Defeat of the Spanish Armada

When Spanish Catholic King Phillip II waged war against his Protestant half-sister, Queen Elizabeth I, he accounted for everything except bad weather. The Spanish Armada — hailed the "Great and Most Fortunate Navy" before embarking on its planned invasion of England — did not have luck on its side. England's forces, though outgunned and outnumbered, managed to fend off the Spanish fleet on July 28, 1588, and prevented the Spaniards from landing troops on the British mainland. Then the Armada retreated north past Scotland, where it met with disaster. Strong North Atlantic storms drove many of the ships onto the rocky Irish coast. Phillip had sent 30,000 soldiers to seize Albion, but only 10,000 returned.

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