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| Europe |
| Turkish Navy Helped Francis Drake Defeat the Spanish Armada |
| 2004-06-03 |
| From Khilafah, crediting The Guardian ... Jerry Brotton, a lecturer at Royal Holloway College, London, told the Guardian that a hitherto unnoticed letter from Elizabeth’s security chief and spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, to her ambassador in Istanbul showed that it was Turkish naval manoeuvres rather than Drake’s swashbuckling which delivered the fatal blow to the Spanish invasion plans. The letter, which ordered the ambassador, William Harborne, to incite the Turks to harry the Spanish navy, was written in the mid-1580s and has been buried in archives ever since because it did not apparently relate to any major historical event. But Mr Brotton told the festival: "Walsingham’s plan was ultimately successful. Ottoman fleet movements in the eastern Mediterranean fatally split Philip II’s armada ... So alongside all the stories we’re told at school about why the Spanish Armada failed to conquer Britain and destroy Protestantism, we should add another reason: the Anglo-Ottoman alliance brokered by Elizabeth, Walsingham [and others]." .... Walsingham hoped that Islamic forces might keep the Spanish forces "thoroughly occupied" by "some incursions from the coast of Africa", or by attacking his Italian territories from the sea. The Spanish fleet was eventually defeated on July 30 1588 as it awaited the rest of the invasion force off Calais. At the battle of Gravelines, the English navy used fireships before closing in on the confused Spanish. |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #3 what good would imperial galleys have been in the North Sea? Story says that the Ottoman fleet was moving around in the eastern Med. Spain had to keep a eye on them and ships in the western Med just in case they moved west. That took ships away that Phillip could have used against England. Nice plan, if true. |
| Posted by: Steve 2004-06-03 12:57:41 PM |
| #2 Sounds good, stupid but good. My first question is what good would imperial galleys have been in the North Sea? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-06-03 10:43:07 AM |
| #1 So the contribution of the mighty Turks was actually to act as a decoy. |
| Posted by: mhw 2004-06-03 10:20:11 AM |