Anglo - Spanish War ( 1585 – 1604 ) 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 military expedition in 1585 to the Netherlands under the command of the Earl of Leicester in support of the resistance of the States General to Habsburg rule . The English enjoyed major victories at Cádiz in 1587 , and over the Spanish Armada in 1588 , but gradually lost the initiative after the failure of the English Armada in 1589 . Two further Spanish armadas were sent but were frustrated in their objectives owing to adverse weather . The war became deadlocked around the turn of the 17th 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 the new king of Spain , Philip III , and the new king of England , James I . England and Spain agreed to cease their military interventions in the Spanish Netherlands and Ireland , respectively , and the English ended high seas privateering . Causes . In the 1560s , Philip II of Spain was faced with increasing religious disturbances as Protestantism gained adherents in his domains in the Low Countries . As a defender of the Catholic Church , he sought to suppress the rising Protestant heresy in his territories , which eventually exploded into open rebellion in 1566 . Meanwhile , relations with the regime of Elizabeth I of England continued to deteriorate , following her restoration of royal supremacy over the Church of England through the Act of Supremacy in 1559 ; first instituted by her father Henry VIII and rescinded by her sister Mary I . The Act was considered by Catholics as an usurpation of papal authority . Calls by leading English Protestants to support the Protestant Dutch rebels against Philip increased tensions further as did the Catholic - Protestant disturbances in France , which saw both sides supporting the opposing French factions . Complicating matters were commercial disputes . The activities of English sailors , begun by Sir John Hawkins in 1562 , gained the tacit support of Elizabeth , even though the Spanish government complained that Hawkins ' s 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 captured or 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 intensified their privateering as a way to break the Spanish monopoly on Atlantic trade . English support was provided to Prior of Crato in his struggle with Philip II for the Portuguese throne . Philip began to support the Catholic rebellion in Ireland against Elizabeth ' s religious reforms . In 1584 , Philip signed the Treaty of Joinville with the Catholic League of France to stop the rise of Protestantism in France . In 1585 , Elizabeth signed the Treaty of Nonsuch with the Dutch rebels , agreeing to provide them with men , horses , and subsidies . Philip took this to be an open declaration of war against his rule in the Netherlands . Outbreak . The Anglo - Spanish War broke out in 1585 . In August , England joined the Eighty Years ' War on the side of the Dutch Protestant United Provinces , who had declared their independence from Spain . Drake sailed for the West Indies and sacked Santo Domingo , captured Cartagena de Indias , and St . Augustine in Florida . Early in October the English landed in Galicia and sacked Vigo and Bayona . Philip II planned an invasion of England , but in April 1587 his preparations suffered a setback when Drake burned 37 Spanish ships in harbour at Cádiz . In the same year , the execution of Mary , Queen of Scots on 8 February outraged Catholics in Europe , and her claim on the English throne passed ( by her own deed of will ) to Philip . On 29 July , he obtained Papal authority to overthrow Elizabeth , who had been excommunicated by Pope Pius V , and place whomever he chose on the throne of England . Invasion . Spanish Armada . In retaliation for the execution of Mary , Philip vowed to invade England to place a Catholic monarch on its throne . He assembled a fleet of about 130 ships , containing 8 , 000 soldiers and 18 , 000 sailors . To finance this endeavour , Pope Sixtus V had permitted Philip to collect crusade taxes . Sixtus had promised a further subsidy to the Spanish should they reach English soil . On 28 May 1588 , the Armada set sail for the Netherlands , where it was to pick up additional troops for the invasion of England . However , the English navy inflicted a defeat on the Armada in the Battle of Gravelines before this could be accomplished , and forced the Armada to sail northward . It sailed around Scotland , where it suffered severe damage and loss of life from stormy weather . The defeat of the Armada revolutionised naval warfare and provided valuable seafaring experience for English oceanic mariners . Furthermore , the English were able to persist in their privateering against the Spanish and continue sending troops to assist Philip II ' s enemies in the Netherlands and France but these efforts brought few tangible rewards for England . One of the most important effects of the event was that the Armada ' s failure was seen as a " sign " that God supported the Protestant Reformation in England . One of the medals struck to celebrate the English victory bore the Latin inscription " Flavit Jehovah et Dissipati Sunt " ( He blew with His winds , and they were scattered " . ) English Armada . An " English Armada " under the command of Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norreys was dispatched in 1589 to torch the Spanish Atlantic navy , which was refitting in Santander , Corunna and San Sebastián in northern Spain . It was also intended to capture the incoming Spanish treasure fleet and expel the Spanish from Portugal – ruled by Philip since 1580 – in favour of the Prior of Crato . The English Armada was arguably misconceived and ended overall in failure . Had the expedition succeeded in its objectives , Spain might have been compelled to sue for peace . Many Spanish ships were captured at Corunna , but when the English , while waiting for a fair wind , pressed their attack on the citadel , they were repulsed . Owing to poor organisation and lack of co - ordination with the Portuguese , the invading force also failed to take Lisbon . Sickness then struck the expedition , and finally a portion of the fleet led by Drake towards the Azores was scattered in a storm . In the end , Elizabeth sustained a severe loss to her treasury , for she had been compelled into a joint venture in order to finance the expedition , and was first among the stockholders . Later War . In this period of respite , the Spanish were able to refit and retool their navy , partly along English lines . The pride of the fleet were named " The Twelve Apostles " – twelve massive new galleon s – and the navy proved itself to be far more effective than it had been before 1588 . A sophisticated convoy system and improved intelligence networks frustrated and broke up the English privateering on the Spanish treasure fleet during the 1590s . This was best demonstrated in the failures of expeditions by Sir Martin Frobisher , John Hawkins and the Earl of Cumberland in the early part of the decade , as well as in the repulse of the squadron that was led by Effingham in 1591 near the Azores , who had intended to ambush the treasure fleet . It was in this battle that the Spanish captured the English flagship , the " Revenge " , after a stubborn resistance by its captain , Sir Richard Grenville . Throughout the 1590s , enormous convoy escorts enabled the Spanish to ship three times as much silver as in the previous decade . In 1590 , the Spanish landed a considerable force in Brittany to assist the French Catholic League , expelling the English and French Protestant forces from the area . However , Anglo - French forces retained Brest . Both Drake and Hawkins died of disease during the disastrous 1595 - 1596 expedition against Puerto Rico , Panama , and other targets in the Spanish Main , a severe setback in which the English suffered heavy losses in soldiers and ships . In 1595 , a Spanish force , under Don Carlos de Amesquita , raided Penzance and several surrounding villages . In 1596 an Anglo - Dutch expedition under Elizabeth ' s young favourite , the earl of Essex , sacked Cadiz , causing significant loss to the Spanish fleet , leaving the city in ruins and delaying a projected descent on England . The allies were unable to capture the treasure , as the Spanish commander had been allowed the opportunity to torch the treasure ships in port , sending the treasure to the bottom of the harbour , from where it was later recovered . In England the sack of Cadiz was celebrated as a national triumph comparable to the victory over the Spanish Armada , and for a time Essex ' s prestige rivalled Elizabeth ' s own . Normandy added a new front in the war and the threat of another invasion attempt across the channel . With the signing of the Triple Alliance in 1596 between France , England and the Dutch , Elizabeth sent a further 2 , 000 troops to France after the Spanish took Calais . Further battles continued until 1598 , when Henri IV ' s conversion to Catholicism won him widespread French support for his claim to the throne ; the French civil war had turned against the hardliners of the Catholic League and finally France and Spain signed the Peace of Vervins , ending the last of the Wars of Religion and Spanish intervention with it . The English suffered defeat in the Islands Voyage in 1597 , the one of the last major fleet actions of the war . In response to Protestant privateering against their merchantmen , the Spanish Habsburgs struck back with the " Dunkirkers " , who took a heavy toll of English shipping . In 1594 , the Nine Years War in Ireland had begun , when Ulster lords Hugh O ' Neill and Red Hugh O ' Donnell rose up against English rule with fitful Spanish support , mirroring the English support of the Dutch rebellion . While English forces were containing the rebels in Ireland at great cost in men , general suffering and finance , the Spanish attempted two further armadas , in 1596 and 1597 : the first was destroyed in a storm off northern Spain , and the second was frustrated by adverse weather as it approached the English coast . King Philip II died in 1598 , and his successor Philip III continued the war but was less determined . At the end of 1601 , a final armada was sent north , this time a limited expedition intended to land troops in southern Ireland to assist the rebels . The Spanish entered the town of Kinsale with 3 , 000 troops and were immediately besieged by the English . In time , their Irish allies arrived to surround the besieging force but the lack of communication with the rebels led to an English victory at the Battle of Kinsale . Rather than attempt to hold Kinsale as a base to harry English shipping , the Spanish accepted terms of surrender and returned home , while the Irish rebels hung on , surrendering in 1603 , just after Elizabeth died . The new king of England , James I , was the Protestant son and successor to the Catholic Mary , Queen of Scots , whose execution had been a proximate cause of the war . James regarded himself as the peacemaker of Europe , and the ultimate aim of his idealistic foreign policy was the reunion of Christendom . Therefore , when James came to the English throne , his first order of business was to negotiate a peace with Philip III of Spain . Treaty . The Treaty of London ( 1604 ) restored the status quo ante bellum . The Protestant reformation in England had been protected and James and his ministers refused the Spanish demand for Catholic toleration in England . English support for the Dutch rebellion against the Spanish king , the original cause of the war , was ended and the Spanish king continued the siege of Ostend . English trade with the Spanish Netherlands city of Antwerp was also restored , while the nascent illegal trade with the Spanish colonies in the New World , was brought to an end . Spain ' s upgrading of the convoy system had allowed it to defend its treasure fleets and retain its New World colonies . The war had also diverted Tudor colonial efforts and effective English settlement in North America was delayed until the 17th century . On the other hand , English privateering had devastated the Spanish private merchant marine and Spanish commerce would be increasingly carried on Dutch and English ships . A treaty had been concluded the previous year between James I and the Irish rebels .