Episode 291: The French Armada
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Did you know that foreign investors are quietly funding lawsuits in American courts through a practice called third-party litigation funding? Shadowy overseas funders are paying to sue American companies in our courts, and they don't pay a dime in U.S. taxes if there is an award or settlement. They profit tax-free from our legal system, while U.S. companies are tied up in court and American families pay the price, to the tune of $5,000 a year. But

But there is a solution. A new proposal before Congress would close this loophole and ensure these foreign investors pay taxes, just like the actual plaintiffs have to.

It's a common sense move that discourages frivolous and abusive lawsuits and redirects resources back into American jobs, innovation, and growth. Only President Trump and congressional Republicans can deliver this win for America and hold these foreign investors accountable. Contact your lawmakers today and demand they take a stand to end foreign-funded litigation abuse.

This is Paige, the co-host of Giggly Squad. I use Uber Eats for everything and I feel like people forget that you can truly order anything, especially living in New York City. It's why I love it. You can get Chinese food at any time of night, but it's not just for food. I order from CVS all the time. I'm always ordering from the grocery store. If a friend stops over, I have to order champagne.

I also have this thing that whenever I travel, if I'm ever in a hotel room, I never feel like I'm missing something because I'll just...

Uber Eats it. The amount of times I've had to Uber Eats hair items like hairspray, deodorant, you name it, I've ordered it on Uber Eats. You can get grocery, alcohol, everyday essentials in addition to restaurants and food you love. So in other words, get almost anything with Uber Eats. Order now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details.

Hi friend, welcome back to the Renaissance English History Podcast, a part of the Agora Podcast Network and the original Tudor history podcast telling stories of Tudor England since 2009. Craziness. Actually, the podcast turned 16 this year, which means that, you know, if it was a person, it would be old enough to drive. So that's kind of a fun fact.

Anyway, hi, I am your host, Heather, and I am, as always, delighted that you are here with me spending this time together to talk about Tudor England. Today, we're going to talk about something that gets overlooked a lot. People think about armadas invading England, and they immediately go to the Spanish one. But there was actually one in 1545 that was even bigger than

And that's the one that we're going to talk about. So let's get right into it. If you ask anyone to name the biggest naval threat that England faced in the 16th century, they will most certainly say the Spanish Armada. But what if I told you that 43 years earlier, another armada came larger, more chaotic and every bit as dangerous?

In the summer of 1545, France launched an invasion fleet of more than 200 ships, carrying 30,000 troops, with one clear mission, capture Portsmouth and topple Henry VIII. It was the largest force assembled against England in the early modern period, bigger even than the Spanish armada that came decades later. This episode is about the French Portsmouth.

Armada, a dramatic but often forgotten chapter in Tudor history. There weren't any glowing bonfires of victory, no Protestant winds miraculously smashing the enemy fleet. No, no, no. This was a grim grinding campaign fought in the narrow waters of the Salent, where the English were outnumbered, scrambling, and very nearly overrun.

At the center of it all, a beautiful, deadly warship named the Mary Rose. Henry VIII's pride and joy which sank before his very eyes.

So we are going to dive into the tangled European politics that led to the invasion, the scrambling defense, and the strange series of events that turned a potential disaster into a near-miraculous survival story for England. The road to the Battle of the Solent began not on English shores, but in the European alliances and betrayals, a very messy, tangled web.

By 1544, Henry VIII had formed a military alliance with his sometimes friend, sometimes rival, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.

Together, they were meant to pressure France as the first of France in the ongoing Italian War that was going on that happened between 1542 and 46. It was part of this endless chess game of European power politics. Look, all of these specific names don't actually matter. All that matters is these countries were perpetually ganging up on each other, this person against that person, that person against this person. This was just another episode in that

But for Henry, this was his chance to grab French territory and glory. If we remember, Henry fancied himself a warrior king, somebody like Henry V. He yearned, his heart ached for another Agincourt. It was like his greatest life's ambition was another Agincourt, to be king of France like Henry V. This was just what he yearned for. It was his purpose in life.

and that summer, he personally led a campaign across the Channel, capturing the fortified town of Bologna. It was a costly and exhausting affair, but Henry was triumphant. Francis was humiliated, and he vowed revenge.

Meanwhile, over in the Vatican, Pope Paul III, still really smarting from Henry's break with Rome and the brutal treatment of his daughter Catherine of Aragon, was urging Catholic monarchs to unite and crush the English heretic. Francis was like, oh, that's a part I can play, and it fits very nicely with my desire for revenge. Then came the twist.

Charles V, having gotten what he wanted, he went ahead and sneakily signed a separate truce with Francis.

So now Henry is left holding Bologna and the bill with absolutely zero allies. So Francis acted quickly. In early 1545, he declared it his intent to, quote, liberate England from the Protestant tyranny and began assembling a massive invasion force under Admiral Claude Dannebill.

Over 200 ships, including 25 war galleys and 30,000 men, were readied in the Seine estuary. It was, by sheer size, a more formidable force than the later Spanish Armada.

And England? She had just 80 ships, 12,000 soldiers, and a whole lot of territory to defend, including active campaigns in Ireland, France, and Scotland. The coastal defenses were a mess, and the navy, Henry's proud creation, was about to face its first true trial. And for once, even Henry seemed a little bit rattled. So, the French Armada is setting sail.

It was impressive on paper, but from the start, it actually, it seemed a little bit cursed. On July 6, 1545, as the fleet prepared to set sail from the Seine estuary, disaster struck. The French flagship Caracol caught fire and exploded while still at anchor. The blaze gutted the ship and threw the invasion into immediate chaos.

Admiral Claude salvaged what he could and transferred his command to La Maistresse, only to see that vessel then run aground outside of Le Havre shortly after. The ship began leaking badly and had to be hastily patched up before it was even seaworthy.

So still, on July 16th, 10 days later, the patched-together fleet launched at last. Like I said, 200 ships, 30,000 soldiers. It was massive. Their destination was Portsmouth, Henry VIII's naval stronghold.

Now, England had been expecting this. Henry and his privy council had traveled to Portsmouth to oversee the defense personally. Troops were mobilized. Cannons were manned. But despite the urgency, England was stretched pretty darn thin. Much of the army was still tied up abroad, and the remaining coastal forces were under strength and scattered.

The English navy was led by Lord Admiral John Dudley, the Viscount Lyle. He brought together what ships he could, only 80 in total, including the Henri Grasse Dieu, the towering flagship, and the Mary Rose, a veteran warship and a personal favorite of the king named after his sister.

On July 18th, the French fleet appeared off the coast. They had the numbers and they had the wind, and they had caught England at a very vulnerable moment, and for a brief time it looked like they might just be victorious.

So on July 18th, the French fleet enters the Salent, the narrow stretch of sea between the Isle of Wight and the English mainland, without any resistance. With Henry watching from South Sea Castle, the French moved into position, their war galleys prowling close to shore while the larger ships held back in deeper water. Viscount Lyle cautiously sailed the English fleet out from Portsmouth Harbour.

The initial clash was a little bit underwhelming. Both sides exchanged some long-range cannon fire, but there was little real damage. The French galleys attempted to get in close with their powerful bow-mounted guns, but they were driven back by smaller English vessels, including the nimble Roebarges.

Still, the imbalance was obvious. The French had more ships, more men, more firepower. Their main problem wasn't the English, it was the geography. The Solent's shallow waters and tricky currents made it nearly impossible for the heavier French ships to maneuver effectively, especially without a strong wind. And that wind was actually stubbornly absent.

That evening, Henry actually went to the Henri Grosadieu, his newest warship, and had his dinner there. There, he confirmed that Vice Admiral George Carew would command the Mary Rose. The Mary Rose was an older but still quite powerful ship that had served England for over three decades. It was a pretty emotional moment. Henry had personally overseen her design and construction, and she had been with him since the very early days of his reign.

At dawn on July 19th, the calm persisted. The French galleys resumed their harassment, darting forward and firing on the becalmed English ships. Then, late in the afternoon, a breeze finally stirred the flags. The English fleet began to stir. The Mary Rose was one of the first to act, eager to meet the enemy and eager to prove her worth. But within moments, something went terribly wrong.

She fired a broadside, turned to bring her other guns to bear, and vanished beneath the waves. The sinking of the Mary Rose is one of the most infamous and most mysterious moments in Tudor naval history. So that afternoon, the breeze is lifting the English fleet into motion, and Mary Rose moves to engage the French galleys.

And according to eyewitnesses, she fired her guns from one side, like I said, then began to turn to bring her other broadside into play. What happened next has never been fully explained. Suddenly, Mary Rose heeled over violently to one side. Her open lower gun ports, which had just been used in the first volley, were still open, and as she tilted, the water rushed in.

Within moments, she capsized and began to sink. Her heavy guns and stores made recovery impossible. She slipped beneath the surface of the Solent in full view of the king, who was watching from right nearby, like I said, South Sea Castle. Of the estimated 400 to 500 men that were part of the crew, fewer than 40 survived. Now, some contemporary reports blamed the crew, suggesting that they had failed to close the gun ports after firing.

Others hinted at panic or confusion on deck. One French eyewitness claimed that a galley had struck the Mary Rose with a cannon shot and holed her, but no such damage was found when the wreck was excavated in the 20th century. Another theory suggests that the ship may have simply just been too top-heavy, overloaded with soldiers and equipment, and as she turned in the breeze, her instability may have done her in.

Did you know that foreign investors are quietly funding lawsuits in American courts through a practice called third-party litigation funding? Shadowy overseas funders are paying to sue American companies in our courts, and they don't pay a dime in U.S. taxes if there is an award or settlement. They profit tax-free from our legal system, while U.S. companies are tied up in court, and American families pay the price to the tune of $5,000 a year. But

But there is a solution. A new proposal before Congress would close this loophole and ensure these foreign investors pay taxes, just like the actual plaintiffs have to.

It's a common sense move that discourages frivolous and abusive lawsuits and redirects resources back into American jobs, innovation, and growth. Only President Trump and congressional Republicans can deliver this win for America and hold these foreign investors accountable. Contact your lawmakers today and demand they take a stand to end foreign-funded litigation abuse.

This is Paige, the co-host of Giggly Squad. I use Uber Eats for everything and I feel like people forget that you can truly order anything, especially living in New York City. It's why I love it. You can get Chinese food at any time of night, but it's not just for food. I order from CVS all the time. I'm always ordering from the grocery store. If a friend stops over, I have to order champagne.

I also have this thing that whenever I travel, if I'm ever in a hotel room, I never feel like I'm missing something because I'll just...

Uber Eats it. The amount of times I've had to Uber Eats hair items like hairspray, deodorant, you name it, I've ordered it on Uber Eats. You can get grocery, alcohol, everyday essentials in addition to restaurants and food you love. So in other words, get almost anything with Uber Eats. Order now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details.

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Whatever the cause, the loss was catastrophic, not just for the battle, but for Henry personally. The Mary Rose had been one of his earliest great warships. He had commissioned it in 1509, the year he became king. She had seen action against the French before. She had been refitted and modernized and was a symbol of his growing naval ambitions. And now she was gone, dragging hundreds of Englishmen with her. Henry reportedly watched the disaster unfold in stunned silence.

The rest of the English fleet held position, unwilling to risk another blunder. The wind, as quickly as it had come, died down again. The French galleys moved forward once more, but now they were facing an English fleet that was dug in and angry. The death of the Mary Rose hadn't broken the English. It had made them mad.

Hey, we're just going to take a pause here for just a second to let you know that I am doing the Tutor Planner again this year and I'm launching the Indiegogo. So by the time you listen to this, the Indiegogo will likely have been launched. I will put

a link below. So the Tudor Planner, for those of you who don't know, is a planner I do every year. I'm also, in addition to being a Tudor nerd, I am a planner nerd, which means I love planners. And so about 10 years ago, I decided to make a planner that was inspired by Tudor history. So it has all of the stuff that a good planner needs with like habit trackers, tons of notes, space, all of that kind of stuff. It has stickers, folders, tons of notes, pages, all of that kind of good planner stuff, while also having like this week in history and lots of quotes. And it looks like a beautiful illuminated manuscript.

So if you would like to spend your 2026 filled with Tudor history, I would encourage you to check out the Indiegogo. What I do is I self publish this myself. That's what self publishing is. So what I do every year, I do a crowd funder to raise the money to cover the printing costs.

And the people who support the crowdfunder early on like this get it at a super good discount, like half off. And then you have it and you're guaranteed to have it. And if you miss the crowdfunder, I do sell it then in my shop and on Amazon and everything like that. But you have to pay full price and there's no guarantee that you'll get it because I do sell out of them every year. So.

If you would like to check out the Indiegogo for the Tudor Planner, check out the link below in the show notes or englandcast.com. I'm sure I will put a link up there as well. Thank you as ever. Back to the naval battle.

With the naval battle stalled and the Mary Rose at the bottom of the Solent, the French turned to their next objective, to invade the Isle of Wight. The island was strategically vital just across from Portsmouth and lightly defended. At least that's what the French believed. In truth, the islanders had been bracing for something like this for years. The Isle of Wight had a long memory of French raids going back to the Hundred Years' War, and its population, just under 9,000, was surprisingly well-trained.

Men were required to undergo military training, and even some women were trained as archers. On July 21, Admiral Danable ordered troops to land at three separate points, St. Helens, Bonchurch, and Sandown, hoping to divide and overwhelm the defenders.

At St. Helens, a small English fort had been firing on the French fleet. It fell quickly and the nearby villages, Seaview, Bembridge, Nettlestone, were pillaged. But the French advance halted there. They didn't regroup or push inland despite having the superior numbers. The main action came at Bonchurch, where the French landed in force and marched inland.

The first English defense was stiff, and the French were repelled, but a second push broke through. The defenders began to flee. According to legend, one local captain, Robert Fisher, too heavy to escape up the steep hills, cried out, "'A hundred pounds for a horse!' before being cut down. That line may sound familiar. It's widely believed to have inspired Shakespeare's "'A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse' in Richard III."

The final landing at Sandown meant fierce resistance. A new castle was under construction there, and though it wasn't yet complete, English troops and local militia rushed to the shore. A brutal skirmish followed. The French lost several commanders and retreated in disarray.

Elsewhere, a French detachment dug in among the ruins of Bembridge and managed to hold off English attackers, but they were cut off and exposed. The French had troops on the island, but they had no real foothold, and the clock was ticking. This is Paige DeSorbo from Giggly Squad. Boost Mobile is no longer that prepaid wireless company you remember. They've invested billions into building their own 5G towers across America. With Boost Mobile's networks, customers enjoy the speed and service they'd expect from the big three.

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The Battle of the Solent never erupted into a full-scale clash of fleets, not because either side lacked the will, but because the conditions made it nearly impossible. After the Mary Rose disaster, the wind died down again, leaving both sides awkwardly drifting around. But John Dudley had an advantage the French couldn't match. He knew these waters. The Solent was his backyard, and he used its complex tides and shoals like invisible weapons.

Dudley maneuvered the English fleet into a defensive position that blocked the main French ships from advancing. The larger French vessels, already struggling with damaged hulls and navigation problems, couldn't get into firing range without risking grounding. Their galleys, effective in tight quarters, couldn't force a breakthrough alone.

Meanwhile, the English ships had the protection of Portsmouth Harbor and supplies were easy to move in from shore. Reinforcements could be mustered. Shore-based artillery was in place.

The French had no such luxury. Admiral Dannebos' flagship, La Maistresse, was still leaking from its earlier grounding back in France. Illness was spreading among the crowded ships, and provisions were already running low. The longer they lingered, the weaker they became. The French still had pockets of the Isle of Wight, but they had failed to push inland or secure a fort. Every day they remained, their position worsened. The invasion that had once looked so overwhelming was now dangerously exposed.

And Dudley didn't actually need to win a grand naval battle. He just needed to hold the line. So by July 22nd, just three days after the sinking of the Mary Rose, Admiral Danneboul made the call. The French invasion of England was over. His fleet was battered, supplies were dwindling, and morale was collapsing. The troops on the Isle of Wight had failed to establish a proper foothold. Holding the island would have required constructing three full fortresses, a task estimated to take three

three months, even if they weren't being constantly harassed by locals with longbows and pitchforks. Worse, the flagship, La Maistresse, was still leaking badly. The admiral couldn't afford to lose another ship or more men to sickness.

On July 23rd, as a parting gesture of defiance or perhaps desperation, the French landed 1,500 troops near Seaford, about 40 miles east of Portsmouth. They raided a nearby village, but instead of terrified peasants, they encountered local militia who responded with force. Armed with longbows and fierce determination, they repelled the French attack. Bloodied and humiliated, the invaders retreated once more to their ships. That was it.

The French fleet turned back across the Channel. The Grand Armada that had once seemed unstoppable had failed utterly and completely. England had survived. Barely. And the memory of those July days would fade, overshadowed in time by another armada.

In the end, the French Armada of 1545 was bigger than the Spanish Armada and arguably more dangerous. Yet it barely registers in popular memory. No national holiday, no commemorative paintings in the Houses of Parliament, no Francis Drake playing bowls on the beach. Why?

Part of it is a lack of a clear-cut dramatic victory. There was no glorious naval battle to boast of, no captured enemy flagship. The English held the line, yes, but through geography, luck, and stubbornness, not any kind of a decisive blow. The real legacy of the battle also wasn't triumph, it was tragedy, the sinking of the Mary Rose. Her sudden loss came to symbolize the vulnerability of Tudor England, and that ship more than anything else is what keeps the story alive.

When the Mary Rose was raised from the seabed in 1982 after 437 years underwater, it brought with it a ghostly reminder of a nearly forgotten war, a time when France launched a massive assault on England's southern coast and came dangerously close to succeeding. The French Armada may not have changed England's borders, but it changed how the Tudors thought about defense, readiness, and naval power, and it left one magnificent wreck to tell the tale.

So there you go. The summer of 1545 could have ended very differently for Henry. France had the ships, the soldiers, and the ambition to deal England a crushing blow. But in the end, it was the tides and timing, bad luck, and good defenses that kept the Tudor crown intact. The Mary Rose, of course, still rests in Portsmouth, her splintered hall, a witness to those tense days in the Solent.

And her story is the one that we remember, but behind it is the forgotten drama of the near invasion, the invasion of the Isle of Wight, and the ghost of a war that could have dramatically reshaped and changed England. This was not a glorious victory. It was a super lucky narrow escape. So we will leave it there for now, friends. The French Armada, bigger than the Spanish one, more dangerous, but unsuccessful as well.

All right, I will be back again next week. Thank you again so much for being here with me, spending this time with me. Hope you enjoyed it. As always, you can get in touch with me anywhere where you're listening to this. You can leave a comment or you can go into the Tudor Learning Circle, which is the social network just for Tudor nerds. All of the history, none of the social media drama. So TudorLearningCircle.com to get into that. And remember the Indiegogo. Again, I'll paste a link below or EnglandCast.com will have a link too.

All right, friend, I will be back next week. In the meantime, have an amazing week. Be well, and I'll talk to you soon. Bye-bye.

But

But there is a solution. A new proposal before Congress would close this loophole and ensure these foreign investors pay taxes, just like the actual plaintiffs have to.

It's a common sense move that discourages frivolous and abusive lawsuits and redirects resources back into American jobs, innovation, and growth. Only President Trump and congressional Republicans can deliver this win for America and hold these foreign investors accountable. Contact your lawmakers today and demand they take a stand to end foreign-funded litigation abuse.

This is Paige, the co-host of Giggly Squad. I use Uber Eats for everything and I feel like people forget that you can truly order anything, especially living in New York City. It's why I love it. You can get Chinese food at any time of night, but it's not just for food. I order from CVS all the time. I'm always ordering from the grocery store. If a friend stops over, I have to order champagne.

I also have this thing that whenever I travel, if I'm ever in a hotel room, I never feel like I'm missing something because I'll just...

Uber Eats it. The amount of times I've had to Uber Eats hair items like hairspray, deodorant, you name it, I've ordered it on Uber Eats. You can get grocery, alcohol, everyday essentials in addition to restaurants and food you love. So in other words, get almost anything with Uber Eats. Order now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details.