Philip II of Spain had been co-monarch of England until the death of his wife, Mary I. A devout Roman Catholic, he deemed his Protestant sister-in-law and successor, Elizabeth I, a heretic and illegitimate ruler of England. He is alleged to have supported previous plots to have her overthrown in favor of her Catholic cousin and heir presumptive, Mary, Queen of Scots, however these were thwarted when Elizabeth had the Queen of Scots imprisoned and finally executed in 1587. In addition, Elizabeth, who sought to advance the cause of Protestantism where possible, had supported the Dutch Revolt against Spain.

In 1588 the Spanish fleet sailed against England under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia. The fleet was composed of 151 ships, 8,000 sailors and 18,000 soldiers, and bore 1,500 brass guns and 1,000 iron guns. The full body of the fleet took two days to leave port. It contained 28 purpose-built warships: twenty galleons, four galleys and four Neapolitan galleasses. The remainder of the heavy vessels were mostly armed carracks and hulks; there were also 34 light ships. The English fleet engaged the Armada off Plymouth near the Eddystone rocks.

The English tacked upwind of the Armada, thus gaining the weather gage, a significant advantage. Given the Spanish advantage in close-quarter fighting, the English ships used their superior speed and maneuverability to keep beyond grappling range and bombarded the Spanish ships from a distance with cannon fire. Medina Sidonia sent reinforcements south and ordered the Armada back to open sea to avoid the Owers sandbanks. There were no other secure harbors further east along England's south coast, so the Armada was compelled to make for Calais, without being able to wait for word of Parma's army.

At midnight the English set alight eight fireships, sacrificing regular warships by filling them with pitch, brimstone, some gunpowder and tar, and cast them downwind among the closely anchored vessels of the Armada. Spanish captains cut their anchor cables and scattered in confusion. And the fleet now found itself too far to leeward of Calais in the rising southwesterly wind to recover its position. The English closed in for battle.

With its superior maneuverability, the English fleet provoked Spanish fire while staying out of range. The English then closed, firing repeated and damaging broadsides into the enemy ships. This also enabled them to maintain a position to windward so that the heeling Armada hulls were exposed to damage below the water line. After eight hours, the English ships began to run out of ammunition, and some gunners began loading objects such as chains into cannons. Around 4:00 pm, the English fired their last shots and were forced to pull back.

Medina Sidonia moved his fleet northward away from the French coast. By that point, the Spanish were suffering from thirst and exhaustion, and the only option left to Medina Sidonia was to chart a course home to Spain, by a very hazardous route. Armada sailed around Scotland and Ireland into the North Atlantic. Off the coasts of Scotland and Ireland the fleet ran into a series of powerful westerly winds, which drove many of the damaged ships onto the rocks. Following the gales it is reckoned that 5,000 men died, by drowning, starvation and slaughter at the hands of English forces after they were driven ashore in Ireland; only half of the Spanish Armada fleet returned home to Spain. In the end, 67 ships and less than 10,000 men survived.
This was the end if the Invincible Armada.