Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships developed in Spain and Portugal and first used as armed cargo carriers by Europeans from the 16th to 18th centuries during the Age of Sail and were the principal vessels drafted for use as warships until the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the mid-17th century. Galleons generally carried three or more masts with a lateen fore-and-aft rig on the rear masts, were carvel built with a prominent squared off raised stern, and used square-rigged sail plans on their fore-mast and main-masts .
51-516: Second; 1567–1568 Saint-Denis ; Chartres Third; 1568–1570 Jarnac ; La Roche-l'Abeille ; Poitiers ; Orthez ; Moncontour ; Saint-Jean d'Angély ; Arney-le-Duc Fourth; 1572–1573 Mons ; Sommières ; Sancerre ; La Rochelle Fifth; 1574–1576 Dormans Sixth; 1577 La Charité-sur-Loire ; Issoire ; Brouage Seventh; 1580 La Fère War of the Three Henrys (1585–1589) Coutras ; Vimory ; Auneau ; Day of
102-421: A 1,000-ton galleon built in 1534, said to have carried 366 guns. Friar Manuel Homem says that this galleon mounted 366 bronze pieces of artillery, including the ones that garrisoned the high castles of stern and bow. Carracks were usually lightly armed and used for transporting cargo in all the fleets of other Western European states, while galleons were stronger, more heavily armed, and also cheaper to build for
153-430: A flyboat in which Juan de Escalante was travelling, ready to carry out his feat. But... when they were about to enter the channel, on August twenty-seventh, they encountered some English naval ships, which began to follow them so intently that they provoked Escalante to order the crews of his other ships to go over to his flyboat and to scuttle them, which they did, without saving anything else… The sad end of this episode
204-400: A great commotion by revealing, once again, the enemy's ability to operate on the peninsular coasts and although the action had failed, the reality of a landing of English infantry on Spanish soil and the evidence that several cities had felt seriously threatened during the days of the siege could not be denied. It was therefore necessary to decide what urgent measures to take so as to deal with
255-466: A new ship. Therefore, most galleons were originally consigned for trade, although those captured by rival states were usually put into military service. The most common gun used aboard a galleon was the demi-culverin , although gun sizes up to demi-cannon were possible. Because of the long periods often spent at sea and poor conditions on board, many of the crew often perished during the voyage; therefore advanced rigging systems were developed so that
306-416: A serious setback for Drake who had to return to England after losing half of his troops, some 10,000 men between dead and wounded, to which the loss of nine ships had to be added, seven of them off Lisbon, all without being able to obtain any immediate benefit. In the end, the expedition was an abject failure with only 102 ships and 3,722 men returning to claim their pay. The English attack on La Coruña caused
357-400: A square tuck stern instead of a round tuck, and by having a snout or head projecting forward from the bows below the level of the forecastle. While carracks could be very large for the time, with some Portuguese carracks over 1,000 tons , galleons were generally smaller, usually under 500 tons although some Manila galleons were to reach a displacement of 2,000 tons. With the introduction of
408-535: A very short space of time. On the other hand, shortly after the return of the Armada, a general mobilization of troops had been ordered in all the coastal provinces with which to face the expected response from the English, although the arrival of winter temporarily distanced the fear of an immediate counterattack thus restoring confidence. The resultant decrease in tension allowed the infantry units that returned with
459-413: Is known from the numerous claims that the owners of the requisitioned vessels and their relatives filed in court to try to obtain financial compensation for the loss of what constituted their only means of livelihood. The hope of finishing off the enemy Armada through a successful coup de main was also present in the minds of the English. Statements obtained from a prisoner of the enterprise of England,
510-529: Is very illustrative, who, in October 1589, already explained to the King the need that there is in this Navy for some vessels that, being long-range sailboats, are capable of carrying artillery and some men to spot and attack the corsair ships that they find, for having seen some that they have sailed in in recent days, they cannot be persued with the big ships, nor are the pataches suitable, for they are small, thus
561-731: The 1584-1585 siege of Antwerp by Alexander Farnese and on the night of August 7, 1588, when used by the English against the Grand Armada anchored in Dunkirk . The memory of these events and Escalante's prestige provided him with the necessary means to carry out his plan. To this end, "three Benaquero ships" called "Santa María", "San Julián" and "San Pedro" were seized, valued at 500, 450 and 350 ducats and owned by Juan Pérez de Larreta, Sebastián del Aya and Miguel de Cordillos, respectively. The three ships left, in mid-August, accompanied by
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#1732772015485612-456: The keel ), pine (for the masts) and various hardwoods for hull and decking . Hulls were usually carvel -built. The expenses involved in galleon construction were enormous. Hundreds of expert tradesmen (including carpenters , pitch-melters , blacksmiths , coopers , shipwrights , etc.) worked for months before a galleon was seaworthy. To cover the expense, galleons were often funded by groups of wealthy businessmen who pooled resources for
663-562: The stern . On average with three masts, in larger galleons, a fourth mast was added, usually another lateen-rigged mizzen, called the bonaventure mizzen . The oldest known scale drawings in England are in a manuscript called "Fragments of Ancient Shipwrightry" made in about 1586 by Mathew Baker , a master shipwright . This manuscript, held at the Pepysian Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge, provides an authentic reference for
714-522: The "main business" continued to be the invasion of England, had been adopted with the conviction that they did not have all the necessary elements to issue a well-founded opinion, and they declared as much to the King, indicating that "in order to realize what Your Majesty commands, being a business of such consideration, it was necessary for the Council to be more prudent and informed of the things that are being discussed" A few weeks later, on July 6, 1590,
765-538: The 12th and 13th centuries. It is very likely that the galleons and galliots mentioned in the accounts of the crusades were the same vessels. In the early 16th century, the Venetian galleoni were a new class of galley used to hunt down pirates in the Mediterranean Sea . Later, when the term started to be applied to sail-only vessels, it meant, like the English term "man-of-war", any large warship that
816-482: The Armada ships that he assumed were gathered there. The information was false because the Armada stayed in Santander, completely oblivious to what was coming, while in the port of A Coruña only the aforementioned ships were found. Drake soon realized his mistake but, for reasons that have never been sufficiently explained, decided to continue the attack and after overcoming the initial weak resistance, managed to land
867-436: The Armada to be sent to winter in the interior, thus alleviating Santander of the burden of billeting the large number of attack forces that were concentrated there. During the first months of 1589, all these units were restructured, grouping them into two tercios that remained under the command of Don Agustín de Mexía and Don Francisco de Toledo. They were joined by the tercio of Don Juan del Águila which had not taken part in
918-489: The Barricades Succession of Henry IV of France (1589–1594) Arques ; Ivry ; Paris ; Château-Laudran ; Rouen ; Caudebec ; Craon ; 1st Luxembourg ; Blaye ; Morlaix ; Fort Crozon Franco-Spanish War (1595–1598) 2nd Luxembourg ; Fontaine-Française ; Ham ; Le Catelet ; Doullens ; Cambrai ; Calais ; La Fère ; Ardres ; Amiens The Brittany campaign , or the campaign of Brittany ,
969-759: The Catholics, whose interests they represented. But at the end of 1588, and protected by the crisis that the failure of the Grand Armada had caused, Henry III of France ordered the assassination of the Duke of Guise and his brother, unleashing a true public uprising known as the Day of the Barricades whose most notable effect, on the part of the League, was to gain control of the city of Paris. Battle of Saint-Denis (1567) Too Many Requests If you report this error to
1020-769: The French or Spanish augmentative suffix -on is added. Another possible origin is the Old French word galie , "galley"; also from Medieval Greek galea . The galea was a warship of the Byzantine navy , and its name may be related to the Greek word galeos , " dogfish shark ". The term was originally given to certain types of war galleys in the Middle Ages . The Annali Genovesi mention galleons of 60, 64 and 80 oars, used for battle and on missions of exploration, in
1071-867: The Portuguese squadron, the "San Bartolomé" from Don Pedro de Valdés' squadron, together with the galleys "Diana" and "Princesa" and some smaller boats remained in La Coruña. In November, 1588, Philip II ordered the construction of 21 new galleons, all of them large. 12 of them were built in Cantabrian ports and stood out due to their number and the names they received; they were known as "The twelve apostles". In addition, 6 were made in Portugal, 2 in Gibraltar and 1 in Vinaroz ; all of them entered service in
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#17327720154851122-540: The Tercio from embarking was not sent to him until July 10. The French succession issue had become one of the fundamental objectives of Philip II's foreign policy for whom the possibility of a Calvinist accessing the throne of the neighboring country was an impossible risk to assume. Already in 1584 he had signed the Treaty of Joinville with Henry I, Duke of Guise , through which he undertook to lend determined support to
1173-472: The Tercios", it seemed better to him that "an entire infantry tercio from the Armada go and that it be Don Juan del Águila's". This decision had probably already been made some weeks ago, even before Diego Maldonado's letter arrived, because curiously on June 1, the King himself had ordered Don Juan del Águila to go urgently to Ferrol where he arrived on the 4th of that same month, although the order to prevent
1224-534: The War Council learned of a letter that Diego Maldonado had sent from Nantes in which he relayed an offer from Philippe-Emmanuel de Lorraine, Duke of Mercœur of the "port of Blavet (today called Port-Louis, Morbihan), wherein to assemble his Navy, and everything in Brittany that is in his charge and government", expressing the hope with which he awaited "the help and protection of Your Majesty to free him from
1275-512: The Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.237 via cp1104 cp1104, Varnish XID 174971278 Upstream caches: cp1104 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 05:33:35 GMT Galleon Such ships played a major role in commerce in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and were often drafted into use as auxiliary naval war vessels—indeed, they were
1326-438: The bulk of his forces on the beach of Santa Lucía on May 4. The Viceroy of Galicia, Juan Pacheco de Toledo, 2nd Marquis of Cerralbo , could only oppose them with 1,500 hastily mobilized soldiers in and around the city. Despite which, all of Drake's attempts to seize La Coruña failed in the face of the tenacious resistance offered by these forces and the population itself, so on May 18 he was forced to re-embark his troops, leaving
1377-468: The coasts of these kingdoms and purge and secure these seas of corsairs and await and escort the fleets from the Indies and that the other ships may be discharged and the remaining infantry go into garrisons and in this way Your Majesty will save a lot of costs and be able to entertain yourself and wait for a better time and situation to carry out the main enterprise. This position by those who considered that
1428-428: The council's response could not have been more expressive, since it considered that "time being so far advanced and how few soldiers and mariners they have to be able to undertake any important enterprise", a most intriguing one would be for 15 or 20 large ships to be chosen and adding to those another 12 or 15 flyboats, putting in them elite soldiers who could be chosen from the Tercios that are dedicated to them… patrol
1479-511: The definitive long and relatively narrow hulled galleon in the 1550s. The galleon was powered entirely by wind, using sails carried on three or four masts , with a lateen sail continuing to be used on the last (usually third and fourth) masts. They were used in both military and trade applications, most famously in the Spanish treasure fleet , and the Manila galleons. While carracks played
1530-454: The enterprise of England but which was attached to the Armada. The situation described continued to be the same when the Spanish coasts were surprised by England's response, eager to take advantage of circumstances that they considered very favorable. With the arrival of spring, 180 ships with 27,667 men sailed from Plymouth under the command of Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norris with
1581-403: The fact is that during these first months, the Spanish strategy had an eminently defensive character, since its fundamental objective was to protect the arrival of the fleets from the Indies , and as would later happen in Brittany, the need for new types of ships capable of adapting to the needs of this type of confrontation began to be considered. In this sense, the opinion of Don Juan Maldonado
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1632-407: The failure of the enterprise of England represented a serious setback to Philip II's strategic thinking, although its repercussions were felt much more on a psychological level than a material one, since Casado Soto had accurately documented that of the 123 ships that sailed from La Coruña , "only" 31 were lost, of which only 3 were galleons , the rest being the urcas and other smaller vessels. On
1683-553: The galleon in Portuguese India Armadas during the first quarter of the 16th century, carracks' armament was reduced as they became almost exclusively cargo ships (which is why the Portuguese carracks were pushed to such large sizes), leaving any fighting to be done to the galleons. One of the largest and most famous of Portuguese galleons was the São João Baptista (nicknamed Botafogo , "Spitfire"),
1734-416: The hospital official Francisco de Ledesma, reveal that, during his captivity, he was able to learn that twelve Englishmen had embarked on a French urca anchored in the port of "Artamua", "who know how to speak French and Spanish and other languages, and among them an engineer … who brought orders to set fire to the Armada wherever it was moored, after it was refurbished." But aside from these utopian projects,
1785-433: The leading role in early global explorations, galleons also played a part in the 16th and 17th centuries. In fact, galleons were so versatile that a single vessel might be refitted for wartime and peacetime roles several times during its lifespan. The galleon was the prototype of all square-rigged ships with three or more masts for over two and a half centuries, including the later full-rigged ship . The principal warships of
1836-523: The mainstay of contending fleets through most of the 150 years of the Age of Exploration —before the Anglo-Dutch wars made purpose-built warships dominant at sea during the remainder of the Age of Sail . The word galleon , "large ship", comes from Spanish galeón , "galleon", "armed merchant ship" or from Old French galion , "armed ship of burden" from Medieval Greek galea , " galley ", to which
1887-552: The need for medium vessels of 150 to 200 tons; their draught is of great consideration, since being light is what is intended. These defensive plans were still in force when, after the winter of 1589–1590, Philip II addressed the Council of War requesting their opinion on what could be done during that year with the Navy concentrated in Ferrol. By the summer of 1590, some 100 vessels were ready for service. At its meeting on May 18, 1590,
1938-617: The objectives of destroying the remnants of the Spanish Armada ships in Santander, then seizing Lisbon and the Azores in the name of Don António, Prior of Crato who kept alive his hopes of accessing the Portuguese throne. As this formidable fleet approached the Galician coast, it received notice that the Armada was anchored in La Coruña, whereupon Drake decided to revise the initial plans and attack that port to surprise and destroy
1989-597: The opposing English and Spanish fleets in the 1588 confrontation of the Spanish Armada and in the 1589 confrontation of the English Armada were galleons, with the modified English race-built galleons developed by John Hawkins proving their great utility in combat, while the capacious Spanish galleons, designed primarily as transports, showed great endurance in the battles and in the long and stormy return home. Galleons were constructed from oak (for
2040-403: The other hand, the invasion project was not abandoned and during the last years of the reign of Philip II there were several attempts to carry it out, within the increasingly generalized confrontation to which the two monarchies were forced in different maritime and ground based scenarios, among which the Brittany campaign stands out. The need to guarantee the safety of Spain's coasts while facing
2091-569: The port the following day. Their losses were estimated at between 1,000 and 1,500 men, while on the Spanish side, three galleons were set on fire by their own crews to prevent them from falling into enemy hands, although the galleys that fled to the Betanzos estuary were saved. From Galicia , the English ships went along the Portuguese coast during the first days of June where they attempted to capture Lisbon. After intense fighting, they failed and ultimately retreated. These bloody actions represented
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2142-446: The possibility of new English attacks on the Spanish coasts while adequately protecting the arrival of the fleets from the Indies. The decision was made to transfer the entire navy to the port of Ferrol , which, due to its geographical location, was best suited for carrying out these missions. Ferrol and Lisbon would be, from then on, the bases from which naval operations would be carried out which, due to its numbers and characteristics,
2193-518: The same displacement (five galleons could cost around the same as three carracks) and were therefore a much better investment for use as heavily armed cargo ships or warships. Galleons' design changed and improved through the application of various innovations, and they were particularly linked with the military capabilities of the Atlantic sea powers. It was the captains of the Spanish navy, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and Álvaro de Bazán , who designed
2244-529: The treasure fleets, frustrate English naval operations, make incursions along the English coast and aid the Catholic League , all with the ultimate goal being the invasion of England. On September 22, 1588, the surviving ships of the Grand Armada began to enter various Spanish ports with their battered ships, exhausted crews and a considerable number of sick men on board. There is no doubt that
2295-489: The very real fear of a potential English attack determined the adoption of a series of measures aimed at recovering the combat capacity of Spain's Navy, while at the same time replacing the human losses. On the one hand, most of the ships that survived the expedition were concentrated in Santander , where the necessary repairs were carried out using all available resources. Only the galleons "San Bernardo" and "San Juan" from
2346-405: The vessel could be sailed home by an active sailing crew a fraction of the size aboard at departure. The most distinguishing features of the galleon include the long, prominent beak or beakhead followed by a foremast and mainmast , both noticeably taller than the single or double lateen-rigged mizzenmasts with their sloped lateen-rig yards, and below those the square quarter gallery at
2397-462: The violence and power of the heretics". The council, which had been so reticent before to undertake important actions, now expressed its enthusiasm giving "thanks to Our Lord who has been served to open to Your Majesty those doors of Blavet to execute his holy and royal wishes and do him a very great service, preserving that province in the Catholic faith", without forgetting, however, that that port
2448-521: Was "the most comfortable and important that one could wish for, from there, to set foot in England and preserve it in spite of the whole world, for the ease with which one could help whenever one wanted, due to the abundance of provisions and other comforts that would be had from Brittany". The next day, the King, in view of what was reported by his Council, ordered the sending of this aid "as soon as possible", but "so as not to go around culling people from
2499-507: Was a military occupation of the Brittany , France , by Spain . It began in summer 1590 when Philippe-Emmanuel de Lorraine, Duke of Mercœur , the governor of Brittany , offered the port of Blavet to King Philip II of Spain so that he could harbour his fleet. The occupation formally ended on May 2, 1598, with the Peace of Vervins . The Spanish used it as a base of operations to protect
2550-506: Was of great importance, as evidenced by the fact that at the beginning of 1590, the following ships were anchored in Ferrol: The impact caused by the English actions was so great that Philip II's Court even considered projects as chimerical as the one presented by the pilot Juan de Escalante to set English ships ablaze in their own ports. This method of attack by means of fire ships had manifested itself in all its effectiveness during
2601-448: Was otherwise no different from the other sailing ships of the time. During the 16th century, a lowering of the carrack 's forecastle and elongation of the hull gave the ocean-going ships an unprecedented level of stability in the water, and reduced wind resistance at the front, leading to a faster, more maneuverable vessel. The galleon differed from the carrack and other older types primarily by being longer, lower and narrower, with
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