“I sent the Armada against men, not God’s winds and waves.” – King Philip II

The Spanish Armada was the moment England transformed into a naval superpower. When a large, seemingly invincible fleet of Spanish warships were sent by King Philip II of Spain to England in 1588 in his attempt to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I and restore Catholicism to English shores, the defeat marked not only a significant moment in English naval history but the beginning of a cultural zeitgeist. This newfound sense of confidence begotten by victory and sense of divine approval for England’s newly protestant ways, overspilt directly into one of the greatest periods English art and literature had ever known. It also deepened their hunger for exploration.

The Armada Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I often attributed to George Gower, depicts what the English perceived as the new balance of power within Europe. With its depiction of Elizabeth as a kind of virgin goddess and its more than subtle allusions to England’s burgeoning colonial ambition through the depiction of fleets, and globes where the monarch points to the Americas, and in particular to Virginia which had been named after her, little room is left for ambiguity when it comes to how England now sees itself and its future imperial ambition.

If the protestant revolution in Northern Europe had led to the creation of art which leant heavily on realism and an earthlier interpretation of the gospels, art at home exuded ‘raw power’ and an almost total belief in English exceptionalism, one that fed over into everything it did. From Shakespeare to Holbein, the mood was celebratory and one that exuded a national sense of pride.