QI: The English Armada
- Thread starter poker
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Sir Francis Drake had smaller ships which were more maneuverable in the narrow channel. The Spanish Armada fled north. On their way back south they were hit by a mighty storm and many Spanish ships were wrecked. The shipwrecked Catholic Spanish sailors were rescued by the Catholic Irish. Their descendants are call "Dark Irish" or "Black Irish".
I cannot locate the author at the moment, but I spent a few months off and on in the first round of Covid Lock-downs reading a CS Forrster like author on Stories Online.
Really good sage, of about 5 novel length stories of British sailing life in the navy in the late Victoria age of sail.
Hard lives, but fascinating times, all well researched and written around real historical narratives .
Really good sage, of about 5 novel length stories of British sailing life in the navy in the late Victoria age of sail.
Hard lives, but fascinating times, all well researched and written around real historical narratives .
Please post or DM me the title / author's name. I would love to look at those books!
Or where my family's from, it's called having "a touch of the Armada". It's been said about me a couple of times.
Brit school and popular history concentrates heavily on historical "wins" to reinforce the belief that the Brits are intrinsically better than the Continental peoples. The Armada of 1588 and Francis Drake is common knowledge. The assorted British disasters not known at all.
Brits learn about their great victory at Agincourt, but not the series of susequent French victories that drove the British out of France and left Britain a second rate power for 200 years. Brits learn about Blenheim and Wolfe at Quebec, but not their ass-kickings in the 1740's by Marshall de Saxe, the French military superstar of the 1700's. Etc.
I must be nuts, I thought the "English Armada" referred to the evacuation of Dunkirk during WWII...
Ha, ha, ha. I met a few "Dark Irish" ladies in my life. They definitely have some/many Spanish features which probably means they also have some Moor in their bloodline as well.
(I was going to use the term "Black Irish" but the usual suspects will scream that is racist.)
Who were the Black Irish, and what is their story? (irishcentral.com)
Yes, the English longbow won the day. The French used the crossbow. Many of the French were killed as they fled. (The Brit's W-L record must still be pretty good to amass the largest empire ever.)
(Northern Ireland is still occupied land. The Brits should leave.)
The Habsburgs missed their opportunity.
In the 1520's Henry VIII decided to help foment the Protestant Flemish (Dutch) rebellion, he figured he could get one over the young and inexperienced Charles V.What he failed to realize is that the young King was from Flanders, the Catholic Flemish, the Germans and the Spanish shock troops were loyal to him, the rebellion was crushed. Fat POS Henry VIII deserted his army shitting himself along the way. He didn't go back to London, he went to Warwick Castle. Cowering in fear of an imminent invasion that never came, all Charles V had to do was sail from Antwerp into the English Channel. The Holy Roman Emperor had bigger fish to fry, the French King and the Pope betrayed him, they would regret it.
Where the British Empire ended.
In the 1520's Henry VIII decided to help foment the Protestant Flemish (Dutch) rebellion, he figured he could get one over the young and inexperienced Charles V.What he failed to realize is that the young King was from Flanders, the Catholic Flemish, the Germans and the Spanish shock troops were loyal to him, the rebellion was crushed. Fat POS Henry VIII deserted his army shitting himself along the way. He didn't go back to London, he went to Warwick Castle. Cowering in fear of an imminent invasion that never came, all Charles V had to do was sail from Antwerp into the English Channel. The Holy Roman Emperor had bigger fish to fry, the French King and the Pope betrayed him, they would regret it.
Where the British Empire ended.
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Yes, it was one of the great victories of the Medieval period. The French smartened up afterwards and never made the same mistakes though. That's why France speaks French and not English today.
The Brits won the largest empire by having a massive fleet and a massive trading economy. At a time where Spain was in decline and France was preoccupied with fighting in Europe, the British gobbled up other people's colonies overseas. France is far larger and more powerful than Britain until about 1850. But France has to keep a massive army to fight Austria and Prussia every so often. Britain just has to have that huge-ass navy and it can use that navy anywhere in the world.
Margret MacMillan like to joke that Prussia was not so much a country that had an army, more like an army that just happened to have a country.
Conversation started with you.
I think this is how DM''ing happens on this site.
As you can tell, I am not that savvy with the DM side of this site.
oh, there is a movie you might be interest in…. It’s about the dangers sailors faced on the high seas around that time period. Pirates of the…. Something or other
The classic movie is Russell Crowe in Master and Commander. That's actually pretty accurate and well done. Patrick O' Brian is a well know author of military history fiction.
They somehow turn ass kickings they took at the hands of the Germans as glorious chapters in their history. Make movies about them. Dunkirk most recently.
You mean the bit where most of the world map was red for a couple of centuries up until the second world war doesn't count?
I am somewhat familiar with Singapore as my university roommate was from that country.
In WW II the Brits had wrongly assumed that the attack would come from the sea. Instead, the enemy came down south by land.
After the fall of Singapore, the enemy tried to turn the captured soldiers of the British Indian army. The Hindus and Muslims turned, the Sikhs refused.
At the time of the A-bombs, the British force to re-take Singapore was still some miles away. Taking Singapore by force would have been one bloody mess (like Manila). Since the enemy had surrendered after the second A-bomb the Brits were able to re-take Singapore without firing a shot.
The History of World War II's Battle of Singapore (thoughtco.com)
In WW II the Brits had wrongly assumed that the attack would come from the sea. Instead, the enemy came down south by land.
After the fall of Singapore, the enemy tried to turn the captured soldiers of the British Indian army. The Hindus and Muslims turned, the Sikhs refused.
At the time of the A-bombs, the British force to re-take Singapore was still some miles away. Taking Singapore by force would have been one bloody mess (like Manila). Since the enemy had surrendered after the second A-bomb the Brits were able to re-take Singapore without firing a shot.
The History of World War II's Battle of Singapore (thoughtco.com)
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