The Confident Hope of a Miracle: The True History of the Spanish Armada [Hardcover]

Neil Hanson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 18, 2005

The Confident Hope of a Miracle is a gripping account of the defeat of the Spanish Armada–the defining international event of the Elizabethan age. In 1588, determined to reclaim England for the Catholic Church, King Philip II of Spain launched a fleet of huge castle-crowned galleons that stretched for miles across the ocean. A battle-hardened Spanish Army waited in Holland, ready to crush England’s barely trained conscripts, many armed only with scythes, stakes or longbows. All that stood between Spain and victory was the English Navy. But English ships, tactics, weapons and crews were much superior to those of the Armada, and the pious and ascetic Philip’s “confident hope of a miracle” to give him victory was not fulfilled.

The story of the Spanish Armada is one of the great epics, with a cast of characters as rich and varied as any in history, with results that shaped Europe for centuries to come. Neil Hanson, the acclaimed author of The Great Fire of London and The Custom of the Sea, brings the story to vivid life, tracing the origins of the conflict from the Old World to the New, delineating the Armada campaign in rousing prose, and illuminating the lives of kings and popes, spymasters and assassins, military commanders and common sailors, and the ordinary men and women caught up in this great event when the fate of nations hung in the balance. Hanson also depicts the terrible fate that befell the seamen of both sides long after the decisive battles were over, and he takes a fresh, hard look at Elizabeth I, shaking the pedestal of “England’s greatest ever monarch.”

The Confident Hope of a Miracle is authentic and original history written with the pace and drama of a novel.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This splendid volume takes its title from a Spaniard's description of his compatriots' mood when the Armada sailed; a miracle was not forthcoming, however, for the Spanish or English fleets. The Spanish lacked the strength to overcome the inherent strategic disadvantages of having to bring a fleet and an army together over such a long distance; the English achieved their naval victory by sheer hard fighting, which nearly exhausted their ammunition and in which not only Sir Francis Drake displayed a freebooter's contempt toward disciplined obedience. Hanson (The Custom of the Sea) is superlative in doing justice to the social complexities of the time and the suffering of the many who fought on both sides. He does an equally fine job capturing the epic scope of this naval confrontation, which may not have caused the decline of Spain but certainly prevented that of England. The annotation is thorough, and the 16-page color insert (along with 21 b&w illustrations) includes a rare unglamorized portrait of Elizabeth—no legendary Gloriana this, but a shrewd working monarch.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Although Hanson doesn’t say much new in Confident Hope, he gives the story of the English defeat of the Spanish Armada a modern-day spin. Without King Philip II of Spain’s desire to bring heretical parts of Europe back into the Roman Catholic fold, there would have been no devastating battles. Critics applaud Hanson’s evenhanded approach to the story, meticulous research, and good storytelling skills. They also agree that his thrilling reconstruction of the 10-day battle off England’s southern coast-replete with descriptions of military strategies and profiles of leaders like Sir Francis Drake and unremembered sailors on both sides-is where the book excels. Yet the Armada doesn’t fight its first battle until page 242, which may frustrate even avid history buffs. In sum: Confident Hope is a gripping, if not final, book on the subject.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1ST edition (January 18, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400042941
• ISBN-13: 978-1400042944
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,588,358 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars My second choice for the story of the Armada, January 20, 2006

By 

Gordon Walker (Vancouver, Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Confident Hope of a Miracle: The True History of the Spanish Armada (Hardcover)

In my opinion, Garret Mattingly's "Defeat of the Spanish Armada" remains the first book to read if you're interested in the story of the Armada. It's a better read than Hanson's book (I found a re-reading of Mattingly's version more entertaining than my first reading of Hanson's book) and it provides more context about what was happening in northern Europe at the time of the Armada (I found his account of the 'War of the Three Henry's' particularly intriguing). Not to disparage Hanson's book: it's definitely worth reading (I don't hesitate to give it four stars), but Mattingly's story is a classic of sound history that easily could be (and should be) turned into a screenplay.

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Apt Story Very Well Told, February 14, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Confident Hope of a Miracle: The True History of the Spanish Armada (Hardcover)

As we now look at the possibility of another religious war, this time between Islam and the Christian world, this book has a particular lesson for our time. The title itself speaks of the time. Confident that God would bless the Catholic church, the Spanish Armada set out to conquer England.

It appears however that better ships, better guns, better men. Then to cap it all was the weather in the English Channel. The Miracle certainly didn't happen. In fact you could view the storm as God's will pointing in another direction.

This book is supurbly researched and written with a descriptive flair that makes it almost read like a novel. You know the outcome, of course, but the story is very well told.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An exciting read that occasionally runs aground, November 5, 2006

By 

Peter J. Adams (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Confident Hope of a Miracle: The True History of the Spanish Armada (Hardcover)

This book is mostly an exciting read. I was hooked after the first chapter, a vivid narrative of the trial and execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. Battle descriptions come alive, especially the climactic night battle that decides the campaign. Above all, the book does an excellent job of conveying how the whole event must have felt to the participants, from descriptions of shipboard conditions to the perils of night navigation and the difficulties of maintaining communication amongst hundreds of ships without modern technology. Neil Hanson's obvious talent for writing fails him occasionally, however. Describing the fate of so many Spanish ships one by one - they mostly end up shipwrecked with those onboard either drowned or imprisoned - gets repetitive after a while. Also there were too many quotations overall. While some were interesting and insightful, too many were forced in awkwardly where the author's own words would have sufficed. Naval tactics are explained well, something that Hanson apparently has previous experience writing about.

My larger gripe with this book is that it is much better at explaining what happened than why. Some explanations don't seem to hold together very well. Hanson suggests in several places that the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, was the "catalyst" for launching the Armada, but Armada preparations began almost a year before that event. Portions of the book criticize heavily both Phillip of Spain and Elizabeth of England. As an Englishman, it seems Mr. Hanson is especially concerned with debunking the mythology around the Armada and around Elizabeth, who is portrayed as vain, indecisive, and miserly. Time and again, mention is made of how her navy lacked resources. At the time, however, Spain clearly had a stronger government with a bigger budget. Even so, its own Armada suffered severely from lack of key supplies. Is it realistic to expect Elizabeth to have done much better under the circumstances? Didn't all early modern governments struggle to finance their wars? These questions don't get the attention they deserve, and it feels like Hanson judges Elizabeth's logistical failings by the higher standards of later times. The best history helps the reader see why participants made decisions that, in retrospect, seem stupid. This is something lacking in Hanson's book.

In short, this book epitomizes the strengths and weaknesses of "popular" history writing by a freelance author. It is entertaining, vivid, and definitely insightful on several points. I can't help but feel, however, that an academic author with detailed knowledge of the period would have provided more consistent explanations and less harsh judgments about Phillip and Elizabeth. If you're mostly interested in a good narrative, count this review as 4 stars instead of the 3 I'm giving it.