Armada passos biography of martin

By Michael Barry

The Spanish Armada was a hugely important event in world history. In this article I begin by giving a summary of the Armada story, from beginning to end.

Next, I will focus on some new information, which dispels some long-standing myths about the Armada.

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One of the reasons for this has been that to date the historiography on this topic has been dominated by British sources – there have literally been an armada of such books in the last 50 years.

This has resulted in a certain group-think that tends to emphasise the perceived superior performance of the English Navy and their ships.

In the course of my research for this book, I endeavoured to go beyond this. Fortuitously, I managed to find new evidence and facts, fruits of a vigorous flourishing of Spanish historians who have, over recent decades, investigated the Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1604) and have presented new material.

One seminal publication has been the monumental La Batalla del Mar Océano, prepared