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
2nd Spanish Armada from there in 1485. Here it was believed the Spaniards would find a vast reservoir of Catholic support. Detailed charts on the ports of England and Wales had been drawn up, and other plans suggested occupying the Isle of Wight. A number of the King's advisers however saw an invasion of Ireland as a better way to destabilize England. The use of Ireland as a springboard for a new invasion was nothing new; Marquis of Santa Cruz, the first commander of the Spanish Armada, had advocated landing in Cork or Wexford in 1586. The plan was only scrapped because of