[19] The result of the intervention of Philip II in the religious war in France in support of the Catholic League, meant that Spanish forces had established coastal garrisons along the French and Flemish coast by the late 1580s.

[23] England had sent an armada under Robert Devereux and Charles Howard to Cadiz, which was captured, sacked and held for two weeks in the summer of 1596.

[25] The leading English Jesuit exile in Spain, Robert Persons, went to an audience with Philip hoping to take advantage of the situation in trying to get the King to act.

[27] Persons noted that the point of entry for the Spanish would have been from Scotland, Kent, or Milford Haven in Wales, citing that Henry VII had successfully invaded from there in 1485.

[17] Philip began by ordering Martín de Padilla, the Count of Santa Gadea, the Adelantado to assemble a new fleet intending to land on Ireland in the hope of increasing the rebellion under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone.

[27] Rumours were rife and long before its actual departure, reports were reaching the Spanish authorities of the disembarkation of their troops in O'Neill's territory.

[30] In July, the Earl of Essex had been fed reports from spies and merchants that there were forty-six ships in Lisbon and that new warships were being built at many places on the Biscay coast.

Reinforcements arrived to protect the Isle of Wight, Falmouth and even the mouth of the Medway where at Chatham the English fleet lay in dock.

[9] The weather finally relented on the morning of 24 October permitting the Armada, numbering eighty-one ships, to depart the harbour of Lisbon.

[28] Forty battered vessels managed to turn back and enter the port of Ferrol, including the Adelantado in the flagship San Pablo.

[34] Meanwhile, reports of the Armada having sailed began to filter in England but also that a rumour from Ireland that one thousand five hundred Spanish had landed, with the whole island in revolt.

[35] Charles Howard sent out a powerful fleet which included thirteen galleons, to find the dismembered remainders of the armada but found only floating wreckage and bodies.

[7][9] At first the damage appeared to be minimal and Philip hoped that once the Adelantado had reassembled the ships, he could continue his voyage but as time passed the enormity of the disaster became apparent.

[10] In mid-November the nuncio sent a sorrowful summary of the facts: thirty vessels were missing, thirteen had crashed into the reefs and there were many dead from the Portuguese upper class.

[18] The disaster was ruinous in terms of finance as the ships La Capitana de Levante and Santiago, each transporting the paychests of 30,000 ducats, were lost.

[17] The shock of the disaster reverberated into every corner of Philip's dominions, loosening everywhere the frayed bonds of his system and threatened to complete what Essex's successful Cadiz campaign had left undone.

[28] After the defeat at Cadiz, bankruptcy had stared the King of Spain in the face and in the aftermath of the Armada, he was forced to suspend payment to creditors.

[17] The Armada of 1597 in the autumn was executed and despite encountering a storm which scattered the fleet, some managed to reach and in some cases land troops in Cornwall and Wales.