When the Spanish Armada Reached Ireland

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On the 22nd of July 1588, under the command of Don Alonso Perez, the Guthrman, Duke of

Medina Sedonia, and after months of delay, the 130 ships of the Great Armada left Spain.

By dawn on the 30th of July, they were leveled with formeth, and then struck sail, while

rapid intelligence was gathered about the size and readiness of the English fleet.

This was Medina Sedonia's first era, the Armada was spotted, and Admiral Howard of

Effingham, commanding the English fleet, took most of his ships around the Armada's

Seawood flank, gaining the tactical advantage of the weather gauge, the winds, always a

precondition of victory in the age of sail.

The next morning, Howard launched his attack.

It lasted two hours, but despite it, and Barr won or two skirmishes, the Armada continued

unopposed on their voyage to pick up the Duke of Palmer's army of 30,000 men in the

Netherlands and transport them to England.

But then came the second problem.

They anchored near Calais, awaiting word from Palmer that his troops were ready, but Palmer

was seriously delayed, and as they waited, sitting ducks, on the 7th of August, the English

sent in eight fireships, warships packed full of gunpowder and set a light to scatter

the Spanish fleet.

Many cut their cables, losing their primary anchors, they just about managed to regroup to

confront the naval force of England in the Battle of Gravela, withstanding the onslaught

for nine hours and resisting being forced into the shows, but they sustained heavy damage.

And when the wind shifted west, south-west, on the 9th of August, Medina Sidonia and his

council took the decision to obey the weather and sail in the direction dictated by the

wind, that is, northwards, away from the English, away from the shows, but also away from

Palmer's waiting army.

So on the 10th of August, the Armada now reduced to 110 vessels, set off north.

To head back to Spain, via the North Sea, sailing around Scotland.

On the 18th of August, they turned west to sail through the Fair Isle Channel, in The

Atlantic.

Their plan was to head past the west coast of Ireland, and home.

So when Elizabeth I gave her famous speech at Tilbury, I have the body of a weak and

feeble woman, but the heart and stomach of a king, the threat to the English had actually

passed.

But for the Spanish, it was then that the third and most devastating set of troubles began.

I'm delighted to welcome my guest, Michael B. Barry, author of 1588, The Spanish Armada,

and the 24 ships lost on island shores, to discuss what happened next.

This is the part of the story about the Armada that we don't tell, until now.

I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb, and you're listening to not just the tutors from History

Hit.

Michael B. Barry, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you very much, delighted to be with you.

I'm so pleased that we get an opportunity to look in depth at this Irish side of the

story.

But let's first of all set the scene.

So we've got these Spanish ships sailing into the Atlantic.

What were the conditions like for the sailors?

At the point where they sailed through the Ferral Channel, heading towards the Atlantic,

an unfortunate journey from their point of view because they had to go all around the

British Isles way into the Atlantic and then hopefully set down south, back towards Spain.

They were enduring frequent storms.

They had just over a week ago experienced the great battle of Gravelins where they were

battered by the English fleet.

However, the fleet was still intact, contrary to myths, the very few ships had been sunk.

At the point they were sailing into the Atlantic, this was going to be the great test for them.

This is when the majority of the losses were about to occur.

And immediately they had problems when it came to provisioning, didn't they?

There wasn't really enough food to allow them to make a journey of this kind of scale.

This hadn't been predicted.

Oh, very much so.

The whole journey around the British Isles was just a consequence of the very circumstances

after the great battle.

They had a certain amount of food.

They were very short of water as it happens.

As they were sailing up northwards past the Firth of Fourth, they were so short of water

that the Duke of Medinus, Adonia, took the decision to jettison the several hundred mules

and horses from the ships and their heart-trending stories of fishermen coming across the

poor animals, eyes bulging in the water, perishing.

Terrific, horrific idea.

Now, as they weren't around the Firth, our channel, how familiar were they with the route?

I mean, the art of navigation was well advanced in Iberia, but was this particular part of the seas well known to them?

No, and they weren't really prepared for that.

Before the Thete had departed at Lisbon, Medinus, Adonia, adorted a group of navigators

to prepare a router, which is kind of like a guide for an navigation.

And while they had a lot of detail on the coast of England, the channel, the coast of Holland,

they had some rudimentary information about Ireland,

mainly curiously enough, all based on Cape Lear, the most southwesternly point.

Soats and soot to port was 80 leagues northwest of Cape Lear and so on and so forth,

but that's all they had.

They really had very little information on North of Ireland and the west coast of Ireland.

So they're literally in uncharted waters.

And they're in ships built largely for trade in the Mediterranean or best the Baltic, not the Atlantic.

Exactly.

The Armada was a total mix of ships.

It was effectively an armed convoy.

You had the fighting ships, the galleons, and armed nows, which were pretty well-constructed

ships, providing the protection, but within that then you had the transport ships.

It really was a transport convoy, transporting soldiers and artillery and other supplies

for the invasion of England.

And yes, you had the squadron of the Levant in particular,

which proved very vulnerable.

These were merchant ships commandeered from the Mediterranean, designed for the relatively

good sailing conditions in the Mediterranean, not built for Atlantic waters.

And it's interesting, actually, that the Mediterranean end of ships, if you like,

were the ones that really suffered in the shipwrecks that followed.

So let's start to think about some of those and particular stories.

Soon after sailing through the Fair Al-Channel, four ships became separated from this fleet.

Three of them were the Grand Griffon, the Barker de Amburg, and the Castillo Negro.

What happened to these?

One of these disappeared, and nothing is known.

It's supposedly sank in the North Atlantic.

One of the ships was foundering, and the crew went on to the printed Valenceira, which

is very important in our story, and two of the ships sank.

And the Trinidad Valenceira, which was a huge, probably a grain carrier from the Mediterranean,

carrying artillery and troops, were floundering on the north coast of Donigol, very intended,

very rough coast.

And if I recall, on the 15th of September, they came close to Kinnego Bay on the north

side of the Enichon Peninsula, the Strucker Rock, and the ship was stopped there, and most

of the crew managed to make the way on shore.

And some locals started pillaging the ship.

There were about, I think, about 40 Spanish still on the ship, and then in the storms she

broke up.

I just want to say that over the course of the whole episode of the ships encountering

the Irish coast, there were continuous storms.

And one in particular, dubbed by one author as the grape gale, was a one-and-a-hundred-year

hurricane, which was absolutely ferocious.

So Spanish were utterly unlucky.

Before I just go on to what happened to the survivors of the Trinidad Valenceira, just

to say, you mentioned navigation.

Navigation was good in the north-south direction, using astrolabs to configure out where there

were north-south, but at that stage, they couldn't figure out longitude.

There had no way of figuring out longitude, tried by throwing out a bit of timber on string

by the ship to do calculations, but there had no concept of the Atlantic currents, you

know, the Gulf Stream and other currents.

And accordingly, the whole fleet, which had been ordered by the Duke of Medina Sidonia

to stay well west of Ireland, in reality, were about four or five hundred kilometers

closer to Ireland than they had anticipated.

And that was the cause of lots of their problems, because the coasts of Ireland proved fatal

to the Armada.

So they couldn't tell basically how far west or east they were, which meant they became

much closer to the Irish coast than they...

Exactly.

They were about four hundred kilometers in a general sense to the east of where they

thought they were, and thus closer to the Irish coast.

And that caused lots of the problems.

But perhaps if I go back to the Trinidad Valenceira, so I think there were five or six hundred

on board because they had taken on survivors from another ship, they heard of a castle

about 30 or 40 kilometers down at the base of the Inishon Peninsula, and they headed

for there.

They came to a castle and they set up camp near the castle.

Well, before we look at that, could you just remind us of the political situation in

Ireland?

Because we've got English rule established in the pale, the eastern part of Ireland around

Dublin.

What's the situation elsewhere?

Yes, Ireland was in, shall I say, a wild state at that.

While you had the tutor rule well established on the eastern third of the country, on the

west, you still had Gaelic lords in charge.

The tutors were trying to tame them, if you like, or gain control.

They had gained control in many areas, but in other areas, the Gaelic lords still

held sway, totally different culture, of course, to the tutor, English culture, different

way of life.

The tutors, the English were on the Kiwi, particularly in the north of the country,

in, you could say, present day, Ulster, because they were afraid of the influence of the

Scottish clans, who, you know, quite close to there.

And they were afraid that these Scots would take over the northern part of Ireland.

And accordingly, they had reached agreement with several of the Gaelic lords, including

in particular, Hioe and Il, to assign garrisons of troops nominally under the control

of those Gaelic lords, but in place to establish and maintain the outskirts, if you like,

of English rule.

So what did that mean for the Trinidad and Valencia era?

As I mentioned, they had set off for Eli Castle, which was a castle of Sir Hioe, Adorti.

But within 20 kilometers, there was another place, Berk Castle, which had a garrison of troops

who were mercenaries, a lot of them Irish, nominally reporting to Hioe and Il, who later on

is known as an Irish hero.

But in this episode, he didn't behave with much heroic.

At that time, the Gaelic lords really were looking after themselves, they had to juggle

between allegiance to the tutors and to try and maintain their own territory.

This band of mercenaries had Berk Castle heard of the arrival of the group of Spanish.

And they set off duly to intercept them, which they did.

And there was a bit of a battle, and then they had a parlay, and they Spanish agreed

to surrender on foot of that their lives would be spared.

They duly lay down their weapons, and the officers were separated, and the other ranks,

the other men were put aside, and the mercenary band duly set about to massacre the

Spanish, and they killed about three hundred, about 150 managed to flee.

They were given help by the Bishop of Derry and other sympathetic Gaelic lords, and ultimately

managed to make the way to Scotland.

Scotland, by the way, then was neutral in the dispute under the Protestant James, well,

eventually became the first of England.

The officers who had been separated were then sent down to draw out a prison where they

were kept for some time before ultimately being ran, somebody say, officers, a new ability

were worth something they could, the man Gnone, they could be ransom.

So already we're talking about a horrific response in terms of this massacre of so many

men, others fleeing, hoping for safety, those some being ransomed.

An important man in the story in Ireland is Sir Richard Bingham.

Tell us about him and his life experience, and how he might have expected it would shape

his response, and how it did.

Yes.

When news came of the first Armada Choprax in Ireland, the Lord deputy, the men in charge,

in Dublin issued a decree that all Spanish would be executed.

They had a very light amount of English troops in Ireland, and there were, there was scared

naturally that the Spanish would ally with the Gaelic Lords and rise up against them.

Now the Tudor regime had instituted presidencies in various places, down in Munster and in

Conoct.

And this Sir Richard Bingham, who was, if you like, a typical Elizabethan adventure had

been appointed as president of Conoct, and he had quite a bloody reputation, he had been

soldiering for all his life, he had fought against the Scots, he had fought on the Spanish

side, funnily enough, because there were changing loils, as you know.

In the Battle of San Quentin, he had fought for the Dutch rebels in Netherlands.

He had taken place, taken part as a Navy captain in the events in Smerik in 1580 against

the Papal Force, which had been sent to Kondakary.

But anyway, at this stage, he was president of Conoct, and he in turn issued a decree that

anybody would have to hand over any Spanish survivors, and they'd four hours do that under

pain of that.

So over his time, all over the West Ireland and Conoamara, Mayo, when the various Spanish

ships were shipwrecked, and some were drowned, some survivors made the way, I'm sure.

Most of them were captured by Gaelic Lords, who, crazily and under fear of death, handed

them over to the English authorities.

By the end of September, 1580, there were about 300, a little over 300, in captivity, in

Galway, prison.

And at the beginning of October, Richard Bingham traveled to Galway, and under his orders,

330 or so, or marched out to Fort Hill, just outside Galway, and they were put to the

sword.

And was there any hint of justice there, or is this just savagery?

It was just savagery.

There had been savagery before Bingham, in his position as a governor, had been engaged

over the previous years with the Irish Lords, who, when they rose up, he had been involved

in a massacre of 1,500 men, women, and children, so there were savagetines, and those

says.

And amazingly, and last will and testament survives from one of the men executed at Galway.

Tell me about that.

That actually of the whole story of the Armada, to me, is the most poignant.

One done, Antonio de Ulo, a sandava, was one of the survivors of one of the shipwreck,

somewhere in Conomerah or Mayo.

Nothing really is known about him, but as he was being marched to Fort Hill for execution,

he managed to get a sheet of paper and scribble on it, his last test to end.

And a lot of it was banal stuff, please give him 100 dockets to my cousin Andres, and

then the rest was, please say, 20 masses from my soul and Sots and such a chapel and 30

masses and Sots and such a chapel.

And then very poignantly he ends the piece of paper in a scribble execution, it doesn't

hurt me any more time.

And that was it.

Curiously enough, that bit of paper survived and got its way back to Spain in the following

year.

And at the time they thought this man was from Zamora in the north of Spain.

And the document was lodged in the Spanish National Archives in Semancas, where it still

is.

But a Spanish historian, Pedro Centillo, did some research on this and from the chapels

mentioned he deduced that the man was actually from Córdoba.

And accordingly, in April 2024, a series of five masses were organized in the Church

of Santa Gostín in Córdoba for the soul of this poor individual.

Now myself and my wife for privilege actually, we attended the last mass of that series.

But again, highly poignant to see the wishes of this poor man, centuries after his savage

death and gore.

Yes, that's very moving.

Another survivor from whom we hear is the captain, Francisco de Coenar.

He had been captain of the Don Pedro and then condemned to death for not obeying the

Duke of Medina Sidonia's orders.

And he leaves us an account.

So tell me about why he wrote, why he proved such a good source, and how trustworthy you

think he is.

We're very lucky that Francisco de Coenar wrote that account.

He had several months of experiences in county litrimans and slago, among what he called

los salvacas, the savages, the locals.

And he eventually made his way to up near the North Anthem coast where he got a boat

to get to Scotland, the sanctuary of Scotland, has spent several months there and eventually

made his way back to the safety of Spanish flanders.

But on his return there, he wrote a letter of 20 pages, recounting his wild adventures

to some aristocratic friend of his, but it's a great account.

It may or may not be totally accurate, he probably pipes up his own bravery and so on,

but still it's quite apart from the account of the aftermath of the Armada and his survival

through slago and litrim, it's also an account of the local situation and the lives of the

local people as well in that area.

He's certain he had such an adventure.

And he caused some savages, as you've pointed out, which we might think, you know, as problematic

as a term.

It does feel rather justified by their behaviour on the other hand, perhaps it might be used

which were just a second to think about the perspective of the Irish who found these

ships washing up on their shores, because he's on one of the ships that runs around north

of slago, you know, what must it have meant for the local inhabitants?

Galic life at that time was totally absolutely different from the mercantile life in England

or on the continent at that time.

The Galic Lords had a very rich culture of poetry and law, but it was totally different,

but then the ordinary people would be living a very basic life, herding cattle dressed

in rough garb, totally different from what we would see in the engravings of the tutors

and so on.

And Decoiler was right in one sense that when the Spanish survivors were washed ashore

on the beach at St. Neurslago, the locals set two on them and stole their clothes, their

jewels, their weapons and so on, truly its savage behaviour.

But then, of course, later on as Decoiler made his journey, he escaped from the beach.

The local English garrison in Slago galloped out and slaughtered about nearly 200 of the

Spanish survivors.

Decoiler managed to escape and at various stages he was set upon by the locals and robbed,

but in other cases he was met with kindness and looked after.

He had an extraordinary experience when he came to Metlancy, a chief and was put up at his

castle at Rosclar in the middle of an island, Locke Melvin and looked on with kindness.

When the Lord Deppity came with a sweep out of Dublin to the west of Ireland to round

up any armada survivors, Metlancy, the chief, and decided to decamp to the nearby mountains.

But he left Decoiler behind with eight other Spanish survivors and according to Decoiler,

he and those survivors managed to fend off an English army who were on the shores of

the lake.

Now, they probably did fend off maybe a scouting party but who knows?

When Decoiler came back afterwards, he was so overcome with gratitude to Decoiler

that he offered his sister in marriage to Decoiler but declined and slipped off one night

and managed to get to the north on our shores and in turn get his boat to Scotland.

And Decoiler also had an eye for the ladies, he in much of his account he noted there

even though the dress in rough clothes that they were beauties.

So there is everything in Decoiler's account, adventure, slaughter, savages and touch of

romance, perhaps.

Meanwhile, there were other shipwrecks happening off the coast.

We've got examples like ship called Grand Green, off Clare Island, County Mayo or the

hospital ship, San Pedro El Mayor blown towards the Irish coast.

What was the fate of these?

Well, the Grand Green, there was so many of them, I think this was one smashed against the

Clare Island where on the Clare Island that was part of the domain of Grony of Whale who

was the pirate queen.

Now it so happened she wasn't there on the island at that time but her one of her subordinates,

he just slaughtered I think 80 of the survivors, I think the rest of them were then handed

over to the English authorities.

The San Pedro El Mayor I think was the ship that was also blown into Blacksod Bay shelter

there from the weather for a while and then they set off down to Spain and always well but

then another storm and they were blown back north and they were shipwrecked in Hopecove

and Devon and I think most of the crews survived but they were taken into captivity and this

illustrates the one difference between the situation in Ireland and in England now in

England there were two captured ships during the channel battles and this San Pedro El

Mayor the people captured as they made the way ashore but all of these were ransomed none

of them were slaughtered yet in Ireland, totally different brutal regime any of the survivors

that were caught or slaughtered, other than a few who were ransomed.

One example of genuine gale at hospitality seems to come with the Gerona, the Italian Galleas

that found shot her and sought repair and received help.

People may have heard of this one of course because it was subsequently found in the 1960s.

So tell us the story and what happened here.

The Gerona is an amazing story.

The backstory is there were a series of shipwrecks one of the leading Spanish army commanders

was in charge of La Rata, he was so prominent that King Philip had issued sealed orders that

in the event of the Duke of Medina Sidonia's death, Delaver was to be the leader of the

hermatic expedition.

In any case it ran ashore in Blacksod Bay they all all the men got off the ship.

They heard of another ship further up in Blacksod Bay, the Ducasa Santana, they made

their way up to the ship, they got on it, it sailed north towards Scotland, easier, shorter

distance than of course come back to Spain.

That was shipwrecked in La Crosby in Donegal, they all got off safe.

And then they heard of this ship down to the south in Kilibagus Harbor.

The Gerona was a hybrid ship, curious kind of ship, it was mixture of a galley with the

nominal crew would be about 180 roars but it had sails so it could operate with the wind

or useful in battle using roars.

The perennial problem of the galley asses were the rotters, curve rotters, they all

was failed, the rotters were being repaired.

And Delaver shipwrecked in La Crosby and many hundreds now marched down to Kilibagus

Harbor and got on the Gerona which been repaired on the 26th of October 1588, set out again

headed for Scotland far easier than sailing down to Spain.

They passed the Giants Causeway in the north coast on the 28th of October, storm blew

up, the rudder failed and a few kilometers on, they were impaled on the sharp point of

her nasty reef called La Cata Point, ship went down straight away, all aboard all of the

over 1200 people board were drawn, I think figures vary, there were five to nine survivors.

This actually is the worst shipwreck in Irish maritime history up to the time of the

Lusitania in I think 1915 and about the same amount of people were drowned.

The Gerona is significant in the sense that as you say it was, its location was discovered

in the 60s and for excavations and they found a horde of things, quite apart from the

usual cannons and art of acts and wheels of the territory detachments.

I had mentioned Delaver, the illustrious army commander, in his wake he had about 15

young noblemen who were going just for the glory of war.

They fully expected that when the Armada reached Margett within a week they'd be parading

in their finery down the streets of London, but anyway they had brought their jewels with

them and there was a fabulous horde of jewels such as salamanders with rubies across of

Santiago, lapis lazuli, brotches and these are all known to be seen in the Austro Museum

and Belfast.

In my experience the exhibition on the Armada in the Austro Museum has the best Armada

exhibition in the world, it's really absolutely fabulous to see this.

I must go and see it and actually I was struck by the photographs in your book which make

it clear that you went to the locations of these shipwracks.

How helpful was it to do that?

Oh it brings it home to you and you can really appreciate it.

By the way I spent seven years on this and I do spend several months of a year in Spain

and I did travel of course to San Lucre de Baramada, the palace on the Duke of Medina Setonia

was at Lisbon of course and then Corania and one significant trip I did in Spain was to

go near San Sebastián to a place called Pesaya where the shipbuilding museum were in the

course of constructing a real life replica of a 1550 now merchant ship and it gave me

some understanding of the techniques and the wood and so on that they use because in

the overall sense of things 128 Spanish ships set out from Corania in July 1588 and 91 came

back that's around two thirds and it's a tribute to the ships built on the north coast of

Spain that the quality and that they were able to stand up to the cannon fire first and

then to the unimaginable storms and the Atlantic on the way back.

In Ireland yes I visited many of the places, Kinego Bay and Blacksode Bay and Clare Island

and so on.

Usually I had mentioned at the very beginning that a rudder was mentioned Cape Clare near

actually not too far from where I was brought up it's an island the most southern-estly point of

Ireland mentioned in not just in the Rotter but in all of the Spanish dispatches that when they

hit Ireland they claimed that they were just off of Cape Clare but in reality no Spanish ship went

near it.

Now we know that there were also shipwrecks in County Clare and also of course in Cary. In County

Clare we've got the sheriff an extraordinary name Boetheus Clancy to keep to Bingham's strategy.

He was a minor official he was Irish but he had thrown his lot in with the English administration

he was a man on the make. I think he was a member of parliament for Clare as well and yes when he

certainly kept to orders because I think of the two ships which were shipwrecked off the

coast of Clare one of which which I'll mention in a minute there were about 80 survivors and

eventually they were marked to a hill now known as Konakma Krokura which in Irish means the

hill of the hanged and they were hanged and buried close by there however nobody

various legends are that it's here or there but they never have really established where this is

but just as you mentioned the ships of Clare just mentioned one one was shipwrecked off

at the white strand near Dune Bag in County Clare and the odd thing is that Dune Bag is where Donald

Trunks Golf Resort is and I remember climbing up on the sand dunes and standing next to the

13T taking my photographs of the white strand and where one of the Spanish ships went up.

I don't think the Donald knows about this. Clancy kept a souvenir didn't he apparently

of the Armada? Yes. I mean this is kind of extraordinary you know all the people killed but let's

make the most of what's left out of it. Well I think souvenirs of the Armada were a big thing

I believe there are a lot in Britain and somebody said there are more souvenirs than they could have

you know timber bits of timber and so on that you could have all of ours but anyway there is

this Armada table it's a fine looking table which apparently is made from the mahogany found

on the Spanish ships and it was sold in auction about three years ago for is that a third of a million

euro extraordinary and down in Kerry east of Charlie there were there's an English couple

so Edward and Lady Margaret Denny you write about why did they implement the sort of local policy

it was such particular enthusiasm first of all for Edward Denny was an adventure he had I think he

had an induction the usual run of piracy and then Ireland was like the two-ter-while west for

adventures you know men on the make they could make a lot of money there had been the massacre

in Smerik which is again I had mentioned the papal force which had set up unwisely on the

prominent tree on the Dingle Peninsula and they were surrounded and they surrendered and then

the 600 of them were massacred Denny was one of those as one of the rewards for his deciduous

work he got land after the Desmond rebellion the land was broken up the land was seized and large

chunks of lands were handed over in plantation in other words an undertaker would take over a big

amount of land and then he'd subdivide it up to settlers who would give him rent and so on so

Denny was a big landowner around Trilene and when it was a relatively small

Spanish tender and Nuestra Senor del Socorro came into a little inlet called Barra Harbor

there were only 30 aboard the surrender but Denny was away on some disputing cork and his wife

arranged that after the surrender arranged that they'd be killed I think one of the excuses was

that there was no way to secure them or get them in captivity. We have another interesting

testimony that comes out from interrogations in Kerry a Genoese youth called Giovanni Manona

you right he discloses a fascinating fact can you tell me about his testimony?

Yes just to explain that another group of ships came into Blasket Sound at the end of the

Dingle Peninsula and again in the in the Great Storm the Great Hurricane of the 21st of September

then Nuestra Senorri the Rosario was swept against a wreath called the Stromboli wreath named

after an English naval ship laterally struck the wreath all were drowned except two survivors

who swept the shore who were ultimately like all the survivors or slaughtered but this was a young

Genoese youth who you can imagine was as he was being interrogated was scared out of his out of his

wits and he was trying to tell stories to his captors that he would that would engage them and

keep their interests such as that there was a big chest of money on board but probably the

most intriguing tale of the entire Armada episode is he claimed that the Prince of Askely who at

that time around Europe was reputed to be the illegitimate son of Philip II King of Spain now

whether it's true or not is another story that he had come aboard at in the maneuvers at

Gravelines on their ship the Santa Maria de la Rosa and that he had gone down and this was

like today anything about the Royal royalty is sensational and use this report went back to London

and the Lord Chancellor Lord Burgley scribbled on on the report the King of Spain's bastard on it

but anyway there is a local legend in Dingo stating that the King of Spain's son is buried there

and up on the slopes of Mount Eagle the great mountain looking out over a glass could

stand in a field there is what probably is a neolithic song standing up it's known as

John Paul Vora which is the temple of you know a millennia old Celtic saint I guess but that

particular point is called Wague on Spanock the grave of the Spaniard and legend has it it's the

King of Spain's son buried there but unfortunately while it's a great story it's not true because the

Prince of Askley in actual fact as a Tessibo records was involved in the confusion when the

fire ships went in Calais and the ships were dashing around he had been sent off to alert

other ships to slip their anchors and he was left behind and he he went to short Calais and

eventually ended up in the with the Duke of Parma in the Spanish flanders which he told the story

in a letter to King Philip to put two weeks later which kind of gives a hint that he really meant

something to Philip but anyway it's a great story but unfortunately the son of the King of Spain

is not is not buried down here doing queen on the dinkle peninsula oh well we do have to bring some

truth to the stories of the past so let's try and reach some conclusions because this is mostly

a story of wholesale slaughter in Ireland of those who are you know survivors from shipwrecks

as you've said this doesn't happen in England and it doesn't happen in their their lands so can

we think a little bit more about how to make sense of it and why the instructions are followed

so closely and what happens to those who do otherwise those who try and help some of the Armada

the Gellic Chieftains who are even the the bishops the bit particularly the bishop Jerry who did

show kindness to the survivors they came to a bad end the metlancy and a few others were captured

and you know a few years later were killed the bishop of dairy was killed as well one of them

ended up in the Tower of London so it didn't end well for them another legacy if I may

say is that one one here is everywhere of the black Irish and the west coast of Ireland a lot of

people have dark hair salo complexions I can't believe it or not I once was one of those the allegation

is that the there were descendants of the Spanish soldiers sailors from the Spanish

but it's there are other reasons for it but it's this predictor myth is not true the poor devils

were those that got away were lurking in the in the mountains and the forests and they had

other things on their mind and cavorting with the collines there are reasons for it you know

there had been centuries of Spanish fishing off the coast of Ireland that had been trade

between Spain and Ireland and the DNA of the Irish has about 20% connection with those in

northern Spain but that that is for reasons of but for millennia before but no there was

the dark hair d'arish are not begotten by the sailors of the Spanish armada you can understand why

you'd rather say that you were descended from a soldier or sailor who was an armada survivor

than a fisherman though I understand why the rumor has started and but the bottom line is this

that's not credible because of the number lost in Ireland so of all of the estimated losses of the

armada how significant are the deaths in Ireland to that number extremely significant figures are

varied for the total losses in the armada but the latest figure have come across it but just

under 10,000 fatalities of the 28,000 personnel if you like of the armada soldiers and sailors and

of that just under 10,000 one estimate is that about 5,250 of those were either

drowned or slaughtered in around the slaughtered element has been given as 1,500 men.

Well it's a sobering thought and these stories are sobering but I'm very grateful to you

and fellow historians for delving into the individual experiences of these ships and the men on

board them. There has built up quite a tradition now all across the west coast and north of

Ireland tradition of commemoration of the armada survivors in northern Ireland near where the

Gerona went down that they have commemorations there they have commemorations and then Donegal

and the big one is in Slago where every year on the around the 22nd of September they commemorate

three ships which were shipwrecked there. The Spanish armada Ireland have

a march to the beach, street a beach and they in recent years have placed a thousand crosses

on the beach again very poignant and it's supported by the Spanish government, a Spanish navy ship

docks and there is a Spanish navy contingent and a band and various admirals attend that and I

just recall what the Spanish ambassador to Ireland said when he launched my book in Dublin

year and a half ago he said that while the Spanish armada had been in Spain a sad thing of

tragedy to some degree now it's shaping up that in Ireland this tragedy is a good thing it's

a means of bringing Irish local communities together with Spain and it brings harmony between

two countries so I thought that was a very profound statement but it's very good that some good

has come out of this awful tragedy because it feels like it does some sort of level of justice

to at least know the stories thank you so much for coming on thank you very much

thank you for listening to this episode of not just the tutors from history hit thank you also

to my researcher Max Wintel my producer Rob Weinberg and to Amy Hado who edited this episode

we are always eager to hear from you including receiving your brilliant ideas for subjects we can cover

so do drop us a line and not just the tutors at historyhit.com and I look forward to joining you again

for another episode next time on not just the tutors from history hit