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This book stayed on my shelf for quite some time because I thought it was a bit of a stuffy history tome and heavy going. Once I got past the first couple of pages I could not put it down. A wonderful insight into religious nonsense of 1588 and how it ruined the lives of so many Europeans. . . . For nothing. Much as it still does today when children are indoctrinated into a “faith” * before they are old enough to think for themselves.
One of the saddest things the book relates is that the sailors who fought so bravely and worked so hard and survived, returned to their respective countries and starved to death.
This book was in my house growing up, and I read it over and over -- it's wonderfully written. It needs to be pointed out, though, that Mattingly was a diplomatic historian. N.A.M. Rodger, in the bibliography to the first volume of his magisterial naval history of Britain, Safeguard of the Seas, says that this book is still valuable on the political and diplomatic background to King Phillip's assault -- but as far as the actual sea combat goes, it's negligible.
The idea of writing a book about the defeat of the Spanish Armada first came to me, as it must have come to others, in June 1940, when the eyes of the world were again turned to the shores of England and their surrounding seas.
Preface.
The dates in this book are all, unless otherwise specified, New Style - that is, according to the Gregorian calendar which everybody uses now and which, although it had only been proclaimed by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, most of western Europe was already using by 1587. England, of course was not.
About the calendar.
Mr Beale had not brought the warrant until Sunday evening, but by Wednesbury morning, before dawn outlined its high windows, the great hall at Fotheringhay was ready.
I. Curtain-raiser. Fotheringhay, February 18th, 1587.
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Mr. Beale had not brought the warrant until Sunday evening but by Wednesday morning, before dawn outlined its high windows, the great hall at Fotheringhay was ready.
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One of the saddest things the book relates is that the sailors who fought so bravely and worked so hard and survived, returned to their respective countries and starved to death.
* Faith: OED: Belief without evidence. (