Spanish historians preferred a sparer version of Philip’s reaction to the Armada’s defeat

Evidence

But Strada was, after all, Roman born and bred, and Spanish eloquence at its best is less ornate and has a deeper more iron-throated clang. Perhaps that is why, from the later seventeenth century on, Spanish historians preferred a variant version. The build-up, the frightened Secretaries, the serenely toiling King, the courier’s grim news, all these are the same, but before he takes up his pen again the King says only: ‘I sent my ships to fight against men, and not against the winds and waves of God.’ — Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 874

Categorization

• XREF: The famous ‘winds and waves of God’ line connects to later English lore about God’s Protestant wind, and to the legend-making process of national memory. — connects to: Philip resolved to rebuild the Armada within weeks of defeat — Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 877; The defeat jolted Philip out of a trance into renewed caution — Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 883
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 874