Spanish Armada it up the east coast of England. The commander ordered a return to Spain, but the Armada was disrupted during severe storms in the North Atlantic and a large number of the vessels were wrecked on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland. Of the initial 130 ships over a third failed to return. As Martin and Parker explain, "Philip II attempted to invade England, but his plans miscarried, partly because of his own mismanagement, unfortunate weather, and partly because the opportunistic defensive naval efforts of the English and their Dutch allies (the use of ships set afire and sailed into
3rd Spanish Armada tons; 16 merchantmen, of 5880 tons, 52 German and Flemish hulks for stores, of 15,514 tons, and 24 caravels, pinnaces and barks. 8,634 soldiers, 4,000 sailors, a total of 12,634 men and 300 horses. In this squadron of 32 Andalusia troopships included Carlos de Amésquita who had raided Cornwall two years earlier. These carried the elite Spanish military units known as tercios, many were from the Spanish domains in Italy such as Naples and Lombardy and had rarely been beaten in battle. The Spanish Armada of 1597, as incomplete as it was, put to sea from Corunna on 18 October;