Spanish Armada

The Spanish Armada is the term conventionally applied

to a massive fleet dispatched against England by

Spain's Catholic King Philip II in 1588, leading to an

early and important confrontation in the nearly

20-year Anglo-Spanish War of 1585-1604 (the "Twenty

Years' War"). The Armada had been sent following a

rift in Anglo-Spanish relations resulting from

commercial competition, religious differences, and

disputes over English aid to Protestant Dutch rebels,

though its proximate cause was the English execution

of the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots in 1587. The

flotilla's mission was to serve as an escort for an

invading professional army led by Alessandro Farnese,

the Duke of Parma, one of the king's generals who had

been combating a Protestant uprising in the

Spanish-ruled Netherlands. The Spanish fleet was

repulsed by English defensive ships, however, and

suffered major losses in a September Atlantic storm

while rounding the coast of Scotland en route to

Spain. The Spaniards were nonetheless able to regroup

quickly, and defeated a retaliatory English invasion

force dispatched to Spain and Portugal in 1589. The

Spanish navy was retooled in the 1590s and effectively

solidified Spanish control over the waves, protecting

treasure fleets from privateering while vanquishing