game of [[bowls]] on [[Plymouth Hoe]]. On being warned of the approach of the Spanish fleet, Drake is said to have remarked that there was plenty of time to finish the game and still beat the Spaniards, perhaps because he was waiting for [[high tide]].<ref name="Waters1984">{{cite book |last1=Waters |first1=David W. |editor1-last=Thrower |editor1-first=Norman J.W. |title=Sir Francis Drake and the Famous Voyage, 1577–1580: Essays Commemorating the Quadricentennial of Drake's Circumnavigation of the Earth |year=1984 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0520048768 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tPJVxZu8btoC&pg=PA17 |chapter=Elizabethan Navigation |page=17}}</ref> There is no known eyewitness account of this incident and the earliest retelling of it was printed 37 years later. Adverse winds and currents caused some delay in the launching of the English fleet as the Spanish drew nearer,{{sfn|Kelsey|2000|p=104}} perhaps prompting a popular myth of Drake's cavalier attitude to the Spanish threat.