Naval battle of Gravelines

Spanish Armada
Part of the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) and the Eighty Years' War
The Spanish Armada and English ships in August 1588, (unknown, 16th-century, English School)
Date 8 August 1587 Location North-west Europe Result Decisive Spanish defeat Militarily indecisive Spanish invasion failure Protestant propaganda victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of England  Dutch Republic	Iberian Union (Habsburg Spain)
Commanders and leaders
Lord Howard of Effingham Francis Drake John Hawkins Justinus van Nassau	Duke of Medina Sidonia Juan Martínez de Recalde Duke of Parma
Strength
34 warships 163 armed merchant vessels (30 over 200 tons) 30 flyboats	22 galleons of Portugal and Castile, 108 armed merchant vessels (including 4 war galleasses of Naples)
Casualties and losses
Battle of Gravelines: 50–100 dead 400 wounded 8 fireships burnt Disease: 6,000–8,000 dead	Battle of Gravelines: Over 600 dead 800 wounded 397 captured 5 ships sunk or captured Overall: ~35 ships lost (10 scuttled) 20,000 dead

Decisive Spanish defeat

The Spanish Armada (Spanish: Grande y Felicísima Armada, literally "Great and Most Fortunate Navy") was a Spanish fleet of 130 ships that sailed from La Coruña in August 1588, under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia with the purpose of escorting an army from Flanders to invade England. The strategic aim was to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I of England and the Tudor establishment of Protestantism in England, with the expectation that this would put a stop to English interference in the Spanish Netherlands and to the harm caused to Spanish interests by English and Dutch privateering.

The Armada chose not to attack the English fleet at Plymouth, then failed to establish a temporary anchorage in the Solent, after one Spanish ship had been captured by Francis Drake in the English Channel. The Armada finally dropped anchor off Calais. While awaiting communications from the Duke of Parma's army the Armada was scattered by an English fireship attack. In the ensuing Battle of Gravelines the Spanish fleet was damaged and forced to abandon its rendezvous with Parma's army, who were blockaded in harbour by Dutch flyboats. The Armada managed to regroup and, driven by southwest winds, withdrew north, with the English fleet harrying 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 the anchored Armada to create panic) prevailed."

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