Save this, Philip had no promise of help from any Catholic power.
The huge scale of his preparations was only equaled by their vast lack of intelligence, insuring defeat from the first.

The type of ship adopted was the old galley, intended to ram and grapple the enemy but totally unfitted for manoeuvring in the Atlantic gales.

The 130 ships carried 2500 guns, but the artillery, though numerous, was small, intended rather to be used against the enemy crews than against the ships themselves.

The necessary geographical information for the invasion of Britain in the year 1588 was procured from Caesar's _De Bello Gallico_.

The admiral in chief, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, had never even commanded a ship before and most of the high officers were equally innocent of professional knowledge, for sailors were despised as inferior to soldiers.