The episode of the Invincible Armada is one of the most famous and, at the same time, one of the saddest in the history of Spain. An entire fleet of ships from a country that was among the great global military powers and that ended in a fiasco because of the weather. Since we were little we have heard that the term «Invincible Army » was an English invention created to laugh at our failure. Is this statement true?
The controversy is knocking at the door. The Armada of 1588 never had any of the names by which it is known in Spain. No, it was not called "Great and Happy Navy “, nor “Company of England «, nor «Invincible Armada ", not even "Great Army «. The author of Armadainvencible.org, Pedro Luis Chinchilla , he has hit the table to dismantle centuries of falsehoods.
The myth of the Invincible Armada is broken
The creator of this website specializing in the study and dissemination of the Armada of 1588 has recently published the result of a thorough investigation. Thanks to her, he has managed to dismantle practically all the clichés and false beliefs that have been established and promulgated for more than four centuries around this fragment of our history. And the first and most important step he has taken has been to deny the existence of the English concept of the "Invincible Armada" as a mockery of the Spanish . During the last three decades, at least, this argument was always used against the English population of the time, who used this term with a contemptuous tone to label the disaster of the end of the 16th century. But nothing is further from reality.
With an enormous historical base and extensive bibliography, Chinchilla has shown that the origin of this concept does not come from English territory. It wasn't William Cecil (1520-1598), Baron de Burghley , adviser and right hand of Isabel I, until now linked to the term, who used it in the first place. Really, taking advantage of an innocent English phrase, it was the Italian calligrapher Petruccio Ubaldini the one who began to move the machinery of mockery towards this fleet with the concept of «Invincible Armada». He was looking for ridicule, which is why he promoted the use of said denomination.
William Cecil, Baron Burghley
The most interesting thing about the study, in addition to demonstrating the true origin of this name, is that it also shows that the English hardly used it at the time . Its use was merely anecdotal, although in other territories it was promoted to tarnish the image of the country and its maritime forces. So much so, that currently it is not even a known concept in the country, its use has practically disappeared completely from the first moment, despite the fact that the event was very important for its future.
So, how was the concept of the Invincible Armada promoted?
The author's research points directly to our country. Moving back in time to the 19th and 20th centuries, we begin to see the popularization of this term. Inherited from the remains of the Italian author, it was Fernández Duro who began to reuse the term again in his different publications. Thus, little by little the concept regained inertia in our territory, although it would be in the 20th century when it would become more popular, since Herrera Oria ended up giving him the definitive boost in this country. From that moment on, the concept of the Invincible Armada remained and has remained in Spain.
As Chinchilla well illustrates in his very complete investigation, all the academic denominations that have been trying to name the Armada of 1588 in our country have been inadequate, and continue to be so. In fact, the author proposes some much more precise and adequate alternatives for the real name that he could have at that time. Despite the fact that numerous institutions have also avoided the name "Invincible Army" in their documents, the other options followed have also turned out to be wrong. In this way, the origin of everything comes from the Italian author who reinterpreted an expression to adapt it to his own style . That was a fuse that would finally run into gunpowder in the last two centuries, and by the hand of two authors of Spanish origin. It is curious to see how, over time, we ourselves have been the ones who have rewritten part of our history to change the narrative and, in one way or another, try to impoverish the image of both the English and ourselves.
The publication of the Chinchilla study aims to raise quite a few blisters at different levels. Although his mission is nothing more than to illustrate the reality behind the history and the true name of the Armada of 1588. You can read the result of this research here, highly recommended reading for those most curious about the history of our country.