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 clear that the Spanish Armada invasion had obviously failed and some floating remains of Spanish ships were coming ashore on the English coast. The fleet, militias and troops were kept on alert but it was realized that the danger had passed and were thus disbanded for winter quarters. Troops that had arrived from the continent either returned to Holland or France once the situation had abated. Overall seven ships and around 15 other vessels were sunk; six Spanish ships in total from the armada were captured by the English all over the South West of England & West Wales. Only