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Anglo-Spanish War (1585)
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The Anglo–Spanish War (1585–1604) was an intermittent conflict between the kingdoms of Spain and England that was never formally declared. The war was punctuated by widely separated battles, and began with England's unsuccessful military expedition in 1585 to the Netherlands under the command of the Earl of Leicester in support of the resistance of the Estates General to Habsburg rule.
The English enjoyed victories at Cádiz in 1587, and over the Spanish Armada in 1588, but lost the initiative upon the repulse of the English Armada in 1589 before La Coruña and Lisbon.
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Encyclopedia
The Anglo–Spanish War (1585–1604) was an intermittent conflict between the kingdoms of Spain and England that was never formally declared. The war was punctuated by widely separated battles, and began with England's unsuccessful military expedition in 1585 to the Netherlands under the command of the Earl of Leicester in support of the resistance of the Estates General to Habsburg rule.
The English enjoyed victories at Cádiz in 1587, and over the Spanish Armada in 1588, but lost the initiative upon the repulse of the English Armada in 1589 before La Coruña and Lisbon. Two further Spanish armadas were sent but were frustrated in their objectives owing to adverse weather.
In the decade following the defeat of the Armada, Spain strengthened its navy and was thereafter very successful in defending its transport of precious metals from the Americas. England was on the losing end of most of the subsequent battles, but the war became deadlocked around the turn of the century during campaigns in Brittany and Ireland. The war was brought to an end with the Treaty of London, negotiated in 1604 between representatives of Philip III and the new Scottish king of England, James I. Spain and England agreed to cease their military interventions in Ireland and the Spanish Netherlands, respectively, and the English renounced high seas piracy. Both parties had achieved some of their aims, but each of their treasuries had almost been exhausted in the process.
Causes
In the 1560s, Philip II of Spain sought to frustrate English crown policy for both religious and commercial reasons. The Protestant Elizabeth I of England had antagonised Roman Catholics by making attendance at Church of England services compulsory and punishing the saying of or attendance at mass with imprisonment. The English also tended to support the Protestant cause in the Netherlands, which was increasingly hostile to Spanish government.
The activities of English privateers (considered pirates by the Spanish) on the Spanish Main and in the Atlantic seriously affected Spain's royal revenues. The English trans-Atlantic slave trade - started by Sir John Hawkins in 1562 - gained the support of Elizabeth, even though the Spanish government complained that Hawkins' trade with their colonies in the West Indies constituted smuggling.
In September 1568, a slaving expedition led by Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake was surprised by the Spanish, and several ships were sunk, at San Juan de Ulúa, near Veracruz, Mexico. This engagement soured Anglo-Spanish relations, and in the following year the English detained several treasure ships sent by the Spanish to supply their army in the Netherlands. Drake and Hawkins, amongst others, intensified their privateering as a way to break the Spanish monopoly on Atlantic trade.
Outbreak
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