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
Armada Portrait Armada Portrait The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I of England is the name of any of three surviving versions of an allegorical panel painting depicting the Tudor queen surrounded by symbols of imperial majesty against a backdrop representing the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. The combination of a life-sized portrait of Elizabeth I with a landscape format is "quite unprecedented in her portraiture", although allegorical portraits in this format, such as the "Family of Henry VIII: An Allegory of the Tudor Succession" (1572) attributed to Lucas de Heere, pre-date the "Armada Portrait". English art in this period was