Siege of Coruña
The Siege of Coruña, also known as the Defense of Corunna, was a series of military encounters between the English Armada, also known as the Counter Armada or the Drake-Norris Expedition, a revenge English expedition within the Anglo-Spanish war, and the defenders of the fishermen's city of Corunna in Galicia on May 1589. The siege was the first interaction between the Drake-Norris Expedition and the Spanish troops and set the tone for the rest of the campaign. Drake and Norreys had orders to attack Santander, where most of the surviving galleons from the  Spanish Armada were being kept, and destroy the Spanish fleet. Drake chose to ignore them, alleging unfavorable winds and too much risk of becoming embayed by the Spaniards in the Bay of Biscay. He headed in a different direction and attacked Corunna instead. It is not completely clear why he did this, even though the winds seem like a poor excuse. His behavior suggests that his goal in taking the city was either getting a base or loot. He might have been gathering supplies for a long struggle in Santander. He might also have confused the Tower of Hercules, a  Roman lighthouse by the city of Coruña, with a tower either made of gold or filled with gold. In the Middle Ages famous Viking Bjorn Ragnarsson reportedly disembarked in the little village of Coruña -then called Faro- in a state of great joy and excitement because he thought he had seen a tower made of gold from his ship. In the 16th century there were various (completely false) rumours circulating along the Atlantic coast of Europe about a tower in Corunna filled with American gold, probably based on the accounts of travelers who saw the Tower of Hercules lighthouse and  made the same mistake than (it is said) Ragnarsson made. Contendants. The English Armada arrived fresh for its first encounter in the Spanish coast. It was considerably larger than the 130-ship-strong Spanish Armada. Drake commanded 150 ships, 200 if the auxiliary boats and similar vessels are included in the count. It was made up of six Royal galleons, 60 English armed merchantmen, 60 Dutch flyboats and about 20 pinnaces. It transported 23,375 soldiers. In addition to the troops, there were 4,000 sailors and 1,500 officers and gentlemen adventurers. Drake assigned his vessels to five squadrons, led respectively by  himself in the "Revenge", Sir John Norreys in the "Nonpareil", Norreys' brother Edward in the "Foresight", Thomas Fenner in the "Dreadnought", and Roger Williams in the "Swiftsure". Also sailing with them — against the Queen's express orders - was the Earl of Essex and the pretender to the Portuguese throne supported by England. When the expedition arrived, Corunna was a small fishermen city with a healthy commerce due to the frequency with which ships stopped in its harbor, but not many permanent inhabitants. At that time the army was concentrated in Santander, where an attack was expected, and the rest of  the region was almost defenseless. To face the English Armada the city only counted with one galleon ("San Juan", with 50 cannons ), the small galleon "San Bernardo", which couldn't sail at the time, two galleys ("Diana" and "Princesa" with 20 cannons each), and two other smaller ships ("San Bartolomé" with 20 cannons and the urca "Sansón" with none). Regarding infantry, a combination of militia, hidalgos and the few available soldiers summed up to 1500 men, much of them with questionable levels of military training, except for the seven companies of old tercios who happened to be resting in the  city after their return from war. Of course, it also had the medieval city walls, built in the 13th century, and a couple of medieval fortifications built around the river at the same period. The Spanish soldiers were led by José Pacheco, Marques de Cerralbo, the governor of Corunna and Álvaro Troncoso. Landing. The English Armada arrived on May 4. Initially, 8000 soldiers disembarked in the beach of Santa María de Oza lead by Norreys. Álvaro de Troncoso y Ulloa came out to meet him with the 150 tercio's arquebusiers he had available, to defend the beach. They spread  out to give the impression of a much larger number and opened heavy fire over the 8000 soldiers. Troncoso was familiar with the local geography, even if the arquebusiers were not, and under his command the Spaniards moved around quickly, effectively disconcerting the attackers and forcing them to retreat back towards the ships. This gave enough time for the lighthouse fire to be lighted as an alert for the entire region. Norreys's men took various loses and many were wounded; the less experienced soldiers panicked under the initial disconcert. When the invaders realized how many enemies they were really  facing, Norreys ordered his men to surround the Spanish, who immediately retreated towards the little Fort of Malvecín, near the "wall of the fish market". Their ability to repel the first English attack was a huge morale boost for the retreating defenders. The English troops landed once again and explored the beach. They found and captured the "San Bernardo", which was being repaired. They stole the ship's cannons, and disembarked the artillery from their own ships at night in large barges. The galleys "Princesa" and "Diana" engaged the barges, but with little effect. Assuming (correctly), from the previous encounter , that the city had no significant military presence, the invaders carried all the artillery pieces to the walls by the fishermen markets the following day, and started the process of weakening the walls. They were allowed to do so without interruption, until they suddenly found themselves under heavy fire from the medieval Castle of San Anton and from the ships "San Juan" and "San Bartolomé". The struggle between the two ships and the English artillery batteries was fierce. Norreys's men took heavy losses, and at least two English cannons were put out of action. They then tried to board  the ships from land, unsuccessfully. After a long struggle, Norreys gradually got the upper hand. A group of about fourteen soldiers managed to board the "San Juan". Given the state of the ship, the Spanish gathered the gunpowder until the English soldiers were aboard, then blew the ship up as they jumped off it; fourteen soldiers were killed in the explosion, others were injured. The "San Bartolomé" continued to fight against the entire enemy artillery for a long time still, but was finally sunk by the Spanish in a similar way, to avoid its capture, before they retreated back to  the castle. The two galleys retreated into the Mero river. The surprise factor was very effective, as it was the defenders targeting, not the ship, but the soldiers. The English troops had begun to suffer desertions. Siege. The defenders that had not participated in the fight were behind the city walls and could not assist those outside. Without the ships, the inhabitants of the lower city, outside the medieval walls, could do nothing to prevent 1.500 soldiers from circling the beach and disembarking behind the church of San Xurxo, at the feet of the "upper city", the line of the  medieval nucleus of the village, effectively surrounding them. Some sought for refuge in the Castle of San Martín, while others decided to take arms and cut through the English lines towards the upper city. The English troops took the poor neighborhoods of the lower city without much difficulty in the evening of the 5th and, on the night of the 5th, they took reprisals for the heavy casualties suffered during the two previous days on the inhabitants of the lower city and looted every patch of the city outside the walls. 400 Spaniards were killed that night, women and children  included, adding to the 100 who died fighting during the day. The reaction came the next morning when a group of 1400 voluntary men from neighboring villages, under the orders of the veteran Flanders captain Juan de Varela, who had sneaked past the English lines at night, charged towards the English troops camped in the lower city. When word of the events of the 5th spread new volunteers came from Santiago and the nearby mountains until there were 2400 Spanish in the Mount Arras, outside the city walls, and harassing Blake's men as they tried to prepare the siege . Not much compared to the more than 23000 English men on the beach, but the guerrilla strategies they used were particularly effective in the forested hills of Corunna. The naval blockade was particularly ineffective for reasons unknown to the besieging army, and there were no signs of shortage of supplies in the city. The reason was that Spanish barques regularly managed to sneak past the English fleet to gather supplies and returned to the city unnoticed. The two galleys ("Diana" and "Princesa") managed to fled away unmolested, but failed to sail back with reinforcements as intended. Despite the huge numbers  of the besieging force the Spanish still managed to break the siege often and come in and out. They probably had a better supply system than the English Armada did, since the area is poor in both food and fresh water and not too densely populated. To try to prevent the constant breaking of their siege the captains of the attackers ordered the tightening of the siege, gathering even more people more closely together. Later in the campaign, the troops suffered disease outbreaks that swapped through various ships. It is reasonable to think they originated here. Norreys decides to close  lines and focus on breaching the walls, while from the inside the defenders kept attacking constantly. It is said that for days the entire city took turns to eat and sleep, while they spent the rest of the time defending the walls and repairing cracks in them. Two attempts at assaulting the walls were repelled by the inhabitants of the city, while the stress caused by the stalk, hit and run strategies carried out by Valera's men really affected the morale of Blake's men. On the 12th a mine was detonated. The medieval constructions resist the blow. Breach  in the wall. After days of work and various mines, the walls crack on the 14th. [Pedro Ponce] and the citizens covering that side of the wall prevent Norrey's soldiers from advancing. Later in the evening, a second, larger crack opens on the wall. The side of the wall was covered by Troncoso and his men, who repelled the initial attack. Norreys ordered ten companies to charge in through the broken wall. He charged along with his best soldiers on the first line. They broke the resistance and entered the city followed by the bulk of the English army . The women of the city, many of whom had survived the chaos of the 5th, came to help Troncoso's men armed with pikes and knives and led by Maria Pita charged against Norreys and his soldiers. It is said that an English commander carrying a banner, who was leading the assault to the highest part of the wall, was killed by María Pita who, snatched the spear carrying the English banner from the commander and threw it at him. This demoralized the English troops, composed of 12.000 men, who began to retreat. She then appeared on the heights of  the wall herself, shouting: "Quen teña honra, que me siga" ("Whoever has honour, follow me!") whereupon the English incursion was driven back by the defenders. On the other crack on the wall Inés de Ben (a storekeeper in the lower city) lead another charge against the soldiers entering through the destroyed wall. Despite outnumbering the defenders, the English army failed to take the city. Attempts by the sea were also unsuccessful, repealed by artillery fire from the castle. On the 18th they got word of reinforcements from Santander arriving to the city and lifted the siege. Aftermath. The English army  lost over 1500 men in the siege, three large ships, and four landing barges, and had to leave without supplies and carrying hundreds of injured. The worst damage was probably to the morale of the men. After being repeatedly defeated by civilians and women, it was dangerously low. Indiscipline and discontentment increased. When Drake ordered the fleet to head to Lisbon, 1000 of his men, on ten small ships, deserted and returned to England. The human loses to the city were of about 1000 people, counting men, women, and children, plus great material damage to the lower city. At his  arrival, Philip II gave Maria Pita the rank of "permanent second lieutenant of the city", with the corresponding salary for her and for other leaders of the popular defence.