Spanish Armada in Ireland with the loss of about 6,000 men. By the end of September 1588 Fitzwilliam was able to report to the Queen's secretary, Lord Burghley, that the Armada alarm was over. Soon after, he reckoned that only about 100 survivors remained in the country. In 1596, an envoy of Philip II arrived in Ireland to make inquiries of survivors and was successful in only eight cases. Following the defeat of the Armada the English sent their own fleet against the Iberian peninsula, but failed to press home their advantage and returned with similar losses. At the height of the Anglo-Spanish War
2nd Spanish Armada were more concerned with defending the peninsula. 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. 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. Philip had declared the third major bankruptcy of his reign. The King desperately wanted only a postponement of the Armada not an abandonment and was obliged to borrow more money but