Maritime history of England Instructions were issued in 1653 and Sailing Instructions in 1673. During the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) the French fleet was initially stronger than that of the English, but the former was almost completely destroyed at the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Many other sea battles were fought in this period. The Spanish Armada was the Spanish fleet that sailed against England under the command of Alonso de Guzmán El Bueno, 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1588. It was sent by King Philip II of Spain to take the Duke of Parma's army from the Spanish Netherlands to a landing
Spanish Armada in Ireland south, in 1853, an anchor was recovered from another unknown Armada wreck. In the summer of 2014, a new initiative to locate the remains of "San Marcos", commences dive operations. The initiative called the San Marcos Project has assembled a group of academics, scientists and divers, employing cutting edge search and survey techniques. www.sanmarcos.ie "The Grainuaile Suite" (1985), an orchestral treatment of the life of the Irish sea-queen Gráinne O'Malley by Irish composer Shaun Davey, contains a lament on the Spanish landings in Ireland, sung by Rita Connolly. The wrecking of "La Girona" was commemorated in illustrations of the Armada