2nd Spanish Armada religion, Spanish intervention and not to make peace with Elizabeth. For the Spanish the strategy was simple – the war in Ireland would create a new front, hoping to draw English troops away from the fighting in the United Provinces, and from which the English would have to fight. In Spain's eyes, the English fighting on this new front was one they could not afford to do. Philip II placed great hope in the new Grand Armada that was being organised in Lisbon. There were fifteen galleons from Castile and nine from Portugal, 53 Flemish and German boats which had
2nd Spanish Armada the Treaty of Greenwich in 1591. The Spanish had captured Calais in 1596 which meant that a strike against England was potentially more achievable. After desperate French demands to keep her from signing peace with Spain, the English signed the Triple Alliance with the Dutch republic and France. England had sent an armada under Robert Devereux and Charles Howard to Cadiz, which was captured, sacked and held for two weeks in the summer of 1596. Philip soon after took into consideration the defence of the peninsula but most of all sought revenge even if it meant selling everything he had.