On this day in Tudor history, 20th August 1588, a thanksgiving service was held at St Paul’s in London to thank God for his divine intervention when England defeated the Spanish Armada.
Queen Elizabeth I believed that God had sent his Protestant Wind to save England from Catholic Spain’s attack.
Elizabeth had made a rousing speech to the troops at Tilbury but inside her heart was quacking, the battle could so easily have gone the other way, it was said every night as the battle raged she had one of her ladies to sleep with her, the relief felt when the remaining Spanish fleet limped home was in every Englishman and woman, they could have conquered the country killed the queen and brought their dreaded inquisition with them, some galleons were blown off course and ended up on the coast of Scotland and Ireland where the natives killed them, some sunk and lie mouldering at the bottom of the channel, Elizabeth must have firmly believed that god was indeed on her side, as for Philip one can almost have sympathy for him when the news reached him of their ignoble defeat, once years before, he had been king of that hostile heretic country, had lived long enough to experience the inclement weather, but obviously he had forgotten how treacherous it was in the channel, weeks prior he had knelt and prayed to the same god for a wonderful victory, he knew god had not heard him, as for his irritating ex sister in law, the victory added to her aura of invincibility and mystique.