The defeat of the Spanish Armada was a turning point in the histories of both England and Spain and one of the great achievements of Queen Elizabeth I.

The defeat of the Spanish Armada was a turning point in the histories of both England and Spain and one of the great achievements of Queen Elizabeth I.

It effectively destroyed the Spanish Empire while establishing England as a world power with a superb Navy.

Spain’s King Philip had decided to invade England for two main reasons.

The first was to crush England’s support for a Protestant uprising in the Netherlands, a land then controlled by Catholic Spain.

The second was to convert England back to Catholicism by ousting Protestant Elizabeth.

The plan was for the Spanish Navy and its army based in the Netherlands to join forces for a simultaneous assault on England.

In 1587 Philip prepared a force of 130 ships, carrying 30,000 men, for the invasion.

The English got wind of the plan and attacked the fleet in Cadiz, Spain, before it could sail — inflicting damage which set the Spanish assault back a year.

The Armada did finally set sail in 1588 and was first sighted off the Lizard, Cornwall, on July 29.

Admiral Lord Howard, with Sir Francis Drake as his vice-admiral, intercepted it with smaller and faster ships and fought battles off Plymouth, Portland Bill and the Isle of Wight.

But the Armada kept its formation and pushed on to Calais, ready to meet the land force coming from the Netherlands.

Here Howard struck the decisive blow.

After Elizabeth’s famous speech to her men, he sailed “fireships” into the Armada’s midst.

These were obsolete ships deliberately torched in the hope of setting light to the Spanish galleons.

The Spanish panicked, scattered and eventually fled, with the English Navy in hot pursuit.

Bad weather had cut off the Armada’s route home via the Channel and they were forced to head north to sail back to Spain around Scotland and Ireland.

The English gave up the chase, but the Spanish still faced a gruelling voyage. Only 67 of the original 130 ships made it home — most of those badly damaged.

The defeat of the Armada was one of the defining moments of Elizabeth’s extraordinary 45-year reign — which saw England enjoy an unprecedented period of economic and cultural prosperity and transformed into a world power.

Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, managed to unify a deeply divided country by setting herself up as its glittering focal point.

Her bravery and cunning combined with her talent for self-display provided an inspirational figurehead.

Elizabeth firmly established Protestantism in England and brutally put down attempts to re-establish Catholicism.

This included executing her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587 after learning that plotters aimed to assassinate her and put Mary on the throne.

Elizabeth never married and was known as the Virgin Queen.

In 1559 she refused a proposal from Spain’s King Philip, who later planned the Armada.

Elizabeth’s reign is also noteworthy for the most prolific period for literature in English history — thanks to writers such as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Edmund Spenser.

Sir Francis Drake

Sir Francis Drake devoted his life to waging war on the Spanish and became England’s first millionaire in the process.

Born near Tavistock, Devon, about 1540, he commanded his first ship at 27. Spaniards attacked his ship on a slave-trading trip in the Gulf of Mexico — and his hatred of Spain was born. He went on a string of voyages to the Caribbean and the New World, destroying and looting Spanish ships and ports and returning laden down with silver.

After one trip (1577-80) to the coast of the New World he returned by sailing west across the Pacific, rounding the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and thus becoming the first Englishman to sail round the world.

Drake’s most daring feat was when, on the orders of Queen Elizabeth, he wrecked the Spanish fleet at Cadiz as it prepared for the Armada. He served as vice-admiral when the Armada attacked a year later — and is famously said to have carried on playing bowls after its first sighting.

In 1595 Elizabeth sent him on another expedition against the Spanish in the West Indies, where he caught dysentery and died.