Question: who led the english ships in the spanish armada

title: Spanish Armada
text: The fleet was not sighted in England until 19 July , when it appeared off The Lizard in Cornwall . The news was conveyed to London by a system of beacons that had been constructed all the way along the south coast . On that evening , the English fleet was trapped in Plymouth Harbour by the incoming tide . The Spanish convened a council of war , where it was proposed to ride into the harbour on the tide and incapacitate the defending ships at anchor and from there to attack England ; but Medina Sidonia declined to act because this had been explicitly forbidden by Philip , and decided to sail on to the east and towards the Isle of Wight . As the tide turned , 55 English ships set out to confront them from Plymouth under the command of Lord Howard of Effingham , with Sir Francis Drake as Vice Admiral . Howard ceded some control to Drake , given his experience in battle . The rear admiral was Sir John Hawkins .