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The history ofSpain–United Kingdom relations is complicated by the political and religious heritages of the two countries. Neither the United Kingdom nor Spain have a unique constitutional ancestor; Britain was originally created by a union of the kingdoms ofEngland andScotland (and later joined byIreland), whilst the Kingdom of Spain was initially created by a union of the crowns ofCastile andAragon (and later joined byNavarre). They have also been complicated by the fact that the United Kingdom and Spain were both imperial powers, often after the same land, an occurrence which is being played out to this day with the disputed ownership and status ofGibraltar.
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For centuries, the role of England, and subsequently Britain, inIberia was coloured by theAnglo-Portuguese Alliance. Relations with Portugal always have been closer than those with Spain, and Spain and Britain have gone to war twice[when?] over Portugal's independence.
In 1384, at the height of theHundred Years' War, England provided reinforcements toKing João I to thwart a French-backed Castilian invasion. These forces saw action at the decisive battle ofAljubarrota, and proved to be vital in securing the continued independence of Portugal from its larger neighbours.
The alliance submerged into crisis when Portugal supportedJoan of Castile instead of her auntIsabella I of Castile during theWar of the Castilian Succession of 1474–1479, because France also supported Joan's candidature. In the following years, the English collaborated with theCatholic Monarchs -Rodrigo González de la Puebla was sent to London as their first semi-permanent ambassador, their daughterCatharine of Aragon married Henry VII's sonsArthur andHenry and a small group of English soldiers even fought on the Castilian side during theconquest of Granada. However, the struggle ofElizabeth I of England againstPhilip II of Spain in the sixteenth century led to renewed English support of the Portuguese independence movement that started in 1640 with the crowning of KingJoão IV of Portugal. England'ssupport for Portugal during theirRestoration War further soured Anglo-Spanish relations. England nevertheless meditated theTreaty of Lisbon of 1668 between Portugal and Spain, which saw the independence of the former and the recognition ofPedro II as King.
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In following centuries, Portugal and Britain were closely allied in their politics and wars against Spain, which closely collaborated with France after theSpanish War of Succession (1700–1714) that established theHouse of Bourbon on the Spanish throne. The alliance was renewed in the face of Spain supporting France as an ally and the renewal of theirBourbon compact in theSeven Years' War. In this war Spain agreed to attack Portugal and thusinvaded in 1762 with a large army. British troops numbering near 10,000 came to aid the Portuguese. In spite of three attempts the Spanish along with their French ally were heavily defeated losing in total upwards of 25,000 men.
No further action between the powers took place until 1797 with theFrench Revolutionary Wars. Once again Spain and France were allied against Portugal and Britain. TheNapoleonic Wars however saw Spain and Portugal along with Britain being allies in their fight against Napoleon after he tried occupying Spain in thePeninsular War.
During the 16th century (1500–1599) there were complex political, commercial, and cultural connections that linked the large powerful Spanish Empire under the Habsburgs with a small but ambitious England.[1] The Habsburgs sought allies against France. Both countries were constantly in turmoil or allied in a love-hate relationship. The marriage of the Catholic sovereigns –Philip II and Mary Tudor– in 1554 was the high point in a century of negotiations, wars and treaties. Philip and Mary got along personally, but there were no children and their retainers displayed mistrust and the marriage lacked in ceremonies and entertainments. The death of Queen Mary brought the protestant Queen Elizabeth to the throne, and the two friendly nations became hostile enemies.[2]
Henry VIII of England, who had made a political match withCatherine of Aragon (a marriage that was later annulled by Henry), made a series of short-lived alliances withCarlos I against France during theItalian War of 1521 and theItalian War of 1542.Philip II of Spain marriedMary I of England, making Philip king of Spain and of England and Ireland. Mary's early death without issue prevented a closerpersonal union of the countries.
The "Treasure Crisis" of 1568 was Elizabeth's seizure of gold from Spanish ships in English ports in November 1568. Chased by privateers in the English channel, five small Spanish ships carrying gold and silver worth 400,000 florins (£85,000) sought shelter in English harbours at Plymouth and Southampton. The English government headed byWilliam Cecil gave permission. The money was bound for theSpanish Netherlands as payment for Spanish soldiers who were fighting the rebels there. Queen Elizabeth discovered that the gold was not owned by Spain, but was still owned by Italian bankers. She decided to seize it, and treated as a loan from the Italian bankers to England. The bankers agreed to her terms and she eventually repaid the bankers. Spain reacted furiously, and seized English property in the Netherlands and Spain. England reacted by seizing Spanish ships and properties in England. Spain reacted by imposing an embargo preventing all English imports into the Netherlands. The bitter diplomatic standoff lasted for four years.[3] However neither side wanted war, so in 1573 at theConvention of Nymegen England promised to end support for raids on Spanish shipping by English privateers such asFrancis Drake andJohn Hawkins. It was finalised in the Convention of Bristol in August 1574 in which both sides paid for what they had seized. Trade resumed between England and Spain and relations improved.[4]
In 1585, relations between England and Spain worsened afterMary, Queen of Scots was beheaded whom the latter had supported. King Philip II of Spain ordered an invasion of England and set about building what would become the Spanish Armada at the naval shipyards of Cádiz. Elizabeth once again authorized Francis Drake to disrupt Spanish shipping - he sackedSanto Domingo andCartagena, which became the opening salvo of theAnglo-Spanish War (1585–1604). Further disruption then took place at Cadiz in 1587; Drakesinged the King of Spain’s beard and over 100 Spanish ships were destroyed, delaying the launch of the Armada by a year. The English also captured 2,900butts ofSherry(vino de Jerez) which later fuelled the popularisation of the drink in England.
After almost two years of preparation, theSpanish Armada was ready to sail. Its 154 ships carried 19,000 soldiers (17,000 Spanish, 2,000 Portuguese) and 8,000 sailors, as well as 180 clerics who were to help reestablish Catholicism in England. The plan was for the Spanish Armada to sail up theEnglish Channel in a crescent formation to clear a path for the entry of army troops stationed in the Netherlands. The first attempt to sail in May 1588 ended when the Spanish Armada ran into storms and the fleet lost five ships.
Storms forced the fleet to stay put atA Coruña until July. Finally, they reachedLizard Point on July 19. The English fleet was atPlymouth and followed the Armada up the Channel. The first encounter was off Plymouth, July 21, the second offPortland Bill, July 23, the third off theIsle of Wight, July 24. The Armada was not seriously damaged and its formation remained intact. On July 27, the Armada had reached theStrait of Dover and anchored offCalais. The next day, the English set several of their ships on fire and sent them out to the English Channel, hoping they would destroy the ships of the Spanish fleet. The ships of the Armada cut their cables thus losing their anchors and scattered throughout the Channel breaking the crescent formation the fleet needed to maintain until troops arrived from the Netherlands. The English attacked the vulnerable Spanish ships at this conflict, known as the Battle of Gravelines on July 29. Lord Howard of Effingham's English warships fired at will, sinking one ship. Philip II's invasion was foiled, and the Armada was forced to push on into theNorth Sea. The voyage home proved costly, stormy waters claiming some 60 ships and thousands of lives.
England sent out its ownarmada the following year, in the hope that the Portuguese would rise up against the Spanish crown and to inflict further losses on the anchored Spanish fleet. The venture however failed and endured heavy losses.
A new front opened in the war between Spain and England, the coast of northern France. In 1590, the Spanish occupiedBrittany from where they had a base to attackCornwall. French and English forcescaptured Fort Crozon which secured the major port ofBrest. Nevertheless the Spanish mountedone such raid in 1595;Mousehole,Newlyn andPenzance were sacked and burned.[5] This event marked the last time England was ever invaded by hostile forces. The following year the English launched amajor raid against Cadiz. The attack saw the city's capture, sacking and a two week occupation. The economic losses caused by this were numerous: the city was burned and the raid contributed to Spain's declaration of bankruptcy the following year.
In retaliation the Spanish attempted an invasion of the British isles; theSecond Spanish Armada set sail in October 1596 but this hit a storm off Cape Finesterre and sailed back to port heavily ravaged. A year later the English led by the Earl of Essex a year later set out the Azores tointercept a Spanish treasure fleet but encountered very little. At the same time anotherSpanish attempt took place hoping to intercept the returning English fleet as well as invade the West of the British isles but this failed due to storms and bad luck.
Thefinal Spanish armada took place in 1601 and although depleted from storms, managed to make landfall in Southern Ireland. Their aim was to assist the Irish rebel earls led byHugh O'Neill in therebelling against the English Crown. The English howeverbesieged the 4,000 Spaniards at Kinsale. Cut off by the English Navy the Spanish surrendered the following year which ended further operations.
Peace between England and Spain was finallysigned in 1604 when KingJames I, son of Mary, Queen of Scots, succeeded the childless Elizabeth to the throne.[6] Both England and Spain ran into serious debt as a result of the war. Spain would declare bankruptcy again five years after the peace but would be able to consolidate and strengthen its Empire in the New World. The English too would prosper - they began to colonize North America, and theEast India Company which had been formed later in the war soon began to breach the Spanish and Portuguese trade monopoly.[7]
In April 1655, an English expeditionary force unsuccessfully attacked Santo Domingo.[8][9][10] The expeditionary force nevertheless was able to mount a successfulinvasion of Jamaica the following month. The Spanish tried twice to recapture the island but both times (1657 and1658) they were defeated. The island was transformed into anEnglish colony but was still a threat from the Spanish.
In 1657, England formed an alliance with France, merging the Anglo–Spanish war with the largerFranco-Spanish War which saw theconquest of Dunkirk. Although the Anglo-Spanish war was terminated after theRestoration ofKing Charles II in 1660, no treaty had been signed. England then gave full support to the Portuguese in 1662 who werefighting for their independence. In addition tensions in the Caribbean centred on England's hold of Jamaica - privateers, notablyHenry Morgan led devastating raids on the Spanish Main, including thenotorious raid on Panama which took place after peace had been made.
The conflict officially ended with two peace treaties which were signed atMadrid in1667 and1670 both of which were favourable to England - for one the Spanish finally ceded Jamaica.[11]
TheWar of the Spanish Succession (1701–14) saw the invasion of Spain by theHoly Roman Empire (mainlyAustria andPrussia, as well as other minor German states),Great Britain, theDutch Republic, theDuchy of Savoy and Portugal in an attempt to force theHabsburg candidate onto the Spanish throne instead of theDuc of Anjou, a member of theHouse of Bourbon. The later had been left as successor to the crown in the testament ofCharles II, who had died without issue. As aftermath of this war, that featured both an international dimension and a domestic civil conflict, the Bourbons held the Crown while Spain lostMenorca andGibraltar to the British.[12]
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TheTreaty of Utrecht that ended the War of Spanish succession was followed within two years by the death of the French KingLouis XIV. This fundamentally changed the European system.Louis XV was in his minority when he ascended to the French throne, and in response, Philip V attempted to make Spain the dominant continental power. This began with theWar of the Quadruple Alliance (1718–1720), in which Great Britain and France were allies against Spain when Spain attempted to reclaim territories in Italy.
Where continental Europe had been the focus of the conflict between Great Britain and France during the War of Spanish Succession, conflicts between Great Britain and Spain were largely focused in the Caribbean, and in North America. The British had been relatively late to settle on the continent, but had built up a number of successful colonies with rapidly expanding populations. They began to challenge the Spanish monopoly on trade inSouth America, which the Spanish tried to prevent by passing laws against non-Spanish traders. These longstanding policies had proved a source of conflict in the mid 17th century, and again became a source of conflict after the Treaty of Utrecht included anAsiento which allowed theSouth Sea Company to trade with Spain's South American colonies. In theAnglo-Spanish War (1727–1729), the Royal Navy launched unsuccessful operations againstBlockade of Porto Bello. Spain in turnattempted to retake Gibraltar hoping that the Holy Roman Empire would join in their side. However the siege was a costly failure and British diplomacy enabled Austrian non aggression. With Austria out Spain was forced to sign thetreaty of Seville.
Spain and Britain for the next 15 years were at peace with Britain even supporting Spain during theWar of the Polish Succession.[13] Nevertheless there were still tensions between the two countries. Things came to a head when news of a Welsh trader, CaptainRobert Jenkins, had his ear cut off as a punishment in 1731 which later caused outrage in Britain when he testified at a hearing in the house of commons seven years later. This ultimately among other things led to theWar of Jenkins' Ear, an element of the widerWar of the Austrian Succession.
The British started the war bycapturing and sacking Porto Bello, a major Spanish trading and naval base. The British triumph was hailed throughout its empire, and a number of streets are still namedPortobello. However, in the spring of 1741 a British expeditionary force attempted tocapture Cartagena de Indias, which failed after the force suffered heavy casualties from yellow fever.[14] All the while, Spanish vesselsmenaced commercial shipping at the mouth of theCape Fear River, seizing several ships as they entered or cleared the river. These Spanish vessels were largely manned by Black sailors.[15] For eight years, these privateers infestedNorth Carolina's waters, captured merchant vessels, ravaged the coast, plundered towns, and levied tribute on the inhabitants almost at will.[16] In the summer of 1742, the Spanish invasion ofGeorgia created such fear throughout the colony that many people fled to South Carolina or elsewhere.[17] The military activity onSt. Simons Island culminated with theBattle of Bloody Marsh and the withdrawal of the Spanish.
TheSeven Years' War lasted between 1756–1763, arrayingPrussia,Great Britain andHanover (with the British king as its prince-elector) againstAustria,France,Russia,Sweden, and most smaller German states. Spain was drawn into the conflict later in 1761, on the side of France. In this Spain agreed to attack Britain’s ally Portugal and thusinvaded in 1762 which ended in disaster. Worse was to follow - the capitals of the Spanish East & West Indies -Manila andHavana respectively were seized by the British. After the treaty of Paris in 1763 both Havana and Manila were returned in exchange for Spain cedingFlorida to Great Britain.
Hoping to gain revenge on the British for their defeat during the Seven Years' War, France offered support to rebel American colonists seeking independence from Britain during theAmerican War of Independence and in 1778 entered the war on their side. They then urged Spain to do the same, hoping the combined force would be strong enough to overcome theRoyal Navy and be able to invade England. In 1779 Spain joined the war, hoping to take advantage of a substantially weakened Britain.
A well-organised force underBernardo de Galvez operating out ofSpanish Louisiana launched a number of attacks in British colonies in theCaribbean and theGulf of Mexico, which they took with relative ease against weak British garrisons, and were planning an expedition againstJamaica when peace was declared in 1783.
In Europe, Britain's traditional alliesAustria andPortugal remained neutral, leaving them isolated. Because of this there was virtually no military activity in continental Europe aside from theGreat Siege of Gibraltar. Despite a prolonged besiegement, the British garrison there was able to hold out until relieved andThe Rock remained in British hands following theTreaty of Paris.
Unlike their French allies (for whom the war proved largely to be a disaster, financially and militarily) the Spanish made a number of territorial gains, recoveringFlorida andMenorca. Despite this there were ominous signs for the Spanish, as the combined French and Spanish fleets had been unable to gain mastery of the seas and had also failed in two of their key objectives, regainingGibraltar and aninvasion of Great Britain.
The Nootka Crisis was a crisis with Britain starting in 1789 atNootka Sound, an unsettled area at the time that is now part of British Columbia, Canada. Spain seized small British commercial ships engaged in the fur trade on an area on the Pacific Coast. Spain claimed ownership based ona papal decree of 1493 that Spain said gave it control of the entire Pacific Ocean. Britain rejected the Spanish claims and used its greatly superior naval power to threaten war and win the dispute.[18] Spain, a rapidly fading military power, was unable to depend upon its longtime ally France, which was torn by internal revolution. The dispute was settled by negotiations in 1792–94 known as theNootka Convention which became friendly when Spain switched sides in 1792 and became an ally of Britain against France. Spain surrendered to Britain many of its trade and territorial claims in the Pacific, ending a two-hundred-year monopoly on Asian-Pacific trade. The outcome was a victory for mercantile interests of Britain[19] and opened the way to British expansion in the Pacific,[20][21] whilst in turn it was an international humiliation for Spain.[22]
The aftermath of the 1789French Revolution unusually saw Britain and Spain as allies for the first time in well over a century. After KingLouis XVI of France was executed in 1793 Britain joined Spain in a growing coalition of European states trying to invade France and defeat the revolution. The coalition suffered a number of defeats at the hands of the French and soon broke up. Spain, influenced by the pro-FrenchManuel de Godoy, made peace in 1795 while Britain continued to fight on. In 1796 Spain signed theTreaty of San Ildefonso and aligned with the French against the British.[citation needed]
At the start of theNapoleonic Wars, Spain again found itself allied with France, and theSpanish Navy suffered several defeats at British hands, notably at theBattle of Trafalgar. During theFrench Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, British forces made several attempts to capture Spanish territories. In 1797, a British expeditionary force underRalph Abercrombycaptured Trinidad but then failed tocapture Puerto Rico. A British fleet underHoratio Nelson led afailed attack on Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the same year, though in 1798 British forcesoccupied Menorca. In 1806 and 1807, the British launchedtwo failed invasions of the River Plate in South America.[citation needed]
Napoleon moved into Spain in 1807, hoping that French control of Iberia would facilitate the war with the United Kingdom. He tried to force Portugal to accept theContinental System, and to place his brotherJoseph onthe Spanish throne.[23] In 1808, theDos de Mayo Uprising led to war breaking out between the Spanish and French troops occupying Spain, with the former allying with Britain. From 1808 to 1814, a Coalition army consisting of British, Portuguese and Spanish troops under the command of theDuke of Wellington eventually drove the French out of Spain as part of thePeninsular War. Spanish troops joined the British as they launched aninvasion of south-west France, which ended in April 1814 after Napoleonabdicated at Fontainebleau on 11 April.[24][25]
In the 19th century, theBritish Empire was at the height of its power, and the United Kingdom sought to end theAtlantic slave trade, which the United Kingdom and the United States separately had outlawed in 1807.
At the 1817London Conference, the British pressured the major European colonial powers, including Spain, to agree to abolish the slave trade. Under the agreement, Spain agreed to end the slave trade north of the Equator immediately, and south of the Equator by 1820. British naval vessels were given the right to search suspected slavers. Despite overwhelming British naval supremacy, the trade continued. In 1835, the Anglo-Spanish agreement on the slave trade was renewed, and the rights of British captains to board and search Spanish ships were expanded. Mixed British-Spanish commissions were established atFreetown andHavana. Vessels carrying specified 'equipment articles' (including extra mess gear, lumber, foodstuffs) were declaredprima facie to be slavers. However, after theFirst Carlist War, the leverage afforded by British political support for the Spanish government declined, and the British abolitionist movement focused on theUnited States andBrazil. Slavery was abolished in Spain's main Caribbean colony,Cuba, in 1888, over fifty years after the practice was outlawed across the British Empire.
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During theCarlist Wars that raged off and on 1833 to 1876, Spain was wracked by civil war, as a result of a power struggle between the royal heir, Isabella andCarlists, led by the pretender,Don Carlos, her uncle. Fearing a resurgent theocratic Spain, the possible re-emergence of long-silent pretenders to the British throne, a new Spanish monarch that might refuse to accept the independence of Spain's lost Latin American colonies, and domestic secessionism (particularly amongst Irish Catholics), the United Kingdom steadfastly supported Isabella who was a liberal instead of the Carlist pretenders who were reactionaries.[citation needed]
In 1835, the United Kingdom instigated the foundation of theQuadruple Alliance, between the United Kingdom, Spain, France, and Portugal, which supportedQueen Isabella's reign. TheDuke of Wellington advocated nonintervention, in the expectation that with limited material support from its allies the Spanish government could win the First Carlist War (1833–40). In Spain, British Commissioner Edward Granville Eliot stressed London's desire for peace without British or French involvement. He facilitated a convention to humanize the treatment of prisoners of war. Wellington's policy helped stabilize Portugal and improved British relations with other powers.[26]
During theFirst Carlist War, the United Kingdom subsidised the Spanish armed forces, just as it had done during the Peninsular War. This was vital to the Spanish war economy, as, since the Napoleonic Wars, the Spanish armed forces had been poorly funded, a legacy of the loss of the majority of Spain's colonial empire. Furthermore, the UK provided a large direct military contribution; the 10,000-strongBritish Auxiliary Legion, led byGeorge de Lacy Evans, saw action inNavarre and contributed greatly to the suppression of the revolt.
During 1865-1876 the United Kingdom sought to calm the Peninsula. The issues were many: Spain tried to unite with Portugal; there was internal strife in Spain over the throne; and France and Germany argued over the Spanish succession in 1870. Furthermore there was a "War-in-Sight" crisis of 1875, problems in Morocco, religious intolerance, and the usual issues of trade, which British merchants dominated. London opposed the union of Spain and Portugal because it wanted to keep Portugal as a loyal ally with its strategic location in the Atlantic. The United Kingdom held Gibraltar but it was not yet a fully satisfactory base. The unsuccessful attempts after September 1868 to find a successor to Queen Isabella who would satisfy the French, Germans, Portuguese, Austrians, Italians, and Spanish kept British diplomats busy with peacemaking moves in many capitals. With British help, Spain slowly ceded control of Morocco to France. Spanish anti-Protestant intolerance troubled British merchants and bankers, so Spain softened religious intolerance. For the most part British diplomats were able to defuse tensions and defend British interests in the Peninsula.[27]
During the turn of the 19th century, Anglo-Spanish relations were at a low point. The British press included Spain within the group of decaying nations after theSpanish–American War, something which the Prime Minister hinted at in a May 1898 speech. Conversely, the Spanish press expressed support for theBoers in their struggle against the British during theSecond Boer War, reflecting the sentiment of much of Europe at the time.[28]
Spain remained neutral in theFirst World War. It was unprepared to fight and was torn between factions favouring France and those favouring Germany.[29]
During theSpanish Civil War, 1936–1939, the Conservative government in London was neutral, and took the lead in an arms embargo against both theRepublican government andFranco's Nationalists. However Germany, Italy and the USSR defied the embargo and British Communists organized volunteers for theInternational Brigades that fought on the Republican side. Many Conservative leaders believed the Republican government in Madrid was the puppet of extreme left Socialists and Communists.[30] Accordingly, the British Cabinet adopted a policy of benevolent neutrality towards the military insurgents, with the covert aim of avoiding any direct or indirect help to the Popular Front Government.[31] Franco had substantial support from Germany and Italy and after 1940 was pressured to joinWorld War II. His terms were too high for Hitler to accept; meanwhile the United Kingdom made a strong, successful effort to keep Spain neutral.[32] Following Franco's triumph in the Spanish Civil War, the British government decided to recognize Franco's government as the legitimate government of Spain, and this recognition was granted in February 1939.
Many historians argue that the British policy of non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War was a product of the Establishment's anti-Communism. Scott Ramsay (2019) instead argues that the United Kingdom demonstrated a “benevolent neutrality”. It was simply hedging its bets, avoiding favouring one side or the other. The goal was that in a future European war the United Kingdom would enjoy the ‘benevolent neutrality’ of whichever side won in Spain.[33]
During World War II, Spanish nationals were among the prisoners of Germanforced labour camps in theoccupied Channel Islands.[34][better source needed]
Wars between the British and the Spanish include:
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