3rd Spanish Armada Spain, the English signed the Triple Alliance with the Dutch republic and France. England had sent an armada the next year under the Earl of Essex and Charles Howard to Cadiz which was captured and sacked. An angered Philip soon after took into consideration the defence of the peninsula. In a wave of revenge after the defeat at Cadiz, Philip II sent out orders for a large armada to do the same to England by way of taking the French port of Brest. Just after they set off however the fleet was obliterated in autumn storms off Cape Finisterre causing
3rd Spanish Armada the religious war in France in support of the Catholic League, meant that the Spanish had established coastal garrisons along the French and Flemish coast by the 1580s. These bases had a huge strategic value because they allowed England to be threatened by the Spanish fleet and troops. Meanwhile, England also intervened in France, but in support of King Henry IV of France, by the Treaty of Greenwich. The Spaniards had captured Calais in 1596 which meant that an invasion of England could be more achievable. As a result, after desperate French demands to keep her from signing peace with