Have you ever heard of the English armada?

Yeah, me neither. Until very recently I had never heard of an English armada, but I assure

you the English armada was very real and it was a total disaster.

In 1589, the year after the considerably more famous Spanish armada failed to launch an invasion of England, the English made

an attempt to strike back.

The finances of the English crown were already stretched given all the expenses that went into preparing the defense of 1588.

But Queen Elizabeth was talked into further depleting the Crown coffers to help England's favorite

pirate Sir Francis Drake and his partner Sir John Norris

build an armada even bigger than the Spanish armada.

Yes, when it was finally assembled and bolstered by Allied Dutch ships from the Netherlands,

the English armada was the largest group of ships ever assembled on the Atlantic to that point in history.

Now the sources don't all agree on the exact numbers, but the English armada consisted of anywhere between 140 to potentially

180 ships, depending on how you count.

Now, I'm sure some of you are thinking,

Sebastian, I thought the Spanish armada of 1588 was the largest fleet ever assembled on the Atlantic to that point in history.

It was and then that record was beaten literally one later, by the English.

The English armada was to be used to achieve three important goals.

One, destroy the battered Spanish Atlantic fleet, which was being repaired in northern Spain.

2. Land an army in Portugal and convince the local Portuguese to revolt against the Habsburg King Philip II of Spain,

who had recently claimed the Portuguese throne.

Then three, sail off and take the Azores, and establish a new base for English naval operations

on those Atlantic islands.

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