Spanish Armada in Ireland with the loss of about 6,000 men. By the end of September 1588 Fitzwilliam was able to report to the Queen's secretary, Lord Burghley, that the Armada alarm was over. Soon after, he reckoned that only about 100 survivors remained in the country. In 1596, an envoy of Philip II arrived in Ireland to make inquiries of survivors and was successful in only eight cases. Following the defeat of the Armada the English sent their own fleet against the Iberian peninsula, but failed to press home their advantage and returned with similar losses. At the height of the Anglo-Spanish War
Spanish Armada these waters, even though their navy was inferior in naval armament. An essential element of the plan of invasion, as it was eventually implemented, was the transportation of a large part of Parma's Army of Flanders as the main invasion force in unarmed barges across the English Channel. These barges would be protected by the large ships of the Armada. However, to get to the Armada, they would have to cross the zone dominated by the Dutch navy, where the Armada could not go. This problem seems to have been overlooked by the Spanish planners, but it was insurmountable. Because