Spanish Armada maps go on display in Portsmouth

The ink and watercolour maps are believed to have been created the year after the battle

Hand-drawn, Elizabethan-era maps depicting the Spanish Armada are to go on public display for the first time.

The 10 maps, believed to have been drawn the year after the famous battle of 1588, were bought by the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) in 2021.

They had been sold to an overseas buyer but an export ban was imposed.

The museum said the ink and watercolour maps charted a "defining moment" in British naval history.

The English fleet defeated the Spanish Armada in the English Channel in 1588

It is believed the maps, completed by an unknown draughtsman, possibly from the Netherlands, were based on a set of engravings by Elizabethan cartographer Robert Adams.

They are thought to be the earliest surviving representations of the campaign which followed decades of hostility between Spain's Catholic King Philip II and the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I.

They show the defence of England's shores against invasion by the Spanish fleet of 141 ships and 24,000 men.

The English fleet of 66 ships defeated the Armada by sailing fire ships into its formation off Calais.

Each map details the position in the Channel of individual ships on both sides.

'Pivotal battle'

Prof Dominic Tweddle, director general of the NMRN, said the display was "hugely significant".

"The defeat of the Armada was a turning point in forging our nation's identity and the maps act as a powerful commemoration of this pivotal naval battle," he added.The maps can only be displayed for 45 days due to their fragile nature and the dangers of exposure to light.

They were initially sold for £600,000, but the government imposed an export ban and called for a museum or institution to raise funds to purchase them.

The NMRN raised the money in eight weeks, with the help of £212,800 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and £200,000 from the Art Fund.

All 10 maps will be displayed to the public from Saturday at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.