3rd Spanish Armada Spain, the English signed the Triple Alliance with the Dutch republic and France. England had sent an armada the next year under the Earl of Essex and Charles Howard to Cadiz which was captured and sacked. An angered Philip soon after took into consideration the defence of the peninsula. In a wave of revenge after the defeat at Cadiz, Philip II sent out orders for a large armada to do the same to England by way of taking the French port of Brest. Just after they set off however the fleet was obliterated in autumn storms off Cape Finisterre causing
3rd Spanish Armada severe losses in ships (including a few galleons known as the Apostles), men, supplies and money. The cost was ruinous; the two ships carrying the pay-chests disappeared below the waves. The Spanish King not to be disheartened ordered another invasion despite the Cortes Generales claiming funds would not be available in time. As a result, the Cortes was asked to be dissolved by Philip and a financial crisis loomed. The Cadiz defeat, the failure of the Armada as well as the war in France and the Netherlands that year meant that Philip's nation went into bankruptcy; the third of his