Spain
THE ENGLISH ARMADAÂ I
Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada; the Apothecaries painting, sometimes attributed to Nicholas Hilliard. A stylised depiction of key elements of the Armada story: the alarm beacons, Queen Elizabeth at Tilbury, and the sea battle at Gravelines. Admiral Sir Francis Drake, commander of the English Armada In our march towards Lisbon, the King and the Prince of Portugal . .…
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Spain 1808
Madrid surrenders to Napoleon. In May 1808 Napoleon Bonaparte was truly at the pinnacle of his power. From September 1805 until June 1807 his forces had fanned out across the Continent driving all before them. But in the early months of 1808 the tempo of French aggression was raised to…
Anglo-French [non]-Intervention in the Spanish Civil War I
If Britain and France refrained from challenging Italy and Germany in Spain, this was not because they were blind to the threat to their strategic interests; Â it was because they feared that a general war in Western Europe, whether they won or lost, could only redound to the benefit of…
Anglo-French [non]-Intervention in the Spanish Civil War II
It would be false to convey the impression that only Stalin, NegrĂn, and the Spanish Communists placed their hopes of victory in the Civil War in the eventual outbreak of a European conflict, for these hopes were also entertained, as we have seen, by some leaders of the CNT. They…
Battle of Vigo Bay, (12 October 1702)
Naval battle of the 1701-1714 War of the Spanish Succession. En route back to England after an unsuccessful attempt to seize Cadiz, the Anglo-Dutch fleet under Admiral Sir George Rooke, carrying troops under command of General James Butler, Duke of Ormonde, attacked the Spanish silver fleet with its French naval…
Spain in the Thirty Years’ War
The Surrender of Breda by Velázquez, painted by order of King Philip IV of Spain, 1635, five years after the loyal Ambrosio SpĂnola died as Governor of Milan. Spinola magnanimously raises the surrendering governor of Breda. Museum of Prado, Madrid, Spain. As the Twelve Years’ Truce approached its end, it…
250th Division: Azul
Instead of a declaration of war in June 1941, Franco, at Serrano’s suggestion, offered to send a volunteer division of Spaniards to serve in the German army, a proposal accepted immediately by Nazi leaders. Spain’s initiative in this regard was unique, volunteering its soldiers before being asked by the Germans…