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Documentary, 12 Days to Save England Part: 3
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00:00summer 1588 philip ii the catholic king of spain was on the verge of changing the shape of europe
00:18the most powerful naval force on earth the mighty spanish armada had sailed through the channel
00:26its aim to crush heretic england
00:30and take the crown of queen elizabeth
00:35our mission is a sacred one this was a war fought in the name of religion but it was also a war of
00:43power and politics and for the two great monarchs who started the whole thing off
00:47it was deeply personal the result of 30 years of increasing bitterness
00:56there you go look at that
01:00now to understand this defining moment in history i'm sailing the waters i love
01:06following the course of the english navy as it battled the spanish armada
01:12there's now howling gales similar conditions to the ones that drake and the fleet faced
01:17while access to unique eyewitness accounts this is one of the most remarkable letters i have ever
01:24seen will take us for the very first time inside the minds of the commanders themselves
01:30for their heavy guns to have the greatest effect they've got to go in for the kill
01:35and offer unprecedented insight into the corridors of power in england bring me good tidings
01:44and spain allowing us to bring to life 12 days in the summer of 1588
01:53when england's very survival hung in the balance army and navy together their might would be unstoppable
02:14for nine days the english navy had pursued the spanish armada from plymouth to the isle of white
02:31but despite three ferocious battles the huge invasion force remained almost entirely intact
02:43on the 7th of august 1588 the spanish armada was anchored just here off calais on the coast of france
02:49it now appeared that now appeared that they were within a whisker of achieving their goal which was to
02:55link up with a spanish army up 21 miles in that direction and then together invade england across the
03:02straits of dover this was the end game somehow the english had to deal a killer blow and fast
03:15or the nation and its queen would fall
03:30just a hundred miles away elizabeth was about to receive the latest reports from her most trusted
03:36advisers the two most powerful men in england lord burleigh her lord
03:44high treasurer and sir francis wilsingham her secretary of state and spy master
03:51they were coordinating the troops they were organizing supplies they were dealing with the
03:56catholic threat and of course they also had to provide counsel to the queen
04:02her mood would be most vile where's the trumpeting porter when you need him
04:07how a commoner's fart can leave the queen in more stitches than an army of jesters
04:12you volunteering both men knew that despite the navy's valiant efforts
04:19the spanish were closing in and england stood on the brink of defeat
04:24gentlemen bring me good tidings your majesty the spanish are at calais
04:32i do know where calais is yes your majesty the longer the armada was in the channel the greater the
04:43threat to elizabeth and her future was pretty bleak if the spanish could land if they could
04:49overrun england then she would either be captured or she would be killed on the spot it was a pretty grim
04:54and prospered
05:06elizabeth's arch enemy king philip ii was the most powerful man on earth
05:13ruler of the world's greatest empire
05:15but over 700 miles from the action he was out of touch with unfolding events
05:25there are rumors reverberating around europe but of course unlike elizabeth who is only say half a day
05:32away from communication philip is waiting more than two weeks at times to hear conflicting reports
05:39about what is going on with no reliable news philip was wise enough to ignore stories of the armada's
05:47success the spanish ambassador told philip that uh half the english fleet had been sunk first of all
05:56drake had had his legs blown off by a cannonball and then he'd been captured but in madrid philip
06:02was wary of this optimistic talk
06:10philip's master plan for the invasion was for the armada to sail east up the channel to the straits of dover
06:19then the 27 000 strong spanish army based in flanders commanded by the duke of palma would embark on 300
06:29barges sail out to meet the armada and conquer england
06:35with his two huge forces joined and god on his side the king of spain remained piously confident of victory
06:47soon the news would surely come that the spanish had landed and london had fallen
07:05the english navy knew what lay in store lord high admiral charles howard realized that the two halves
07:12of spain's invasion force must now be in direct contact
07:18howard of effingham had very little uh naval experience he'd been appointed lord high admiral but
07:25he was an administrator just two miles away from the anchored spanish fleet howard needed to decide
07:33what his next move should be
07:39don't dither boy don't dither he was advised by his maverick second in command
07:44an experienced seaman don't leave anything who knew how to fight
07:48sir francis drake a farmer's son from devon who'd spent his entire life at sea he had made a very
07:55profitable career uh out of plundering spanish ships elizabeth had knighted him for his plunder
08:04become rich
08:07nobody had shown more courage sometimes reckless courage in taking on the enemy nobody was better
08:12equipped to deal with the spanish armada when it arrived
08:21over a week of fighting drake had taken some extreme risks and learned some valuable lessons
08:31he'd known the english ships were faster
08:37when he plundered a stricken spanish galleon he discovered that english
08:41cannon was superior too
08:45and during another attack he'd worked out just how close he needed to be to cause the enemy real damage
08:56now though it seemed the english position was dying
09:02they were desperately low on ammunition because elizabeth was too broke
09:06and too mean to properly equip her navy
09:11and the armada was now more threatening than ever
09:18howard and drake were worried the spanish armada was anchored here in friendly catholic waters they were
09:23being resupplied with vital food and water but worst of all they were only 21 miles away from a vast spanish
09:30army 27 000 men commanded by the duke of palmer drake and howard were very worried that if these two forces
09:38were on the verge of joining hands then that would create an invincible enemy
09:43for elizabeth sheltered in her country palace at richmond this news was crushing palmer's army
09:55is waiting in flounders ready to embark we should assume so days
10:00if the queen falls england falls effectively she has no successor she has no children no direct heirs
10:10the throne would naturally pass to the invader very well
10:19historians have never been sure of elizabeth's precise movements during the 12 days of the armada threat
10:25but brand new research now suggests that on the 7th of august she made the dramatic decision to relocate
10:33her entire court to the very center of her capital
10:39defense of the realm is fundamentally hinged on protection of the person of the queen elizabeth
10:47moves from richmond to st james's palace closer to the heart of london
10:52moving elizabeth and her court is no mean feat she routinely travels with about 200 attendants
11:03but st james's palace it's much more defendable and she can be instantly surrounded by her own troops
11:10and safeguarded in that way
11:14the vast royal household would be rowed down river by barge the very next morning
11:22as they prepared for the worst neither elizabeth nor her navy had any idea
11:34the spanish fleet was facing some serious problems of its own
11:39the king's orders are the king's orders if only were them simple
11:43for a start its commander the duke of medina sidonia was at loggerheads with his deputy admiral juan
11:52martinez de ricalde we're gaining the wind closing for the kill we will sail forth and fulfill the king's plan
12:02medina sidonia was another administrator he had spent barely any time at all at sea
12:10uh and would be seasick in a rowing boat this is war sir ricalde is a sort of spanish counterpart
12:19to drake a man of action who believes this is my objective nothing is going to get in my way
12:26from achieving it ricalde had wanted to take an english harbor to secure a safe base and wait for news
12:35from palmer and his army but he was overruled by the inexperienced medina sidonia who'd ordered the
12:43fleet to sail for the exposed coast of calais to be as close to the army as possible
12:51the problem was that despite repeated efforts medina sidonia hadn't received any word from the duke
12:58of palmer as to where or when their forces would meet now within touching distance news finally came
13:08from palmer but it was devastating palmer wrote that he had not yet embarked so much as a barrel of beer
13:17let alone a single soldier and he couldn't possibly be ready to join forces until at least the following
13:23friday which was a whole week away medina stonia was horrified he'd raced all the way up the channel
13:29trying to make this rendezvous that turned out not to be a rendezvous at all
13:40to be fair to all the duke of palmer has got every reason not to be ready he's got 300 barges ready
13:46for his troops to embark but he can't get his troops on until he knows where the armada is remember
13:52they haven't been able to talk to each other at all until now that's true but of course he's been
13:57a little bit too clever for his own good i think the duke of palmer because to putting despise off the
14:02scent to try and confuse them about his intentions he's actually dispersed his forces and it's going
14:07to take him time to regroup them so pretty much you're stuck on the wrong side of the channel
14:14this is no place to tarry the king's plan we are trapped trapped there is no sign of a valiant army
14:24enough we wait for parma
14:30medina sidonia was taking a huge risk now he had to spend an entire week with his fleet
14:37on this exposed stretch of coast with his english enemy looming out there to the west
14:47the vast armada was for the first time unexpectedly vulnerable to attack
14:52isolated in his palace the usually meticulous spanish king had never realized that his invasion plan
15:08depended on some very complex logistics
15:14there was a fatal flaw in philip's master plan bizarrely he was astonishingly vague about exactly
15:20how and where the spanish armada would meet up with the army of the duke of palmer it's almost
15:26as though he thought the english channel is a small scrap of water on which it would be easy to meet
15:32in fact of course it's a long stretch of sea 350 miles long 20 miles wide at its narrowest point
15:42philip assumed that his army and his armada could simply send notes to one another
15:47saying where and when they should meet
15:51but at sea surrounded by the enemy that had so far proved impossible
15:57now on the 7th of august philip at last became aware of the problem
16:02my messenger from palmer
16:13palmer has written to philip before pointing out the failure the absence of any mechanism for the fleet
16:22and the army to join together but perhaps he was too subtle
16:25professor jeffrey parker is the world's foremost expert on king philip
16:31and has spent a lifetime unearthing documents that take us to the very heart of the armada
16:38this letter had been sent from the duke of palmer a full two months earlier and it made very
16:44uncomfortable reading this letter arrives at the escorial on the 7th of august the very day on which the
16:53armada is stationed off calais and in it the duke of palmer expresses just one more time
17:00his worry that there's still no mechanism for joining the armada from spain with the army
17:09this time the penny drops because we see in the margin the king has written
17:13please god may there not be a screw up
17:16embarazo is the word he uses so for the first time the king becomes aware
17:21that there's a fatal flaw in the master plan
17:33the funny thing was that both sides english and spanish thought the other had the upper hand
17:38but the strategic balance had shifted without palmer's army the spanish plan was falling apart
17:46the spanish armada by itself probably didn't have enough troops to mount a successful invasion of
17:51england and palmer's army without the spanish armada would struggle to get across the channel
17:56and if it did it wouldn't have the heavy artillery it needed to capture english towns like london so
18:02although they didn't know it at this stage english had the upper hand but as far as drake and
18:09howard were concerned an invasion could be just hours away we have no choice but to strike now that is
18:19the only choice i want
18:23the english had to act fast but they knew it was dangerous to attack the armada anchored in its
18:30defensive formation so they came up with a desperate last-ditch plan the idea was to cause
18:38maximum panic on the spanish ships paving the way for the english to strike them hard the following day
18:44the plan called for eight old ships plenty of cannonballs and explosives it was time for the fire
18:50ships
18:54fire ships have been used since the ancient greeks they were a classic method for disrupting a fleet
18:59destroying it by fire or at least breaking it up and forcing it to flee an italian engineer called
19:04giambeli had already given the spanish every reason to fear fire ships he created these things
19:09called the hell burners of antwerp that had killed 800 spanish troops drake and howard remembered just
19:15how devastating his fire ships had been at antwerp and they decided to copy his idea they didn't have
19:20enough explosives to make them quite as apocalyptic as giambeli's ships but they did gamble on the fact that
19:25the spanish would panic at the mere sight of burning ships heading towards their fleet
19:31tides and westerly breeze are in our favor
19:36pray god they remain sir pray god elizabeth and st george and even bloody neptune
19:41i don't care we must cease this moment we must
19:51howard asked his commanders to volunteer eight ships between them with little hesitation drake handed
19:58one over and the other commanders quickly followed
20:02their elacrity at offering up boats to be sacrificed wasn't quite as generous or as patriotic as it
20:09might at first appear they realized they'd be able to claim compensation and of course that amount
20:14would be a lot more than the old boat was worth once a pirate always a pirate
20:32the principle is quite simple you strip off anything of value you paint the masts and rigging
20:38with tar you fill it with combustible material and you double shot the gun so the heat sends them
20:45off an old cherubin and seraphim with two shots apiece nice sir it is done a little present from
20:52old dragon given the flood tide you send them off sailed by skeleton volunteer crews who leap into their
21:00little boats just before the fire ships reach their target
21:05the obvious danger of a fire ship is that if it runs your ship your ship will catch fire as well
21:14the greatest fear of any sailor in a wooden ship is fire at sea there's no escape you either drown or
21:21you burn to death are we ready we can hurt them
21:35and let them drift toward the anchored spanish
21:55dean of stoney had suspected that the english might try something like this so he'd put a screen of small
21:59boats around the island to protect it and they did manage to tow away two of the fire ships but the
22:05rest of the burning vessels sailed on right into the heart of the spanish armada as the six remaining
22:13fire ships drifted ever nearer the spaniards looked on in horror
22:17the problem with fire ships is that by very definition they're on fire they've got no crew on
22:34so actually they're relatively easy to avoid and medina sidonia had given orders
22:38to avoid the fire ships and all of his captains managed to do that
22:42they do it but how do they do it they panic of course because he's effectively said to them you
22:47can maneuver bring up your anchors and get out of the way they don't do that they cut their anchors
22:52and the problem with cutting an anchor is you cannot then re-anchor it's a tactical disaster in terms of
22:56the overall plan here and the armada is heading in flight away from calais i'll accept that there was
23:05extreme panic in calais roads but they all still managed to get out leaving just a handful of ships
23:12fighting for their lives i admit on the flanders banks
23:22drake's audacious plan worked the enemy ships were scattered and vulnerable
23:28now for the first time the english could launch an all-out attack
23:35and just possibly save england and elizabeth
23:51as her household made the last arrangements to leave richmond elizabeth awoke knowing nothing of the
23:57night's events as far as she knew the spanish army might already be crossing the channel
24:04escorted by a victorious armada the queen didn't know if she'd still be wearing england's crown by
24:12nightfall do stop fussing you act as if what you do is more important than the defense of england
24:21ladies please grant her majesty some peace
24:28we can only imagine elizabeth's state of mind i mean this is a conflict she'd sought to avoid
24:34this is a confrontation that has now uh moved beyond her control and she's simply in a position
24:40of waiting for the inevitable news of england falling to the spanish
24:45as elizabeth prepared for the journey down river to london
24:53i am drained
24:57walsingham and burleigh continued to organize the country's last ditch defense
25:02preparing the english for invasion by spreading propaganda about the hated spanish
25:07hispanophobia the fear of spanish is rife and walsingham and burleigh ramped up this fear for
25:21very good reasons they wanted to stiffen the resolve of the english people if there was an invasion
25:27because after all every able-bodied man over the age of 16 would be expected to take up arms
25:35to defend the country i have here a proclamation a draft proclamation which was sent enclosed in a
25:44letter from burleigh to walsingham it shows the heightened rhetoric that they are playing on it refers to
25:51a full tyrannical conquest of the country the depriving of her majesty and the slaughter of her subjects
26:01walsingham went even further in his rhetoric in trying to inculcate a sense of fear and he almost
26:10referred to a sort of sense of genocide and ethnic cleansing that children over the age of seven would
26:18be slaughtered that babies would be branded in the face that women would be raped and whipped and what
26:27this did was to whip up a sense of fear in the people of england a fear of spanish invasion
26:41in fact on the morning of the 8th of august the spanish were in disarray
26:47and further for invasion than ever
26:52as morning mass was celebrated medina sidonia and ricalde took stock of the previous night's
26:57disastrous events
27:02most of the armada had fled and was now scattered
27:08only five spanish ships remained anchored off calais including medina sidonia's flagship
27:17facing them the entire english fleet preparing to attack
27:30all was now set for the largest confrontation of the armada campaign monday the 8th of august 1588
27:37it's gone down as the date of one of the greatest naval battles in history the battle of graveline named
27:42after the town of graveline just here on the coast the stakes were high the fate of england and its queen
27:50the primacy of spain as a military imperial power and the future of christianity all hung in the balance
27:57howard's fleet was now joined by 35 ships from kent filled with fresh stocks of ammunition
28:09and with all he'd learned over the past 10 days drake was determined to destroy the spanish once and for
28:27all sailing as close as he dared so that the english cannon could do maximum damage to the enemy ships
28:35until i say you never stop at six o'clock in the morning uh drake's squadron attacks led by the vice
28:42admiral
28:48drake sweeps in firing his power guns heels over and gives the spanish ships a rippling broadside from
28:56its port battery
29:15and then the rest of the english fleet attack with the english coming in close for the first time
29:26and the spanish were not about to retreat from the fight up till now sam the english i think very
29:34sensibly kept their distance they've been fighting maybe at 100 or 200 yards but this is different this
29:40is the decisive battle developing now and medina sidonia knows he needs to do something so he's here drake
29:47attacks him he goes straight for the spanish flagship but the spanish here fight a very very important rear
29:53guard action that allows the rest of the ship's time to reform and so displaying immense seamanship
30:00the rest of the ships turn around and face the english
30:15the battle was very fierce but also very confused the weather was terrible there was clouds and rain squalls
30:35and wind and that was made even worse by the huge banks of gun smoke caused while the cannons firing so
30:40much through it all though the english pressed home their attacks the new energy
30:52the english are closing in causing structural damage now the spanish ships are taking a terrible pounding
31:02it goes on for eight hours where the english is coming again and again and again at them you get a
31:06real sense that this proximity of fighting this new way of doing it is having a massive effect on the
31:12spanish ships part of the problem is the disparity in the rate of fire between the two sides the san martin
31:18fires off 300 cannonballs but it's got almost 50 cannon and that's just over one an hour i mean the english
31:25are firing five times as quickly the spanish have no respite they simply haven't got the time to reload their
31:33cannon it helps you understand it just how one-sided this battle was
31:43the battle damage is becoming severe
31:55we have spanish warships who are struggling to keep afloat
31:59carnage is terrifying to see do you like what we're giving to you
32:06bastards
32:12on board the spanish ships the salvos of cannon fire caused devastation
32:21board and then the tube yes
32:23is
32:29using a pig carcass it's possible to understand the mortal peril the sailors faced that day
32:32a four pound ball was one of the smallest used during the battle of graveline
32:37others were up to 15 times the size
32:42four three two one
33:18On the inside, you've got all these splinters.
33:23You can see the jagged effect. Huge splinter come off.
33:28This would not do you any good at all if it hit you.
33:40There's a nasty hole there and inside the flesh,
33:44there's a chunk of oak, a nasty jagged chunk of oak.
33:50This is really a serious injury.
33:54On board, the air was filled with splinters of oak
33:58that mowed down hundreds of Spanish soldiers and sailors.
34:02For gun crews below deck, there was no escape.
34:08If you were hit during the Armada battles,
34:10then you've got several problems to contend with.
34:13First of all, there's the immediate problem
34:15of the massive trauma wound you may have suffered,
34:17either from some piece of flying wood
34:19or if you were unlucky enough to get hit by a cannonball.
34:22Has it ruptured your internal organs?
34:24Has it blown a limb apart?
34:27If you survive that, you've then got to survive
34:30what the barber-surgeon is about to do to you.
34:38Major amputation causes one of the biggest problems
34:41for the barber-surgeon and especially for the patient.
34:43First of all, there's the physical difficulty
34:48of hacking through bone and flesh with a patient.
34:52They would need to use something like this,
34:54which is a Tudor bone saw.
34:56Now, bear in mind, if we're amputating the arm,
34:58that's going through one of the biggest bones in the body
35:00and some of the most hefty tendons.
35:02It's physically very difficult to saw through the arm.
35:06It requires the services not only of this,
35:09but of several large burly men to hold the patient down.
35:15But then, even if you survive that,
35:17you've got a further stage,
35:19which is to stop the bleeding
35:21but then to survive the infections that can creep in
35:24from infected dirty instruments or even the surgeon's hands.
35:34As the battle raged on,
35:3685 Spanish doctors on board the Armada
35:39were overwhelmed by the wounded and the dying.
35:44It was a bloodbath.
35:50Official Spanish casualty figures
35:52put the number of Spanish dead at 600 and wounded at 1,000,
35:55but some historians think this is very conservative
35:57and they've calculated that as many as 6,000 Spanish
36:01could have been wounded.
36:02But whatever the numbers,
36:05the fact was that the English fleet here at the Battle of Graveline
36:08had given the Spanish Armada a terrible battering.
36:14Finally, the Spanish fleet was at England's mercy.
36:19I mean, it looks at this point
36:20that it's going to be a famous decisive victory
36:22and that the Spanish fleet is going to be completely destroyed
36:25by this superior English gunnery.
36:27There's just one problem.
36:28The English are running out of ammunition.
36:30And so, finally, at about 5 o'clock,
36:33Howard calls off the attack.
36:36Even with the fresh supplies of gunpowder and shot from Kent,
36:40Howard did not have enough ammunition to finish the job.
36:45A spirited fight.
36:46They're smarting more than we are.
36:48The English had not landed any kind of killer blow.
36:52Why?
36:53Because they were handicapped all the time
36:56by a shortage of ammunition,
36:58shortage of gunpowder.
37:03So, even though English sailors had out-fought
37:06their greatest military fleet the world had ever seen,
37:09the Armada escaped total destruction.
37:29Now safely ensconced in St. James's Palace,
37:32Elizabeth was about to receive news of the victory at Graveline.
37:39But Walsingham and Burleigh were acutely aware
37:41that even badly damaged,
37:43the Armada still remained a dangerous threat.
37:52Gentlemen.
37:53The Spanish are heading north.
37:57So we have prevailed.
38:00They could turn back.
38:02They could even land.
38:03I pray not.
38:05This whole enterprise is bankrupting us.
38:07There is more to war than bookkeeping.
38:10Elizabeth always wanted to achieve her results
38:12at the cheapest possible price.
38:15She hated spending a penny on anything
38:17and she simply refused any more supplies
38:19either of food or of ammunition.
38:23Walsingham,
38:24we all know that your ideal
38:27would be for England to spend everything
38:30on building your war machine.
38:33We only follow where you lead, Your Majesty.
38:37Indeed.
38:39It is the Almighty who has kept us safe.
38:43Amen.
38:48Elizabeth's concern for her cash-strapped economy,
38:51rather than the will to press home victory,
38:54meant she was still gambling with her own
38:56and her country's future.
39:01And at 11 o'clock on the 9th of August,
39:04that gamble paid off.
39:07The wind direction suddenly changed
39:10and the Armada was blown north,
39:12far from the Duke of Palma's army.
39:14The wind had now finally done what the English
39:17have been trying to do all along,
39:18which is push the Spanish Armada
39:20out of the English Channel
39:21and into the North Sea.
39:27It's long been thought that this was the moment
39:30the Armada threat was finally at an end.
39:33Many ships were in a desperate state
39:35and sailing back into the channel against prevailing winds
39:40was almost impossible.
39:42So it seemed like the planned invasion was over.
39:46But a remarkable recent discovery has revealed one more twist.
39:52An incredible eyewitness account of the Armada,
39:56written by Ricalde and discovered by Professor Jeffrey Parker.
40:02He was the first person to read it in over 400 years.
40:05And this account revealed something utterly unexpected.
40:12But even after the Battle of Graveline,
40:15Ricalde believed the Armada could still fight,
40:19rendezvous with Palma and invade.
40:23Ricalde kept a log and it's the log of a very, very irritated man.
40:29Ricalde clearly thought that honour required a second attempt
40:32and he must have made his views felt at the Council of War.
40:38We must resolve how to proceed.
40:41We owe it to our king to return to the channel
40:43and execute what he commanded.
40:45We must come to blows with our enemies once more.
40:49Medina Sidonia could still do his duty
40:52and fulfil his monarch's wishes.
40:56But his courage failed him.
40:59The Duke of Medina Sidonia also keeps a log.
41:02And his log for that day suggests that they discussed what to do next
41:08and there was a unanimous decision to set sail for Spain
41:12going north about, going round Scotland and Ireland
41:15and heading back to Spain that way.
41:17I propose that we sail westwards around the British Isles
41:21and return home.
41:23It is our duty to save as many of the king's ships as possible.
41:26And face his wrath.
41:27Are we in agreement?
41:31Then it is decided.
41:35Nothing is impossible!
41:37We hold firm.
41:39We make rendezvous with Parma
41:42and proceed.
41:44We are homeward bound.
41:45And a plague on whoever is responsible.
41:51Medina Sidonia says there is a unanimous decision
41:54we go back to Spain.
41:55Ricaldi says,
41:57I didn't like this, I protested but I was overruled.
42:00They can't both be right.
42:02It just happens that we have another account from a senior commander
42:06who backs Ricaldi's account to the hilt
42:09and says there is a decision to go back to Spain
42:12and we protested and we were overruled.
42:14I think I believe Ricaldi.
42:16What is certain is that the following day on the 10th of August,
42:28Medina Sidonia announced that the remnant of the Spanish Armada
42:32would travel back to Spain.
42:34But they'd go via the North Sea and the North Atlantic
42:36round England, Scotland and Ireland.
42:42Humiliated and depressed, Medina Sidonia took to his cabin.
42:46The Spanish Armada had been defeated.
43:17Back in London, Elizabeth remained closeted away in St James's palace.
43:23But as the vanquished Armada sailed north and the danger clearly passed,
43:28she decided it was time to present herself to her subjects.
43:32It's very important for Elizabeth to be publicly identified with the victory.
43:37Particularly as she is a female ruler, women do not know anything about matters of war.
43:45And so Elizabeth wants to be identified as this great warrior queen.
43:50She wants to show herself in victory.
43:54Elizabeth's emergence from St James's palace was quite deliberate, quite calculated and absolutely necessary.
44:01I mean, London was full of rumour, of speculation and disorder was feared.
44:08She needed to come out and put on a show.
44:11It was time for Elizabeth to write one of the greatest political speeches in history.
44:16Wherefore I am come among you at this time, not for my recreation or pleasure, but being resolved in the heat and midst of battle, to live and die amongst you all.
44:38What comes next?
44:43Die amongst you all, to lay down.
44:47To lay down. Yes, of course.
44:59Tilbury Forge was where Elizabeth's troops were billeted and it gave her the perfect opportunity to show herself to her people.
45:05She could progress all the way from Westminster to Tilbury across the length of the Thames and her people could see her.
45:12It's almost like she's saying, here I am. I'm fine.
45:16This was great PR. It was like a river pageant.
45:19With church bells ringing in her ears, she mounted a white horse accompanied by an honour guard of 1,000 cavalrymen, 2,000 infantrymen, she made her way here to her armies encamped at Tilbury Fort.
45:35The legend has it that she was wearing an armoured breastplate over her dress as she reviewed all 17,000 men in her army, then in the piece de resistance.
45:48To lay down for my God and for my kingdom and for my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust.
46:05I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and a king of England too, and take foul scorn that Parma or any prince of Europe should dare invade the borders of my realm.
46:32The speech was pure gold. It was magnificent. It's up there with Shakespeare's Henry V.
46:39She was acknowledging that she's a woman, but she's saying she has the heart and stomach of a king and a king of England. You know, this is all part of the Gloriana myth.
46:51As a piece of propaganda, Elizabeth's speech here at Tilbury was unrivalled. Word of it quickly spread throughout the rest of the kingdom.
46:58She knew full well that she wasn't just addressing the men in the army here. She was talking to the whole nation.
47:09This great heroine, a Protestant heroine who had defeated the Spanish advance, who had defended England against the Spanish, against this Catholic crusade.
47:20So it was absolutely central to the myth-making of Elizabeth. It was central to understandings of the success of Elizabeth's reign, and very much explains why she is celebrated today as one of England's greatest monarchs.
47:35Medals were cast. It shows the Spanish Armada foundering on these rocks. It's got the date, and it's got the words from a psalm written round the edge.
47:45You, God, are great and doest wondrous things.
47:49Even Elizabeth got in on the action. She wrote poems and hymns commemorating herself.
47:59But behind Elizabeth's glorification, there was a cold disregard for those who had saved her life and won her victory.
48:07The English fleet limped home, short of stores, with the crews exhausted from battle.
48:18Only to be shunned by a queen who cared more for money than for the men who'd brought her glory.
48:24One would have thought that Elizabeth's navy would have been covered in glory after the defeat of the Armada, but in fact, there's an astonishing audacity to what Elizabeth does next,
48:39because she actually criticises the commanders of her navy for not looting the Spanish ships enough and bringing her more riches.
48:47Victory, apparently, was not enough.
48:49And if her lack of gratitude to her commanders were surprising, the treatment of her sailors was far, far worse.
49:02When Howard and the ships returned, there was an epidemic of typhus which swept through the English fleet, killing many of the sailors who had fought so bravely for her.
49:13Elizabeth refused to spend any money looking after them.
49:22One statistic tells the horrific story.
49:25Though England did not lose a single ship during the course of the battle with the Armada,
49:29yet the losses of men to disease and starvation meant that their losses equaled those of the Spanish, which lost half their fleet.
49:35And had Elizabeth's commanders not used their own money to provide some food and sustenance for these men, the death toll would have been even more horrific than it was.
49:46It's a stain on her character that I believe can never be erased.
49:50What does this treatment of the sailors tell us about Elizabeth?
49:56Well, Elizabeth is a lonely woman in a man's world.
50:01She has to be more hard-nosed than anybody else.
50:04And so those Tudor genes she inherited enabled her to look very callous, to look very cruel in her treatment.
50:17But in the 16th century, this wasn't unusual.
50:21She was just better at it than others.
50:24While Elizabeth and Elizabeth celebrated victory, far away in Spain, Philip II continued to pray for success.
50:50More than three weeks after the decisive battle, he was still unaware of the Armada's terrible fate.
51:00He had heard nothing from the Armada as to their progress and where they were.
51:09But he was now becoming worried that his plan had been fatally flawed.
51:16And he prayed three hours at a time on his knees.
51:24I mean, victory should be his.
51:30Isn't God on my side?
51:32Then at last, on the 31st of August, as the remnants of his Armada struggled past the Hebrides, news finally arrived.
51:47It's a letter from Palmer himself saying that the vital precondition for invasion has not been met.
51:55That is to say, the fleet and the army have not joined hands.
52:01That's bad.
52:03But even worse is the news that comes three days later, that the Armada has decided to set sail for home going around Scotland and Ireland.
52:10Philip has to shoulder a lot of responsibility for the failure of the Armada.
52:16Philip has to shoulder a lot of responsibility for the failure of the Armada.
52:19And above all, Philip trusted too much in God. He had this blind faith that it didn't matter how bad or how flawed his strategy was, because God would make it work.
52:34Too much could go wrong, and lo, it did all go wrong.
52:43God not only deserted the Spanish monarch, but also the Armada as it struggled home.
52:53Because for the sailors who'd survived battle, there was even worse to come.
52:58Terrible storms drove many of the Spanish Armada's ships onto the rocky coast of Scotland and Ireland.
53:08Perhaps 40 ships were lost.
53:10Around 12,000 men drowned, died of exhaustion and hunger, or were killed by the Irish or English.
53:18Perhaps as little as 65 ships ended up returning home.
53:23Around half the men were killed, including many of the commanders.
53:25No wonder one monk in the Escorial called it the worst disaster to affect Spain for 600 years.
53:38The Duke of Medina Sidonia was one of the lucky few.
53:43His ship limped home in late September, but he was utterly humiliated.
53:49As he passes through the towns of Castile, people call him Chicken Duke Duque de Gallina.
53:55People ring his residence where he's sleeping and say, Drake, Drake, Drake is coming.
54:00Drake, Drake, Drake is coming.
54:04But hey, he survives. The rest of them don't.
54:07For Juan Martinez de Ricalde, exhausted and sick with typhus, this would be his last campaign.
54:17Ricalde gets back. I mean, he's a superb sailor.
54:21But when he comes ashore, he already knows that the Armada has failed.
54:26He already knows that many, many other ships are not coming home.
54:29And three days later, he dies.
54:33Before he dies, he puts together this incriminating dossier, and he sends it all to the king, hoping to take down the Duke of Medina Sidonia.
54:42Its pages reveal every beat of the Armada campaign from the inside.
54:50From the moment it approached Plymouth, to the battle for the Isle of Wight, and the tragedy of Graveline.
54:58This is an experienced warrior's indictment of his pen-pushing commander.
55:12We know the king reads it because Philip writes,
55:14I've read it all, although I would rather not have done because it hurts so much.
55:19But because Ricalde is dead, he files it away.
55:24And it stays in these files until I find it 400 years later.
55:32As for Philip himself, he also never recovered from his Armada's destruction.
55:38Philip's health started to deteriorate.
55:42He suffered from malarial fevers, his gout got worse, and he had this incapacitating arthritis.
55:50But he still believed that God was on his side.
55:54So he sent two more Armadas against Elizabeth, and they were both foiled by the weather.
55:59But he remained at war with England until his death.
56:08Philip's great Protestant enemy, Elizabeth, was also ageing, her physical powers waning.
56:16But her public image went from strength to strength.
56:21And we can see that in one glorious painting, the Armada portrait.
56:29Behind Elizabeth, through two windows, are the defeated Armada and her victorious navy.
56:36But a youthful queen sits centre stage, bedecked in pearls and wearing the imperial crown.
56:47We don't see the frail, fading women that Elizabeth's ladies saw.
56:53It says that her best years are ahead of her.
56:56And where the copies should have been, had she been a king,
57:00there is a pretty pink bow with a pearl pendant.
57:02This is the virgin queen.
57:06She is impregnable, and she is invincible, and so is England.
57:11She was now firmly established as the great Gloriana, the triumph of England.
57:18It was really the birth of national identity, and that identity was inextricably bound with Elizabeth herself.
57:25I think this is a pivotal point, really, in the development of England as a world power.
57:34This victory goes to England's head in a way that perhaps has never really died.
57:39If Spain had won, chances are her empire would have gone from strength to strength.
57:51Instead, the defeat of the Armada is seen as the beginning of Spain's decline, and the start of England's formidable rise.
57:58In the painting, Elizabeth is resting her hand on the globe, her fingers touching the Americas.
58:06In the decades that followed the Armada, England and its navy would set about constructing what would become the greatest empire in the history of the world.
58:16They swear they'll invade us, these terrible foes.
58:32They frighten our women, our children and bows.
58:36But should their flat bottoms in darkness get o'er, still Britain's they'll find to receive them on shore.
58:45Heart of Oak are our ships, Heart of Oak are our men, we always are ready.
58:52Steady, boy, steady, we'll fight and we'll conquer again and again.
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