naval battles between the english fleet and the spanish armada could be summed up as

Aware of English naval prowess, he decided to overwhelm it with sheer mass. He raised money from loans from his German and Italian bankers, pledging his ordinary revenues, and especially the annual flow of treasure from his possessions in the New World.

Philip tried to neutralize France by involvement in its internal power struggle. In April the English sea dog, Francis Drake, who had previously raided Spanish settlements in Central and South America, destroyed over 20 ships at Cádiz, one of Spain's main ports.

In February 1587 Mary Queen of Scots, a Catholic who also claimed the English crown was executed for treason against England. The stringent policies of English Queen Elizabeth I toward her Catholic subjects, her moral leadership of Protestants abroad, and particularly the encouragement she gave to Philip's rebelling subjects in the United Provinces of the Netherlands infuriated the Spanish king. 1585) and Sixtus V as well as by English Catholics in exile to extend the Counter Reformation to England. He was repeatedly exhorted by popes Gregory XIII (d. The operation was planned by Philip II, king of Spain, to help realize his dynastic ambitions to expand the Spanish empire and to reconvert Protestant Europe.

Naval battles between the english fleet and the spanish armada could be summed up as