How much Portuguese was the 'Spanish Armada'? Do we know how many of the 136 ships were actually Portuguese?

by Couve_do_Lidl

I've always read that one of the most impactful outcomes of the Iberian Union for Portugal was the near absolute destruction of the Portuguese Navy, pressed into service under Spain, and that the Spanish Armada actually departed from Lisbon to England (and was very much dependent on Portuguese logistics and resources). But I've never read anything quantifiable.

How many of the Armada ships were buit by Portugal? And what about the sailors? Do we know what percentage of them were Portuguese?

Thanks

terminus-trantor

I'll start with listing some accessible sources, first of which is - and don't be shocked - this very detailed wikipedia page Listing the ships of Spanish Armada. I find most of it corroborated with data in other works and reliable. In addendum of this list i provide this more scholarly - yet free to access - article Lisbon and the Gran Armada which actually focuses a lot on exactly your interest of Portuguese involvement in the Armada. This one as well. From less accessible works, you can't go wrong with The Spanish Armada by Colin Martin and Geoffrey Parker, and Michael Lewis Armada guns is also a good take, although lesser parts touch the Portuguese involvement. There is some discrepancies, as for example Martin and Parkers book puts many of the Portuguese galleons as built in Cantabria, but am not sure why as most of the other literature specifically mentions them being Portuguese built.

The main takeaway is that while the entire fleet consisted of circa 130 ships of various type, the fighting core was circa 20-something galleons which were the only real warships. The rest were either naus/carracks which were large and formidable but not real fighting ships like galleons; and some galleys and galleasses - typical for Mediterranean but proved to be of little use in the campaign. There were lastly a number of smaller caravels, zebras and other support ships, again of limited use.

Of the twenty-ish galleons, almost half - either 8 or 9 (depending where São Bernardo was built) were Portuguese, and most were of recent built so basically state of the art of Iberian shipbuilding. More so, these warships were larger and with more guns then their Castillian counterparts, which is why for example Portuguese São Martinho was chosen to be the flagship. When engaged they were in the thick of the fighting, and preformed relatively well - as far as it was possible. Three were lost in the entire campaign, and the rest limped home where some where further destroyed during the continuation of the war. It is usually by this contribution of the galleon core that the Armada is associated strongly with the Portuguese (although again, Portuguese also added galleys and caravels)

For the rest of the data, it's harder for me to say as I didn't really look for it. Perhaps there is such a thing somewhere but usually you won't find list of sailors sorted by ethnicity. The fleet did assemble in Lisbon, which isn't that strange as Lisbon was probably the best place for it in the entire peninsula. It is a great harbor actually, with good defenses, and is a large city which for some time now has been supplying large (although not Armada large) fleets for Carreira de India and had lots of supporting industry already in place. In contrast Cadiz was a smaller and vulnerable port, while Seville - of relatively similar size as Lisbon was on a river much inland and was heavily hampered by the Sanlucar bar at the entry which limited size of ships able to go upriver and actually reach Seville itself.

This all being said, the Armada really was a Spanish international endeavor, with many of the supporting merchant ships being sourced from Italy and elsewhere in the Mediterrenean. From as well as many of the supplies such as food, wine, were sourced. Portuguese squadron of galleons was one of the two cores of this force (other being Castillian), also the one due to size and strength of the ships (and having the flagship itself) perheps considered primary, although I wouldn't necessarily agree. All in all, Armada was unthinkable without Portuguese participation, but I think considering it 'mainly Portuguese' or something in that fashion would be too much