The battle of Cadiz Bay in 1596
During the summer of 1596, an Anglo-Dutch expedition under Elizabeth's young favorite, the Earl of Essex, sacked Cádiz, causing significant loss to the Spanish fleet, leaving the city in ruins and delaying a projected descent on England. The allies were unable to capture the treasure, as the Spanish commander had time to torch the treasure ships in port, sending the treasure to the bottom of the harbor, from where it was later recovered. Despite its failure to capture the treasure fleet, the sack of Cádiz was celebrated as a national triumph comparable to the victory over the Spanish Armada, and for a time Essex's prestige rivaled Elizabeth's own.
The Crown instead of controlling and taxing its subjects, competed with them for private profit, a race it failed to win, as the great naval expeditions were on the whole unprofitable. The last of the great English naval expeditions took place in 1597, led by the Earl of Essex known as the Islands Voyage. The objective was to destroy the Spanish fleet and intercept a treasure fleet in the Azores. Neither was achieved and the expedition ended in failure, and Essex on his return was scolded by the Queen for not protecting the English coast.
In the final years of the war, English privateering continued despite the strengthening of Spanish navy convoys – Cumberland's last expedition in 1598 to the Caribbean led to the capture of San Juan, and had succeeded where Drake had failed. Newport struck at Tobasco in 1599 while William Parker successfully raided Portobello in 1601. Finally in 1603 Christopher Cleeve struck at Santiago de Cuba and in the last raid of the war Newport plundered Puerto Caballos.
By the end of the war English privateering had devastated the Spanish private merchant marine. The most famous pirates lauded by English literature and propaganda tended to attack fishing vessels or boats with small value for the Spanish crown. Spanish prizes though were taken at an attritional rate; nearly 1,000 were captured by the wars end, and there was on average a declared value of approximately £100,000-£200,000 for every year of the war. In addition for every Spanish prize brought back, another was either burned or scuttled, and the presence of so many English corsairs even deterred Spanish merchantman from putting to sea. This all later resulted in Spanish and Portuguese commerce being carried on Dutch and English ships which in itself created competition. Nevertheless throughout the war Spain's important treasure fleets had been kept safe by their convoy system.
Dutch Revolt (1597–1604)
By 1597, Spanish bankruptcy and the war in France gave the Anglo-Dutch an advantage. At the Battle of Turnout a Spanish force was surprised and routed - Vere and Sir Robert Sydney distinguished themselves particularly. With the Spanish distracted by the siege of Amiens in France Maurice launched an offensive in the summer. This time both Rhienberg and Greonlo were finally taken. This was followed by the capture of Bredevoort, Enschede, Ootsmarsum, Oldenzaal and finally Lingen by the end of the year. The offensive success meant that most of the Republic had been recaptured and a significant barrier had been created along the Rhine River.
Battle of Nieuwpoort in 1600 by Sebastiaen Vrancx
In 1598, the Spanish under Francisco Mendoza retook Rheinberg and Meurs in a campaign known as the Spanish winter of 1598-99. Mendoza then attempted to take Bommelerwaard Island but the Dutch and English under Maurice thwarted the attempt and defeated him at Zaltbommel. Mendoza retreated from the area and the defeat resulted in chaos in the Spanish army - mutinies took place and many deserted. The following year the Dutch senate led by Johan van Oldenbarneveldt saw the chaos in the Spanish army and decided the time was ripe for a focal point of the war to be concentrated in Catholic Flanders. Despite a bitter dispute between Maurice and van Oldenbarneveldt, the Dutch and a sizeable contingent of the English Army under Francis Vere reluctantly agreed. They used Ostend (still in Dutch hands) as a base to invade Flanders. Their aim was to conquer the privateer stronghold city of Dunkirk. In 1600 they advanced toward Dunkirk and in a pitched battle the Anglo-Dutch inflicted a rare defeat on the Tercio led Spanish army at the Battle of Nieuwpoort in which the English played a major part. Dunkirk was never attempted however as disputes in the Dutch command meant that taking Spanish occupied cities in the rest of the Republic took priority. Maurice's force thus withdrew leaving Vere to command Ostend in the face of an imminent Spanish siege.
With the siege of Ostend underway, Maurice then went on the offensive on the Rhine frontier in the summer of 1600. Rheinberg and Meurs were thus retaken from the Spanish yet again, although an attempt on s'Hertogenbosch failed during the winter months. At Ostend in January 1602 after being reinforced, Vere faced a huge Spanish assault organized by the Archduke and in bitter fighting this was repelled with heavy losses. Vere left the city soon after and joined Maurice in the field, while Albert was replaced Ambrogio Spinola. The siege there dragged on for another two years as the Spanish attempted to take Ostend's strongpoints in a costly war of attrition. Around the same time Maurice continued – his campaign Grave was retaken but Vere was severely wounded during the siege. An attempt by the Dutch and English to relieve Ostend took place in mid-1604 but the inland of port of Sluis was besieged and captured instead. Soon after the Ostend garrison finally surrendered, after a siege of nearly four years and costing thousands of lives – for the Spanish, it was a pyrrhic victory.
France
Siege of Amiens in 1597
Normandy added a new front in the war and the threat of another invasion attempt across the channel. In 1590, the Spanish landed a considerable force in Brittany to assist the French Catholic League, expelling the English and Huguenot forces from much of the area. Henry IV's conversion to Catholicism in 1593 won him widespread French support for his claim to the throne, particularly in Paris (where he was crowned the following year), a city that he had unsuccessfully besieged in 1590. However, in 1594 Anglo-French forces were able to end Spanish hopes of using the large port of Brest as a launching point for an invasion of England by capturing Fort Crozon.
The French civil war turned increasingly against the hardliners of the French Catholic League. With the signing of the Triple Alliance in 1596 between France, England and the Dutch, Elizabeth sent a further 2,000 troops to France after the Spanish took Calais. In September 1597 Anglo-French forces under Henry retook Amiens, just six months after the Spanish took the city, bringing to a halt a string of Spanish victories. The first tentative talks on peace had already begun before the battle. The League hardliners started to lose ground and popular support throughout France to a resurgent Henry. In addition, Spanish finances were at breaking point because of fighting wars in France, the Netherlands and against England. Therefore, a deeply ill Philip decided to end his support for the League and to finally recognize the legitimacy of Henry's accession to the French throne. Without Spanish support, the last League hardliners were quickly defeated. In May 1598, the two kings signed the Peace of Vervins ending the last of the religious civil wars and the Spanish intervention with it.
Ireland
In 1594, the Nine Years' War in Ireland had begun, when Ulster lords Hugh O'Neill and Red Hugh O'Donnell rose up against English rule with fitful Spanish support, mirroring the English support of the Dutch rebellion. While English forces were containing the rebels in Ireland at great cost in men, general suffering and finance, the Spanish attempted two further armadas, in 1596 and 1597: the first was shattered in a storm off northern Spain, and the second was frustrated by adverse weather as it approached the English coast. King Philip II died in 1598, and his successor Philip III continued the war but was less determined.
At the end of 1601, a final armada was sent north, this time a limited expedition intended to land troops in southern Ireland to assist the rebels. The Spanish entered the town of Kinsale with 3,000 troops and were immediately besieged by the English. In time, their Irish allies arrived to surround the besieging force but the lack of communication with the rebels led to an English victory at the Battle of Kinsale. Rather than attempt to hold Kinsale as a base to harry English shipping, the Spanish accepted terms of surrender and returned home, while the Irish rebels hung on, surrendering in 1603, just after Elizabeth died.
The new king of England, James I, was the Protestant son and successor to the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, whose execution had been a proximate cause of the war. James regarded himself as the peacemaker of Europe, and the ultimate aim of his idealistic foreign policy was the reunion of Christendom. Therefore, when James came to the English throne, his first order of business was to negotiate a peace with Philip III of Spain.
End of the war
With the end of the war in France, the new King of Spain Philip III sought peace with England. By 1598 the war had become long and costly for Spain. England and Dutch republic too were war-weary and both sides felt the need for peace. At the peace of Boulogne in 1600 however Spanish demands were adamantly rejected by the English and Dutch. Nevertheless, diplomatic routes were open between the Archduke of Austria and his wife Infanta Isabella (Philip's sister) who differed in their policies to Philip's. Philip wanted to preserve the hegemony of the Spanish empire, whilst the Archduke and Isabella sought peace and friendly relations.
Soon after victory in Ireland the following year the English navy under Richard Leveson conducted a blockade of Spain; the first of its kind. Off Portugal, they sailed into Sesimbra bay where a fleet of eight Spanish galleys under Federico Spinola (brother of Ambrogio) and Álvaro de Bazán were present. Spinola had already established his base at Sluis in Flanders and was gathering more with intent on a potential strike against England. In June 1602 Leveson defeated the Spanish which resulted in two galleys sunk and the capture of a rich Portuguese carrack. Months later in the English Channel Spinola’s galley fleet gathered more galleys and sailed through the English Channel once more but were defeated again by an Anglo-Dutch naval squadron off the Dover straits. The result of this action forced the Spanish to cease further naval operations against England for the remainder of the war.
Treaty and aftermath
The treaty restored the status quo ante bellum, and the terms of the treaty were favorable both to Spain and England. For Spain the treaty secured her position as a leading power in the world. Spain's upgrading of the convoy system had allowed it to defend its treasure fleets and retain its New World colonies. English support for the Dutch rebellion against the Spanish king, the original cause of the war, had ended. The Spanish would then concentrate their efforts on the Dutch in order to bring them to their knees with a knockout blow. A complete abandonment of the Dutch cause however was not promised in the treaty. The English held cautionary towns in Holland on the other hand were not surrendered despite Spanish demands. The sieges of Ostend and Sluis were allowed to continue until the end of those respective campaigns. The Dutch by 1607 had in fact prevailed - the Spanish did not deliver their knockout blow they had hoped for; the Twelve Year Truce formally recognized the independence of the Republic.
For England the treaty made sure the Protestant reformation there had been protected, and James and his ministers refused the Spanish demand for Catholic toleration in England. After the defeat at Kinsale in 1602, the Treaty of Mellifont was concluded the following year between James I and the Irish rebels. In the subsequent London treaty Spain pledged not to support the rebels. English public opinion however showed that the peace treaty was highly unpopular and many considered it a "humiliating peace". Many felt that the King had abandoned the Netherlands, their old ally, in order to appease the Spanish Crown and relations with James's subjects were strained in the following years.
The agreement was well received in Spain. Big public celebrations were held at Valladolid, the Spanish capital, where the treaty was ratified in June 1605, in the presence of a large English ambassadorial delegation led by Lord Admiral Charles Howard. Some members of the Catholic clergy however questioned Philip III's arrangements with a "heretical power".
The provisions of the treaty authorized merchants and warships of both nations to operate from each other's respective ports. English trade with the Spanish Netherlands (notably the city of Antwerp) and the Iberian Peninsula was resumed. Spanish warships and privateers were able to use English ports as naval bases to attack Dutch shipping or to ferry troops to Flanders.
The war had also diverted Tudor colonial efforts, but the English who had invested in privateering expeditions during the war garnered enormous windfall profits leaving them well placed to finance new ventures. As a result the London Company were able to establish a settlement in Virginia in 1607. The establishment of the East India Company in 1600, was significant for the growth of England (and later Great Britain) as a colonial power. A factory was established at Banten, Java, in 1603 while the Company had successfully and profitably breached the Spanish and Portuguese monopoly. While the incipient illegal trade with the Spanish colonies was brought to an end, there was deadlock over English demands for the right to trade in the East and West Indies, which Spain adamantly opposed. Eventually the complications resulted in the treaty avoiding any mention of the matter.
For Spain there was hope that England would eventually secure tolerance for Catholics but the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 however destroyed any possibility of this. As a result it put to rest Protestant fears that a peace with Spain would ultimately mean an invasion by Jesuits and Catholic sympathizers as the Elizabethan Recusancy laws were rigidly enforced by parliament.
England and Spain remained at peace until 1625.
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