2nd Spanish Armada 1596. Spain and England had been at war for nearly twelve years with neither side gaining the upper hand. The result of the intervention of Philip II in the religious war in France in support of the Catholic League, meant that Spanish forces had established coastal garrisons along the French and Flemish coast by the late 1580s. These bases had a huge strategic value because they allowed England to be threatened by the Spanish fleet and troops. England on the other hand had also intervened in France, but in support of King Henry IV of France, as a result of
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