Spanish Armada, the great fleet sent by King Philip II of Spain in 1588 to invade England in conjunction with a Spanish army from Flanders... 30,000 troops belonging to the veteran army of the Spanish regent of the Netherlands, the duke of Parma...After nearly two years' prep... the Armada sailed from Lisbon in May 1588 under the command of the duke of Medina-Sidonia... an experienced administrator... but he had relatively little sea experience. The Spanish fleet consisted of about 130 ships with about 8,000 seamen and possibly as many as 19,000 soldiers. About 40 of these ships were line-of-battle ships...The...