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 was chosen simply because it was closer to Spain but also could be used as a base to attack England and also to help the Irish rebels. The weather finally relented on the morning of 24 October permitting the Armada, numbering eighty-one ships, to depart the harbour of Lisbon. The fleet along with the army set sail from Lisbon on 25 October, heading towards La Coruña and sailed in safety as far as Viana do Castelo where they had to anchor and wait for a wind. When the wind came they neared Cape Finesterre, the land's end at the north-west