Fighting another battle of the Spanish Armada
A set of rare drawings from 1588 will be lost to the nation unless £500,000 can be found, says Joe Shute
These 10 maps are a record of what happened – they are of vital historical import
Beautifully drawn in ink and watercolour, they are 10 maps that tell the story of one of the greatest episodes in British history. From the first sighting of the Spanish Armada off the Lizard Peninsula on July 29 1588, to the denouement at the Battle of Gravelines a few days later, in which the supposed Invincible Fleet was scattered to the wind in a victory that established England as the world’s dominant naval power.
These 10 maps, created in the immediate aftermath of the victory by an unknown artist with the probable involvement of Robert Adams, Queen Elizabeth I’s cartographer, are the only surviving contemporary drawings of the battle and possibly accompanied the official report to the Tudor monarch, delivered by Charles Howard Effingham, Lord High Admiral and Commander of the English forces. Each one depicts key moments as the fleets engaged in skirmishes along the Channel: Sir Francis Drake’s capture of the Spanish flagship Nuestra Señora del Rosario, a galleon laden with treasure and munitions; the fighting between the Isle of Wight and Portland Bill; and the moment when the English commanders launched eight fireships packed with tar and explosives into the anchored Spanish fleet off the coast of Calais.
Nearly 450 years on, and a new battle is now waging ging over the maps that tell this incredible edible story. For, despite their central tral importance to the nation, in a matter of months they could be lost to Britain for good. They have moved d between various private buyers over ver the centuries. Previously owned d by Sir Roger Wilbraham, the Whig MP and antiquarian, they y were sold at Sotheby’s in 1899 9 to a bookseller, J Pearson and Co, , for £30. In 1903, the maps were bought by William Waldorf Astor for r £90.
Described at the he time as the richest man in n America, Astor had moved d permanently to England in 1890 with his
$100 million fortune. In the year he purchased the maps he also took ownership of Hever Castle in Kent, once home to Anne Boleyn, the mother of Elizabeth I, which he spent years refurbishing at great expense. The maps were kept in immaculate condition, if away from the public eye, but at least they remained on English soil in the possession of the Astor family (which includes Samantha Cameron, stepdaughter of William Waldorf Astor III, 4th Viscount Astor). However, the family has put them up for sale. Earlier this year, th they were acquired by an unnamed un buyer in the US, d described to The Daily Tele Telegraph as a collector on America’s west coast. In July, Caroline D Dinenage, the culture m minister, placed a th three-month export b ban on the sale in the h hope a UK gallery or ins institution might step forw forward to rescue the maps maps. At the time, she said: “These incredibly rare drawings are a very important part of the story of our nation, and I hope hope, even in these challenging times, that a buyer can be found so they can be enjoyed by the public for generations.” Despite her plea, the funding black hole in our major cultural institutions created by the Covid-19 pandemic meant none of the more established names has been able to commit.
Now, in a valiant effort worthy of the naval commanders who took on the might of the Spanish Armada (so vast, it supposedly measured seven miles across), the National Museum of the Royal Navy is trying to raise £600,000 before Jan 9 – the deadline at which point the maps will go overseas.
“We thought somebody ought to do it, and that somebody could sensibly be us,” says Dominic Tweddle, director general of the museum based at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. “The Armada is one of the greatest naval stories of the past half-millennium. Of course, it is a very well-known story to most people, but what they don’t realise is there is this series of 10 maps, which show the whole thing.”
Mr Tweddle has been to view the maps, kept in the archives of the London bookseller Daniel Crouch. He describes them as “astonishing”. They are so carefully illustrated that they even depict some of the Spanish sailors throwing themselves off their burning ships. “The level of detail is extraordinary,” he says. He has been director-general of the museum for more than a decade but admits the existence of the maps had been largely forgotten before they were put up for sale this year.
Their initial production, however, caused quite a stir. Historians believe the drawings were most likely done by an artist from the lowland countries of northern Europe who, at the time, were the most skilled in this precise type of illustration.
Andrew Lambert, professor of naval history at King’s College London, who has advised the museum on the purchase of the maps, says Robert Adams would have been “almost certainly involved” in their production.
The maps are believed to be either preparatory sketches for Adams and August Ryther’s engravings, Expeditionis Hispanorum in Angliam
Vera Descriptio, published in 1590, or the illustrations to accompany a now-lost manuscript dispatch of the campaign.
“These maps are the record of what happened,” Prof Lambert says. “This is one of the first serious attempts to get a grip on a naval battle and make it comprehensible to those who weren’t there; a way of understanding how this long and complex campaign unfolds day by day as it moves up the Channel.”
Their historical significance, he says, cannot be overstated. “This was the beginning of the Royal Navy as we know it now – a national force of outstanding quality, which would define Britain’s relationship with the rest of the world.”
They also inspired the series of 10 tapestries commissioned by Lord Howard of Effingham in the aftermath of the victory. Each was 14ft by 28ft, depicting the battle scenes and woven with gold and silver thread. After being hung in his London residence, the tapestries were later transferred to the House of Lords, where they surrounded the main chamber.
In 1834, they were destroyed when the old Palace of Westminster was engulfed by fire. It took until 2010 for them to be recreated as paintings, which today hang in the Lords following a fundraising campaign.
Now a similar rallying cry is being echoed to save the drawings. The National Museum of the Royal Navy has committed its entire annual purchasing budget of £100,000 towards the sale, but still requires a further £500,000.
Dominic Tweddle says they hope the Art Fund and National Heritage Memorial Fund might stump up some cash, but other donations will also be required. Should they manage to secure ownership of the maps, he says, they will be taken around the country on a nationwide tour.
The odds are against them – but the history of the Armada woven into our national psyche is that it was ever thus.
“It’s a tough backdrop for fundraising,” he says. “But, for goodness’ sake, we have to try.”