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
2nd Spanish Armada from there in 1485. Here it was believed the Spaniards would find a vast reservoir of Catholic support. Detailed charts on the ports of England and Wales had been drawn up, and other plans suggested occupying the Isle of Wight. A number of the King's advisers however saw an invasion of Ireland as a better way to destabilize England. The use of Ireland as a springboard for a new invasion was nothing new; Marquis of Santa Cruz, the first commander of the Spanish Armada, had advocated landing in Cork or Wexford in 1586. The plan was only scrapped because of