Spanish Armada Leadership

To what extent was Leadership the most important factor to why the Spanish Armada was defeated?

One of the most famous attempts to invade Britain occurred in 1588 when the King of Spain, Phillip decided to send an armada of Spanish war ships to remove Queen Elizabeth from the throne. Phillip’s attempt to gain control of England failed, it failed for many reasons including the leadership of the two sides which affected the planning and tactical decisions made at sea, the weapons, resources and fighting forces of both countries each side used, and the role of luck or chance of which neither side could control. Leadership was the most significant factor in determining the defeat of the Spanish because the English had better leadership than the …show more content…
This is evident as Medina Sidonia had no previous sea experience. Medina-Sidonia was just a replacement for Santa Cruz the original commander who died before the Armada set off. The decision to choose him as commander was purely based on his ranking in the country. This meant the English had a clear advantage because the Spanish commander did not really understand what he was meant to do. In addition, if they hadn’t had this plan they wouldn't have had to anchor at Calais. The Spanish needed to anchor at Calais because the underlying part of their plan was to meet up with the Duke of Parma and his army and they needed to contact Parma and tell him they were ready. If the Spanish had not stopped at Calais they would have probably been able to avoid English attack as the English were already low on ammunition and were not making much impact. Furthermore, when the Spanish were anchored at Calais the English took a tactical decision and decided to set fire to their boats, which then drifted in the direction of the Spanish ships. This shows that the English leadership was strong and used quick thinking to establish a tactic which evidentially created chaos in the once crescent shaped format. The effect of this led the Spanish to cut their anchors as their boats were wooden and so could catch fire. This meant that later on in the Armada they did not have any anchors to anchor at Scotland so they drifted past and ended up pasting through the Irish coast and ending in Spain. Although, some people may argue that the most important reason is the role of chance. Their argument is that the weather actually drifted the Spanish around the British Isles and therefore defeating the Armada. They will also argue that the wind actually drifted the fireboats to the Spanish ships so that meant that the wind was actually the underlying factor which broke the formation apart. It is in fact leadership which is the