Sunken ships and broken dreams of a completely Catholic Europe

• Philip II was the absolutist ruler of Spain
• He could have had it all, but instead Spain fell apart

Poor Philip

• He did not tolerate others’ religions and was inflexible
• Philip lived surrounded by monks-- he was a very strong Catholic
• he had a secret door in his room that allowed him to look out and see the services the monks were putting on-- this is how Philip II spent most of his time apparently

Philip II's palace

Philip II's bedchamber-- where he watched the monks (definitely not creepy)

• Philip II sent 20,000 Spanish troops under the Duke of Alva to pacify the Low Countries
• Alva understood “pacify” to mean “kill anyone who bothers you” and created his Council of Blood (on top of the Inquisition) where he killed thousands.
• The Spanish wanted to take back what was rightfully theirs-- Philip sent his nephew, Alexander Farnese to crush the rebellion in the Netherlands
• Catholicism won in the southern provinces, but not in the north-- the northern provinces led by Holland formed the Union of Utrecht and remained independent from Spain
• As we all now know from Nicole and Emilia’s wonderful chalk diagram, the northern provinces were much easier to defend because of their geographical defenses provided by canals that were used to flood out incoming forces.
• The northern provinces asked for the Protestant Queen Elizabeth to help protect them.

They used post-it notes because they didn't have email yet

• Queen Elizabeth was a pretty reasonable person
• She did not have a religious agenda, but her hand was forced
• The wars in the Low Countries affected England’s wool trade
• William the Silent’s death allowed Farnese to advance unchecked
• The fear of England being the next target unnerved Elizabeth-- she ended up pumping in 250,000 pounds and 2,000 troops into the Protestant cause in the Low countries
• Philip II was not a fan of Elizabeth and backed Mary Queen of Scot’s assassination plan
• things fell apart and Philip went for the more bold approach and sent troops into England
• The great Spanish Armada of 130 ships met 150 smaller, more maneuverable English ships in the Channel
• storms, bad food and water, and English fire ships all worked against the Spanish and in the end only around 65 ships made it back to their home ports.

Also for their destroyed ships probably

• This loss prevented Philip II from bringing down total religious unity onto Europe.

Sorry Philip, it was a good effort