Battle of Cádiz (1587)

Singeing the King of Spain's Beard
Part of the Anglo–Spanish War
Drake's map of his attack on Cádiz.
Date 12 April – 6 July 1587 Location Bay of Cádiz, Algarve, Lisbon and the Azores Result English victory
Belligerents
Habsburg Spain Portugal under Philip of Spain	Elizabethan England
Commanders and leaders
Duke of Medina Sidonia (Cádiz) Álvaro de Bazán (Lisbon)	Francis Drake
Casualties and losses
100 ships destroyed, captured or sunk	Unknown but many to disease

Habsburg Spain

Singeing the King of Spain's Beard is the name derisively given to the attack in April and May 1587 in the Bay of Cádiz, by the English privateer Francis Drake against the Spanish naval forces assembling at Cádiz. Much of the Spanish fleet was destroyed, and substantial supplies were destroyed or captured. There followed a series of raiding parties against several forts along the Portuguese coast. A Spanish treasure ship, returning from the Indies, was also captured. The damage caused by the English delayed Spanish plans to invade England by more than a year, yet did not dispel them.

In the second half of the 16th century a series of economic, political and religious circumstances created tensions in the relations between England and Spain. Protestant England came into direct confrontation with Catholic Spain; Elizabeth I of England had been excommunicated by Pope Pius V in 1570 whilst in 1584 Philip II of Spain had signed the Treaty of Joinville with the French Catholic League with the aim of eradicating Protestantism.

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