Participation of the Ragusan-Dubrovnik Fleet

in the

Spanish "Invincible Armada" of 1588

After the conquest of Portugal in 1580, Phillip 11 was undoubtedly at the peak of his maritimepower. This success, however, did not satisfy him. He longed for even greater conquests and reconquests by which he would bring the heretic countries (Low Countries, Holland, Zealand) back to the Roman Catholic Church and assume for himself an unquestioned dominance on the Atlantic. Before achieving this, he first had to get rid of a rival who could endanger his plans. It was queen Elizabeth’s protestant England who had already clearly shown that it was aware of the danger coming from the Spanish conquerors. The English fleet was already showing the signs of improvement and reflecting the strengthening of the economic power of the land which had definitely broken away from the popist Rome.

Elizabeth herself started helping the Dutch protestants in their effort to achieve independence from Rome and the "Catholic king". All that hastened Phillips decision to invade England and thus solve two problems: that of the political (religious) and that of the maritime supremacy. Phillip had on his side a powerful ally, Pope Sixtus V, who as early as December 1585 issued a bull of support for his crusades with a promise of financial aid needed for furnishing the Spanish fleet. Events in England urged Phillip even more to carry out plans in preparation of which contributed a great part of the Catholic Europe, especially Mediterranean countries. Imprisoned Maria Stuart, Queen of Scots, wrote on May 20, 1586 a document by which she handed down her royal rights to Phillip, the "most Catholic of all the kings" of that time, and of course, a member of the same church she belonged to. Queen Mary was sentenced to death by the Parliament and executed on August 2, 1587 and this further hurried Phillip's preparations for the invasion.

To weaken English defense and to unite the Catholic world against Elizabeth, Sixtus V allowed one of his manifestos to be published in in 1588. This manifesto was, in fact, written by English cardinal Allen, who was in Phillip's service against his own people. In this manifesto there was again the Pope's excommunication of queen Elizabeth and her dethronement, while the English people was absolved from loyalty toward her. However, after the English learned about Phillip's intentions and the impending invasion, they became resolute to stand invaders, regardless of their religious adherences.

In Spain, church did everything it could to help Phillip's invasion. In churches throught Spain, the crusade against England was heartily suuported and prayers were sent to God to help the cause. After the Easter masses were served every day for the success of the Armada, which Phillip had already named "La Invincibile Armada" - the invincible Armada. In Madrid, 40 hour long prayers were ordered in 40 churches, in which even the king participated, kneeling and asking for God's help. The whole Spain was begging the Heaven to bless the huge Armada with success. The Armada was supposed to be joined in Holland by the Duke of Parma and his invasion troops, who were on the other hand suposed to occupy England after the English fleet had been destroyed by the Armada.

The commander of - the invincible Armada was Medina Sidonia, who after long hesitations on Phillip's part sailed out of the port La Coruna on July 22nd, greeted with religious zealotry of the gathered crowds. One of the English historians stated that the Armada consisted of Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, and Flemish. However, in Armada fleet there were also a number of ships from Dubrovnik, manned by sailors and captains also from Dubrovnik and flying their own fleet's ensign, as we shall see it from a very important evidence.

The Invincible Armada consisted of about 130 heavy battle ships with a remarkable number of guns and other weapons and 80000 seamen. Of those 30000, 8000 were sailors, 2000 were rowers and 19000 were sailors. This huge invasion expedition, however, encountered an unexpected destruction before it could even consider landing in England.

First, Medina Sidonia was not a match for the enemy's commanders like Sir Francis Drake (who, in a bold action a year before, entered the port of Cadiz and managed to destroy a part of the Spanish fleet, thus "singeing Phillip's beard" as he proudly described the event), Lord Howard Elfingham , the Lord Admiral. Sir MartinFrobisher, Sir John Hawkins and others..

The differnce between the two opposed fleet was also of great importance. While the Armada consisted of heavy, big warships, the English fleet was lighter and faster with a better manouvrebility and readier for fights from distance. The other difference was that on one side were the Englishmen , united in the defense of the attacked fatherland and on the Spanish side there were seamen from countries other than Spain,'who were mere mercenaries - without any national aspirations of their own. The catastrophy of the invincible Armada at Calais on the 28 of June and Gravelines on June 29 and her later complete collapse caused by the storms when she was retreating , off the Scottish and Irish shores, was an unexpected and formidable blow to the Spanish maritime power.

In September, the remaining 50 ships of the Armada managed to come back to the ports of Spain - all that remained after a terrible defeat.. Parma never even had a chance to take part in the invasion. Spanish prayers were not answered, and Elizabeth replied to the Spanish with a biblical motto on her coins: Afflavit deus et dissipati sunt.

The victory in July marked the rise of one superpower and the decline of the other. Phillip had to denounce his plans to conquer England and Rome was convinced that England was lost to Catholicism, as cardinal Allen, whose role was to restore Catholicism in England, had to admit.

G. Gelcich was the first among Croatian historians to point out that Ragusan ships participated in the Invincible Armada, and that they were also commanded by Ragusans, among which were members of the Tuhelj family. The fleet of Petar Ivelja, who later became the great admiral of Spain, consisted of 12 ships which Phillip used to call "apostles". However, neither Gelcich nor Jorjo Tadich could find out the exact number of Ragusan ships, from the materials they found in the state archives of the Republic of Dubrovnik. Gelcich knows about yet another Ragusan ship whose commander was Luka Kinkovich and which belonged to Vice Petrov and whose crew acted heroically in the war. The ship was slightly damaged and then, when it was being repaired, it was set on fire and completely destroyed. Valuable is Gelcich's testimony about a ship commanded by Ivelja’s nephew Stjepan Olisti-Tasovchich, who rescued the crew from the burning ship and was much admired and celebrated for that on his return to Spain.

Of English historians, Charles Oman is aware that many of the Armada's ships were built in Ragusa and are famous in English folksongs under the name of "argoza" argusa, Ragusa, Dubrovnik.

Lovett Edwards also knows of "Don Pietro Iveglia, Ohmucevic-Grguric's" twelve ships and also about a story which was preserved on the Scotland's island of Fair, a story of a shipwreck of a Spanish vessel manned with a Ragusan crew. That this story is true testifies the fact that the patterns on the clothes in Fair are very much alike those from Konavle, near Dubrovnik. All this evidence of the participation of Ragusan ships and seamen in the Invincible Armada is complemented to a great extent by a Ragusan document which can be found in the manuscript department of the British Museum in London. The document is entitled "Dominio, sito e costumi della Republica di Ragusa" and is a part of a remarkably voluminous codex entitiled Papeles de Dominios de Italia Manuscritos, which contains the huge and diverse correspondence between Venice and Spanish ambassadors in the first half of the seventeenth century. The manuscript which is important for Ragusan history is only a fragment, a beginning of an undoubtedly longer document and is found in the folios 997 to 1002 , i . e. on mere six and a half folios. . It appears to be an uncompleted copy of a document intended for informing the Spanish ambassador about Ragusa and her merits and favors she did to foreign countries, especially to Spain.

The writer of the document reveals genuine Ragusan and Slav feelings, which is obvious from several details (which are discussed in another book). In one place, the writer describes the power of the Ragusan war and merchant fleet, which consisted of around 100 ships and which she used to help and support the Spanish king, while in another place he points to the fact that Ragusan fleet helped Phillip II conquer Portugal (with 40 ships) and participated in the Invincible Armada with 33 big ships (folio 1000vo). These are the writer's exact words:

Both these paragraphs by the unknown Ragusan writer confirm the fact that Ragusan fleet was at the peak of its powers in the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. The results of Jorjo Tadic's research and also of V.A. Bacic who dedicated a whole book to this matter speak convincingly enough about that. The number of 100 big ships which the Ragusan writer mentions in the codex is firmly supported by the fact that Bacic came to the same figure, but from different sources. He says: The power of the Ragusan fleet (in the period of her greatest strength) was in large sail ships, carracks, "naves" and galleys and a corresponding fleet of small ships which cooperated with the fleet.

The exact strength of the Ragusan fleet cannot be established easily because it changed all the time, but it can be estimated to 50-70 big ships and 30-40 middle and small ships. A document, printed in 1728 states that there were 174 ships (war and merchant) of diverse size in the Spanish service between 1584 and 1654. The Ragusan writer can be truly trusted because he was obviously well acquainted and had the first hand knowledge of the Ragusan fleet, its strength. size and its participation in the Spanish fleet and its rise to a position of a great naval power, particularly at the time of the conqueest of Portugal. It is therefore well possible that 40 ships took part in the conquest of Portugal. This is supported by a report of the Ragusan minister Fran Gundulic to the Neapolitan deputy in 1581 where he claims that 35 Ragusan ships took part in the Spanish invasion fleet. This is also true of the second significant piece of information found in the Ragusan anonimous writer about the 33 ships which were a part of the Invincible Armada and which undoubtedly left a strong impression with its size, fighting ability and bravery of its soldiers and sailors on both the English and the Spaniards. The English maritime term Argose, Argosies about which tells the seventeenth century writer Ricaut is a support strong enough for that claim.

Surprising is the fact that although this conquests and wars were very important for Dubrovnik and its merchants and shipowners, there is no evidence or record of it in Ragusan official documents. Tadic offers an answer to this, proposing that this was only a remote war, so the goverment did not pay much attention to it. However, he later quotes a valuable information on the correspondence between 'the English queen and the Sultan where she complained about Sultan's subjects taking part in the attack on Sultan's ally, England:

"But the English queen Elisabeth, through her emissary in Istanbul complained to the Turks that the Ragusans help Spain with their ships. The Ragusan government then, on October 2, 1590 wrote to Nikola Goce, Ragusan merchant in London, to tell the Queen that Ragusan ships where forced to join the Armada when they happened to be in Spain on business." Tadic justly points out that this could not have been the case with Petar Ivelja's ships, the "Twelwe Apostles", who surely joined the Invincible Armada of their own free will.

This very complaint on the part of the queen of England contains valuable evidence of the impression the Ragusan fleet must have left with its considerable size on the English and also of the troubles it caused to the English fleet. The Ragusan government must have been well informed about its citizens' taking part in such a huge expedition, because many new ships must have been built and old repaired for such an unprecendented maritime campaign. The fear of failure, however, forced the government to claim that only private sector took part in the whole affair, thus leaving its seamen the only responsible in case of a possible failure or sucess of the operation.That such a diplomatic stand was justified shows first the English complain to the Sultan and second, English rise to a supreme maritime power with which Ragusans had close mercantile links. It can barely be doubted that the Ragusan government, and soldiers, shipowners and shipbuilders, but also in the political profit it could have gained from being an ally of the most powerful ruler in Europe.

Hardly anyone doubted the success of an action of such proportions knew about its citizen shipowners, shipbuilders, sailors involvement in Phillips crusades, not only by employment of it for which Phillip had prepaired since 1585, putting together all that was needed for such a complicated war operation. So, the Ragusan government while aware that English and Turks were allies, silently allowed its citizens to proceed with their participation in Phillip's fleet and the preparations for the invasion. This is probably why there is no official record whatsoever of the support and links between Ragusan and Phillip's fleet. This proves also that it was highly possible that one-fourth of the Invincible Armada's fleet (and the best part to that!) belonged to the Ragusans which served the mighty "Catholic king", as the anonymous writer calls Phillip II, saying later that they served "the Catholic king with a large number of ships." All this information which the writings of our anonymous writer, undoubtedly Ragusan, contain and which were preserved in the collection of manuscripts in the British Museum help build the picture of the Ragusan fleet at the peak of its powers. The complete assurance in these writings may some day come from the Spanish archives which surely abound in material dealing with our coastal teritorries and especially with Ragusa,i.e. Dubrovnik.

Victor Novak, 1952