Hearing that a 17th Spanish galleon replica is to visit Ayr in August this year, I had one of those memory flashes. This:

Watching Lucy Worsley in December 2022, I was shocked, deeply, to hear of the disastrous Counter Armada of 1599 when more than 20 000 lost their lives, twice the Spanish losses the previous year.

Following the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, Queen Elizabeth I of England sought to exploit Spain’s temporary naval vulnerability. The English Armada, also called the Counter Armada or the Drake–Norris Expedition, was launched on 28 April 1589 during the undeclared Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) and the Eighty Years’ War.

The expedition had several objectives: destroy the Spanish Atlantic fleet undergoing repairs in northern Spain, land in Lisbon to incite a revolt against Philip II of Spain (who had also claimed the Portuguese throne), establish a permanent base in the Azores, and seize the Spanish treasure fleet returning from the Americas

Why shocked? I’ve been reading and watching accounts of the history, of most parts of the globe, for more than 50 years, on a daily basis. Why had I never seen even a mention of this event despite hearing on a yearly basis of the prior Spanish Armada and England’s heroic victory?

The English Armada ended in disaster. None of its objectives were achieved: the attempt to incite a Portuguese revolt failed, the Azores were not captured, and the Spanish treasure fleet remained secure.

Dozens of ships were lost, thousands of English soldiers and sailors died, and the expedition caused severe economic losses for England.

The failure allowed Philip II to revive Spain’s naval power, sending 37 ships with 6,420 men to Brittany the following year, and ensured Spain remained a dominant European power for decades. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Armada

I asked friends, some even more history buffs, and none knew of it.

I tried a wee twitter survey. Two out of 41 respondents had. I await detail of from whom, where when?

For more: https://reviews.history.ac.uk/review/2312

The English Armada: the greatest naval disaster in English history