Spanish armada conquers england in 1588

As for the Catholics being both numerous enough to rise and likely to actually do so--that, like Parma's frustrated conviction he could and should have prevailed in the Netherlands, is something we don't really know, but certainly there was some doubt Elizabeth could rely on all her subjects to rally to her and not a Spanish-favored candidate for the throne.

Parma might well have landed and then found that the country folk weren't going to flock to his banner after all.

But certainly Elizabeth herself is responsible for much of the retrospective view we have that English people are automatically English first and these sectarian factions second; between her and Shakespeare, the two of them did much of the work of creating English patriotism. Mattingly gives examples of how she "courted" her people into a sort of collective marriage with all of them. The Armada fiasco as it played out OTL had a lot to do with consolidating her position; had things somehow gone better for the Spanish it isn't clear how solid English resistance would have been.

The areas of plausible landing weren't areas of Catholic strength, for one thing.
 
The Spanish puppet, the French Duke of Guise, was killed on the orders of the French king once word of the Armada's defeat had arrived.


Shevek23, that's where I first read the line, it's one of the chapter headings.
 
Thoughts...

It's easy to look at this through the prism of OTL and the failure of both Napoleon and Hitler to subdue England. Barely a hundred years earlier, Elizabeth's grandfather had usurped the throne with an invasion. The myth of our impregnability is a modern tale.

Had Parma got his troops ashore, I'm convinced he would have brushed aside opposition and got to London much as William had done in 1066 after Hastings. I suspect Elizabeth would have fled though where is less certain.

Gallant notions of heroic resistance don't coincide with reality - they wouldn't have had German troops got into southern England in the autumn of 1940 - and it seems inconceivable that the bulk of the population wouldn't have acquiesced and become good Catholics. Most survived the reign of Mary and would have found the Spanish equally convincing in the field of religious conversion.

The targets for the Spanish would be the aristocrats closest to the court and the Queen. As always with occupation, the wealthy could buy their survival and it seems likely those who were out of favour with Elizabeth would find themselves in favour with Spain and with Philip II or presumably Parma as his Governor in London.

Longer term, I've never bought into the Pavanesque concept of the Holy League triumphant. The contradictions which destroyed the Spanish Empire in OTL would still have existed and the occupation and administration of England would have been another burden for Madrid to deal with.
 
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