El Felicissima Armada

"I sent my ships to fight against the English, not against the elements."

Phillip II (1588, allegedly),
King of Spain, Naples, Sicily, Portugal and the Algarves

Well, finally I'm showing off:

During Nanowrimo 2007, I'll be jumping 21 centuries to the future, and I'll be writing a Historical Novel (not Science Fiction, eh?) about the events of the:

Spanish Armada (so-called "Invincible"), what Spaniards called la Empresa de Inglaterra (the England Venture) and el Felicissima Armada or Gran Armada (the "Happiest" Armada, actually a Fleet, or Great Armada).

Do not think, however, that this will be a Victorian Era novel: it will be a Phillipian Era novel! (Let's end with the British-centric POV, shall we? :-) I'll be fending off the Black Legend (wikipedia) as well: I'll try to be true to the past.

Alright, what do you think? This was my first HF idea, so many years ago. I even started to write it, but it's a pretty daunting venture (pun intended), and I preferred to get some experience writing before getting my hands on this one. Besides, I have so many wonderful ideas when studying my favorite time periods well before now (specially my preferred Near East cultures!) that I have a couple of pretty interesting novels I will be finishing, anyway. Eventually.

But, November will be a time for fire and powder, gales and battles, hardships and illusions. November will be the time for glory.

I do hope to make a good one about this, I have a couple of novel ideas about the storytelling, and everybody I have talked to has thought it sounded pretty good, we'll see.

Be ready (be warned), from now on, to read on this blog, about sails, cannons, muskets, and most things seafaring related.

And now, a beautiful (if rather partial) gift by Dutch painter Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg, which depicts the Battle of Gravelines (courtesy of Wikipedia):


Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 8 August 1588 (1796)

Be well, KALLISTI!

PS- please note that the Spanish name is correctly written, even if armada is feminine, they did used the masculine form of the determined article, el (don't ask me why, it's in the records)... I think we should be historically true when it doesn't get in the middle of understanding; I mean, my overuse of Old Persian names for satrapies and peoples is probably way too much, but this must be right... :-P