When England Fought the Armada

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 899, 26 October 1956, Page 21

When England Fought the Armada

PROGRAMME which sets out to recreate the experience of those who took part in the attempted invasion of Britain in 1558 by Philip II of Spain’s Great Armada will be heard next week (November 4) in ZB Sunday Showcase. In The Enterprise. of England, a BBC production, the story has been reconstructed by Alexander McKee from English and Spanish State papers, and from contemporary reports, letters and personal narratives. The first Armada historian, Petruccio Ubaldino, a Florentine, wrote several accounts of the campaign, based on material supplied first by Lord Howard of Effingham, the Lord Admiral of England, and then by Sir Francis Drake, the vice-admiral. But as neither could agree with the other, the final account was so unbiased that it pleased nobody and explained nothing. Eventually, at the end of the 19th century, solid evidence came to hand-the publication of the relevant State papers from the English and Spanish archives. Taken together, the English docu-/ ments, edited by Professor Laughton, and the Spanish documents, edited by . Captain Duro, tell the story

of the campaign through the eyes of friend and foe. To the accounts of Lord Howard and the Duke of Medina-Sidonia, Captain-General of the Great Armada, are added the testimony of many other witnesses-priests. prisoners, pursers, poets, fifth columnists, spies, galley slaves. In this radio presentation of the story, King Philip of Spain is played by Ralph Truman, and Sir Francis Drake by Howard Marion-Crawford.