Spanish Armada Philip expressing grave doubts about the planned campaign, but this was prevented from reaching the King by courtiers on the grounds that God would ensure the Armada's success. Prior to the undertaking, Pope Sixtus V allowed Philip II of Spain to collect crusade taxes and granted his men indulgences. The blessing of the Armada's banner on 25 April 1588, was similar to the ceremony used prior to the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. On 28 May 1588, the Armada set sail from Lisbon and headed for the English Channel. The fleet was composed of 130 ships, 8,000 sailors and 18,000
An Admonition to the Nobility and People of England and Ireland An Admonition to the Nobility and People of England and Ireland An Admonition to the Nobility and People of England and Ireland concerning the present wars, made from the execution of his holiness' sentence, by the highe and mightie King Catholike of Spaine (1588) was written by William Cardinal Allen in an attempt to raise Elizabeth I's Catholic subjects against her while the Spanish Armada mounted their invasion of England. The publication was a scathing attack on Elizabeth, her ancestry and her legitimacy. Allen wrote that Elizabeth was "known for an incestuous bastard, begotten and born in sin of an