Customer Reviews

The Armada (American Heritage Library)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

No one would write a book about the Armada quite like this again - during the quadcentenial (1988), the interest seemed to focus on the ships, armaments and tactics. Mattingley is weak on these, and if that is your prime interest, look to Geoffrey Parkers book published in 1988. However, for narrative force, characterization and political background, Mattingley has no equals. For me, his account of the Armada, published over 40 years ago , is still the best by far. The narrative swings from Low Counries, to Madrid, to Cadiz, to Paris, finally to the Channel and Calais, then back to France. Mattingley shows that the defeat of the Armada ensured the survival of the Reformation and (not least) the independent survival of England, France and the Netherlands. Yet he is even handed at every stage, indeed Medina-Sidonia (the Armada's commander) is one of the heroes. Other heroes are Queen Elizabeth, the Duke of Parma and Henri III of France. Well, maybe anti-hero for Henri III, Henri of Navarre (Henri IV to come) is the true French hero. Indeed, for me, the nastiest figures in the book are not Spanish at all. One is Henri of Guise, Philip's co-conspirator in France, and Sir Francis Drake, who comes across as both paranoid and greedy. Read and be transfixed by its narrative sweep - each chapter is like a dramatic news bulletin adding to the powerful impact of the unfolding story.

Not all "classics" of history age as well as Garrett Mattingly's "The Armada," which was first published in 1959 to coincide with the quadricentennial of Philip II's failed attempt at the so-called "Enterprise of England." His scholarship may be subject to legitimate contemporary scrutiny and reassessment, but his writing is timeless.

The naval commander of the Spanish Armada, the duke of Medina Sidonia, emerges as the unlikely hero in Mattingly's narrative of the epic events in the fateful year of 1588. Medina Sidonia has for centuries been the primary scapegoat for the failure of the Armada, a fate that the duke himself perpetuated by taking blame for the disaster and frequently admitting that he was not up to the challenge. Mattingly's rejoinder is "hogwash" - Medina Sidonia did an admirable job in leading the Armada to within a whisker of success despite the tremendous odds stacked against it for a variety of reasons. The author suggests that Horatio Nelson himself could have done no better than the much-maligned duke. As far as finger pointing goes, Mattingly condemns the duke of Parma, the Spanish land commander in the Netherlands and generally considered the greatest general of the age, for his failures to be adequately prepared to meet the Armada and sail on to the invasion of England. (Modern scholars such as Geoffrey Parker have vigorously defended Parma's performance recently.)

Mattingly focuses on several aspects of the naval engagement itself that are worthy of note and rather counter to conventional wisdom. To begin with, he rightfully stresses the unprecedented nature of the sea battles that ensued when the Armada met the English fleet off the southern coast of England in the first week of August 1588. Never before had fleets of such size met in running combat. A change so dramatic in naval warfare would not happen again, Mattingly writes, until 1942 when the US and Japanese fleets engaged in a contest of aircraft carriers fighting each other over the horizon. Thus, all major naval battles from 1588 to 1942 differ only in ship design and tactics, not in any other fundamental way. And Mattingly notes that the four naval engagements that occurred along the south English coast from the Eddystone to the Isle of Wight were each far larger in terms of ships engaged and shots fired than all other sea battles before them.

Perhaps most surprising is Mattingly's generally positive assessment of Spanish seamanship, discipline and tactics, and his argument that the "revolutionary" English strategy of long-range heavy bombardment from more mobile "race built" ship designs was largely a failure (for some reason the author makes no mention of the four-wheel artillery carriage design that did so much to add firepower and rate of fire to English ships). Indeed, Mattingly asserts that Sir Francis Drake's destruction of a depot of barrel staves at St. Francis Cape in 1587 that were destined for the Armada did as much, if not more, than anything else to cripple the Spanish fleet because they were forced to sail with green wood barrels that caused much of their water and food to putrefy. And the greatest English advantage in the entire campaign, according to Mattingly, was that the battles occurred close to home ports so they could quickly and easily resupply critical items like powder, ammunition, and victuals, all of which the English ships ran out of on several occasions during the week. If the English fleet had met the Armada off the coast of Portugal, as many had argued for, they would have been forced to break off the engagement after just one or two battles of the ferocity and intensity that occurred off the English coast.

Much has been made of the English advantage in leadership and crew experience and the outdated Spanish "crescent" arrangement, which was the common deployment of gallies in the Mediterranean but totally unsuited, many have argued, for naval warfare in the open ocean against huge warships. But Mattingly writes that the crescent was the perfect formation for the Armada's essentially defensive task - secure passage through the Channel, rendezvous with the Parma's army, and escort the convoy across. Time and again, the author lauds Medina Sidonia and the Spanish sailors for keeping in formation and sliding past the tactically superior English fleet on their way through the Channel. Meanwhile, the English were frustrated by the inability of their advantage in long-range gunnery and superior maneuverability to destroy the Spanish warships located at the horns of the crescent. It was only the famed fireships that ultimately caused the Armada's formation to lose cohesion and thus vulnerable to English decimation.

So, was the defeat of the Armada really all that decisive? Militarily speaking, Mattingly says "no." The Spanish were able to recover, defeat the Drake-led invasion of Portugal the next year, and continued to fight Elizabeth and import bullion across the Atlantic for decades. Politically speaking, the author says "yes," the failure of the Armada to link with Parma and invade England permanently undermined Spanish prestige and influence in Europe, ushering in the ultimate defeat of the Counter-Reformation that Philip II championed and led in many ways.

All in all, a great book that is both fun to read and informative.

Given Mattingly's insight into Mendova's political manuevers in Paris, Philip II's understanding of European powers, and the role of the Catholic Church in European politics, this was required reading for a college course on European Diplomacy (1500-1918). While a naval historian might find fault in the lack of details and maps, Mattingly does cover the moves and countermoves by the English and Spanish reasonably well, especially for novice sailors like me. However, Mattingly correctly focuses on the lasting influence of the English Enterprise by the Spanish Armada: the flawed belief of a power shift in European politics and the myth(s) it produced.

Yes, in keeping with the title of the book, the moves by Spanish Armada are covered in a "daily diary" format, which actually serves to better highlight the real driving force of this work. Mattingly loves to dive into all the source material available and gain a sense of the diplomacy, delayed communication, and potential thoughts of the majors players. In doing so, Mattingly presents all the rumors and views (circa 1588), shows how historians have ran with those "facts" (now rooted in a collective memory), but he then corrects and deals those assumptions as flawed, baseless, or plausible. For example, Drake is often given credit for defeating the Spanish Armada, though he was not in command of the British fleet. Contrary to some stories, the Spanish were not damned by poor weather, but actually had the best seas imaginable. These are minor points, but were often touchstones for historical and political spinning. Mattingly does well in not only debunking these "truths" but in determining when and why they began.

This is not revisionist history in the "politically correct" sense of the word. Rather, it lays out the various stories, notes the points of the bias, and seeks to synthesize a coherent story given the available primary sources. Mattingly presents history as it should be - a clear story driven by primary sources which respects the prism of bias inherent in sources.

Buy this book.

I have read this book twice this year. The first time - I read it non-stop, captured by the sheer drama of the narrative. The second time - I took the time to savor the potraits Mr. Mattingly crafts so well. He is a master of his subject, and skillfully takes a complex and convoluted event and presents it in a way that is humorous, insightful, captivating and colorful. It is, in my mind, reflective of the highest standards of fine writing - be it historical or not. A thoroughly enjoyable book - this is one book that will be a recurrent read.

This is the first book I have bothered to read on the defeat of the Spanish Armada (I'm more a land person) and I must confess I quite enjoyed it. Intially it takes a little bit of getting into but the author offers the reader an excellent account of the events leading up to the 'Enterprise of England' including the campaigns in the Low Countries and the Political manoeuvres of the leaders involved. This is an excellent account and I found myself drawn into the narrative, not knowing what was going to happen next although the end result is well known. This is a good piece of history and story telling!

I first read The Armada in high school and have gone back to re-read it every couple of years since. In telling the story of the ill-fated Spanish Armada, Mattingly draws an amazing picture of Europe in a time of deep turmoil. He deftly and succinctly introduces the huge array of people who ultimately decided the fate of the mission, everyone from Mary, Queen of Scots, to Francis Drake to the Duke of Parma. Mattingly's greatest accomplishment is his portrait of Queen Elizabeth. By letting us see her from a variety of points of view, he gives us a greater understanding of how difficult her role as queen was. Mattingly is especially good at showing Elizabeth's ability to create power for herself when she her position gave her very little. The queen comes across as the most thoughtful and crafty of leaders. The writing is superb. Despite it's realtively esoteric topic, The Armada is accessible to anyone. I have happily given it to people who dislike reading history and had them tell me how much they enjoyed. And, unlike some popular histories, the writing is easily matched by the scholarship.

This is an absolute page-turner on the Invincible Armada and its demise before Calais in the fateful year 1588.

The book tells the story of the campaign from different angles with chapters on The Netherlands, Italy, France, Spain and England. The author's prose is sometimes difficult to read and stuffed with naval jargon but on the whole quite enjoyable. In fact, the narrative is gripping and comparable with the best historical novels.

What I also find commendable about this book is its relative neutrality. Because it opens with a chapter praising Queen Elizabeth, I was afraid that it would be flagrantly and outrageously pro-Brittish but as the story unfolded the author was able to present each actor in a quite objective way and even the defeat of the Spanish fleet was not as heart-rending as I had feared (I have a lot of Spanish blood in my veins!).

The Armada focuses on political and military events rather than on a colorful historical reconstruction of details. The book contains no lengthy descriptions of clothes or weapons or dietary habits or a social critique of the 16th century. What you do find is a wealth of acute psychological portraits of the main characters (but thank God without any Freudian undertones!). Elizabeth I, Philip II, Drake and Medina Sidonia, the Spanish admiral, are all described incisively along with Henri III, the Duke of Guise, Mary, the queen of Scots, and other minor actors.

The only thing I regret about The Armada is the sore lack of illustrations: pictures of the different vessels used in combat and of their armament would have been most welcome. True, there are two maps at the beginning of the book and they are enough to understand the narrative, but still my imagination was hampered by my ignorance of what pinnaces and galleasses look like.

All in all an excellent book. If you love 16th century history this is the book for you.

"The Armada" by Garrett Mattingly is a classic of narrative history. It tells the entire story of the Spanish naval attack on Elizabethan England from the beginning of the many disagreements between the two countries, to the inception of the plan for the armada and its final defeat. The background history and the struggles between the Catholics and Protestants in France and Holland are fitted nicely into the big picture Mattingly portrays. This book was primarily written for the layman with no former knowledge of the subject, and does a wonderful job of communicating the nuances of Anglo-Protestant/Spanish-Catholic hostility.

At times Mattingly stretched what we know people thought, as opposed to what we think they must have thought. For example, he wrote of Sir Francis Drake's preemptive strike against the Spanish fleet assembling at Cadiz, saying, "Drake felt that he knew how to hinder those preparations by such sudden thrusts as his campaigns in the Caribbean had taught him" (p. 85). Mattingly was basing this on Drake's previous and future actions. But when he wrote of the army preparations at London, and how all foreigners regardless of religion were suspected of being spies, commenting "everyone about the queen" (p. 344) hoped "that English patriotism, firmly based on xenophobia, would prove stronger than any religious bond" (p. 345), Mattingly was on very thin ground. He did not know what everyone was thinking.

Interestingly enough, he only allotted only seven of his 34 chapters to the actual battle. Mattingly evidently saw the battle as a kind of third or fifth act climax to events that had been transpiring since Elizabeth came to the English throne. He created a huge amount of suspense in the early chapters, especially from the instant word reached Europe that the English had executed the Catholic Queen of Scots, Mary. In fact, this book can be likened to a Hitchcock movie in this manner. So all-absorbing are the details before the Armada sails, that the actual battle is somewhat of a letdown. Our expectations outweigh the outcome. While I applaud Mattingly for this, as his book is thereby made more engaging to laymen, his principal audience (and because the literary device of suspense is one of the most effective means of holding any audience to the very end), I was a wee bit disappointed.

According to Mattingly, this battle marked the beginning and not the end of real Spanish sea power, and also foretold the failure of the Counter-Reformation to reimpose Catholicism on all Protestants (pp. 397, 401). The book says in closing that the legend of the few Englishmen, in few ships, winning the battle against the many Spaniards, in countless ships, "became as important as the actual event - perhaps even more important" (p. 402). For Mattingly, it was a reminder of the events of his own lifetime, when frail England once again held off the frightful host of Nazis during the Battle of Britain. And in this sense it will always inspire the hopeless underdogs who fight for freedom against oppression. I highly recommend Garrett Mattingly's "The Armada" as a classic of narrative history. Just be careful how much you read into what the characters are supposedly thinking at any given time, since no one knows for sure.

This book will be read over and over again
item as described
packaged perfectly
makes an excellent gift
it will become a treasured item
well worth the additional cost of a hard cover or paperback book

Pros: History is so much more than dates, and the depth of Mattingly's work is staggering. The history of England, Spain, and the U.S. are all linked in what occurs between the covers of this book.
The defeat of the Armada is placed within the spell of personal and political intrigues that are partially glossed over or hinted at in the movie "Elizabeth, The Golden Age". Elizabeth: The Golden Age (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD] Very glad I bought THE ARMADA.
The subject matter might have been handled in a more cut and dried style, yet the approach here is history-as-story, complete with subplots, character development, and personalities.
Cons: My only complaint is that if you are searching for just the dates, names, bare-bones facts, you have much to wade through. (Sometimes you just want the date.)
The chapter titles are romantically inspired and the writer in me loves the wording and wordiness, but the history-buff in me wishes for the addition of more nuts and bolts - a timeline - a summation, something that would enhance the work by filling the scope more fully while distilling the mountain of words into bite sized pieces.
Summary: It's a marvelous reading of history but a bit troublesome for a quick glance to dig up something for a factual reference.