Battle of Flores Spanish history [1591] Actions Cite verifiedCite While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Select Citation Style MLA APA Chicago Manual of Style Copy Citation Share Share Share to social media Facebook X URL https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Flores-1591 Give Feedback Feedback Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Feedback Type Select a type (Required) Factual Correction Spelling/Grammar Correction Link Correction Additional Information Other Your Feedback Submit Feedback Thank you for your feedback Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

　　Print Cite verifiedCite While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Select Citation Style MLA APA Chicago Manual of Style Copy Citation Share Share Share to social media Facebook X URL https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Flores-1591 Feedback Written by R.G. Grant R.G. Grant is a historian who has written extensively on many aspects and periods of history. R.G. Grant Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Last Updated: Jun 28, 2024 • Article History Table of Contents

　　Flores Island: Ponta Delgada See all media Date: August 30, 1591 - August 31, 1591 (Show more) Location: Azores Flores Island Portugal (Show more) Participants: Spain England (Show more) Key People: Sir Richard Grenville Thomas Howard, 1st earl of Suffolk (Show more) See all related content → The Battle of Flores, fought August 30–31, 1591, between Spain and England off Flores Island in the Azores, was a Spanish victory, showing the resurgence of Spain’s naval power after the debacle of the 1588 armada. For the English, the heroic fight put up by Richard Grenville’s Revenge became a national legend, commemorated in Tennyson’s poem “The Revenge.”

　　The Azores were a favorite theater for English raids in the decade before and for several years after the defeat of the armada, with captains such as Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh regularly preying on Spanish and Portuguese shipping. Now, led by Thomas Howard, an English squadron of 16 ships sailed to the Azores in the mid-Atlantic, hoping to intercept the annual Spanish treasure fleet laden with silver and gold from the Americas. For months they waited for the treasure ships in vain, their crews progressively depleted by disease. Meanwhile, Spain organized a powerful fleet numbering 53 ships under the command of Admiral Alonso de Bazán to attack Howard’s squadron.

　　Britannica Quiz A History of War The English, many of them still ill with fever, were taking on water at Ponta Delgada on Flores Island, the westernmost of the Azores, when the Spanish arrived on August 30. Although Bazán tried to trap them with a pincer movement, all of the English ships slipped away except one. Lagging behind, Grenville’s Revenge was rammed by a Spanish galleon and surrounded by enemy warships. Grenville was a fighting man with a fearsome reputation, and his ship was credited as the finest galleon in the English navy, having served as Drake’s flagship during the fight with the armada. Grenville fought off Spanish boarding parties and kept his men firing, taking on five enemy ships simultaneously and succeeding in sinking one of them. The battle lasted fifteen hours. On the morning of August 31, with further resistance impossible, Grenville gave the order to blow up his shattered ship rather than surrender. His crew refused to obey. Gravely wounded, Grenville had the chagrin of seeing his ship taken over by the Spanish before he died of his injuries two days later. Bazán’s flotilla rendezvoused with the treasure fleet a week later, and the combined fleet of some 140 ships sailed to Spain. They never succeeded in taking Revenge home as a prize, however; the ship sank in an Atlantic storm near the island of Terceira en route, with all of its Spanish crew and their English prisoners perishing.

　　The following year Drake returned with a small fleet, its command later assumed by Martin Frobisher, that seized a Portuguese treasure ship and damaged but did not sink several other Spanish and Portuguese vessels off Flores. English warships would continue to harass shipping off the Azores until England and Spain signed a peace treaty in 1604.

　　Losses: English, 1 ship captured; Spanish, 1 ship sunk.

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