War with Spain

• England signed the Treaty of Nonsuch in August 1505 with the Dutch Protestant rebels
• This made war with Spain more likely
• Terms of the treaty

  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
• The campaign in the Netherlands (1585-88)


  • It was not a great war
  • Elizabeth still hoped to negotiate with Philip
  • England was not formally at war with Spain and so Leicester was not given enough resources to defeat the Spanish
• 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 1540 when it remained under Spanish control but with certain freedoms given to it
• Since January 1586, Spain had been gradually building up its Armada, Philip II's enormous invasion fleet that was due to help the Spanish army invade England
• Drake's attack on Cadiz: 'Singeing the King of Spain's beard'


  1. In March 1587, Elizabeth ordered Francis Drake to attack the Spanish navy

  2. Between 19 and 22 April, he attacked Cadiz, a major Spanish naval port, destroying 30 ships and much of the fleet's supplies

  3. This attack was called the 'singeing of the King of Spain's beard'

  4. Drake then continued to attack Spanish coastal ports and treasure ships
• The results of the campaign

  • 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, which 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, which bought England more time to prepare for the eventual Spanish attack and invasion in 1588