Civilians were pressed into service as militia, propping up the regular army. A gigantic steel chain was draped across the mouth of the Thames. Elizabeth ordered fortifications built along the coast, as well as trenches and other earthworks snaking along the beaches thought to be most friendly to landing troops. As told by Historic UK, Drake was a hero, and his "singeing of the king of Spain's beard," is widely seen as having given the English several extra months of preparation.Įngland used that time to hunker down for the still-inevitable invasion. Sailing from Portsmouth, Drake surprised the Spanish with a raid on the port of Cadiz, sinking many dozens of ships and destroying thousands of tons of supplies. Philip wanted to take the English throne and destroy the English Church. Protestants were just as likely as non-Christians to find themselves burned at the stake. In Catholic Spain, Muslims, Jews, apostates, and heretics of all sort were subjected to expulsion, confiscation of their property, imprisonment, and even execution. 1492 wasn't just the year that Christopher Columbus claimed a new continent for the Spanish Crown - it was when the last Spanish Muslim stronghold at Granada fell.
Spain's massive American holdings delivered fleets of Incan and Aztec treasure back to Europe (a tempting and frequent target of Philip's French and English rivals).įor centuries, Catholic Spaniards fought to claim the Iberian peninsula from the Muslims, who had controlled much of it for nearly 800 years.
A decade later, Philip conquered his Portuguese neighbors, seizing their vast trading empire - which stretched from Brazil to the East Indies. The Ottoman Empire relinquished their claims in the Western Mediterranean by 1571, leaving Spain with virtually uncontested control of the entrance to the Mediterranean.
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