ARMADA, ir-maida or fir-mi'da, the Spanish name for any armed force, especially a naval force. The term Spanish Armada is applied to that great naval armament which Philip II, in 1588, fitted out under the command of the Duke of Medina-Sidonia and Martinez de Recaldo, against Queen Elizabeth, with the view of conquering England. The fleet consisted of 131 great and many smaller ships of war, and carried 19,000 marines and 8,000 sailors. The ships had scarcely left Lisbon on 29 May 1588 when they were scattered by a storm and had to be refitted in Corunna. Ad vancing in the form of a half-moon of seven miles in extent, it came in sight, off Plymouth, of the English fleet, scarcely numbering 80 sail, and commanded by Lord Howard, who, en deavored by dexterous seamanship and the discharge of well-directed volleys of shot at alternately long and short distances, to damage the vessels of the enemy. Some of these, in cluding the galleon laden with treasure, fell into the hands of the English or were destroyed. Arrived at length off Dunkirk, on the 7 August the armada was becalmed and thrown into such confusion by the arrival in the fleet of eight fire-ships sent by the English admiral, that on the morning of the 8th Lord Howard was en abled to attack it on several sides. Notwith standing a brave resistance, many of the Spanish vessels were destroyed or fell into the hands of the English and Dutch, and in con sequence the Duke of Medina-Sidonia resolved to abandon the enterprise, conceiving the idea of conveying his fleet to Spain by a voyage round the north of Great Britain. A hurricane
which now broke forth with tremendous vio lence on the already dispirited Spaniards, scat tered their ships in all directions. Some went down on the cliffs of Norway, others in the open sea and still others on the Scottish coast. About 30 vessels reached the Atlantic Ocean, and of these several were driven by a west wind on the coast of Ireland and wrecked. In all. the armada is said to have lost in the open sea 72 large vessels, exclusive of smaller craft, and 10,185 men, while every family of distinction in Spain had to mourn the loss of one or more of its members. Only about 50 vessels reached Spain on the return voyage.
Bibliography.— Corbett,
and the Tudor Navy'Creasy,