On July 12, 1588, the legendary Spanish Armada headed for the English Channel. The Spanish plan was to take this invasion, led by the Duke of Parma, to the coast of southeast England, where they would be unleashed to conquer Elizabethan England for Spain's King Philip II and Catholic Christendom. The Armada included over 150 ships, 8,000 sailors, and 18,000 soldiers, and it boasted a firepower of 1,500 brass guns and 1,000 iron guns. Just leaving port itself took the entire Armada two days.

As everyone who has been taught history now knows, the Armada was one of the most famous military debacles in history. Regardless of the debate over whether it was simple mathematical miscalculation or plain bad luck, coupled with English fire ships assailing the Spanish ships, the Armada was decisively defeated. The Armada ultimately found its reluctant way home in awful conditions, having permanently lost over a third of the ships, and on the Irish coast, the Armada suffered further losses.

What has since been overlooked is that the undeclared Anglo-Spanish War continued, and it would do so until 1604. The English and their Dutch allies responded to the spectacular and unexpected defeat of the Armada with an attempt of their own to attack Spain with a fleet often called the "Counter Armada" in English. In 1589, once the impact of the previous year upon the Hapsburg naval power became clear, Elizabeth ordered Drake to gather the English fleet to take advantage of the situation. Unlike the Spanish, the English had no illusions of being able to invade their opponent's homelands and overthrow their state; instead, the English had far more modest goals. The English wanted to seek out the remainder of the Spanish fleet and burn it, land troops in Portugal and raise a revolution in that country, and capture the Azores Islands. If possible, they would use a base in the Azores to capture the anticipated treasure fleet from the New World.

For the Counter Armada, Elizabeth turned to the most notorious English sailor of the era. The life of Sir Francis Drake, or, more precisely the tale of it, is a prime example that history is written by the winners. Drake's successes against the Spanish as a captain and a privateer were legendary, and Drake was celebrated for fighting the queen's enemies, sinking their ships and capturing the treasure that would otherwise be used to finance attacks on England. Drake vigorously pursued every mission given to him by Elizabeth I, and he brought all his skill, experience, and training to bear against her enemies. He was recognized at court for his valor, praised in story and song, and remembered for the kind of personality and esprit de corps that the English have long desired and celebrated in their military heroes.

In 1589, Elizabeth asked Drake to team up with Sir John Norreys and take on a lengthy mission to tie up the loose ends of the war. They were to patrol the shores of England and Spain and destroy any remaining Spanish ships, but like the more famous Spanish Armada, Drake's Counter Armada did not do well. While the English fleet was able to destroy a few ships in the Spanish harbor at La Coruna, they did so at a high cost in both life and property. Drake and Norreys lost more than 12,000 men, as well as 20 of the ships that had thus far survived the war, and the high losses slowed down the seeking and destroying process to the point that Drake finally abandoned the mission altogether.

Elizabeth then wanted Drake and Norreys to provide nautical support for the rebels in Lisbon who were fighting for their independence from Spain. In conjunction with that mission, Elizabeth also instructed Drake and Norreys to try to capture the Azores. These missions, too, would mostly end in failure, and within a few years, Drake would return to operations in the Americas.