Book Description
Back by popular demand, this dramatic appraisal of the Spanish Navy and its defeat by the British at Trafalgar in 1805 disproves many long-held beliefs about the competence of the Spanish fleet. The author examines the factors that shaped the development of the Spanish Navy in the eighteenth century and maintains that the well-built ships and skilled forces were nowhere near as ineffective as they are usually represented. The book includes specifics of Spanish warship design and construction and is illustrated with beautiful contemporary plans, engravings, and photographs of ship models, some in full color. 208 pages. 120 illustrations. Hardcover. 8 x 10 1/2 inches.
Customer Reviews:
A good break from Anglocentric Naval Historians .......2005-06-09
Author John Harbron's book is a nice relief from the all long line of Anglocentric Naval historians that like to downplay the accomplishments of the Spanish and, to a lesser extent, French navies in the 1700s. The Spanish Royal Navy did a fine job in the 18th century given the fact that they were outgunned and outmanned and could rarely coordinate effectively with their French naval counterparts in their battles against the British Royal Navy. The results speak for themselves. During the 18th century Spain was able to successfully maintain her vast American empire vitually intact despite contant British Royal Navy attacks. It was only when revolutionary movements in her American empire that Spain lost most of her territories and not because of British actions.
John Hebron's book articulate accomplishments of great Spanish commanders like Blas De Lezo and Bernardo Galvez who had a consistant record of defeating British foes. Facts that are rarely mentioned or glossed over in English language history texts.
Excellent topic, but not followed through.......2001-07-27
While the author has made the point that there were many fine officers in the Spanish Navy, and that there were many excellent ships, the facts indicate that this combination was never capitalised upon, and the result was invariably disasterous. The best of leaders can only do so much with what they are given, and in the case of Spain, this meant far too few seamen, far too much influence by the Army, far too little training for crews, and some of the worst treatment imaginable. There is no point in building enormous warships if they cannot be effectively manned! Further, it is well-documented that ships of the line of the Spanish navy, although enormous in size, were laughably undergunned compared to their contemporaries. This is not made clear in this book. That said, it would also be of enormous benefit to view some of the plans and profiles of these ships, so as to compare them with their British and French contemporaries. Dozens of books have been written about HMS Victory and other Royal Navy ship types, but almost nothing about the ships of the other navies of the time, and even less in English! It is a great pity the author chose to use so many primitive contemporary Spanish paintings for illustration rather than something either commissioned for the book (expensive, no doubt!), or obtained with a bit more research into what is available.
Book Description
The Flanders armada, took shape in response to the use of seapower by the Dutch rebels, and evolved into the most effective unit in Spain’s defence establishment. In combination with its privateering auxiliaries, this elite striking force dominated the North Sea for some twenty years (1625–45), and campaigned also in the Mediterranean and Atlantic theatres of war. Yet its contribution to the tenacious survival of Spanish hegemony has never before been assessed. A narrative of the armada’s fighting record over the century of its meaningful existence is presented with constant reference to the strategic-logistical context and analysis of policymaking in Madrid. Attention is paid to the political significance of maritime policy, and particularly the relationship between Madrid and its subordinate headquarters in Brussels; the infrastructure of the armada; the ships themselves, above all the revolutionary but elusive â€~frigate’; the social hierarchy of crews and commanders; and details of administration and financing.
Book Description
The Confident Hope of a Miracle is a gripping account of the defeat of the Spanish Armada–the defining international event of the Elizabethan age. In 1588, determined to reclaim England for the Catholic Church, King Philip II of Spain launched a fleet of huge castle-crowned galleons that stretched for miles across the ocean. A battle-hardened Spanish Army waited in Holland, ready to crush England’s barely trained conscripts, many armed only with scythes, stakes or longbows. All that stood between Spain and victory was the English Navy. But English ships, tactics, weapons and crews were much superior to those of the Armada, and the pious and ascetic Philip’s “confident hope of a miracle” to give him victory was not fulfilled.
The story of the Spanish Armada is one of the great epics, with a cast of characters as rich and varied as any in history, with results that shaped Europe for centuries to come. Neil Hanson, the acclaimed author of The Great Fire of London and The Custom of the Sea, brings the story to vivid life, tracing the origins of the conflict from the Old World to the New, delineating the Armada campaign in rousing prose, and illuminating the lives of kings and popes, spymasters and assassins, military commanders and common sailors, and the ordinary men and women caught up in this great event when the fate of nations hung in the balance. Hanson also depicts the terrible fate that befell the seamen of both sides long after the decisive battles were over, and he takes a fresh, hard look at Elizabeth I, shaking the pedestal of “England’s greatest ever monarch.”
The Confident Hope of a Miracle is authentic and original history written with the pace and drama of a novel.
Customer Reviews:
An exciting read that occasionally runs aground.......2006-11-06
This book is mostly an exciting read. I was hooked after the first chapter, a vivid narrative of the trial and execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. Battle descriptions come alive, especially the climactic night battle that decides the campaign. Above all, the book does an excellent job of conveying how the whole event must have felt to the participants, from descriptions of shipboard conditions to the perils of night navigation and the difficulties of maintaining communication amongst hundreds of ships without modern technology. Neil Hanson's obvious talent for writing fails him occasionally, however. Describing the fate of so many Spanish ships one by one - they mostly end up shipwrecked with those onboard either drowned or imprisoned - gets repetitive after a while. Also there were too many quotations overall. While some were interesting and insightful, too many were forced in awkwardly where the author's own words would have sufficed. Naval tactics are explained well, something that Hanson apparently has previous experience writing about.
My larger gripe with this book is that it is much better at explaining what happened than why. Some explanations don't seem to hold together very well. Hanson suggests in several places that the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, was the "catalyst" for launching the Armada, but Armada preparations began almost a year before that event. Portions of the book criticize heavily both Phillip of Spain and Elizabeth of England. As an Englishman, it seems Mr. Hanson is especially concerned with debunking the mythology around the Armada and around Elizabeth, who is portrayed as vain, indecisive, and miserly. Time and again, mention is made of how her navy lacked resources. At the time, however, Spain clearly had a stronger government with a bigger budget. Even so, its own Armada suffered severely from lack of key supplies. Is it realistic to expect Elizabeth to have done much better under the circumstances? Didn't all early modern governments struggle to finance their wars? These questions don't get the attention they deserve, and it feels like Hanson judges Elizabeth's logistical failings by the higher standards of later times. The best history helps the reader see why participants made decisions that, in retrospect, seem stupid. This is something lacking in Hanson's book.
In short, this book epitomizes the strengths and weaknesses of "popular" history writing by a freelance author. It is entertaining, vivid, and definitely insightful on several points. I can't help but feel, however, that an academic author with detailed knowledge of the period would have provided more consistent explanations and less harsh judgments about Phillip and Elizabeth. If you're mostly interested in a good narrative, count this review as 4 stars instead of the 3 I'm giving it.
My second choice for the story of the Armada.......2006-01-21
In my opinion, Garret Mattingly's "Defeat of the Spanish Armada" remains the first book to read if you're interested in the story of the Armada. It's a better read than Hanson's book (I found a re-reading of Mattingly's version more entertaining than my first reading of Hanson's book) and it provides more context about what was happening in northern Europe at the time of the Armada (I found his account of the 'War of the Three Henry's' particularly intriguing). Not to disparage Hanson's book: it's definitely worth reading (I don't hesitate to give it four stars), but Mattingly's story is a classic of sound history that easily could be (and should be) turned into a screenplay.
Hanson's treatment of the Armada is a good read.......2005-10-20
This is the best and most readable single-volume treatment of the English defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 I have read. Neil Hanson's text is breezy but comprehensive, not simply covering the battles but setting the stage of European politics, religion, and military technology, particularly the revolution in English shipbuilding and gunnery.
The"Armada Year" of 1588 is one of those quintessential cleavage years in British history. In 1588, Spain was poised to come as close to world domination as any superpower since Rome; fueled by silver from the Americas, its clanking professional armies were unequaled, and wreaked genocidal terror in Flanders and Holland. This was an age of no quarter given between heretics, and had the Spanish gained a bridgehead in England, it is doubtful that the Tudors, and the Church of England, would have survived (literally) any organized campaign. The English navy, like the pilots of the Battle of Britain, were all that stood between England and the grey sweep of papist extermination.
Standard English texts such as the Oxford History tend to treat events like the Armada as a given happenstance, so Hanson's fresh look is a welcome addition to this period. Hanson manages not only to cover the essential events and foundations, but makes telling points. Most controversial of these points is his thesis that the English won in spite of, and not because of, Queen Elizabeth's leadership. Hanson is singularly critical of Queen Elizabeth, who, unlike the Bette Davis icon we are accustomed to, is portrayed as a parsimonious, grasping, selfish meddler, whose principal concern was self-aggrandizement. Worse, she infuriated allies and enemies alike by invariable waffling on major decisions. To the frustration of her admirals, Elizabeth, after inciting a war with Spain, nearly loses the war by being taken in by peace talks (a la Chamberlain in 1938) up to the point the Armada actually sails. Elizabeth also starved her fleet, counting pennies to save on shot and necessary supplies.
Some have criticized the build-up phase of the book, and the fact that the battle proper does not begin until the last third. This was essential, since Hanson effectively places the Armada as not an isolated event but part of a Europan-wide conflict involving England and Scotland, Huguenots and Catholics in France, Portugal, and the Dutch, who were fighting a war to the death with the Spanish. Indeed, until the Armada veered toward the English coast, it was in doubt whether it was intended for Britain or to smash the United Provinces. The "miracle" of the Armada campaign was not Elizabeth's Machiavellian cleverness, but the innovation of English shipbuilding toward speed and maneuverability, and tactical appreciation of long range (relatively speaking) gunnery over what had been accepted tactics of fighting soldier-on-soldier land battles between boarded ships.
Equally important are the final chapters describing the actual destruction of the Armada as it attempted to return home by rounding Scotland and Ireland. Weakened by storms and English cannon, the great ships disintegrated, casting thousands of sailors on hostile shores to be tortured and executed by English militia and local gauleiters. With a good director and special effects, this is an epic begging to be filmed.
Future editions should include a map or two to help, but otherwise the book reads like a novel.
Good but revisionist.......2005-05-29
This is a wonderful update on the Armada. The Armada was created by Phillip II in 1588 with the hopes of bringing the Catholic church back to England by the Sword. General Parma's troops were massed in the Netherlands to be floated across the channel under the tutelage of the massive Armada made up of Caravels and even Triremes. The Armada was paid for by the Pope's Gold, it was to be a great crusade. England was a backwater to some extant, and Elizabeth an untested queen, her captains like Sir Francis Drake were pirates. However the Armada failed. It fell into issues in the Channel, the weather was bad, it blew out to sea, foundered in Ireland(where later Eamon De Velera was a descendant of Catholic shipwrecked Spaniards). Elizabeth and her interesting assortment of naval commanders were made heroes. England gained a defining moment that would be replayed when she faced down both Napoleon and then Hitler across the same Channel and was miraculously saved both times.
This book retells this famous story, with whit, wisdom and in a handsomely written style. However there is one glaring problem, the need by the author to slander and revise the story of Elizabeth. Instead of the Gallant queen who claims `I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king' we are given the portrait of a selfish woman who cares only for herself, who allowed here naval seamen to starve to death after the battle and who gives no such speech. The sources for this are dubious and the revisionism is not fair to such an extraordinary women. However if true, perhaps the allegations force us to reconsider our views.
Seth J. Frantzman
Great Book that needs some maps.......2005-04-13
Confident Hope of a Miracle is a well-researched history of the attempted invasion of Britain during the time of Elizabeth the First. What is remarkable about the story is the position of Spain as world's superpower and it total failure to understand the changes that were occurring in Naval Warfare. My only criticism, not one usable map.
Customer Reviews:
Insightful and erudite but undermined by radical politics.......2005-03-24
I his three volume work Fuller, a prolific author and military historian, analyzes the development of western military science from ancient Egypt through the end of World War II using descriptions of a series of important battles linked together by short "chronicles" of the intervening years. The battles are clearly summarized and unnecessary details are avoided in favor of thoughtful and insightful analyses of the political and social impacts of military developments. The breadth of research is impressive and some of his ideas are fascinating.
On the other hand, in this the third volume as the narrative approaches the author's lifetime he begins to lose his scholarly objectivity and his personal politics show through. When we reach the Russian revolution it becomes clear that Fuller was an hysterical anti-communist. Not surprising in a western military man writing in the 1950's. Less palatable are his fascist sympathies - yes, I mean the word literally. Apparently Fuller flirted with the British fascists before WWII, and his leanings are apparent in this volume. He writes with approval of Mussolini's and Hitler's rise to power and although he does mention the Nazi's persecution of the Jews during the pre-war years he does his best to soften their image ("brutality" is the harshest word he uses), while he ignores the holocaust itself completely. At the same time he vilifies FDR (whom he seems to think was mostly responsible for the outbreak of WWII) in the harshest terms at every opportunity and is often severely critical of Churchill as well. In the end his lack of objectivity undermines the entire second half of his book.
Two examples will suffice: on pp. 372-4 he includes in full a quote from the Polish Ambassador in Washington, devoting nearly one and a half pages to it and describing it as "illuminating." The quote is packed with enough anti-Semitism that it could have come from Goebbel's Nazi propaganda machine. Second, in a footnote on page 504 Fuller characterizes the allied invasion of Vichy French territories in North Africa as "as flagrant an act of aggression against a neutral country as any perpetrated by Hitler." OK, technically it was a violation of French neutrality, but to equate it with Hitler's aggression ignores:
1) The ink was not even try on Hitler's promise to respect Czechoslovakia's borders when he invaded them.
2) Europe was at peace during the occupation of Czechoslovakia and was still at peace during the invasion of Poland.
3) The Polish and Czech governments were universally recognized internally and externally, while a large percentage of the French refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the Vichy government.
4) The Poles resisted violently, as would the Czechs if Chamberlain had not just given away their frontier defenses. The French in North Africa, after some initial hesitation, welcomed and cooperated with the allies.
5) The invasion of North Africa by the allies was a unique occurrence. In addition to Czechoslovakia and Poland, Hitler also invaded, unprovoked, neutral Denmark, Norway, Luxemburg, Belgium, and the Netherlands; not to mention the Soviet Union, with which he was supposedly allied.
And so on. To compare the allies aggression with Hitler's is absurd, and unfortunately goes a long way to destroying the author's credibility.
Great book.......2005-01-29
Fuller offers an insightful blend of battlefield detail and the broader causes and effects for each engagement presented. He avoids one of the major shortcomings I have with a lot of other military history authors: bogging the reader down in pedantic minutiae.
Much more than a Military History.......2002-03-04
Those who wish to understand not only the military history but also the underreported political undercurrents of those times will love this book and read it over and over again. By examining the failures by both military leaders and politicians in understanding the obvious lessons of their relatively recent past, they will gain valuable insights into our current condition.
Informative.......2001-05-29
This book is for the person who has a generalized understanding of the time period covered but wants to learn more. The author seems to hate Americans, though.
Good Basic Book on Western strategy.......2000-11-15
Good grounding book in strategy.
Book Description
This breakthrough book is composed of three parts - the Armada Play Basic Strategy, which is the correct play for every player hand against every dealer upcard, the Armada Ruse for maximizing comps while simultaneously reducing risk, and the Armada Money Management system. Armada Strategies for Spanish 21 is the only book devoted exclusively to this rapidly growing game.
Customer Reviews:
Looking to Play New Games? Read these!.......2001-11-11
Then Amazon is offering you the best bargain you can get. I just finished reading both of Scoblete's books, BOLD CARD PLAY and THE ARMADA STRATEGIES and they were incredible. They give the best strategies for these often casino-friendly games. Scoblete shows you how to reduce the house edge and to take advantage of the casino comping system. This is a great tandem of books for gamblers interested in reading about the "other" casino games.
Good Book.......1999-10-26
This book contains the basic strategy for this new game and a method for counting cards. It is a very good book and I recommend it to anyone who wants to play this new casino game. The writer is very good.
I'm Winning Thanks to Scoblete!.......1999-09-17
Spanish 21 is a lot more fun than regular 21 once you learn the Armada Strategies. I have been getting a monetary edge (Scoblete's term) ever since I read this book! It's wonderful to win and get no heat from the pits bosses. Thank you kindly Mr. Scoblete for writing this book.
praise for the book & game.......1999-03-29
While on a casino trip, I became interested in the new "off-shoot" of Blackjack--Spanish 21. Since it's not my style to play casino games I know little about, I turned to a gaming writer I have come to trust and enjoy reading--Frank Skoblete. I was not disappointed. Skoblete's book on Armada Strategies is fun, instructional on the game, and has given me one more weapon with which to protect my bankroll during squirmishes in casino-land. If you are a beginner--buy and study this book--it will help you play this fun new game. If you are a seasoned Blackjack player--BUY AND STUDY this book--there's a different basic strategy to Spanish 21 than regular BJ that can make a difference between winning the battle and waving the white flag!
Excellent book about this new game.......1998-10-13
Spanish 21 is a new game that the casinos have put out to beat the players. Frank's book shows you how to reverse the tables. It is a lot of fun to read and gives you a whole new basic strategy to use against this game. He also shows you how to use comps to get an edge. A really interesting and valuable book.
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