#46 The Defeat of the Spanish Armada and the Survival of Protestant England Part 2
The History of the Americans
Jack Henneman
4.9 • 632 Ratings
🗓️ 6 November 2021
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
At some point in the second week of August, 1588, a merchant ship from one of the cities of the Hanseatic League, sailing through the North Sea off the east coast of England, found itself surrounded, in the middle of nowhere, by a herd of horses and mules, swimming, with no land in sight anywhere. This is, among other matters of greater historical significance, the story of how those poor creatures ended up paddling frantically, and unsuccessfully, for their lives.
We look again at the geopolitics of 1588, considered a “year of dire portent” in Europe for at least a hundred years, the struggle of the Armada to sail free of Iberia in some of the strangest summer weather old sailors had ever seen, the famous game of bowls, and the long fight up the English Channel as the Duke Medina Sidonia sailed to protect the Duke of Parma’s invasion force which was to cross the Channel on barges. Oh, and we learn where Tolkien got the idea for the Beacons of Gondor.
Selected references for this episode
Garrett Mattingly, The Armada
Robert Hutchinson, The Spanish Armada: A History
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the History of the Americans podcast, episode 46. |
| 0:11.2 | I'm your host, Jack Heneman, and we are recording this on November 4th, 2021, in Austin, Texas. |
| 0:20.0 | If you are new to the podcast, we are telling the history of the lands now encompassed by the United States from the beginning without presentism. |
| 0:29.9 | We believe there is dignity in our national story along with tragedy, triumph, brilliance, hypocrisy, magnificence, magnificence, depravity, corruption, venality, |
| 0:42.3 | inspiration, oppression, genius, defeat, and glory. |
| 0:48.6 | Careful listeners will pick up that I've tweaked that litany a bit as I suggested I might in last week's episode. |
| 0:55.9 | I have added inspiration and oppression to the old list. Both are profoundly important aspects of |
| 1:03.1 | our history. Both were components of the national histories of all consequential countries, |
| 1:09.8 | and neither demanded take on American history that is |
| 1:12.7 | triumphalist on the one hand or self-loathing on the other. |
| 1:18.2 | Finally, neither will get in the way of our main goal, which is to have fun while learning a lot |
| 1:24.3 | about the history of the Americans. We hope you enjoy listening to the History of the Americans podcast as much as we enjoy making it, |
| 1:32.2 | and that you tell all your friends, spread the word on your social propaganda website of choice, |
| 1:38.7 | write us a nice review on Apple or wherever you like writing reviews, |
| 1:43.3 | and subscribe in your favorite podcast app. |
| 1:47.0 | This is a labor of love, and your support is very motivating. |
| 1:52.1 | This episode is the defeat of the Spanish Armada and the survival of Protestant England, |
| 1:58.3 | part two. The first 10 days of August, 1588, were a crossroads in history, |
| 2:06.1 | and the first big battle at sea between fleets that blasted shipwrecking guns at each other. |
| 2:12.9 | For those of you who are neither diligent nor attentive, |
| 2:22.1 | last week we looked at the run-up to fill up the Seconds project to invade England, |
| 2:25.4 | including the geopolitics of the 1580s, |
... |
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