20 August 1588 – Thanksgiving Service for England’s Victory over the Spanish Armada
Posted By Claire on August 20, 2013
On this day in history, the 20th August 1588, a thanksgiving service was held at St Paul’s in London to give thanks to God for England’s victory over the Spaniards. The Spanish Armada had been defeated, obliterated in fact, yet the English fleet was left intact and only around 100 English men were lost in the skirmishes.
Read more over at The Elizabeth Files.
Back in 2010, I wrote a series of articles for The Elizabeth Files on The Spanish Armada:
- The Spanish Armada 1 – The Assembling of Troops at Tilbury Fort
- The Spanish Armada 2 – Leicester Invites Elizabeth to Tilbury
- The Spanish Armada 3 – The Hell-burners
- The Spanish Armada 4 – The Battle of Gravelines
- The Spanish Armada 5 – The Protestant Wind
- The Spanish Armada 6 – The Spanish Fleet Homeward Bound
- The Spanish Armada 7 – Elizabeth I Visits Tilbury
- The Spanish Armada 8 – Elizabeth’s Tilbury Speech
- The Spanish Armada 9 – God Blew and They Were Scattered
Oh my, such a story we remember ashamed and mortified…
…and no matter what, we are always going to proclaim that the English fleet had an unvaluable help from the nasty weather and that they had to get back home bording Scotland and the poor guy that didn’t want to command the Spanish fleet because he hated ships and water – (go figure the stubborness of our king Phillip asking him to do it) 😀
By the way, we never called the fleet invincible, we called it great and (oops like Anne Boleyn) most happy – Elizabeth I used propaganda pretty well calling it “invincible” ;))
The nasty weather and storm that did in the Spanish fleet was called by many in Britain, “The Protestant Wind.” It was seen as divine deliverance.
That’s the way its been throughout history. The victors write the history. And, its usually told with lots of embellishing!
But, I think the english should be proud of that victory. Elizabeth hated war, and had tried everything she could, to avoid it. So, its fabulous that she, after being backed into a corner, turned out victorious! She’s my favorite queen! I have such respect, & admiration for that woman! Just outstanding! 🙂
See, she was by all means a great queen, and if I were English I would be proud of her.
As I am proud of how Charles, his grandparents and even young Phillip II were (look at the idea of marrying Elizabeth after Mary!) at least when he was young
and she did great trying to “kick”us where it was painful: the ships in their way to and back America, not very honorable ;). ( if I don’t write well in English)
I think Elizabeth was more pragmatic than our king, being so blinded by religion, and being a woman in that period, with more things against her than favoring her
Thanks for the links to the series. Glad that Elizabeth felt gratitude to G-d. According to Neil Hanson’s book, “The Confident Hope of a Miracle”, she didn’t feel enough to the guys who did the fighting to somehow find the money to pay them.