The posthumous victory of the Invincible Armada: the Spanish tragedy that unites Ireland

«I command that nine masses be said for my soul to the clean conception of Our Lady of Santa Marina, on the altar of San Roque […]; I ask for forgiveness of all the wrongs I have done, and so I beg you to be worthy of enforcing this will. The executioner does not give me more room, “wrote Antonio de Ulloa y Sandoval, a survivor of the Invincible Armada who was beheaded a few minutes later in Galway jail, with his trembling hand. An improvised testament full of misspellings and repetitions that attests to the torment suffered by the thousands of Spaniards who ran aground on the Irish coast, but who refuse to keep quiet. The discovery of this text is one of the valuable fruits of the lengthy investigation of Pedro Luis Chinchilla, the Spaniard who knows the most about the victims of the company that Felipe II sent to the British Isles in 1588. This Murcian, who is dedicated to marketing digital, he was spiritually plugged into this story of prisoners and shipwrecked in such a sudden way that he makes a bad horseman out of Saint Paul. “There is for me a magical, esoteric component, whatever you want to call it… that I used to have and have been losing, that alerted me when I was near places that are special, that contain deposits or great stories,” explains Chinchilla, who has just finished publish ‘The prisoners of the Invincible Armada’ (Editions B). If Felipe II said, according to tradition, that “the elements” had dismasted his fleet, Chinchilla may well also blame “the elements” for taking him to the Irish coast. The researcher was touring the west of the green island when he felt a shock in the Force. “I told my wife: ‘Look, here’s something.’ We stopped the car and it seemed at first that I was wrong, that there was nothing there, but then I found a plaque on the ground almost hidden by the grass. The inscription recalled that the San Nicolás Prodanelli had been shipwrecked there. She impacted me a lot ». Related News standard No The truth about the Legion, a unity between modernity and tradition César Cervera His extravagances, such as the goat, the tight uniform or the rapid step (signal of his vocation as light infantry), are only the picturesque remnants of which is the Spanish unit most exposed to missions abroad The image of a Spanish tragedy in such a remote place did not leave his retina. As soon as he returned to Spain he began to read obsessively about the Great Armada, shook off the myths that present what was a disaster caused by the shipwrecks as a resounding English victory and since then he has not stopped returning to Ireland again and again. giving voice to those who lost it. Three decades later he has become Mr. Pedro, “great friend and benefactor” of a network of towns on the Irish coast who seek to recover that history that goes beyond the military plane. That speaks of men fleeing naked through an unknown land. From leaks that pale to that of ‘The Great Escape’. Of children grouped in a wild gang. And of a slaughter that was applied systematically throughout the island. “I have no idea why naval issues, firepower or strategy are always being discussed, but the human part of the tragedy has never been fully investigated,” explains Chinchilla after recovering the forgotten history of almost 800 people. . Two brother countries In the summer of 1588, the gigantic armada that the King of Spain sent to overthrow the English Queen proved incapable of contacting the Army of Flanders and, hardly having engaged in combat against its enemies, returned to Spain surrounding the rugged coastlines of Scotland and Ireland. It was then and not before when the disaster occurred among the exhausted and decimated crews who, moreover, carried an incomplete cartography of the coast. In the following weeks, dozens of ships were lost as a result of bad weather conditions. From the southern end of the Causeway, in Northern Ireland, to the southern end of The Brackets, in Kerry, there are twenty-six sites identified as shipwrecks. A traffic sign marks the route of Francisco de Cuéllar, a survivor of the Navy. Miguel Silvestre The shortage of English troops and the air of independence that was already being breathed in Ireland pushed the royal authorities to execute the invading forces on the spot to prevent the clans from joining forces with them. “In England or Scotland, the prisoners remained locked up but did not suffer special ill will, but in Ireland, a country without law, they suffered a systematic annihilation,” says the author of the website ArmadaInvencible.org. Ireland, which was supposedly favorable territory for the Spanish, turned out to be their worst nightmare. The English massacred them, while the locals stole their valuable clothing. The place names of the island are now full of references to macabre names such as ‘Hill of the Hanged’ or ‘Tomb of the Spaniards’ that recall the fatal outcome, although there are also mentions of survivors who saved their lives thanks to the locals and who have given rise to the popular belief that the Irish with swarthy complexions and dark eyes are descendants of those Spaniards. «There is a lot of myth loose and it is even possible that some Spanish names come from before. People tend to forget that trade between Spain and Ireland, for example in wine or oil, has been huge for centuries. We are two sister countries, “says the writer. «The Spanish and the Irish have enjoyed a close affinity that goes back to the dawn of history» As if he were a Santa Claus out of season, Chinchilla takes objects and documents related to the Navy whenever he can to the towns that honor this historical fact. These are small, isolated towns that devoutly live each new discovery and see a great tourist opportunity in this story. This is the case of Streedagh, where three large Navy ships were lost along with a thousand people. The ships remain intact under the sand, from which twelve cannons and many historical pieces have been extracted which are in the National Museum of Ireland. The locals treat the wrecks with such care that every time there is a storm, amateur divers come the next day to check that everything remains the same. Just as dead, just as alive. «The Spanish and the Irish have enjoyed a close affinity that dates back to the dawn of history. The Irish chieftains of the 16th century looked to Spain for military help in their fight against Tudor aggression and conquest. Spain was our natural ally and, in general, the Irish provided refuge and sustenance to the survivors in their efforts to return home”, claims Eddie O’Gorman, president of the Spanish Armed Ireland (SAI) association. In 2015, the inhabitants of this town carved more than a thousand crosses in the sand in tribute to the 1,100 deceased who, in the words of O’Gorman, “never had a decent burial.” Masses, tributes, monuments, exhibitions, associations… The victims of the Invincible Armada are still very much alive thanks to towns like this one and the support that Spain provides from the Navy, which sends a ship on their behalf every year, and the embassy that grants aid for holding an event every September that brings together hundreds of visitors. «I cried like a madeleine when I saw those people, some disguised as Spanish soldiers and others carrying wooden boats. I felt a tremendous affection towards Spain, a true respect towards those soldiers who evoke their own 400-year fight against the English”, explains Luis Gorrochategu i, an author specializing in the period and a good connoisseur of the community of peoples of the Invincible Armada. . Photograph provided by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage of the Republic of Ireland of the remains of one of the ships of the fleet. EFE The most important thing at a political level is that various towns in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are sewn together by this cultural fact. “We have built relationships with our friends in similar organizations all over the West Coast. We are developing strong links and this work continues all the time. Also, history is becoming a central point to teach in local schools,” explains Lorna Hanvey, one of the people who run Portballintrae Heritage, an association located in the Protestant heart of the island. No news in Spain A historic milestone took place on June 11 when an event was held in Portballintrae for the first time in honor of the prisoners of the Great Army, which included a religious service, the inauguration of a monument and a composition performed by the National Orchestra of Northern Ireland. In this Ulster town, 1,300 men of the galley La Girona died, which foundered when the mass of survivors from several ships tried to flee to Spain. It was October 28, 1588, the last recorded shipwreck in Ireland. “Due to strong surf, the ship capsized near a dangerous cliff at Lacada Point. One of the survivors, who did not speak English, was named Adam after the first man and we have followed the family trail of him in the area even today,” adds Hanvey. It seems more difficult to put a pike in England, the other leading actor in the show, which has embedded the supposed victory of Elizabeth I over the Spanish as one of its fundamental myths. However, the historiographical work of recent years has been ironing out the nationalist lies in favor of a more temperate story about a war that Spain won by points. “It is an episode that is being completely revised in England. It will be difficult for them, but I think that given the data and the investigations, they will have to revise their founding myth. It is an irreversible change”, says Gorrochategui optimistically. MORE INFORMATION news No The ‘afters’ of Alfonso XIII: the bad night in Madrid at the beginning of the 20th century news Yes Elephants, Castilians and Japanese mercenaries: the unknown Spanish conquest of Cambodia news No Catholic Monarchs: the dynasty that sealed their fate with blood to conquer the world This man from A Coruña participated in a BBC miniseries in 2020 entitled ‘Royal History’s Biggest Fibs’ (‘The biggest hoaxes in the History of the British Monarchy’), which appeared somewhat “decaffeinated” in Spain but in Great Britain it marked a turning point in the popular idea of ​​the Spanish Armada. Both the documentary and his works seem to have had a greater impact on the islands than on Spain itself. «Here we continue with the usual myths and hardly anything has changed. In Spain there is no change ».