Spanish Armada it up the east coast of England. The commander ordered a return to Spain, but the Armada was disrupted during severe storms in the North Atlantic and a large number of the vessels were wrecked on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland. Of the initial 130 ships over a third failed to return. As Martin and Parker explain, "Philip II attempted to invade England, but his plans miscarried, partly because of his own mismanagement, unfortunate weather, and partly because the opportunistic defensive naval efforts of the English and their Dutch allies (the use of ships set afire and sailed into
3rd Spanish Armada but with a military force very different from that foreshadowed by Lopez de Soto's estimate. The Armada left Coruña and Ferrol after which a fleet under Admiral Diego Brochero was to meet another from Blavet in Brittany (under Spanish rule) with a thousand men under Pedro de Zubiaur. Zubiaur joined them for a council of war which was made to settle the final details of the landing. On 17 October 1597, after three days of sailing in good weather, the fleet arrived in the Channel, after advancing towards the English coast without opposition. As they sailed on, an English bark