What If the Spanish Armada Won? - Simplified | AlterHistory

The Spanish Armada lost in 1588. In this timeline, Spain takes London in 1589. Everyone knows the story: the wind changed and England was saved. But the wind only decided the size of the funeral. By the time it shifted, the Armada had already lost its anchors, its formation, and any way of reaching the army it came to collect. The moment England could really have lost happened six months earlier, in a bedroom in Lisbon. In February 1588, Álvaro de Bazán, Marquis of Santa Cruz, Spain's finest admiral and the man who had spent years planning the invasion, died weeks before the fleet was due to sail. Command went to the Duke of Medina Sidonia, who had written to Philip II to say he had no naval experience and got seasick. So here's our divergence. Santa Cruz doesn't die. He refuses to sail without a deep-water port for the Duke of Parma's army. The fireships still come and Gravelines is still lost, but the fleet holds together, and 19,000 of the best infantry in Europe land in Kent. Then winning turns out to be the expensive part. ▶️ Part 2: coming soon 📜 Covered in this video: - Philip II, Elizabeth I, and a marriage proposal Philip spent 29 years getting over - La Grande y Felicísima Armada: 130 ships and 19,000 soldiers - The Duke of Medina Sidonia, the most reluctant admiral in history - Francis Drake, the beacon fires, and the (probably invented) game of bowls - The Flanders problem: why the Armada could never reach Parma's army - The fireships at Calais and the Battle of Gravelines - The wind that blew the Armada round Scotland and Ireland - The Marquis of Santa Cruz, and the fever that changed who commanded the fleet - A Spanish army in Kent, and what happens to London - An occupation Spain can't afford, and the Protestant clergy who pay for it - What happens to a Warwickshire glover's son named William Shakespeare No destiny. No plucky underdog. Just a fever in Lisbon, six months before the wind everybody talks about. Real: the death of Santa Cruz in February 1588, Medina Sidonia's letters asking not to be given command, the Flanders rendezvous problem, the fireships at Calais, Gravelines, and Spain's repeated debt defaults. Invented: Santa Cruz surviving, and everything downstream of it. If you enjoy alternate history, animated history explainers, and Oversimplified-style storytelling, like and subscribe for more. 🎬 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@AlterHistoryOfficial Same genre as Oversimplified. Different obsession: the timelines that didn't happen. #AlternateHistory #SpanishArmada #ElizabethI #TudorHistory #HistoryAnimation #Oversimplified 0:00 An island where English is a minority language 0:26 Blame the weather 1:06 Philip II builds a fleet 1:58 The seasick duke 2:41 Drake's bowls and the fatal flaw 3:42 A week of hit-and-run 4:15 Fireships at Calais and Gravelines 5:02 The wind 5:38 The admiral who died in Lisbon 6:22 Santa Cruz lives 7:00 Spain lands in Kent 7:44 Winning becomes the problem 8:36 The occupation 9:04 War debt, and a glover's son 9:40 A fever in Lisbon 10:23 Part 2 Thank you for watching! Copyright disclaimer — We do not give anyone permission to translate and/or reupload our videos or designs on YouTube or other social media platforms. Music by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com/) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/