Spanish Armada was the Spanish fleet that sailed against England under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1588, leading to the Norris-Drake Expedition or English Armada of 1589.

reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_armad a

The Spanish Armada was a fleet of ships that sailed from Spain in July 1588. The fleet's task was to overthrow protestant England led by Queen Elizabeth I, as part of the Anglo-Spanish war. This expedition proved to be an expensive disaster for the Spanish but for the English it was a celebrated victory making Sir Francis Drake even more of a hero than he already was.

The Spanish Armada (Spanish: Grande y Felicsima Armada "Great and Most Fortunate Navy" or Armada Invencible, "Invincible Navy")[3] was the Spanish fleet that sailed against England under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1588, leading to the Norris-Drake Expedition or English Armada of 1589.

King Philip II of Spain had been king consort of England until the death, in 1558, of his wife, Queen Mary I of England, and he took exception to the policies pursued by her successor, his sister-in-law Elizabeth I. The aim of his expedition was to invade and conquer England, thereby suppressing support for the United Provinces that part of the Spanish Netherlands in possession of the Dutch rebels and cutting off attacks by the English against Spanish possessions in the New World and against the Atlantic treasure fleets. The king was supported by Pope Sixtus V, who treated the invasion as a crusade, with the promise of a further subsidy should the Armada make land.[4][5]

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