The Confident Hope of a Miracle

by Neil Hanson

The real story of the Spanish Armada.

In the winter of 1587 the Spanish Armada, the largest force of warships ever assembled, set sail to crush the English navy. This breathtaking overview of one of the most fascinating campaigns in European history begins with the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, the event that precipitated the launching of the Armada. From the first whispers of the threat against England and the English crown, to the return of the battered remnants of the fleet to Spain eighteen months later, it is a story rich in incident and intrigue. In this controversial study, Neil Hanson claims that Francis Drake’s intention was not to sink the Armada ships but to disable and plunder them. He further claims that Queen Elizabeth was a monarch who left many of the survivors of the battle to die of disease or starvation and whose parsimony, prevarication and cynicism left her unable to make crucial decisions.

Drawing on previously undiscovered personal papers, Neil Hanson conveys in vivid detail how the highest and the lowest in the land fared in those turbulent months when the destiny of all Europe hung in the balance.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Spain, Military History, British Literature, World History, Military Fiction

663 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

It's been a long and winding road... since graduating with a degree in philosophy (now that's useful...) I've been by turns plasterer's mate, holiday camp redcoat, ice cream salesman, exhibition organiser, art critic, rugby league commentator, freelance journalist, editor of the Good Beer Guide, owner of the highest pub in Great Britain and - finally! - a full-time author. It may not be an ideal career path, but it's given me a wealth of experiences that I draw on constantly in my own work.

I'm the author of over 50 published books. Under my own name I usually write narrative non-fiction a.k.a. popular history (though my sales figures suggest that it's never quite as popular as I'd like it to be...), but I have also written a serious novel, a few thrillers, two screenplays, travel writing and even a play-script for a musical as well. And in my day job as a professional "ghostwriter" I've written over forty other books, including a New York Times Number One best-seller.
I've spoken about my work at lectures, writers' festivals and other events all over the world and, when not writing, I'm often to be found riding my bike in the country around my home on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales.

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had an English history professor in college who refused to teach what he called "drum and trumpet" history. Which leaves what? Enclosure? Drainage of the fens. Repeal of the Corn Laws? C'mon Prof...England is NOTHING BUT drum and trumpets! And nobody does a better job of it that Hanson in this book.

Mind you, he takes a rather dim view of Elizabeth I from time to time. Vain, vacillating and penny-pinching, she very nearly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. But her salty Sea Dogs save the Sceptered Isle. And with such flair!

Hanson reminds us while the Dons where gussied up and gilded from stem to scupper the English ships and their officers were "plain as a parson's coat." Made for work, not the parade ground. Wooden ships, iron men and sound gunnery turned the tide.

And the book makes one thing perfectly clear. Whatever the dynastic, imperial and commercial reasons, the Armada was at its core an Instrument of the Spanish Inquisition --even if you didn't expect it. It was a crusade to crush the beating heart of the Protestant Faith. It was wholeheartedly endorsed by the Pope for that reason (though he found reasons to withhold funding.)

Myth-busting is the second best reason to read this book. The English fleet was actually not inferior to the Spanish. Not in numbers and certainly not in technology. The Armada never really ever had a chance of success. Even if it had landed and brushed aside Elizabeth's meager army, it would only have provoked a decades long guerrilla war much like the Spanish were then fighting -- and destined to lose -- in Holland.

The best reason to read this book is it nearly goes off the scale in evoking those back-of-the-neck hair tingling, Patton-esque "I was there" moments so deeply etched in Anglo-Saxon race consciousness. Such as, Drake's spoiling raid on Cadiz. When the beacon fires were lit across the width and breadth of the land after the Armada was sighted. (I wish Peter Jackson could re-create this for us!) The fire ships at Calais.

Hanson even allows us pleasure in recreating Elizabeth's stirring "heart-of-a-king-and-an-English-king-too!" -- speech at Tilbury Plain -- even though he reminds us that this speech was given after it was clear the Armada had failed. Alas, Kate Blanchett's armor in the (otherwise ridiculous) "Golden Age" film may not be far off judging from Hanson's description.

If you're like me -- and almost nobody is -- you will find a great deal of pleasure in this book.

[Adrian Ng · Rating 5 out of 5]

Queen Elizabeth I is a fucking greedy bitch whose parsimony caused the deaths of 8000 English sailors who, having successfully repelled the Spanish, were not remunerated for their skilled and heroic efforts and as a result died from starvation or disease or being executed for having no special dispensation to beg. I mean jesus fucking christ. Nothing disgusts me more. Nothing in all of history upsets me more. Holocaust - don't care. Khmer Rouge - don't care. Even Phillip II, the arthritic, reclusive physical manifestation of hubris if you can imagine hubris embodied as a scheming little shit, gave financial, medical and housing support to the sailors or their families in the aftermath of the Armada. Despite his foolish and stubborn belief that he had been ordained by God to rid the world of Protestant Reformation he still comes across as a much less despicable person than Elizabeth. Great praise must go to Neil Hanson, for the thoroughly savagely enjoyable way he ripped into the disease ridden, vacillating, wig-wearing Virgin Queen at the end of the book made me pee myself.

Big shout out to my bros: Drake, Howard, Hawkins and Frobisher. I will forever be grateful, for it is mostly thanks to your efforts that I am not speaking Spanish right now.

The following is a list of English-Spanish loan words I will from now on prohibit myself from speaking:

Banana
Chocolate
Taco
Enrique Iglesias

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Spanish Armada is one of those moments in English history that's become more myth than history over the years - everyone knows the stories about Drake playing bowls on Plymouth Hoe or how the English Fleet was so outnumbered or the storms scattering the fleet. But I realised that I really didn't actually know very much about it at all, so this book was utterly fascinating to me. It's very well written and manages to make the labyrinthian and Machiavellian machinations of both Spain and England understandable. It really clarifies what actually happened and highlights the fact that the English weren't quite the underdogs that we love to make ourselves out to be, that our ships was faster and more manoueverable, our guns were more accurate and had better range, and the captains had the advantage of knowing every inch of the coastline. In fact, it would have been a miracle had the invasion succeeded, which is actually what Philip II seemed to be counting on! So a very good, well-written, insightful book on a part of our national history that deserves to be better taught.

[Carl Berger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written and researched. Can push you into detail and almost trivia but the author always pulls you back and rivets you with novel like drama. You'll never think of the Spanish Armada the same way again!

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book, and it gave me a much better take on the Armada. Before this, I had known that many of the ships had been destroyed in a storm, but I had no idea about how much chaos the fireships caused at Gravelines (even though they didn’t actually ignite any Spanish ships). I also didn’t realize the whole mission for the Armada was as poorly thought out as it was, and the degree to which religion was behind it was also surprising – I hadn’t realized it had been treated as a crusade by both Spain and the Catholic Church. King Philip was convinced God was behind him to the extent that he believed God would work any necessary miracles to ensure the Armada was victorious:

“As the vast Armada set sail on the afternoon tide, the Pope’s special emissary to Lisbon sent a report to the Vatican of a conversation he had held with one of the highest officers in the Spanish fleet.

“If you meet the English Armada in the Channel do you expect to win the battle?”

“Of course.”

“How can you be sure?”

“It’s very simple. It is well known that we fight in God’s cause, so when we meet the English, God will surely arrange matters so that we can grapple and board them, either by sending some freak of weather, or, more likely, just by depriving the English of their wits. If we come to close quarters, Spanish valour and Spanish steel (and the great masses of soldiers we have on board) will make our victory certain. But unless God helps us with a miracle, the English, who have faster and handier ships than ours and many more long-range guns, and who know their advantage just as well as we do, will never close with us at all but stand aloof and knock us to pieces with their culverins without us being able to do them any serious hurt. So we are sailing against England in the confident hope of a miracle.” (Page 116).

Hence the title of the book.

I also didn’t know that King Philip didn’t stop at one Armada: “Before the year was out, Philip was laying plans for a further armada to achieve the success that had eluded its predecessor and fulfil his destiny as the warrior of Christ.” (Page 427). Ultimately, four others were sent after the most famous fleet. But the efforts were unsuccessful, not least because “each reverse only served to strengthen Philip’s belief in his God-given destiny, and further armadas were launched without apparent thought to the season, the weather or the likelihood of success.” (Page 427).

An interesting sidelight was the discussion of scurvy. While no one knew what caused it in the days of the Armada, I was surprised to learn that even back then people had noted that eating fresh fruits and vegetables would cure the problem. In fact, Richard Hawkins, who also invented a “water still” that could distill potable water from sea water, even pointed out that sour oranges and lemons were “a certain remedy for this infirmity.” However, no one acted on this knowledge, not least because fruits and vegetables were considered inferior food by everyone involved. This attitude, combined with the complacency, indifference, and incompetence rampant within the British navy at the time, meant that scurvy raged unabated for another two hundred and fifty years despite the cure being known. I found this particularly surprising given the danger of scurvy not only to life but also property – there were recorded cases of the disease wiping out every member of a ship’s crew and leaving only a ghost ship adrift on the ocean. And ships – especially battleships – have never been cheap to build.

This also definitely provided a different perspective on Queen Elizabeth the First, and it is not sympathetic. Apparently, she had the tendency to postpone painful or difficult decisions and was vacillating and indecisive, and this may have been why she never married rather than any Machiavellian scheming to play the continental powers against one another. She also appeared very stingy (“parsimonious” was the word the book used but it sounded a lot worse than that) and more like a villain than anything else. The idea that she wouldn’t call on Parliament to raise money to protect England against the Armada because she thought foreign affairs were something no one but “princes” should conduct, and because Parliament would naturally attach conditions to the money and want a say in how it was spent, just sounded outrageous and more like something a short-sighted egomaniac might do. I also got a different take on the “progresses” – from the point of view of this author, the progresses were self-aggrandizing wastes of money, instead of part of a strategy aimed at generating and maintaining good PR (as has been argued elsewhere). The famous Tilbury speech was also shown in a different light:

“Like so many of Elizabeth’s actions, the Tilbury appearance had been pure theatre, mere show, and the speech to her forces that has echoed down the ages was a sham, delivered after the danger from the Armada had passed. The demobilization of her forces that began while her words were still ringing in their ears shows that she knew that as well as any. Such cynical exercises suggest a very modern queen, more surface and style than substance.” (Page 382).

Of course, a modern queen acting primarily as head of state and not of government might not have ever made the speech to begin with. I think a more appropriate comparison would be to a modern politician primarily acting as head of government, who might very well behave similarly. But to the extent it shows that cynical political ploys are nothing new, I agree.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lot of research must have gone into the writing of this book. I've regretted not to understand everything about seafaring vessels of that time. Still, I could sense and feel the atmosphere on those ships thanks to Hanson's style and descriptive power writing.

[Boyke Rahardian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent history of the infamous Spanish armada, Phillip II’s failed invasion of England in 16th century. It’s more than just a military history though, as this book also describes in details the turbulent politics inside both Elizabeth and Phillip's palaces that lead to the momentous event.

The English: Elizabeth I is not described in a favorable light here—author even put details on her vanity and bad hygiene. But there are 2 major flaws repeatedly appear in the narrative. First, she was not decisive and tend to let difficult decisions unresolved for long times before made abrupt and sometimes uninformed ruling. However the author also says that most of these were balancing acts as Elizabeth needed to maintain the fragile equilibrium between Catholic and Protestant factions. Moreover, England was not yet as powerful that time so she wanted to keep continental Europe’s views in check.

The second flaw is more damning, as Elizabeth is described as thrifty with her personal money, unwilling to let sufficient provisions for her own navy to the frustration of her aggressive admirals, most notably Sir Francis Drake. She could—if she wanted to—ask parliament to disburse national budget but to do so would give parliament more say on foreign matters, which Elizabeth adamantly view as the queen’s exclusive right. Instead Elizabeth threw more money to backup her ineffective army which was deployed in the Netherland to contain Spain’s Army of Flanders under excellent leadership of Duke of Parma.

The Spaniards: Philip II was a man with a mission from God as he believed it was his duty to punish Protestant’s England which has broken its allegiance from Catholic’s Vatican. He actually also had a rather rightful claim to English throne as he was married to Elizabeth’s older sister, the Catholic Mary I. But when Mary died, he legally lost his right.

There are worldly objectives also. First, for years Elizabeth had encouraged England's privateers to plunder Spain's silver delivery from South America—the so called treasure fleets—causing millions of ducats lost for Spain. Second, as mentioned above, Philip wanted to contain Elizabeth's support for Dutch revolutionary in their struggle for independence from Spain.

Why the Spanish Armada failed? There are several factors described by the author. First complicated strategy: Philip meant the armada to be a forward force destroying England's fleet before the Army of Flanders under Duke of Parma lead land invasion without mentioning specific time and place. Philip also—unrealistically—expected Catholic population in England to revolt. Second problem is tactical: due to lack of choice, Philip was forced to appoint Duke of Medina Sidonia to lead the Armada. He's a competent soldier and good administrator, but had no naval experience. Spain also didn't have dedicated armada and forced to confiscate ships being harbored in their ports—common practice at that time—so despite able to assemble more than 130 ships + 24,000 troops, most of them are not specialized for sea warfare.

Conversely, England had several advantages. First, the revolutionary design of England's ships made them superior than Spanish one—in speed and firepower—even with numerical disadvantage. This enabled them to employ innovative sea warfare tactics: inflicting great damage to oppositions' ships from afar without having to grapple and board troops to their ships. The tactics had been refined and tested for years by Drakes' and the rest of English commanders during their privateering campaign. Second, they had short supply line from their shore and their admirals had superior knowledge on the topography including wind, wave directions around the British isle.

The Spaniards understood these facts also, that despite numerical superiority they faced a much stronger and experienced opposition. Before sailing, one Spanish commander “reasoned” as follows:

It is well known that we fight in God’s cause. So when we meet the English, God will surely arrange matters so that we can grapple and board them, either by sending some strange freak of weather, or more likely, just be depriving the English of their wits. But unless God helps us by making a miracle, the English, who have faster guns and handier ships than ours, and many more long-range guns, and who know their advantage as well as we do, will blow us to pieces with culverins, without our being able to do them any serious hurt. So, we are sailing against England in the confident hope of a miracle.

The author meticulously gather correspondences from the era to conclude what had happened and how strategic decisions were made in both palaces, also the frustrations of the commanders on both sides and the final fate of the combatants. The defeat of the Armada marked the end of Spain as a global power.

[Tim Evanson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neil Hanson is a wonderful writer.

That said, this isn't that great a book.

This is a popular fiction work, the kind of book where a writer tries to make the dry facts of history come alive. In that, Hanson succeeds. Every sentence seems a little gem, worked over and revised and polished until it gleams. He's easy to read, and fun to read.

From a history perspective, however, this book is crazy. On one page, Hanson tells the reader that Philip II of Spain is an organizational genius. On the next, he tells the reader how disorganized Philip II was. This happens throughout the book.

Frankly, I was left wondering what story Hanson wanted to tell. It's one thing for the "truth" to be grey, it's fully another for the author not to have a handle on his facts. It's almost as if, in trying to tell a fascinating tale, Hanson lost control of what he was actually saying. Take the example of cannon: England was producing a gigantic amount of cannon of all sizes and materials. English warships had trouble obtaining this cannon. Yet, by the same token, they were able to be outfitted well. Hanson has to reconcile all three facts for the reader, and provide an explanation. His prose style works against him, because his flourishes, sometimes even lurid in what they evoke, seem to be more important that telling the reader why all three things happened.

A less careful reader will probably not notice this. The inconsistencies and (sometimes) outright contradictions in Hanson's text will be ignored in favor of the writing.

That's too bad. This needs to be a work of history first, and descriptive prose second.

[David R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hanson doesn't add a great deal more to the corpus of knowledge about the Spanish Armada story (summer of 1588) but he does provide the most complete collection of information I've seen outside the academic market. He also has done a great deal to humanize the narrative, spending time with the problems facing decisionmakers, the hardships endured by sailors, and the challenges confronting innocent bystanders. I could more easily imagine people like ourselves in those roles (as opposed to "marble people" from the remote past). Interestingly, Hanson is about as harsh as can be with Queen Elizabeth, whom he continually portrays as shortsighted, greedy and unempathetic, and it is hard to argue with his assessment. He's also sharply critical of the cloddish Duke of Medina-Sidonia who may have contributed most to the failure of the "Enterprise of England." Overall: a fascinating read.

[James S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite history texts. With such unbelievably bad preparation and leadership, with a such utter lack of suitable equipment, with such unbelievably horrible treatment of their soldiers and sailors, the only reason the English managed to actually win was because the Spanish were even worse.

Imagine having to sleep on a ship full of malnutrition and sickness with no hammock. Imagine being forced to rappel down the outside of your ship in combat in order to reload a cannon. Imagine being unable to tack into the wind, or sail faster than a person on land could walk.

And that's only the beginning.

[Kirk Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hanson does an excellent job laying out the back story of the reason for the Spanish assault, provides excellent sketches of the major players, and yet still has time for a rip-roaring naval battle. For a British author this book is amazingly fair-minded with Phllip often coming across much more sympathetically than Elizabeth. I really enjoyed this book since it is really much more than a naval history title- it's a full analysis of an era.

[Susanna - Censored by GoodReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating.

Elizabeth I comes off as a penny-pinching miser, and Philip II of Spain as a religiously-obsessed bureaucrat.

A great deal of time is spent on the actual ships, however, with the common men, sailors and soldiers, of the two fleets, and is quite sympathetic to them and their travails.

[Rick Hautala · Rating 4 out of 5]

EXCELLENT book on the Spanish Armada ... The writing is amazing .. The detail and historical context are beautifully handled ... The ONLY problem is there are NO MAPS! How can you write about a running battle at sea that circumnavigated England, Scotland, and Ireland and NOT HAVE DETAILED MAPS? Other than that, a fantastic read.

[Tripp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three vs. four was a tough choice for me. I think it comes down to taste. This books is a narrative history of the Armada, and I would have preferred an analytical one. It is especially troubling when the author makes interesting revisionist claims but doesn't give the other side any room. Still it wins points for its wonderful descriptions.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Struggled to decide between 4 and 5 stars, but Hanson's vitriolic dislike of Elizabeth I is what decided it. Easily the definitive history of the Armada for at least a generation or two. Generally well written and not tedious like some specialized history books can be. Would have been enhanced with some modern maps and a timeline.

[Kylar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book on my 13th birthday! It is stupendous! I love reading this book, and I have read 4 times now! It details the campaign and the ships expertly. What a great wholesome book.

[G. Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Well written and really takes you inside the ships, court and countries involved in the Armada. Comes down hard on Elizabeth I, at times justifiably, but at others it is a less than measured response. Other books I have read explained, if not justified, her poor choices in the wake of the Armada. That not withstanding, this is a brilliant read. If you want to smell the sea and the gunsmoke, duck the flying missiles and hear the cannon, this is the book for you.

[Steven Houchin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome historical writing that read much like an adventure novel, although the sheer volume of detail took a lot of persistence to get through at times. It portrays Elizabeth as venal and cold-hearted, and Philip obsessed and religiously delusional. The mariners’ suffering on the ships was devastating, and difficult to understand how the commanders didn’t grasp the strategic disadvantage of not caring for the men.

[Charles Cavazos · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well written, comprehensive history of a battle with monumental consequence. Ultimately it is a story of loss, as the fate of the sailors, both the victors and the defeated is recounted in all its horror and neglect. As in many conflicts, the combatants themselves are ground in the gears of war.

[Bookmarks Magazine]

Although Hanson doesn't say much new in Confident Hope, he gives the story of the English defeat of the Spanish Armada a modern-day spin. Without King Philip II of Spain's desire to bring heretical parts of Europe back into the Roman Catholic fold, there would have been no devastating battles. Critics applaud Hanson's evenhanded approach to the story, meticulous research, and good storytelling skills. They also agree that his thrilling reconstruction of the 10-day battle off England's southern coast-replete with descriptions of military strategies and profiles of leaders like Sir Francis Drake and unremembered sailors on both sides-is where the book excels. Yet the Armada doesn't fight its first battle until page 242, which may frustrate even avid history buffs. In sum: Confident Hope is a gripping, if not final, book on the subject.

This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.

[John E · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent history of the Spanish Armada. The character studies of Elizabeth and Phillip were excellent examples of the distortions of mind that occurs when small minds are placed in high places. The explanation of the technology of the ships and the tactics of the antagonists were enlightening. But the horrors of war in the 16th century navies were the center of the book along with the callousness of the navy leaders. Well worth the time.

[José · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading this book, it was very difficult to watch that Elizabeth: The Golden Age movie with Cate Blanchett and Clive Owen. For our generation, this is probably the definitive book on this fascinating topic. Don't bother with any other account.

[John Hillery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Magnificent account of the Spanish Armada, the motivations for its creation and the causes of its failure. Also a splendid answer to those who tout benevolent dictators as the answer to Europe's problems.

[Don Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great tale, well told.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly outstanding book on the times and attitudes of two nations locked in battle. Loved this book.

[Shaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little dry, but an amazingly detailed account of the time period and characters.

[Amy Nielsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to return this before I was done. It was a behemoth of a book but I thoroughly enjoyed all I've read so far. I will go back and finish this someday.