Answer ALL questions. Write in full sentences for Questions 15 and 16. You are advised to spend about 65 minutes on this pack.
1
Give the year the Spanish Armada sailed against England.
(Total for Question 1 is 1 mark)
2
Name the King of Spain who sent the Armada against England in 1588.
(Total for Question 2 is 1 mark)
3
State two ways in which English sailors' actions in the 1570s and 1580s damaged relations with Spain.
(Total for Question 3 is 2 marks)
4
Name two things agreed in the Treaty of Nonsuch of 1585.
(Total for Question 4 is 2 marks)
5
Name the English nobleman sent to command English forces in the Netherlands after the Treaty of Nonsuch in 1585.
(Total for Question 5 is 1 mark)
6
Give the year of Sir Francis Drake's raid on the Spanish port of Cadiz.
(Total for Question 6 is 1 mark)
7
Name the nickname given to Drake's 1587 raid on Cadiz, referring to its effect on Spanish preparations.
(Total for Question 7 is 1 mark)
8
State two effects of Drake's 1587 raid on Cadiz.
(Total for Question 8 is 2 marks)
9
Give the year Mary, Queen of Scots was executed, an event that further worsened relations between England and Spain.
(Total for Question 9 is 1 mark)
10
Name the English commander given overall command of the fleet that faced the Armada in the Channel in 1588.
(Total for Question 10 is 1 mark)
11
Name the tactic used by the English fleet on the night of 7-8 August 1588 to break up the Armada's defensive formation while it was anchored off Calais.
(Total for Question 11 is 1 mark)
12
State two reasons for the Armada's defeat in 1588.
(Total for Question 12 is 2 marks)
13
Give two consequences of the Spanish Armada's defeat for England.
(Total for Question 13 is 2 marks)
14
Describe two features of the plan behind the 1588 Spanish Armada.
(Total for Question 14 is 4 marks)
15
Explain why relations between England and Spain worsened so seriously between the 1570s and 1587.
(Total for Question 15 is 12 marks)
16
'The main reason Spain launched the Armada in 1588 was English support for the Dutch revolt.' How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer.
(Total for Question 16 is 16 marks)
Mark scheme · EDX.EE5 Early Elizabethan England, 1568-88: Relations with Spain and the Armada
Question 1
B1 1588
Answer: 1588
Question 2
B1 Philip II
Answer: Philip II
Question 3
B1 English privateers, such as Francis Drake, raided Spanish ships and colonies in the Americas, seizing treasure and goods
B1 Elizabeth openly rewarded this piracy, for example knighting Drake aboard the Golden Hind in 1581, rather than punishing or disowning it
Answer: English piracy against Spanish shipping, openly rewarded rather than punished by Elizabeth.
Question 4
B1 Elizabeth agreed to send English troops to help the Protestant Dutch rebels fighting Spanish rule in the Netherlands
B1 England agreed to provide financial support towards the cost of the Dutch revolt
Answer: English troops and financial support for the Dutch revolt against Spain.
Question 5
B1 Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester
Answer: Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester
Question 6
B1 1587
Answer: 1587
Question 7
B1 'singeing the King of Spain's beard'
Answer: Singeing the King of Spain's beard
Question 8
B1 it destroyed or damaged a large number of Spanish ships and supplies being gathered for the planned invasion of England
B1 it delayed the sailing of the Spanish Armada by around a year
Answer: It destroyed Spanish ships/supplies and delayed the Armada by about a year.
Question 9
B1 1587
Answer: 1587
Question 10
B1 Lord Howard of Effingham (Charles Howard)
Answer: Lord Howard of Effingham
Question 11
B1 fireships
Answer: Fireships
Question 12
B1 English ships were generally faster, more manoeuvrable and had longer-range guns than the heavier Spanish galleons
B1 the Armada failed to link up successfully with the Duke of Parma's army in the Netherlands, and was then scattered by fireships and severe storms on its long return voyage around Scotland and Ireland
Answer: Superior English ships and tactics, and the failure to link up with Parma's army, followed by storms.
Question 13
B1 it was seen as a major boost to Elizabeth's prestige and popularity, and to England's confidence as a naval power
B1 it removed the immediate threat of a Spanish invasion, although the war with Spain itself continued for years afterwards
Answer: A major boost to Elizabeth's prestige, and the removal of the immediate invasion threat, though the war continued.
Question 14
B1 feature 1 identified, e.g. the Armada, around 130 ships, was to sail up the English Channel
B1 supporting detail for feature 1, e.g. its aim was to gain control of the Channel and provide a safe route across it
B1 feature 2 identified, e.g. it was to link up with the Duke of Parma's army waiting in the Spanish Netherlands
B1 supporting detail for feature 2, e.g. Parma's experienced troops would then be escorted across the Channel by the Armada's ships to invade England
Answer: Any two features, e.g. sailing up the Channel to gain control of it, and linking up with Parma's invasion army.
Question 15
Level 1 (1-3): Identifies one or two general reasons for the deterioration in relations, with little or no supporting detail or explanation.
Level 2 (4-6): Identifies and begins to explain one or two reasons, supported by some accurate detail.
Level 3 (7-9): Explains two or three reasons, each supported by accurate and relevant detail.
Level 4 (10-12): Explains three or more reasons in a well-developed, logically structured way, supported throughout by precise and accurate detail, showing how the reasons connect.
Indicative content:
Continued English privateering against Spanish shipping and colonies in the Americas, openly encouraged rather than stopped by Elizabeth, for example through Drake's circumnavigation of 1577-80 and his knighthood in 1581.
Growing English support for the Protestant Dutch rebels against Spanish rule, culminating in direct military intervention under the Treaty of Nonsuch in 1585.
Religious hostility: Philip II saw himself as a defender of Catholicism against a heretic Protestant queen, a stance sharpened by the 1570 papal bull excommunicating Elizabeth.
The execution of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1587, which Philip could present as both a personal/religious grievance and a further justification for invading England.
Drake's 1587 raid on Cadiz, though it delayed the Armada, was itself further proof of continuing English aggression rather than a cause of the initial deterioration in relations.
These factors built on one another across the 1570s and 1580s, so that piracy, religious hostility and the Netherlands intervention together moved relations from rivalry to outright preparation for war by 1587-88.
Question 16
Level 1 (1-4): Shows limited relevant knowledge of the causes of the Armada, and offers only a simple, unsupported opinion on the statement.
Level 2 (5-8): Shows some relevant knowledge and identifies relevant factors, but the argument is only partly supported and lacks a developed judgement on how far the statement is accurate.
Level 3 (9-12): Shows good relevant knowledge and explains a range of factors, reaching a supported judgement on how far the statement is accurate, with some links made between factors.
Level 4 (13-16): Shows precise, well-selected knowledge and explains a range of factors in a balanced way, reaching a fully supported and sustained judgement on how far the statement is accurate, with clear analytical links between factors and consistently accurate use of specialist historical terminology.
Indicative content:
Supporting: the Treaty of Nonsuch of 1585 was a direct, open act of war-by-proxy against Spanish authority in the Netherlands, arguably the most concrete provocation before 1588.
Against: religious motive - Philip II's role as a leading Catholic monarch, especially after the 1570 papal bull and the 1587 execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, gave the invasion a strong religious justification of its own.
Against: continued English piracy against Spanish shipping and the Americas, led by Drake, directly damaged Spanish wealth and prestige over many years, a persistent and separate irritant to the Netherlands question.
Balanced: these causes were closely connected, since English intervention in the Netherlands, English piracy and English Protestantism were all seen by Philip as part of the same hostile, heretical challenge to Spanish and Catholic interests.
Balanced: the timing of the Armada, prepared through 1586-88 after Nonsuch (1585) and Mary's execution (1587), suggests these later events acted as the immediate triggers on top of longer-running grievances.
Judgement: while the Netherlands intervention was the most direct and recent trigger before 1588, the accumulation of religious and economic grievances across the whole period means no single cause fully explains the Armada on its own.