Who was Medina Sidonia and why was he such a poor choice for his job?

Answer 1

Alonso Perez de Guzman, Duke of Medina Sidonia, was the Commander of the Spanish Armada fleet that tried to invade England in 1588. He has often been called a 'poor choice' because he had no naval experience whatsoever. But objectively speaking, he wasn't such a bad choice, really. He was an experienced soldier and General, and the aim of the Armada after all was invasion of Britain - and in that operation on dry land a good General was of more use than an experienced Admiral. In the whole operation, he was much more victim than sinner.

Apart from that, before he started out he was shrewd enough to see the several weaknesses in the whole set-up of the plan of operations and he duly reported on them to the King. But the King's courtiers intercepted the letter and it never reached him.

Thirdly, he had been given a second in command who was an experienced sea officer, and the King had expressly ordered Medina-Sidonia to follow his advice in all matters as long as there was sea-fighting or manoeuvering te be done. Unfortunately for Medina-Sidonia, this second in command (Diego Flores de Valdes) turned out to be extremely cautious. For instance, when reaching England there was a perfect chance to destroy most of the British fleet in Plymouth harbour, but King Philip had explicitly forbidden to attack there, the 'real' admiral therefore decided against it, and even better men than Medina-Sidonia would not have dared to overrule the decision of both the King and the acting admiral.

In everything that happened next, Medina-Sidinia cannot fairly be blamed. The sea battles were not conducted by him; the fact that Parma's invasion army was not at its agreed rendez-vous harbor cannot be blamed on him, nor the fact that strong winds and later, storms simply blew the Armada past the points where it could have invaded.

So the idea that the Armada failed because of the poor choice and subsequent performance of Medina-Sidonia is even today a popular one. But it is not a fair judgement.