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
2nd Spanish Armada The leading English Jesuit exile in Spain, Robert Persons, went to an audience with Philip hoping to take advantage of the situation in trying to get the King to act. Persons argued for a winter attack when the Queen would least expect it. This meant an army of moderate size rather than a vast Armada that would give away the element of surprise in which Persons referenced the failed armada in 1588. Persons noted that the point of entry for the Spanish would have been from Scotland, Kent, or Milford Haven in Wales, citing that Henry VII had successfully invaded