The Confident Hope of a Miracle has its place on the shelf of well-written books on the Spanish Armada, one of those subjects that bookstores are nevel lacking in." -Edward Beasley, The San Diego Union "Intelligent, persuasive. He even follows them ashore afterward, spending much time and research on what happened to them when they washing up in the British Isles.
Hanson prides himself justly, on following the seamen through all the twists and turns. is where the book carves out its special place. The Confident Hope of a Miracle is a driving narrative, filled with keen observation and the occasional debunking."-Evan Thomas, Washington Post Book World "Hanson tells the story well, and with a good eye for the telling quotation. He re-creates the feel and sounds of 16th century battle. "Hanson writes with sweep, confidence and great verve. Hanson also depicts the terrible fate that befell the seamen of both sides long after the decisive battles were over, and he takes a fresh, hard look at Elizabeth I, shaking the pedestal of "England's greatest ever monarch." The Confident Hope of a Miracle is authentic and original history written with the pace and drama of a novel. Neil Hanson, the acclaimed author of The Great Fire of London and The Custom of the Sea, brings the story to vivid life, tracing the origins of the conflict from the Old World to the New, delineating the Armada campaign in rousing prose, and illuminating the lives of kings and popes, spymasters and assassins, military commanders and common sailors, and the ordinary men and women caught up in this great event when the fate of nations hung in the balance. The story of the Spanish Armada is one of the great epics, with a cast of characters as rich and varied as any in history, with results that shaped Europe for centuries to come. But English ships, tactics, weapons and crews were much superior to those of the Armada, and the pious and ascetic Philip's "confident hope of a miracle" to give him victory was not fulfilled. All that stood between Spain and victory was the English Navy.
A battle-hardened Spanish Army waited in Holland, ready to crush England's barely trained conscripts, many armed only with scythes, stakes or longbows. In 1588, determined to reclaim England for the Catholic Church, King Philip II of Spain launched a fleet of huge castle-crowned galleons that stretched for miles across the ocean.
The Confident Hope of a Miracle is a gripping account of the defeat of the Spanish Armadathe defining international event of the Elizabethan age.
0 kommentar(er)
