Maritime history only when his ship was too disabled to offer any resistance. The Spanish Armada was the Spanish fleet that sailed against England under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidona in 1588. The Spanish Armada was sent by King Philip II of Spain, who had been king consort of England until the death of his wife Mary I of England thirty years earlier. The purpose of the expedition was to escort the Duke of Parma's army of tercios from the Spanish Netherlands across the North Sea for a landing in south-east England. Once the army had suppressed English support
3rd Spanish Armada Spanish had come to intercept them, and arrived safely in England with loss of only one ship. Padilla finally ordered a retreat back to Spain. The returning English ships captured a number of Spanish ships, from which valuable information was obtained about the Armada. Panic in England then ensued, partly because the English fleet had been out to sea with the English coast virtually undefended. This caused the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I of England and the Earl of Essex to deteriorate further and Charles Howard, the 1st Earl of Nottingham, took over from Essex as commander of the English