Singeing the King of Spain’s beard was one provocation too many

In the 1964 Hammer film The Devil-Ship Pirates, a privateer of the defeated Spanish Armada escapes the English fleet and puts in for repairs at an isolated coastal village whose inhabitants have not received news of the battle’s outcome. There the Spanish convince the villagers that Spain was victorious, and so impose submission on them. Historical verisimilitude was not exactly a priority. However, two weeks after the Armada was defeated in August 1588, a printer in Seville published glad rejoicings at Spain’s victory. The problems of extended lines of communications and poor intelligence bedevilled the Spanish throughout the whole enterprise, contributing notably to their defeat.

The tale of the Spanish Armada is well known. Indeed, Colin Martin and Geoffrey Parker wrote an excellent book on the subject way back in 1988 to mark its 400th anniversary. Their latest splendid volume is of a different magnitude altogether, being nearly three times as long and encompassing new archaeological and archival sources to offer the most comprehensive and authoritative book on the subject to date.