Drake commanded some 180 ships which was made up of six Royal galleons, 60 English armed merchantmen, 60 Dutch flyboats and about 20 pinnaces.

His behavior suggests that his goal in taking this simple fishing town was either to establish a base of operations or to raid it for booty.

[6] When the expedition arrived, Coruña was a small fishing village with a healthy economy due to the frequency with which ships stopped in its harbor, but only about 4,000 permanent inhabitants.

Regarding infantry, a combination of militia, hidalgos and the few available soldiers summed up to 1200 men, much of them with questionable levels of military training, except for the seven companies of old tercios who happened to be resting in the city after their return from war.

[9] Troncoso was familiar with the local geography, even if the arquebusiers were not, and under his command the Spaniards moved around quickly, effectively disconcerting the attackers and forcing them to retreat back towards the ships.

When the invaders realized how many enemies they were really facing, Norris ordered his men to surround the Spanish, who immediately retreated towards the little Fort of Malvecín, near the "wall of the fish market".

Norris's men took heavy losses, and at least two English cannons were put out of action[10] They then tried to board the ships from land, unsuccessfully.

The San Bartolomé continued to fight against the entire enemy artillery for a long time still, but was finally sunk by the Spanish in a similar way, to avoid its capture, before they retreated back to the castle.

[12] Some sought for refuge in the Castle of San Martín, while others decided to take arms and cut through the English lines towards the upper city.

[14] When word of the events of the 5th spread new volunteers came from Santiago and the nearby mountains until there were 2400 Spanish in the Mount Arras, outside the city walls, and harassing Blake's men as they tried to prepare the siege.

The reason was that Spanish barques regularly managed to sneak past the English fleet to gather supplies and returned to the city unnoticed.

[16] It is said that for days the entire city took turns to eat and sleep, while they spent the rest of the time defending the walls and repairing cracks in them.

The defenders anticipated the mine and shored up the turret and its wall causing the force of the explosion to be directed back at the attackers.

[20] The women of the city, many of whom had survived the chaos of 5 May, came to help Troncoso's men armed with pikes and knives and led by Maria Pita charged against Norris and his soldiers.

At the other breach, Inés de Ben (a storekeeper in the lower city) lead another charge against the soldiers entering through the destroyed wall.

[23] On 18 May English scouts soon reported a Spanish force of some 8,500 -10,000 raw levies under the command of the Andrada and Altamira which were attempting to reinforce the town, having crossed the bridge of El Burgo five miles south Coruna.

[25] With the push of the pike the English managed to drive the Spanish back over the narrow two hundred yard long bridge which spanned a river and were then able to surround and barricade them.

The English army lost over 1,500 men in the siege,[30][31] three large ships, and four landing barges,[32] and had to leave without supplies and carrying hundreds of injured.

When Drake ordered the fleet to head to Lisbon, 1,000 of his men, on ten small ships, deserted and returned to England.

At his arrival, Philip II gave Maria Pita the rank of "permanent second lieutenant of the city", with the corresponding salary for her and for other leaders of the popular defence.