Armada Tapestries

[2] The Queen's Surveyor of Buildings, Robert Adams, had been instructed by Effingham shortly after the battle in 1590 to make maps of the engagements between the English and Spanish navies.

His commission was also honoring the concept of a "Royal Navy" led by Elizabeth I by bestowing upon her the role of national, religious and military leader.

These included: Christopher Baker; George Beeston; Charles Blount; Robert Carey; Captain Crosse; the Earl of Cumberland; Francis Drake; Charles Howard, Lord Effingham; Martin Frobisher; Thomas Garrat; Benjamin Gonson; John Hawkins; Edward Hoby; Lord Thomas Howard; Master Knyvet; the Earl of Northumberland; Horatio Palavicino; George Pinner; Captain Penton; Lord Henry Seymour; Lord Sheffield; Robert Southwell; Thomas Cecil; Roger Townshend; Thomas Vavasour; Master Willoughby; and William Wynter.

[2] The tapestries had already been displayed in the Great Hall at Whitehall Palace for the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V of the Palatinate on 14 February 1613.

[5] The tapestries were inherited by Charles I who was apparently embarrassed to be reminded of his unsuccessful expedition to Spain in 1623, and he had them moved to Oatlands.

The Council of State decided to retain the tapestries of "the story of the eighty eight" for Oliver Cromwell's use at Whitehall Palace.

Queen Anne (1665-1714) in the House of Lords , by Peter Tillemans , a circa 1710 painting of the House of Lords showing the tapestries as they hung until they burned in 1834. Rather typically for the period, sconces have been fixed through them.
The English engage the Spanish fleet near Plymouth on 31 July 1588 , one of the maps commissioned by Effingham, prepared by Robert Adams for use by Hendrick Cornelisz. Vroom, dated 1590
1588 medal by Gerard van Bylaer , produced by the Middelburg, Zeeland mint to honor God and Maurice of Orange , not the English fleet, for delivering the United Provinces from the Spanish Armada
Copley's Collapse of Chatham in 1778 (1781) shows the tapestries with some of the border portraits behind the gathered lords
19th-century painted reproduction by Richard Burchett after the 1834 fire, based on Pine's 1739 print of the second tapestry