Battle of Flores (1591)

Battle of Flores
Part of the Anglo–Spanish War
Revenge in action against the Spanish fleet 31 August – 1 September 1591 (Charles Dixon)
Date 30 August – 1 September 1591 Location Off Flores, Azores Coordinates: 39°30′43″N 31°10′55″W / 39.51194°N 31.18194°W / 39.51194; -31.18194 Result Spanish victory
Belligerents
Spain	England
Commanders and leaders
Alonso de Bazán Martín de Bertendona Marcos de Aramburu	Earl of Suffolk Richard Grenville  †
Strength
55 warships	22 warships
Casualties and losses
2 ships sunk ~100 killed or drowned	Revenge captured 250 killed or prisoner

The Battle of Flores was a naval engagement of the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585 fought off the Island of Flores between an English fleet of 22 ships under Lord Thomas Howard and a Spanish fleet of 55 ships under Alonso de Bazán. Sent to the Azores to capture the annual Spanish treasure convoy, when a stronger Spanish fleet appeared off Flores, Howard ordered his ships to flee to the north, saving all of them except the galleon Revenge commanded by Admiral Sir Richard Grenville.

After transferring his ill crew men onshore back to his ship, he led the Revenge in a rear guard action against 55 Spanish ships. Allowing the British fleet to retire to safety. The crew of the Revenge sank and damaged several Spanish ships during a day and night running battle. The Revenge was boarded many times by different Spanish ships and repelled each attack successfully. When Admiral Sir Richard Grenville was badly wounded, his surviving crew surrendered. Lord Alfred Tennyson wrote a poem about the battle entitled The Revenge: a Ballad of the Fleet.

In order to impede a Spanish naval recovery after the Armada, Sir John Hawkins proposed a blockade of the supply of treasure being acquired from the Spanish Empire in the Americas by a constant naval patrol designed to intercept Spanish ships. Revenge was on such a patrol in the summer of 1591 under the command of Sir Richard Grenville. The Spanish, meanwhile, had dispatched a fleet of some 55 ships under Alonso de Bazán, having under his orders Generals Martín de Bertendona and Marcos de Aramburu. Bazán learned that the English were patrolling around the northern Azores. In late August 1591, having been joined by 8 Portuguese flyboats under Luis Coutinho, the Spanish fleet came upon the English. Howard's fleet was caught while undergoing repairs and when the crews, many of whom were suffering an epidemic of fever, were resting ashore.

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