This book looks at the failure of Philip II's Spanish Armada in 1588. The authors use new evidence to answer questions which have remained a mystery for 400 years: what was the reality of the Spanish threat and why did the Armada fail? Material from archives in Spain and The Netherlands has been augmented by the discoveries of Armada wrecks have enabled the authors to put together the pieces of the puzzle, fully explaining the phenomenon of the Spanish Armada and coming up with some unexpected conclusions.