THE DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA – PART TWO The heady days of Henry V in the early fifteenth century when England had a professional army well equipped and trained, led by career officers and capable of defeating many times its own numbers were long gone. The dynastic struggles and the expense of the later-to-be-called Wars of the Roses had dissipated English military abilities and now the only professional troops were the royal bodyguard and those few in castle garrisons. Otherwise defence on land was entrusted to the part-time Trained Bands and the even more part-time militia whose equipment and training varied from the abysmal to the quite good given a lot of luck. As early as 1570 Elizabeth had promulgated an order that all men between the ages of sixteen and sixty were to be in possession of bows and a laid down number of arrows and that they should practise with them regularly. That was all very well, and there were certainly those who claimed that English archers had destroyed the French at Agincourt, and would surely do the same to the Spaniards 150 years later. In reality the archers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were men who had trained from a very young age to be able to discharge ten arrows a minute and who were already experienced, disciplined and under command of competent NCOs and officers, which was far from the case in the sixteenth century. Walsingham conclude that if the Spaniards did manage to effect a landing then not only would the Trained Bands be unlikely to stand in the face of battle-hardened Spaniards, but many of Elizabeth’s Catholic subjects would join the invaders, and he drew up a list of potential defectors, including a number of peers of the realm.
THE DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA - PART TWO
THE DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA - PART TWO
THE DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA - PART TWO
THE DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA – PART TWO The heady days of Henry V in the early fifteenth century when England had a professional army well equipped and trained, led by career officers and capable of defeating many times its own numbers were long gone. The dynastic struggles and the expense of the later-to-be-called Wars of the Roses had dissipated English military abilities and now the only professional troops were the royal bodyguard and those few in castle garrisons. Otherwise defence on land was entrusted to the part-time Trained Bands and the even more part-time militia whose equipment and training varied from the abysmal to the quite good given a lot of luck. As early as 1570 Elizabeth had promulgated an order that all men between the ages of sixteen and sixty were to be in possession of bows and a laid down number of arrows and that they should practise with them regularly. That was all very well, and there were certainly those who claimed that English archers had destroyed the French at Agincourt, and would surely do the same to the Spaniards 150 years later. In reality the archers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were men who had trained from a very young age to be able to discharge ten arrows a minute and who were already experienced, disciplined and under command of competent NCOs and officers, which was far from the case in the sixteenth century. Walsingham conclude that if the Spaniards did manage to effect a landing then not only would the Trained Bands be unlikely to stand in the face of battle-hardened Spaniards, but many of Elizabeth’s Catholic subjects would join the invaders, and he drew up a list of potential defectors, including a number of peers of the realm.