The Confident Hope of a Miracle: The Spanish Armada

by HansonNeil (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2003

  $13.35

  In the winter of 1587 the Spanish Armada, the largest force of warships ever assembled, set sail to crush the English navy... pening at the execution of Mary Queen of Scots - the event that precipitated the launching of the Armada - Neil Hanson explores one of the most fascinating campaigns in European history over the eighteen months in which it developed. From the first whispers of the threat against England the the English crown to the return of the battered remnants of the fleet to Spain, it is a story rich in incident and intrigue which is told with a view to giving the reader a breathtaking overview. In this controversial study Hanson claims that the aim of Drake was not to sink the Armada ships but to disable and plunder them, and that Queen Elizabeth was a monarch who left many of the survivors of the battle to die of disease or starvation and whose parsimony, prevarication and cynicism left her unable to make crucial decisions. Drawing on previously undiscovered personal papers, Neil Hanson conveys in vivid detail how the highest and the lowest in the land fared in those turbulent months when the destiny of all Europe hung in the balance.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2003

  $3.35

  'Continual, destruction in the foretop, the pox above board, the plague between decks, hell in the forecastle and the devil at the helm. 'It is the summer of 1588, and the fate and future of England hangs in the balance. Obsessed by the dream of reclaiming England for the Catholic Church - and adding another country to his sprawling dominions - Philip II of Spain has assembled a fleet of huge, castle-crowned galleons that stretches for miles across the face of the ocean. In wait in the Netherlands lies a battle-hardened Spanish army, ferocious professionals with a taste for rape, looting and atrocity. Across the Channel the English are scraping together bands of barely trained men, many armed only with scythes, stakes or longbows. Great warning beacons stand all along the coast of England; torches and kindling lie to hand. Watchmen strain their eyes to see over the horizon. Their only hope lies in the English Navy. But Philip's Armada is doomed before it even leaves port. As soon as it engages with the English fleet, its shortcomings are clear in the face of superior tactics and firepower. Its hulls shot through with cannon fire, its men dying in thousands from wounds and disease, the mightiest fleet ever assembled is mercilessly harried into fleeing north, at the mercy of the elements. Over forty Spanish ships are wrecked on the Irish coast; survivors crawling ashore have their throats slit and their purses ransacked. The dream of subduing the Protestant English lies in tatters. A triumphant combination of historical detail and storytelling flair, The Confident Hope of a Miracle draws on undiscovered and little known personal papers and records to tell the epic story of the Spanish Armada in all its scope. No book has ever conveyed in such vivid, living detail how kings, queens and courtiers, sea captains, deckhands and galley slaves, the highest and the lowest in the land, fared in those turbulent months as the fate of England teetered on the brink. -Praise for Neil Hanson's THE DREADFUL JUDGEMENT:'Conjures up the vanished city ...Hanson writes with knowledge and verve, as if making a television documentary on a natural disaster ...An informative and lively account. ' SUNDAY TIMES'Vivid ...A rich mixture of imagination and research ...Hanson's prose is animated by the ferocious energy of the fire and seems to be guided by its inexorable movement. He has a marvellous eye for evocative detail. ' DAILY TELEGRAPH'Popular narrative history at its best, well researched, imaginatively and dramatically written ...The author marshals his story and his mass of contemporary quotation with great skill. ' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT