The Spanish Armada

Institute of Catholic Culture · Feb 28, 2009 · 1h

Americans know the defeat of the Spanish Armada as the victory of the heroic Francis Drake and the sailors of a nascent navy standing up to and defeating the superior forces of the great sea power of Spain, determined to arrest religious and economic freedom, with vessels laden with the torture devices of the Spanish Inquisition. The reality is that Drake, the son of a heretic preacher, was a pirate whose resume included looting and burning Catholic convents on the Spanish Main and putting before a firing squad priests who admonished him for his behavior. Worse, the queen for whom he worked…