[2] After the beginning of the Age of Discovery and the European exploration of the New World, the two major naval powers of the time, Spain and Portugal, agreed to split the new territories between them.

[8] On both occasions Hawkins had traded slaves for gold, silver, pearls, hides, and sugar with several Spanish colonial settlements, with varying degrees of success.

Nevertheless, higher Spanish authorities were alarmed by this challenge to their monopoly, and the court of justice in Santo Domingo ordered any English ships in the region to be seized along with their cargoes.

[11] A seventh ship, the barque William and John, had been part of Hawkins' expedition but sailed home before the battle;[12] she reached Ireland in February 1569 but was then lost with all hands before arriving in England.

Hawkins began selling his cargoes to Spanish colonists for gold, silver, and jewels, as on his previous voyages, departing from Cartagena on 23 July.

[14] After attempting to reach the coast of Florida in August, the fleet met a powerful storm that warped the Jesus of Lübeck’s hull planking and damaged her rudder.

[15] English privateers had repeatedly ignored the Treaty of Tordesillas by attacking merchant shipping[citation needed] but Hawkins expected the Spanish would respect a truce if one was agreed.

Under the terms of the agreement the English were permitted by the Spanish to buy supplies for money, repair their ships, and occupy the island with 11 pieces of ordnance.

However, unbeknownst to Hawkins the Spanish fleet commander had been specifically charged with stopping English trade in New Spain and did not intend to honour the truce.

[17] The Spanish began secretly massing an attack force on the mainland near the harbour, with the goal of seizing the shore batteries which were defending the English ships at anchor.

Hawkins sent the captain of the Jesus of Lübeck, Robert Barret (who spoke fluent Spanish) to demand that the viceroy, Don Martin de Enriquez, disembark his men from the hulk and cease their threatening activities.

[19] The French commander of the Grace of God, Robert Blondel, set her on fire to prevent capture before joining Hawkins on board the Jesus of Lübeck.

[10] During the night Francis Drake, commanding the 50-ton Judith, abandoned the fleet and sailed for home, leaving Hawkins alone on board the overcrowded and poorly provisioned 100-ton Minion.

[30] During the night the wind shifted and, according to the royal lieutenant-governor in Vera Cruz Francisco de Bustamente, this prevented the Spanish from following the English.

[31] The drifting Jesus of Lübeck, with some of her remaining crew, was eventually seized in a second attack by the men of the hulk San Salvador, under the command of Captain Francisco de Luján.

[20] Ubilla allowed his men to loot the booty left on the Jesus of Lübeck, while Delgadillo acquired the English flagship, sold at auction on the island.

114 crew were abandoned (forced and voluntary) on the Mexican coast, attacked by Chichimecs, imprisoned by Spaniards in Tampico, and then transferred to Mexico City.

The captives were brought before the Inquisition; the eleven who had been juveniles (under 16 at the time of the battle) were deemed to have been too young to have received any Catholic catechism, and so were treated relatively leniently – for example, Miles Philips, born in 1554, was sentenced to three years in a Jesuit house in Mexico.