Word: sidonia
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...down to size. The project, tersely referred to as The Enterprise, was hastily begun. From the start, nothing went right with armaments, provisions, recruiting, and 3½ months be fore the Armada was to sail, its aged admiral died. King Philip unaccountably replaced him with the Duke of Medina Sidonia who objected miserably that "I know by experience of the little I have been at sea that I am always seasick and always catch cold...
Finally, at Calais, and later off Gravelines to the north, the Spaniards ran out of luck, and more precisely, out of cannon balls. Beaten, although for the most part still seaworthy, Medina Sidonia's fleet had no choice but to make the long run home, around Scotland and Ireland. Many ships broke up in violent squalls or split open on rocks along the Irish coast, and the natives grimly knocked out some Spaniards' brains as the men lay exhausted on the beaches. Few lived, despite legend, says Mattingly, to seed the Celts with dark skins and black eyes...