In this interesting interview, he tells us how Elizabeth I of England sent a big fleet to Spain to conquer Portugal in 1589. She wanted to control the maritime routes and end the Spanish hegemony in the sea. Spain was in a defenseless situation at that time. After the failure of the Great Armada, Spain had suffered a great loss of men, and although most of the galleons had returned after the battle, they were under repair in Santander. Because of this, Isabel I planned to invade Santander and destroy them. But she failed in [Autor des1] his attempt.

As the Queen of England didn´t have a Royal Navy, she chose two pirates to command a fleet of 180 ships and more than 27,000 men[Autor des2] , called Drake and Norris. They reneged on royal orders, and decided to go to A Coruña instead of going to Santander. And then our heroine María Pita appeared at the right time.

It happened on May 14, 1589. More than 27,000 men were trying to conquer our city in which less than 6,000 people lived. Although the English soldiers took the zone called Pescaderia, the local people continued to defend the wall so that they couldn´t enter the upper city, otherwise they would be defeated. Being superior in number, the English opened a hole in the wall where the English Lieutenant was cheering his men to enter the city. Seeing him, Maria Pita didn´t hesitate. She climbed the wall and killed him. This fact paralyzed the fight for a moment and recovered the spirits of the [Autor des3] Coruñeses who repelled the enemy with renewed energy.

Maria Pita became a symbol of the courage of the women of A Coruña. They fought heroically, loaded their weapons, took apart doors and cupboards from their houses to build parapets, stoned the English and took care of the wounded. They were fighting for their houses, for their families, for their city...

After that incident she became [Autor des4] a local heroine and she had an intense life. She faced any men to protect her rights and interests. She was ahead of her time. She was an independent and sophisticated woman. She married and widowed four times. Her last husband was a noble man, who delegated all his privileges to her so that she could take her own decisions. Felipe II also recognized his service and granted her some privileges.

Unfortunately, this part of history was silenced by the English in the past. It was hidden, even in the British Encyclopedia, or in the Winston Churchill's speech as Prime Minister. At that time, the throne of Isabel I was unstable, and more propaganda was given to the failure of the Great Armada than telling all the truth about the fiasco of the Contra Armada. But actually, nothing went as it was planned for Francis Drake. He didn´t conquer Santander, A Coruña, or Lisbon (his third option), and finally he ended up in the Azores and failed in his mission.

This is known thanks to people like Luis Gorrochategui. He was researching for writing a new book. He found a lot of Spanish and Portuguese accounts and documentation of the time in the Simancas Archive, and he discovered that the history was very different from what had been told until then.

By Cris Castro

First of all, let me contextualize what happened. The English victory in the so-called Invincible Armada in 1588, somewhat bitterly due to the fact that a good part of the fleet managed to return to Spain with their crews, might go some way to explaining the attack on A Coruña the following year.

After arduous preparation, a fleet made up of seven royal galleons, sixty armed merchantmen, and numerous smaller vessels, the English expedition would approach the coast of A Coruña on May 4, 1589.

By this time, the city had two clearly differentiated parts: one was the old city, origin of the town and with a strong medieval wall as defence; a second, known as " la Pescadería ", where the fishermen and the lower classes resided. On this flat part, in the lower part of the city, the defences were much weaker. Towards that point the English, commanded by Drake, directed their attacks, with 10.000 of his men. They take control of this area “La Pescadería”

Meanwhile, Galicians, commanded by Cerralbo, mobilize all the militias and nobles in the area, bringing together 1,500 people including soldiers, militiamen and civilians. Behind the walls of the Old City, the men and women of A Coruña took refuge as best they could and offered all their resistance to the British fleet.

On the 12th the English would manage to open a breach, thus facilitating what seemed like a quick victory, something that they would not achieve due to the great effort and dedication with which men and women defended the continuous attacks of Drake´s men.

The effort was titanic and when it seemed that they were going to finally give in, a woman appeared, who had just lost her husband in the fighting, threw herself in rage and armed with a spear, against the English lieutenant who, to encourage his men, the flag of Great Britain waved in the wind. María Pita ended the life of the lieutenant and took his flag, thus charging strong spirits to the Coruña troops, who, enraged, resisted the English siege with greater ferocity.

On Wednesday the 17th, Drake and Norris realizing the futility of their efforts and fearing the arrival of more Spanish troops, the English decided to embark with the little loot they had achieved and leave as soon as possible.

Such was the courage of the defenders that they even finally defeated a much larger force and put it to flight.

And this is the real story of how María Pita would have united the population to maintain the fight against the English enemy and how this heroine pushed back the English.

By María Correa