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
2nd Spanish Armada reluctantly cancelled the enterprise on 13 November. The disaster was ruinous in terms of finance as the ships "La Capitana de Levante" and "Santiago", each transporting the paychests of 30,000 ducats, were lost. The Armada was to winter in Spain and to depart the following spring, without further diversions or postponements. A great fear then gripped Galicia in January 1597 that the English navy would possibly show up at any moment, a situation similar to that in 1589. The Armada was rebuilt in El Ferrol with the help of replacement artillery and monies recovered from the shipwrecks. The Spanish authorities