Elizabeth: Netherland and Cadiz

• Elizabeth began to support the Dutch rebels directly by sending troops to the Netherlands under Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester

  1565
• Francis Drake continued to attack Spanish shipping and raided the Spanish fleet at Cadiz
• England signed the Treaty of Nonsuch with the Dutch Protestant rebels


  August 1585
• The treaty of Nonsuch made war with Spain more likely
• Terms of the Treaty of Nonsuch

  England would pay for an army of 7,400 English soldiers, led by an English commander-Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester who would work with the rebels government, the Council of State
• It was likely that this group would fight the Spanish, although war had not been formally declared
• Elizabeth still hoped to negotiate with Philip II
• England was not formally at war with Spain and so Leicester was not given enough resources to defeat the Spanish
• Some of Dudley's officers, William Stanley and Rowland York, defected to the Spanish side
• Dudley and Elizabeth had different aims in the Netherlands

  Dudley wanted to end Spanish rule, making the Netherlands an independent country. Elizabeth wanted to go back to how the Netherlands had been governed in 1548 when it remained under Spanish control but with certain freedoms given to it.
• Spain had been gradually building up its Armada, Philip II's enormous invasion fleet that was due to help the Spanish army invade England


  January 1586
• Elizabeth ordered Francis Drake to attack the Spanish navy


  March 1587
• Drake attacked Cadiz, a major Spanish naval port, destroying 30 ships and much of the fleet's supplies


  19 and 22 April
• This attack was called the 'singeing of the King of Spain's beard'
• Drake then continued to attack Spanish coastal ports and treasure ships
• Dudley could only disrupt Spanish forces in the Netherlands under the Duke of Parma, he could not defeat them
• Dudley did manage to stop the Spanish from capturing a deep-water port, Ostend, on the English Channel
• This was important because it denied the Spanish Armada the chance to link up with the Duke of Parma's troops in 1588
• Spain had to take a break from building the Armada in order to defend itself against Drake
• The disruption Drake caused did not stop the Armada, but it delayed it by a year
• This bought England more time to prepare for the eventual Spanish attack and invasion in 1588