4.29 Europe: a.d. 1501 to 1600  (Page 12/29)

The fleet was at first becalmed for several days just off the Portuguese coast, then scattered by a storm, with the loss of 2 galleasses and 28 other major ships, while still others were badly battered. In addition, there was already much fever, scurvy and dysentery aboard and the green-stave casks were already producing spoiled food and water.

Nevertheless, the battle was eventually joined at the mouth of the English channel on July 31, 1588

The damaged remnants of the great armada sailed up around the north end of the British Isles, carrying a load of sick and starving sailors. Some 17 ships are said to have sought refuge on the Irish coast and perished there. Thousands must have drowned- and those that survived a landing were battered to death by the Irish or turned over to English soldiers. Finally in September, 1588 some 44 vessels straggled into the harbor at Santander, Spain, a fleet shattered by battle, weather, sickness and starvation. On the flagship San Martin alone, besides those killed in battle, there were 180 dead of scurvy, typhus or influenza, aggravated by hunger and thirst. More died daily in port while the unprepared countryside people tried to gather food and clothes and arrange hospital facilities. (Ref. 133 )

In spite of that armada fiasco, Spanish merchant ships still brought American treasure back to Spain, actually in greater quantities between 1588 and 1603 than in any other 15 year period. The defeat had not significantly altered the command of the seas commercially. Seville was actually prosperous as never before and 7% of the population was slave. Black Africans, white Moriscos and Moors from Granada and North Africa and Indians from America all could be seen in the bustling streets. (Ref. 267 ) The battles of the armada were the first of their kind with the massive ships and their long range cannon, but as far as actual numbers of vessels and men were concerned, this has been over-emphasized in many histories. (Ref. 133 )

In this century the Inquisition continued with the ecclesiastical attack on witchcraft at its height. The Inquisition was a cause as well as an effect of intense Catholicism in Spain and it held the Reformation to a minor skirmish in that country. After the Jews were run out, the Moors came under the Inquisition scrutiny and 3,000,000 of them left Spain and returned to North Africa. In this exodus of Jews and Moors, Spain lost an incalculable treasure and it has never made up for it intellectually and other ways. Thereafter, knowing only one religion, people submitted completely to their clergy and surrendered the right to think except within the limits of the traditional faith. Spain chose to remain medieval, with little intellectual activity. (Ref. 51 ) One bright light was to be found in the Navarrese, Miguel Serveto, who discovered that blood was pumped to the lungs by the arteries. But, as mentioned in a paragraph above, he was then burned alive in Geneva for some alleged religious eccentricities in letters he wrote to Calvin. The imprint of the Catholic king's world-wide empire can be noted in the general acceptance all over Europe at that time of the black, solemn, short capes and high collars with a small ruff. (Ref. 213 , 260 )