State Papers Relating to the Defeat of The Spanish Armada Anno 1588 [Volume I ONLY]
London, England, United Kingdom: Navy Records Society, 1894. Presumed first edition/first printing. Hardcover. Volume I ONLY. Includes illustrations. lxxxiv, 365 pages. Foldout. No dust jacket. Cover worn. Tears at top and bottom of spine. Some page discoloration. Some binding weakness. Some pencil marks noted.Name of former owner present. Bookplate inside front cover. Sir John Knox Laughton (23 April 1830 14 September 1915) was a British naval historian and arguably the first to argue for the importance of the subject as an independent field of study. Beginning his working life as a mathematically trained civilian instructor for the Royal Navy, he later became Professor of Modern History at King's College London and a co-founder of the Navy Records Society. A prolific writer of lives, he penned the biographies of more than 900 naval personalities for the Dictionary of National Biography. The Navy Records Society was established in 1893 as a scholarly text publication society to publish historical documents relating to the history of the Royal Navy. Professor Sir John Knox Laughton and Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge were the key leaders who organized the Society. The American naval historian, Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, was one of the first overseas members to join the Navy Records Society. The Spanish Armada (Spanish: Grande y Felicísima Armada, literally "Great and Most Fortunate Navy") was a Spanish fleet of 130 ships that sailed from A Coruña in August 1588, under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia with the purpose of escorting an army from Flanders to invade England. The strategic aim was to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I of England and the Tudor establishment of Protestantism in England, with the expectation that this would put a stop to English interference in the Spanish Netherlands and to the harm caused to Spanish interests by English and Dutch privateering.
The Armada chose not to attack the English fleet at Plymouth, then failed to establish a temporary anchorage in the Solent, after one Spanish ship had been captured by Francis Drake in the English Channel. The Armada finally dropped anchor off Calais. While awaiting communications from the Duke of Parma's army the Armada was scattered by an English fireship attack. In the ensuing Battle of Gravelines the Spanish fleet was damaged and forced to abandon its rendezvous with Parma's army, who were blockaded in harbor by Dutch flyboats. The Armada managed to regroup and, driven by southwest winds, withdrew north, with the English fleet harrying it up the east coast of England. The commander ordered a return to Spain, but the Armada was disrupted during severe storms in the North Atlantic and a large number of the vessels were wrecked on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland. Of the initial 130 ships over a third failed to return. The expedition was the largest engagement of the undeclared Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604). The following year, England organized a similar large-scale campaign against Spain, the Drake–Norris Expedition or "counter-Armada of 1589", which was unsuccessful, had serious economic consequences and saw the loss of many English lives and ships. Condition: Fair.
Keywords: Francis Drake, Spanish Armada, Royal Navy, Flemyng, Golden Hind, James Quarles, Walsyngham, Burghley, Robert, Henry Seymour, Naval Operations
[Book #71409]
Price: $65.00