The Defeat of the Spanish Armada

First published in 1959, this history sets the 1588 campaign in European diplomacy: Philip II's war in the Netherlands, the French succession, papal politics, and Elizabeth I's cautious council. Mattingly follows the Armada from Lisbon under the Duke of Medina Sidonia, the running fights up the Channel against Howard and Drake, the fireships off Calais, and the storm-battered return around Scotland and Ireland. He attends to logistics, weather, and what each court thought it was doing. The book is a diplomatic and naval history of one season, not a biography of Drake and not a technical treatise on galleons.

Bound in brown cloth printed in red with an engraving. Red slipcase.