The Confident Hope of a Miracle: The True History of the Spanish Armada

by Neil Hanson

Book Overview

The story of the Spanish Armada is one of the great epics, with a cast of characters as rich and varied as any in history and results that shaped Europe for centuries to come. Neil Hanson - acclaimed... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400042941
• ISBN13: 9781400042944
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

They didn't teach this in school

I must read for anyone interested in British history. The book is infinitely readable and yet dense with detail.

Galleons and Arquebuses - Oh My!

On the one hand, this book is a meticulous reconstruction of a now almost apocryphal event: the Defeat of the Spanish Aramada. On the other hand, it is a finely told story of suspense and adventure. And finally, it is a superb tale of the days when Spain was the Master of the World, England was hanging on by its fingernails, and wooden ships were not yet the miracles of technology that they later came to be in the days of Nelson. I love the detail and connections in this book! For example, the author of Don Quixote, Cervantes, was involved in events leading up to the Spanish Armada(s). We learn more about Elizabeth I's (told from a decidedly UNsympathetic historian's point of view) and Sir Francis Drake's (who comes off as a superbly competent though self-interested risen-from-the-common-ranks adventurer) roles. We learn MUch more about Phillip II, King of Spain and effective secular Master of the Western World (until, that is, the defeats of his Armadas). Sailing in the 1500's was so much a matter of luck, timing, logistics, weather, and fortitude. New naval technologies and strategies were in their infant states. The Spanish had the popular vote to win. The English had the technology (guns and gunnery) if only they had the food. Poor planning on the Spanish side and supremely fortunate timing on the English side managed to counteract English budget frugalities and supplier shenanigans. In the end it is a rip-roaring story, all the more enthralling for the details. Hanson builds the story masterfully: element by element, personality by personality, circumstance by circumstance... from Phillip's "brainstorm" to invade England, to the climactic sequence of battle encounters as both fleets were pushed along the English Channel by wind and storm. It's hard indeed to remember how uncertain setting sail was back then. This was the same era as the setting of Clavell's "Shogun" book - Blackthorne the devil-take-all English pilot and his precious navigation Rutters. Galleons and Arquebuses ruled back then. Oh my!

My second choice for the story of the Armada

In my opinion, Garret Mattingly's "Defeat of the Spanish Armada" remains the first book to read if you're interested in the story of the Armada. It's a better read than Hanson's book (I found a re-reading of Mattingly's version more entertaining than my first reading of Hanson's book) and it provides more context about what was happening in northern Europe at the time of the Armada (I found his account of the 'War of the Three Henry's' particularly intriguing). Not to disparage Hanson's book: it's definitely worth reading (I don't hesitate to give it four stars), but Mattingly's story is a classic of sound history that easily could be (and should be) turned into a screenplay.

Hanson's treatment of the Armada is a good read

This is the best and most readable single-volume treatment of the English defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 I have read. Neil Hanson's text is breezy but comprehensive, not simply covering the battles but setting the stage of European politics, religion, and military technology, particularly the revolution in English shipbuilding and gunnery. The"Armada Year" of 1588 is one of those quintessential cleavage years in British history. In 1588, Spain was poised to come as close to world domination as any superpower since Rome; fueled by silver from the Americas, its clanking professional armies were unequaled, and wreaked genocidal terror in Flanders and Holland. This was an age of no quarter given between heretics, and had the Spanish gained a bridgehead in England, it is doubtful that the Tudors, and the Church of England, would have survived (literally) any organized campaign. The English navy, like the pilots of the Battle of Britain, were all that stood between England and the grey sweep of papist extermination. Standard English texts such as the Oxford History tend to treat events like the Armada as a given happenstance, so Hanson's fresh look is a welcome addition to this period. Hanson manages not only to cover the essential events and foundations, but makes telling points. Most controversial of these points is his thesis that the English won in spite of, and not because of, Queen Elizabeth's leadership. Hanson is singularly critical of Queen Elizabeth, who, unlike the Bette Davis icon we are accustomed to, is portrayed as a parsimonious, grasping, selfish meddler, whose principal concern was self-aggrandizement. Worse, she infuriated allies and enemies alike by invariable waffling on major decisions. To the frustration of her admirals, Elizabeth, after inciting a war with Spain, nearly loses the war by being taken in by peace talks (a la Chamberlain in 1938) up to the point the Armada actually sails. Elizabeth also starved her fleet, counting pennies to save on shot and necessary supplies. Some have criticized the build-up phase of the book, and the fact that the battle proper does not begin until the last third. This was essential, since Hanson effectively places the Armada as not an isolated event but part of a Europan-wide conflict involving England and Scotland, Huguenots and Catholics in France, Portugal, and the Dutch, who were fighting a war to the death with the Spanish. Indeed, until the Armada veered toward the English coast, it was in doubt whether it was intended for Britain or to smash the United Provinces. The "miracle" of the Armada campaign was not Elizabeth's Machiavellian cleverness, but the innovation of English shipbuilding toward speed and maneuverability, and tactical appreciation of long range (relatively speaking) gunnery over what had been accepted tactics of fighting soldier-on-soldier land battles between boarded ships. Equally important are the final chapters describing the actual des

Good but revisionist

This is a wonderful update on the Armada. The Armada was created by Phillip II in 1588 with the hopes of bringing the Catholic church back to England by the Sword. General Parma's troops were massed in the Netherlands to be floated across the channel under the tutelage of the massive Armada made up of Caravels and even Triremes. The Armada was paid for by the Pope's Gold, it was to be a great crusade. England was a backwater to some extant, and Elizabeth an untested queen, her captains like Sir Francis Drake were pirates. However the Armada failed. It fell into issues in the Channel, the weather was bad, it blew out to sea, foundered in Ireland(where later Eamon De Velera was a descendant of Catholic shipwrecked Spaniards). Elizabeth and her interesting assortment of naval commanders were made heroes. England gained a defining moment that would be replayed when she faced down both Napoleon and then Hitler across the same Channel and was miraculously saved both times. This book retells this famous story, with whit, wisdom and in a handsomely written style. However there is one glaring problem, the need by the author to slander and revise the story of Elizabeth. Instead of the Gallant queen who claims `I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king' we are given the portrait of a selfish woman who cares only for herself, who allowed here naval seamen to starve to death after the battle and who gives no such speech. The sources for this are dubious and the revisionism is not fair to such an extraordinary women. However if true, perhaps the allegations force us to reconsider our views. Seth J. Frantzman