The army was the largest ever sent to Ireland, and was fully equipped with munitions, clothing, artillery, victuals, and ships. The expected cost of the campaign was put at £290,000 per annum, twice that of Elizabeth's Netherlands campaign. The Irish enemy was supplied from Spain and Scotland, and its troops estimated at 20-30,000, with up to half operating in the northern province of Ulster, where the crown's authority was confined to a few inland forts supplied by defended towns in the east.